Tomb Raider sees the return of Lara Croft for the 10th time and is probably the best one since the very first. I'm still not sure if this is a full reboot or just a prequel though. Lara Croft is 21 and on her first real archeological expedition headed east to find a lost island kingdom off the coast of Japan. After Lara suggests to her team that they head further east, the ship enters a severe storm and Lara and her crew end up stranded on a mysterious island that is inhabited by mad cultists that are also stranded and have been for some time. From here Lara is kidnapped(by the mad cultists) and has to escape and then fend for herself while she tries to locate her lost friends, fight off crazies, explore the island and look for a safe way to escape. As with every other Tomb Raider(due to its homage to Indiana Jones) the plot has a large supernatural element to it. Unlike previous games the supernatural side is slowly introduced which makes the adventure seem more believable and even towards the end it never gets to the level of Atlantean Mutants, Dragons and the Egyptian god Set reborn.
Lara Croft seems more of a real person now and less of a Hollywood-style action heroine . She's much more like a young woman trapped in a dangerous situation, but there is an obvious disparity between Lara seeming shocked by the death and destruction around her and the fact that as soon as you enter combat you feel like a killing-machine. Also, most of the friendly NPC's don't get much screen time and we never really get to see their personalities develop as we do with Lara's and so they seem quite 1-Dimentional. However Lara's own journey itself is a decent bit of video-game storytelling. Overall the plot is pretty good but nothing mind-blowing or game changing.
One thing I really love about Tomb Raider is how they have heavily cut down on the overt sexualisation of Lara Croft which has given the series a seedy image to non-gamers and a still quite seedy image many gamers. Apart from the opening cut-scene when we see Lara fall from the sinking ship(and the camera takes a look down her top) the cut-scenes no longer focus on Lara's(now reduced) breasts or backside and instead focus on the lush scenery and the many gory injuries that Lara is frequently plagued by.(I get the feeling that this is down to the Hunger Games as well as the general idea in narrative that the more pain and stress a protagonist endures the more the audience will sympathise with them. Either that or the creators are just sadistic bastards, some of the deaths are really gory, but as a seasoned Tomb Raider fan, killing Lara is all part of the fun(see the amazing TV show: Spaced)). Saying that, the creators have made Lara unreasonably attractive, but I can't really call this sexism. It's more Hollywood style Ugly-ism which is in practically every action block-buster and video game, and works both ways. Just look had the unrealistically buff the meat-heads from Gears of War are or the lengths the Metal Gear series have gone to make Raiden look like a pretty boy.
The graphics are excellent(except the blood-splatter effects when killing enemies which look as if each splat has been copied and pasted). The island is beautiful; vibrant looking jungles interspersed with rotting wooden shrines, massive castles, crashed WWII bombers and shanty-towns that the cultists now reside in.
Tomb Raider handles like a dream, Lara moves much smoother than in previous games and the game is such fun to play. I've never played Uncharted but from what I hear the presentation is very similar, in that Tomb Raider is highly cinematic, slipping from normal game play into cut scenes and set pieces. Lara moves a lot more realistically than even before(such as stumbling when she drops/falls from high ledges, and scrambling rather than doing neat combat rolls). Combat is more fun than in any previous Tomb Raider, no longer feeling like a chore(most of the time) but the main flaw is that Tomb Raider is yet another series to fall into the cover based shooter category, but at least it also allows for stealth in many parts of the game. One thing I'm not to keen on is the jump to regenerating health from health-packs but it does make combat that much easier. Over the course of the game you will assemble a large collection of weaponry but the first one you get to grips with is by far the most fun...anyone who's seen any of the footage for the game will of course know I refer to the bow and arrow. Even when I had an automatic machine gun with a grenade launcher attachment I still went back to archery the majority of the time. Unlike Crysis, which uses a bow and arrow in a futuristic setting, this weapon doesn't feel out of place(being that the island is off the coast of Japan where archery has been a samurai tradition for centuries). However one can't help feeling the writers or designers must have loved the Hunger Games, which also ties into another aspect of the game: hunting.
Hunting is fun but after the first instance seems completely needless, as you never see her prepare or eat anything. I would have preferred a Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater eating system.
As fun as the game is the platforming and climbing sections do seem noticeably easier than in previous games, and Lara does seem to have kept her slightly negotiationable relationship with gravity. On some long jumps she will curve slightly towards ledges and walls mid-jump, that said it's still plenty of fun and still more challenging than the Assassin's Creed climbing.
I can't really comment on the online mode. Tomb Raider has never had one before and so I see it as an optional extra, I was in it for the campaign.
The Verdict:
Despite several faults I love Tomb Raider and will definitely give it a second play through soon. It looks amazing, plays amazing and the plot is decent. If you've never bothered with the series before but enjoy action/adventure games I would definitely recommend it as you don't need to know any of the previous games' back story to be drawn in. If you, like me, are already a fan of the series then there's enough jumping, climbing, shooting, large arenas, beautiful scenery and rotting ruins to keep you hooked until completion. I seriously can't wait until the next one now!
LHSRAting for Tomb Raider: 9/10
- Mike
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