Quite a thrill ride
With this being the I think 7th installment of the Tomb Raider series, they've gone back to their old roots, and given us some fantastic gameplay, unbelievable graphics ( almost on par with the Xbox 360 ), a pretty good storyline and of course some of the best exotic locations in a Tomb Raider game.
The storyline centers around when Lara Croft, the main character. We see flashbacks of her past when she was a child, where her Mother is supposedly killed in some sort of Artifact. Now she retraces her steps to find out what was going on back then. We also have a flashback from when she was a bit older, wearing the classic tight fitting green top, backpack and shorts, and get to play through what happened them years ago and use the flares to guide your way around. This is a great add on for big fans of the series.
The graphics in the game are some of the best for the Tomb Raider games so far. The water looks realistic and you can actually see it run around her feet when she is standing in a little stream. The locations you go to are very well detailed, especially the outdoor locations. Though some of the indoor levels are a bit bland at times.
The gameplay is good and quite tactical. You swing from pole to pole and crawl across walls while hanging onto ledges just big enough to get your fingers on them. The controls on the controller are well set out, though I didn't cope very well with the Xbox 360 controller, mostly because I don't like it. Your also able to go to croft manor and search around croft manor, which reminded me of Resident Evil a bit because of all the corridors. Though there isn't as much stuff to do than the earlier ones, and the stuff you can do is pretty hard.
The sound is up to standard. When you run along you can hear her breathing. The noises you hear when your outdoors, you can hear the sounds of the wilderness from birds singing or water splashing, are all done very well. And the music is done well. When danger is coming the music booms out getting you ready for whatever's going to happen, whether it's a boulder or if there is a Leopard round the corner.
All in all it is one of the best games I have played so far this year ans I defenetily recommend it.