I started being a fan of Lara Croft adventures ever since I beat Tomb Raider: Legend on the PS2. Before that I only knew the series by its famous protagonist and a little word of mouth from friends. Legend was amazing, a game full on adventure, wonder, action, ambience, everything one who grew up watching Indiana Jones movies could hope for. After that, it came Anniversary, a remake of the first game, wich I ended up beating on the PSP. Even with the portable limitations (and terrible controls) I ended up enjoying a lot of the game. And thus begun my interest in the Tomb Raider games, an interest that followed me through the years until now.
When I first saw the new TR I must confess I felt disappointed. As a fan of Uncharted, the new TR felt too much like it, wich wasnt bad by any means, but I wanted TR to be TR and Uncharted to be Uncharted. I was reticent about the lack of puzzles, the bigger focus on shooting and action and the repetitive setting (only an island) the early footage presented. Oh boy, was I dead wrong...
As a known Sony fan and Uncharted fan I will say this with every inch of my humble heart: The new Tomb Raider was a better game to me than any Uncharted. From the vast "open" world wich lets you explore fully every secret it has to hide to the amazing and fluid gameplay, TR surpasses Uncharted in its most basic gameplay elements. Its story, though still the typical plot you can find in most adventure related midia, manages to raise the gamer interest throughout the 10 or more hours that takes to complete the game. I will say though, that the characters are probably its weakest point, with a support cast of uninsteresting, cliche personalities that fill every stereotype of adventure plots. Even Lara is somewhat a meh character, even with a great voice performance of Camilla Luddington, who most know from Californication. I guess it was just weird seeing Lara so naive and fragile after being used to a confident and tough character from the previous games. I know this story was about her shaping into what she is known for, so I guess it was because of that I didnt really liked her.
Graphically the game is very good, not as good as Uncharted, but a very pretty game still. Some clever puzzles based on physics fill the gaps between the satisfying shoot-outs and exploration. You will never feel you're in a dead segment of the game. The pacing is outstanding, showing that Crystal Dynamics took some notes out of the Uncharted franchise. Well, its actually obvious the Naughty Dog IP was their biggest source of inspiration with cinematic setpieces resembling a lot the ones seen on Uncharted. Not a con, mind you, as they're really fun to watch and play through.
Overall I really recommend Tomb Raider. Definitely one of my favorite games of 2013. Lets hope that Naughty Dog can take some advice of of it and raise the bar with the next Uncharted game. I'm definitely excited to see how the next Tomb Raider and Uncharted games will fare. And you should aswell, cause both are fantastic franchises that you just cant miss.