Tomb Raider’s origin story is a highly successful accomplishment that will appeal to anyone with a heart of adrenaline and exploration
Positive
+ The young, vulnerable Lara befits the island of danger
+ Phenomenal thrilling section throughout the game
+ Fantastic platforming and solid shooting sequences
+ Wonderful visuals and cutscene/gameplay integration
Negative
- Some frustrating quick-time events
- Minor characters don’t come out as strongly as Lara’s character and struggles
You can forget about previous Tomb Raider games. They’re a thing of the past and you’re unlikely to return to them after playing Crystal Dynamic’s reboot of the classic franchise. The developer presents a weak, fragile but enduring Lara, unlike her future confident self. The setting screaming of danger feels natural and challenging to the young Lara, testing the extremities against countless foes and over-the-top dynamic action scenes. Truly, this reboot is so well executed that the new Tomb Raider is quite possibly one of the best games of 2013!
Tomb Raider (2013) is the reboot and origin story, so it fits that this is the young Lara’s first expedition abroad the ship Endurance, searching for the lost kingdom of Yamatai. Struck by an unexpected violent storm, they are shipwrecked on an island. Separated from the others, she soon realizes that the island is home to both natural and human dangers, with a dark conspiracy around Yamatai and an ancient legend. The vulnerable and inexperienced Lara Croft will fight against immeasurable odds, both against the island’s inhabitants and go to unimaginable length to reunite with the others and escape the possibly cursed island. Lara’s strength comes out greater than any previous Tomb Raider, normally depicting the tough and confident explorer. Lara is human, both physically and emotionally, even if Lara will encounter bigger than life danger, ascend all the way up to a radio tower for a signal, almost dying falling from unbelievable height and surviving what should be literally impossible. But Lara’s strength and evolving character comes out extremely well in this reboot despite the swift and unnatural change from fragile explorer to deadly murderer. Her will and tenacity, that I can only compare her valiant efforts to those of Solid Snake. While Lara is a super main character, the other crew members of the Endurance aren’t as well depicted. Considering that their role is much smaller than Lara, it shouldn’t come to a surprise, but Roth’s character, and his relation with Lara makes him the second most likeable character in the game. There is a fantastic sense of immersion and desperation in this reboot, frantic action and tense moments. The story is quite long, constantly surprising with thrilling scenarios that there so grand they’d be perfect for finales; like the climbing at the tip of the radio tower, or escaping from a burning temple; the game continued to surprise me how much longer it would go on.
The gameplay segments are mainly divided into three portions; classic platforming, third-person gun action and exploration. The most entertaining part is the platforming. Lara moves incredibly naturally without removing the realism. Climbing platforms, walls, houses, and many other things, the game can offer its biggest challenges in adrenaline action-sequences as buildings fall and when Lara faces dangerous situations. As mentioned some of the running and escaping sequences are fantastic and pumping with adrenaline. In this scripted events, there are some button-mashing to add, sometimes being fitting and at other times frustrating. Frustrating for the sole reason that the game sometimes doesn’t bother telling you which button on the keyboard to press until you can figure it out through trial and error. But most of it is fitting. Pressing a button to help Lara grab to a ledge, pressing A and D to swiftly moving upwards, and the SHIFT key to let go at the right time. Death is always around the corner, and while the platforming rarely is overly challenging, one wrong step can cause Lara to fall and die. Luckily the game auto saves frequently so you rarely have to repeat a huge chunk of action to arrive to the point you died.
A big part of Tomb Raider is its shooting. Using the third-person perspective, Lara will have to fight a lot of brothers of Solarii to save her friends and escape from harm’s way, turning from a struggling survive to deadly killer in a few scenes. The shooting is highly realistic and impacting, and finally a game that uses a few weapons, but uses their efficiency really, really well. No game so far gave me such pleasures to headshot someone with a bow and arrow or a pistol and throughout most of the game I preferred those two over the rifle and shotgun. There are a lot of shooting set-pieces, and Lara is only human, she can take so many shots, but luckily so is your opponent. Stealth is an option sometimes, allowing you to strike instant death shots on unaware opponents. Once an opponent is warned, you cannot avoid combat. Taking cover is a must to hide yourself, and so will the smart AI. The AI immediately takes cover and avoids staying in your way. Smart enough, they throw flammable bombs to forcefully get you out of your current cover. There are moments the AI is overly alert, and spotting you from dubious position, or being unaware that his comrade close by has a new arrow in his skull. Fortunately, the combat is really fun and intense in some spots, forcing you to use whatever you can find: whether that is a headshot, an explosive barrel or a melee attack to move forward and survive.
Don’t forget exploration in Tomb Raider. Pressing the Q button activates Lara’s ‘survival instinct’, allowing you to seek where you need to go, and some hidden items and tombs. Tombs offer several tough but satisfying mixtures of platforming and clever puzzles. Tombs are scattered around the island for you to find but few in numbers. There are a few puzzles which aren’t optional, but nothing is overly complicated that would impede anyone with a mind set to beat the game. The ‘survival instinct’ may be an easy way to search for items, but to that credit, everything blends extremely well in the environment, so it is otherwise increasingly difficult to find treasure boxes (filled with existing ancient Chinese/Japanese items), documents and ammunition boxes. There is also a seamless integration between gameplay and cutscenes with how the game looks, which sometimes got me to question if I was still in a cutscene or back in control.
Lara’s weapons are strong, but they can be upgraded by salvaging items and looting corpses. At each campfire you find, which serves as a checkpoint. Although the game saves so frequently you can skip them unless you want to upgrade. Also, even if you die, items found remain so you wouldn’t have to find them against, but locations undiscovered with the ‘survival instinct’ disappear. At the campfire, you can increase Lara’s skills when you have accumulated enough EXP. EXP is gained from finding items, clearing tombs and successful kills. These skills increase Lara’s efficiency in combat and more. With the amount of salvaged, you can upgrade your four primary weapons. Special parts can be found while exploring, and some other, like fire arrows, and grenade launcher are found in certain points of the story.
Tomb Raider (2013) is a true marvel to look at. From Lara’s body, the lush jungle, and the feeling of being on an island trying to survive is real. Tombs are well designed, and the game always gives the feeling that Lara is one with the environment, in a good way without being too attached artificially, making her movements realistically flawed but supreme. The high visual quality transits from cutscene to gameplay, where there is a seamless integration between the two. You may be visiting a location twice, and the game may at some point come to the obvious limitation of being on a single island, but even in its set piece, the game astonishes in its varied locations, especially near the end. Soundtrack is dynamic, packing a movie-like feel to it. Voice acting is really well done too, especially Lara’s, and once again, the side-characters, while their performances are good; they don’t surpass Lara’s,
Lara’s origin story is not only the best Tomb Raider game Crystal Dynamics have ever created, but a superb thrilling action game to boot. With extraordinary and spectacular set pieces and engaging gameplay, both action and adventuring, it is difficult to put the game down across its lengthy and satisfying campaign. Despite its weaker cast of characters and minor frustrations in quick-time events, Tomb Raider (2013) is unblemished, refined and captivating for anyone with a heart for adventuring.
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Graphics = 9.1
Sound = 9.0
Presentation = 8.9
Gameplay = 9.3
Story = 8.4
Level of Difficulty = Medium
Both Lara and her enemies are only human (except for some enemies) so it doesn’t take an exaggerate amount of shots to kill opponents. Some tough set-pieces, but everything is fair with a few exceptions being some quick-time events.
Recommendation Level = Extremely High
I was never a Tomb Raider fan, but chance brought this reboot in my hands, and from the moment I started, I quickly reached the ending satisfied that it was one of the best PC games I had played in a long while. Exploration was starting to feel routine and mandatory for me, but it was always fun and exciting. I’d extremely recommend this reboot.
OVERALL = 90 / 100
Tomb Raider’s origin story is a highly successful accomplishment that will appeal to anyone with a heart of adrenaline and exploration