Tomb Raider is less adventure and more action.
And boy was I excited. I had waited a long time to get my hands on it, and all the pre-release hype only made me long for it more. So what follows is my review of it. I have completed the game, although I have not completed it 100% with the entire map explored. So this review will cover an average play-through I suppose.
Well, to hit the ground running, Tomb Raider is good and solid, but it did disappoint on multiple levels, and if you're as ecstatic about Lara Croft as I am, you'd be wise to hear what I have to say about her newest adventure, especially if you have been holding out on dropping sixty bones for it.
I believe what defines Tomb Raider games is the tomb raiding, physics puzzles, and gorgeous, varied locals. To get right to the point, the newest Raider has minimal tomb raiding, gorgeous graphics, and only one local. While the storm swept island is interesting at first, a twenty or so hour stay there isn't nearly as exciting as it was when Lara first arrived.
Now, I understand that this is Lara's origin story, and that being marooned on a hostile island helps explain her transformation from a girl to a hardened adventurer, but I guess I wasn't realistic in expecting it to be filled with tomb raiding and globe trotting. Because those two things it certainly is not. In essence, it is a third person action shooter. Much like most newer games being released, it's an adventure game-turned action shooter. Dead Space 3 did it, Resident Evil 5 did it, and for better or worse, Tomb Raider is the next in line to become mainstream.
It is clearly for a wider audience, and I would not expect an old style Raider game to be well-received in today's twitch-action community. Gamers are being exposed to more mindless and less innovative games because publishers want golden lined pockets and know we'll throw money at them. It is no surprise we're all being used and tossed around by big name publishing companies, and Tomb Raider is no exception to the mainstream machine. While not a terrible game, Crystal Dynamics definitely sold out this time around.
Firstly, and most aggravating, is the fact that Tomb Raider gives you so much to play with, but doesn't give you the time or the opportunity to play. There is hunting, used to get experience. There are tons of guns and each one has many upgrades, and there is rich historical and mythological information to be found in-game. Problem is, these are optional things, and the game gives you no drive or momentum to want to do any of them. I mean, sure, you could go around the island reading everything, but it doesn't have much to do with the story, so it's like reading articles from a magazine that have little to do with the theme. There are guns, but upgrading them does little to boost there effectiveness, and there's enough salvage in the game to upgrade all of them by the end, so it's really about the order in which you upgrade them. There are three skill trees as well: Survivalist, Brawler, and Hunter. Again, you can pretty much max out each tree before the end of the game, especially if you're actively collecting salvage from crates, animals, and whatnot. You can hunt, and while the game makes an emotional spectacle of it the first time Lara kills a deer, it becomes useless afterwards. Animals can be killed for experience, but the amount of experience they give is trivial, and can be obtainer faster and easier from just following the story's linear path.
The story, ah, this is where the game shines. The story won't blow your mind, but it's a heck of a lot better than any of the garbage coming out today. It's at least got one worth hearing. And one thing is for certain, Tomb Raider does an excellent job of showing just how unfortunate Lara is, and delivers an emotional experience largely in part to the superb voice talent. Also, to my relief, the game does inject itself with a little of the supernatural, which I found exciting in other games in the series. So in terms of subject matter, it's still Tomb Raider, and hasn't succumbed to the ultra-realistic standards of most recent games today. Lara still jumps like a frog and soars like an eagle over extreme distances with slick animations and finesse.
So what don't I like about it? Well, there's too much action. The game has one focus, and that is shooting people and dispatching of them in brutal ways, earning Tomb Raider its first ever "M" rating. Personally, I think previous games had charm and a very light take on violence, and I think this new level of brutality not only ruins its charm, but goes to show that people like games to be more and more violent nowadays, and that's really kind of sad. There's no need for a brutal animation of Lara jamming an ice pick into someone's head, as their blood sprays all over her face, and there's no need for Lara to be swept down a raging river and impaled on a tree branch through the neck. It's tasteless. I like violent games that put violence to good use like God of War, and Silent Hill, but here, it's just not necessary.
There are tombs that occasionally appear on your map as optional side missions, but that's just what they are, side missions for salvage and loot. The only real tomb raiding in the game is side missions. The main story is entirely run-and-gun mixed with quick time events. And while the quick time events help with cinematic presentation, they intrude on the game's immersion by flashing buttons all over the screen as you go along.
And in conclusion, the final encounter is very brief and anti climactic to say the least. There really isn't a boss fight, just a sequence of quick-time button sequences. The game ends introducing Lara's new adventures experienced in other games, and hints at possibly another entry in this re-envisioned Tomb Raider series. I did enjoy the game, and I will not fault it for being much less than I wanted it to be, but I will fault it for being much less of a Tomb Raider game than it should have been.