Lara Croft returns to her roots in this visceral action adventure game.
Since this is a reboot, Lara is going on her first big expedition searching for the lost island of Yamatai; a fabled Japanese island that was under the rule of the Sun Queen Himeko. She is accompanied by the crew of the Endurance, which includes her friend Sam. Lara tells the captain to sail into the storm ahead, thinking the island lie within them, the storm tears the ship apart and the crew all end up shipwrecked. Lara wakes up on a beach and sets out with one goal in mind; survive.
She encounters a group of other survivors known as the Solari and they are killing all the survivors of the Endurance. She fights back, killing her first person, and strives to survive against both the Solari and the land itself. While this sounds very unlike a Tomb Raider game, it's a great survival story, even if Lara's transition from timid girl to hardened survivor is too smooth. She goes from almost unable to pull the trigger to scoring headshots and double kills far too quickly. The story gets even more interesting when more info about the Solari is given and you can find diaries around the island which give up more plot. It's actually pretty interesting and it's definitely worthy of competing with Uncharted, which the game is seemingly trying to do. This tale of survival is one of intrigue and intensity.
The gameplay is similar to both Uncharted and the previous Tomb Raider game. You move around the environment fighting and climbing while searching for collectibles. The climbing and searching is as great as ever, the camera never gets in the way while climbing and the items encourage you to explore the island more thoroughly. Combat gets even more focus here however. In this regard, it plays like your average third-person shooter; having you jump from cover to cover (which is automatically done here), firing at your enemies whenever the opportunity rises. As you kill, complete objectives and find collectibles, you get experience. Whenever a certain amount of experience is gained you gain a skill point that lets you unlock a new ability. These abilities are mostly passive and affect your climbing speed, ammo capacity, etc but some actually change things, such as giving you finishers and counters. Quite a few of the enemies rush you with swords rather than shooting you and these rushes can overwhelm you while you are trying to kill the others.
You can find small boxes lying around that Lara can break to get salvage. Salvage is used to upgrade your weapons, making them more efficient in killing people. There are plenty of scripted set pieces, such as sliding down a hill dodging obstacles. There are tombs scattered around the island and they offer a new puzzle to solve for some loot. These tombs can sometimes not be accessed on your first time through an area, since you need certain abilities to enter. This means that there is a fast-travel option which can be accessed at camp fires, which are locations where you can upgrade your skills and weapons.
There is a multiplayer feature and it's average, nothing special. There are some issues however, in some game types the teams can be pretty unbalanced. One team is the Solari and the other are the survivors. Both teams have different objectives and in some game types the survivors have an unfair advantage. One game type has the survivors taking Medpacks back to their base and the Solari has to stop them. The thing is; the Solari can only fully kill them with an execution after downing them. This makes being the Solari mostly unfun, even though both have different character skins and different weapon loadouts. This is a multiplayer that won't last long sadly. Other than that, the game plays really well and it's loads of fun.
The audio is great. It's usually calm and quiet and picks up at the right moments. The voice acting is great and so are the sound effects. Lara, in particular, sounds great and believable.
The visuals are beautiful, even in it's visceral moments. The island looks great and has a variety of different environments to take in and explore. There are some linear areas and they look really good, but you don't get any freedom in these areas. The character models look good but Lara's clearly looks better than everyone else's. She gets cut, bloody and dirty. The dirt washes off with water and the water looks great. There are obviously repeating enemy models and some animations look awkward but the game mostly paints a believable picture. The combat looks great and has great feedback. This is one area where being a Square Enix game pays up.
PROs
- Great story about survival and discovery
- Fantastic controls that never feels cheap or broken
- Tons of collectibles
- Large island to explore with varied environments
- Great music and voice work
- Visuals are varied and beautiful
- Darker tone sets the stage for some fantastic scenes
- Combat has great feedback and is fun to engage in
- Camera never gets in the way
- Tombs are fun to explore
- Upgrades keep Lara growing in combat
CONs
- Focus on combat lessens the other aspects
- Main story is linear
- Multiplayer is tacked on
- Darker tone feels forced at times
- Story has some issues with pacing
Overall, Tomb Raider is an excellent origin story for one of the industry's most famous ladies. If you haven't tired of cinematic action games yet and are ready for more, Tomb Raider has what you want. Even if you are tired of cinematic games Tomb Raider never forgets that it is a game first. It's tight controls, fantastic story and action more than make up for the forgettable multiplayer and pacing issues. I say it's your turn to get shipwrecked.
Story: 9.0/10
Gameplay: 9.0/10
Audio: 9.0/10
Presentation: 9.5/10