Who is that girl I see? Staring straight, back at me. When will my reflection show who I am inside?
Answer: Lara Croft, and it will show near the end of the game.
Yes, I played me some Tomb Raider recently. Finished it even. Hickididooda. I have no idea what I just uttered but it's super late and I'm watching League of Legends World Series and I'm on a caffeine high and it's cold so bear with me.
Square-Enix (SE) pushed out an all new Tomb Raider earlier this year, which gives players a glimpse of what is perhaps Lara's first adventure. Lara sets out to find the ancient kingdom of Yamatai, which was ruled by the Sun Queen, Himiko. Legend has it that Himiko possessed supernatural powers, powers which gave her control over the weather. Whether or not it is a myth, Lara will have to find out as she explores the kingdom of Yamatai while fighting a cult worshipping the Sun Queen.
I have to say, the game is actually fun to play. Although the story itself can be pretty short and can be finished within a day, the side activities available for players to do just add to the hours. There are plenty of relics, artifacts and documents for you to find, and they are all spaced out nicely so you are in fact exploring the environment as you find them. What smoothed out the process of hunting down these items is the Survival Instinct ability, where the screen grays out and interactive elements become highlighted. This means that the thrill of finding collectibles is always there. I found myself constantly roaming and activating Survival Instinct to locate the next collectible, and the time I spend on this feels worthwhile every time I find something new.
As you explore the island, you will inevitably gain experience and get salvaged parts, or loot, from crates or enemies. Getting enough experience levels you up and grants you a point to upgrade a skill, and salvaged parts will help in upgrading weapons. I guess it would make sense that the more experience you have, the more skills you will have, BUT how is it possible that I upgrade my gun's CLIP SIZE near a campfire? What, the campfire is actually burning with hell's flames and the temperature is hot enough for me to temper my equipment? I'm dumbstruck here.
The game's combat system is fairly basic. The game is a 3rd-person action game, and it plays almost like Uncharted. What is different is that in Tomb Raider, the aiming feels less smooth transitioning from X axis to Y axis, the recoil from firing your weapon is stronger and melee strikes are less spammable, since it opens you up to enemy fire and strikes if you time and position yourself badly. Maybe the repercussions are less significant in easier difficulties, but it sure messed me up horribly when I played badly. Also, there's a huge emphasis on one of the game's key theme for surviving in combat - "keep moving". If you stay too long in one spot, even if you are behind cover, enemies will either flank you or smoke you out with molotovs. I like how they implicitly emphasise this in combat. Very... sneaky. *heh*
Now, the game attempts to utilise Quick Time Events for certain scenes. An example I'd like to use here is combat because boy oh boy, did the first combat QTE make me mad. It seems that the majorly used QTE button for combat is, on the PS3, the Triangle button. That button also functions as your melee attack. Is this Square-Enix trying to be consistent or lazy? I don't know. What I do know is, the timing for the combat QTE felt impossible for me the first time I encountered it, then I found out it was always Triangle. After that, it just became a routine. So, maybe this game doesn't really have QTEs, instead they have timed prompts.
Much like the other games Square-Enix develops, Tomb Raider offers stunning visuals. Check them out.
If anything, I think Square-Enix made a very nice skybox for the game. Liking the sun lots. Kudos to them.
The game itself is fun to play, however, be prepared for frame drops. Heck, there were times late in the game where I had frame losses. I'm not even sure if that's a thing, but what happened was the game would skip a little. I died a few times because of this. Here's to hoping next-gen doesn't have this happening.
Now, overall, Tomb Raider holds up pretty well. Visuals? Checked. Combat? Not too bad. Theming? Exploration, ruins and relics are ready. So, why didn't it sell well?
I don't know.
To be honest, I've not really been a fan of Tomb Raider, as in I've never really played the earlier games. I remember my brother playing it, but I never did touch it. So, to look into this whole deal, I did some Googling.
Hmm, it seems that most reviewers are saying it's bad because of its storyline. The characters never got much exposition? Lara is too whiney? Everything seems to be vague?
Ladies and gentlemen, this is why I hate "official reviews". They don't actually PLAY, play the game. They dabble in it, taste it, and decide what to write from there as they put on airs in their written work.
Let's assume you are completely clueless as to what Tomb Raider is actually about, like what these snobbish reviewers are saying. The game is called Tomb Raider. Tomb. Raider. Hm, I guess this game has something to do with tombs, and raiding them... I mean, I don't know. I'm a stupid incompetent person who can't infer things from available facts.
Moving on, the story slowly exposes that Grim and Roth used to work with Lara's father. Hm, I wonder what's his job about. Ruins? He studies weird things, like ancient, crazy ritualistic stuff? Lara's doing archaeology? Gee, I wonder what is this Lara girl doing. Hm.
What's this? This is Lara's first expedition? She has never been exposed to crazy shit like this before? You don't say? Gosh, how can a girl who has never faced life-threatening situations be so whiney when shit goes down?
Honest. I swear. These people who write these reviews in famous sites feel like pencil pushers who were swallowed by the sudden rise in authority when forced to write something at the eleventh hour.
Okay. Back to business. I do feel that the game itself is actually something that's worth anyone's time, however, the whole feeling of exploration and adventure gets hindered whenever the frames drop, which really breaks the immersion. While the story may be rather short, the side activities which you can do can be really engaging, especially the hunt for documents, as they give some fillers on the history of Yamatai and the Sun Queen, not to mention EXP. I really enjoyed those bits of the game.
Some of the bits which are enjoyable on a personal level? Bow and arrow. B- no shush... Bow and arrow. Not enough? Flaming arrows. Not convinced? Explosive arrows. ... Yeaahh.... So good. What's even better than that? Gunning down samurais. What? Yes. Samurais wielding katanas running directly at you while you aim your shotgun at them. Delectable.
Heh. Anyway, I give this game an 8/10. The fact that it stutters so much and has a rather 'sticky' aiming when it shooting is such an integral part of the game are bad factors. I did enjoy the game however, and would suggest you to pick it up if you can get it at a discounted price.
Eyyyyyyyyyyyyy have fun
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