Buy Tomb Raider at Amazon
By: Robert Murphy
Hello again everyone, time once again to sink our teeth into
this year’s incredible list of video games, this time we are heading back into
tombs and exploration with Lara Croft in the 2013 reboot of “Tomb Raider”. It’s
been five years since we’ve seen our favorite sexy archeologist and this time
around we are seeing her in a whole new light, the game tacks place with a
completely “green” and innocent Lara Croft who is out on her first expedition.
Things unfortunately go terribly wrong and her and her team are shipwrecked and
stranded on an island filled with all sorts of unfriendly elements that will
push our innocent Lara Croft to survive and use the skills that she didn’t even
know she had in her. Throughout the game we will see Lara transformed into the fearless
adventurer we all know and love and it is simply amazing seeing what she can
do.
The beginning of the game is a little slow going as you must
traverse a scripted scene where you are introduced to game play elements you
will be seeing and what your controls will be like as Lara proceeds to get
right into the thick of things and realize what she needs to do to make it on
this island. Camilla Luddington, the voice of our new Lara Croft, does an
amazing job of giving players a feeling for what Lara goes through in the game,
through every pain staking fall to every unfortunately missed button sequence,
players will truly feel the pain she goes through and believe me she is having
a rough time out there in the wild. And while I usually don’t bring up voice
actors/actresses of the games I review, it just wouldn’t feel right to not give
credit where credit is due in this instance because of just how real it feels
while playing Lara.
(Above: A look at the new Lara Croft)
Moving on to your supporting class in this island adventure,
you aren’t the only stranded party in this game, your friends have also
survived the ship wreck, and Lara feels entirely responsible for them
being here and feels she must save them and get them off this island hell. This
provides the emotional boost for Lara that greatly helps her push forward in
the story through and to never stop despite the many struggles she has to
overcome. While Lara’s friends aren’t as well developed, they still provide for
some heart jerking moments as you play through the story.
As far as the killing aspects go, Lara’s first kill is a
highly dramatic event, which makes sense, since this young girl has never killed
before and of course it’ll hit at an emotional level. After this however you
become seemingly unfazed by the site of blood and a little killing but this is
because Lara needs to get use to killing almost instantly in order to survive; but still, this provides for a small weakness in the story. Whatever weapon you
choose, bow, shotgun, assault rifle or even the ever recognizable pistol,
killing in the game is insanely fun as you watch the enemy body count pile up
around you. Lara periodically discovers new weapons, injecting the combat with
fresh novelty every few hours and while I myself am tired of seeing bows in
video games recently, in “Tomb Raider” it not only fits the game but it is a
lot of fun for those who prefer stealth.
Survival ain't always pretty.
Building Lara’s skills and upgrading her weapons with
salvage proves to be another enjoyable aspect to the game. Players can use
Lara’s instinct vision to help her search for archeological wonders on the
island as well as salvage goods for bulking up your arsenal but it’s mostly useful
for combing the island for cool stuff. The story does take a back seat to this
element, at least in my case, while I should be saving my friends I often spent
lengths of time looking for the many collectables in the game from gps caches
to artifacts left by previous visitors to the island and its native inhabitants
alike. But if you’re not like me and just want to enjoy the story that’s laid
before you, after you beat the game players can go back and search the island
for all the hidden goodies.
Finally, we have the multiplayer aspect of the game which
unfortunately is an element that brings disappointment to the game; it just
isn't a lot of fun overall. Two of the four game modes feel significantly
stacked in favor of one team over the other, and though “Tomb Raider's” combat
is good in the context of the single-player, it's just not flexible or varied
enough to support a multiplayer mode for long. It’s also makes for
disappointment due to the fact that about half of the achievements/trophies for
the game are multiplayer related.
Overall, “Tomb Raider” is a worthy prequel to the start of
how Lara Croft became who we’ve seen her as over the past seventeen years of
the franchise. The game is all around well written, visually beautiful with a
truly sympathetic feel for the character, the story rarely ever misses a step
throughout the entire game and even though Lara seamlessly transitions from
innocent girl to Rambo-esk killer but the game quickly moves past it. It is a
superb action game that brings a new emotional dimension to one of gaming's
most enduring icons we’ve all know.
Good:
-Beautiful environment
-Exciting pacing throughout the story
-Great characterization and feeling for Lara
Bad:
-Un-enjoyable multiplayer
-The rather quick transition of Lara from innocent to killer
Scully rating: 9.0 out of 10