You have to admit, the old girl's gotten around a bit since 1996 hasn’t she. From fighting T-Rex's to solving a murder case (though that one is probably best left forgotten) and once in a while she actually found time to raid a Tomb. Well forget everything you know (well not everything but I'll get onto that later) as Crystal Dynamics and Square Enix are giving the first lady of gaming a good kick up the arse to get her back into shape and what better way to do that than a bloody, grisly and bloody amazing reboot to the franchise?
So the year is...now judging by Lara's iPhone in the opening cinematic, and a young Lara Croft has set sail for the mysterious island of Yamatai along with some archaeology friends and a guy from TV land looking to make a documentary. However when the ship nears its destination it is hit by an overwhelming storm and sinks separating our heroine from her friends. Its not long before the inhabitants of Yamatai begin to hunt down young Lara along with her best friend Sam as they believe she holds the key to releasing the soul of a long dead Japanese sun queen and thus freeing them from the restraints of Yamatai Island.
The story does have a few weak links here and there though. The secondary characters don't get enough screen time making them a lot less interesting than Lara herself, some have said they are two dimensional though that is not the case. They briefly mention a greater depth to every single character, but never delve into it. A couple of points in Lara's history are never explained thoroughly enough either, which is where your knowledge of the series history comes into play. Though its not vital to have played the previous games due to this being a reboot and all you wont miss much if you haven’t played them, but the more you know about Lara's already established backstory the more sense these brief callbacks to her past will make sense; a rather odd design choice to reboot a franchise but expect people to know the history of the character already.
The end is a little bit blunt as well, I mean we all knew this was the beginning of a new era for the Tomb Raider franchise but to leave that kind of sequel bait after a frankly disappointing final boss ended the otherwise brilliant game on a low note.
Despite the franchises rocky past, you can tell from the moment the game starts that you are in for a treat. If Uncharted and Far Cry 3 had a baby it would be this. Yamatai is for the majority of the game free to explore at your leisure though you never feel lost in it. Its a big island that's for sure but you always feel as though you are on a path, deviate from it and you will be rewarded but stick to it and the story will progress seamlessly.
Lara is inexperienced in surviving, this is her first adventure after all; combat reflects that, at first you will struggle with combat mechanics, find them inaccurate and at times confusing, but just like Lara once you start to learn how to survive it will just come naturally.
You earn XP by killing, finding secrets and progressing the story, this XP can be spent on skills under three tiers titles 'Survivor', 'Hunter' and 'Brawler', each gives Lara the ability to do something that will vastly greaten chances of survival such as getting extra XP & unlocking takedown executions much like Jason's Tatau did in Far Cry 3.
But you can tell this has Uncharted blood running through its veins, with an excellent and simple to use combat system and some awe-inspiring set pieces that rival and even surpass Drake's on multiple occasions.
As for graphics, well Tomb Raider has some mighty superb visuals. Yamatai is a beautifully deadly and highly detailed environment with no loading screens to break the flow of gameplay. Its not the best looking game ever for sure with some slightly off character animations and some less than detailed environments but these are minor gripes compared to the overall product. As for the sound? Well I had severe distortion problems occurring at many moments in the game. It got so bad that I unplugged my speaker system and just used the TV speakers in fear of it damaging my equipment, it was incredibly surprising that this got through to the final game as its a severe hindrance to the overall enjoyment of the game due to it being unpleasant on the ears and even going so far as to cutting out characters voices because it gets so distorted.
“A famous explorer once said, that the extraordinary is in what we do, not who we are.” That is the games opening sentence and it cannot ring true enough for Tomb Raider. It is an extraordinary game from start to finish, a treat to play and a game companies should use as a reference when rebooting a franchise that has died long ago.
It brings our favourite British explorer into the 21st century with a bang and gives that wise cracking yank Nathan Drake more than a run for his money.
Tomb Raider is one of 2013's must play games.
Tomb Raider – 9/10
+Character Progression
+Awesome Uncharted Style Gameplay
+Lara Croft
-Poor Sound Design
