Tomb Raider is a reboot wherein Lara Croft and her friends are marooned from a shipwreck and must make it out alive. Tomb Raider is not your traditional Tomb Raider game, wherein the game is mostly akin to Uncharted in terms of combat, platforming and puzzle solving. In addition, the game is an origin story of the character wherein she’s not a sarcastic, wise-cracking superstar, but a girl fresh out of college looking to make her mark on the world. While many fans were worried about this new endeavor, ultimately, fortunately, it’s a solid title with many strong elements, albeit not new or in the heart of what makes the series what it was known for.
Tomb Raider doesn’t exactly start off on the right foot, both in terms of the story being depicted and how it was executed. The first 10 minutes of the game are hilariously awful, wherein Lara Croft goes from daring acrobat, jumping across 20 foot gaps with the greatest of ease to having fears of crossing a log over a towering waterfall and back again. This sort of early inconsistency is a problem in terms of the story’s foundation, making it look rocky and therefore hard to get into the story for later, more pivotal moments. While these things do happen later on, it’s not as jarring or as it is early on.
A strong point that the game does set early on though is its’ atmosphere, which is really in line with a deserted island might look like. The game’s graphics are no slouch either, displaying some very impressive cinematic set-pieces and vistas along the way. The game also has very good weather effects, ranging from wind to snow to rain. Lara also has various animations for these, like holding her arms in front of her to push herself against the wind and grabbing both of her arms in the snow. They’re nice little touches that show that Lara isn’t immune to the elements. A problem graphically, however, is Lara’s face, which is terrible, especially compared to what is on the box art, the opening cutscene and various pieces of pre-release media. It doesn’t well, and it’s something that doesn’t look right no matter how many times you see it.
Another problem with Lara is her voice actress, which is sub-par. Her performance brings down the rest of the cast, since her tone is inconsistent and in some places loses her accent, making you wonder if Lara is actually British or not. It’s disappointing when this happens, especially when voice is heavily relied upon for the story and collectibles you pick up through the game. Diaries and notes give you insight into the island’s history as well as Lara and her friends. They’re nice touches, but they do interrupt the flow of the gameplay since they bring the back to a screeching halt. Most of these are voiced well, but a few lack the energy and passion that most have, and takes you out of the experience as a result.
One of the bigger gripes with the game is its’ narrative, which is sloppy and lazy. The biggest complaint is Lara Croft’s handling, wherein she goes from defenseless and uncertain to a psychopath. It’s not a good character arc to have a character go from having issues with killing animals and wondering how it was so easy to kill someone to eventually wishing death upon every enemy she comes across. As someone who was never really a fan of Lara Croft, I can’t say what was depicted is any better than before. Lara, as a character is the only one to have a defining arc, while everyone else is a stereotype. Lara may impress some people, but it’s only because there’s nothing near comparable. Lara does everything, and that’s consistent throughout. She is the star, a black star at that, and everything takes a back seat to it, including the game’s poor story and villain, which are forgettable. The message the narrative sends is misguided, and is based entirely on the game’s combat.
What Lara did to become a survivor, is what is depicted in the game’s combat. Lara is given a bow, and along the way picks up some guns and a pickaxe. The highlights are definitely the bow, which gets several upgrades as well as the tomahawk for close-quarters combat. The combat scenarios are tiring overall since the game focuses too much on it. This makes the combat feel less rewarding, since firefights can go on for 10 minutes at a time. The game does have an excellent passive cover system, which puts Lara into cover without the need for a button, which frees up the controller for dodging/rolling. The game could’ve solved its’ combat woes by balancing it with more puzzle solving, Platforming and tomb raiding, of which there is little of. These are extremely simple, and considering they’re a core foundation of the series, it’s disheartening to see them put in the background as something that’s viewed as a throwaway part of the game.
Instead the game places emphasis on the narrative and other modern game tropes like quick time events, slow-walking and passive interaction sections; all of these are terrible and the game would be better without them. The game would also be better if it didn’t have multiplayer tacked-on, although while it doesn’t “change the way you’ll play Tomb Raider forever” it doesn’t take away from the single player experience. Tomb Raider has a lot of polish. It’s a decent reboot the series and while some things are not great, by subtracting some things and putting more emphasis on others, the series might be able to flourish again.
Score: 7.5 out of 10
+ Good Visual Design
+ Good Combat Mechanics
+ The multiplayer doesn’t detract from the game
+ More than the sum of its parts
- A lack of soul (Platforming, Puzzles, Tombs are throwaway)
- Narrative is misguided, forgettable
- Bad Character Arc for Lara Croft
- Bad Combat Scenarios
