Tomb Raider Review

Posted By Robert G. about 2 months, 1 week ago

Tomb Raider Review

“I can do this!”

Hearing Lara Croft breathlessly utter this phrase to herself as she expertly jumps, climbs, slides, and shoots her way through her new canonically first adventure is both elating and harrowing. It is a line that is emblematic of how Tomb Raider feels–challenging itself to do better despite the struggles it goes through. Such struggles are always expected, especially involving a beloved game series that is attempting to redefine itself in a modern setting. Yet, through its all-encompassing “Yes I can” attitude, Tomb Raider is able to rise to the occasion, if becoming a bit bruised and battered in the process.

The first ten minutes of the game have Lara escaping a cavern littered with human remains, dirty water, and a crazed scavenger. Later, Lara must contend with murderous islanders who throttle her after deciding not to rape her. And that is if you let the scene play out, which is frankly just disturbing. Needless to say, it feels like Crystal Dynamics is overcompensating heavily in order to make Lara feel threatened in a world darker than Lord of the Flies, but it sometimes comes across as gratuity for its own sake.

There are a lot of savage images like this on the not-Lost island.

It also doesn’t help that Tomb Raider feels like a new episode of Lost. After shipwrecking on a mysterious island vaguely off the Coast of Japan, Lara and the team literally go through the beats of the TV show. Meanwhile, there are tombs that are desperate to be raided. Many of these small diversions are great testaments to the previous titles, offering clever platforming puzzles that are both challenging and rewarding to accomplish. In fact, one thing I can’t say is bad about Tomb Raider is the scope; despite being a collection of deceptively linear areas, there is enough to explore in each area to uncover the island’s secrets and massive amounts of collectibles for the fanatical completionists out there.

This is really Tomb Raider‘s strength. Traversing the grimy shantytowns, decrepit mountain ruins, and hidden caverns is just a visual treat. Lara also puts her skills to the test, showing that–despite her own verbal reservations–she more than capable of asserting her dominance of the elements by parkouring across the natural landscape. It is just fun to explore in Tomb Raider, giving off waves of nostalgic pleasure as you figure out the terrain’s natural puzzles.

What is not that fun, however, is the random acts of combat. Perhaps that is a misnomer though, as the moments where Lara becomes as destructive as Nathan Drake are well done action pieces that would make Indiana Jones furrow his brow. To say they are not fun would be a great disservice. But truth be told, they take away from the majesty of what makes Tomb Raider special. Lara doesn’t need to mow down waves of enemies in cover-based combat, let alone fight so many not-Others in one sitting. It is really the earlier parts of the game, where Lara is just using her abilities to survive in nature, that grab you and demonstrate how savage and dangerous the world can be.

Sequences against the elements and nature are brilliant in terms of visuals, but a letdown in terms of interactivity.

Like most action-adventure titles, Tomb Raider has its fair share of quick-time events to contend with, but for the most part they are fairly tame in their use. For example, when the camera changes perspective for a great cliffhanger moment, there is often no danger of failure attached. One of the best moments in Tomb Raider is a very cinematic sequence where Lara climbs a radio tower, reaching the top on the rusted ladder rungs in a visually brilliant scene. But there is little danger to be had other than one QTE in a whole two minute sequence–no excitement other than taking in the view of the scenery, making much of the platforming in such instances just an exercise in pushing forward.

This is not necessarily a bad design choice. It gives us great moments of Lara being adventurous in a scene of danger, and does help in crafting a point of view that visually captures the essence of what Tomb Raider can be. But without the threat of failure, or worse, the fact that failure is sometimes unavoidable, it takes the form of being nothing but a cinematic overload, where your “interactivity” is limited to pushing left or right on the thumbstick.

It also doesn’t help much that the storyline of Tomb Raider is fairly blasé. Our group of survivors is filled with the stereotypical mix of hardened mentors, spunky fighters, and a nerd for comic relief. We also get a damsel in distress thrown in for good measure, and of course, one guy who is such a bastard, it would have been impressive if he didn’t turn on the survivors. The story is supposed to show Lara growing as a character, and while it does succeed in this aspect, it is somewhat forced in other respects.

Again, her exclamations of “I can do this!” come to mind as a narrative motif, showing her transition from a reluctant heroine to a capable adventurer. This transformation is fairly paced, but tonally dissonant with a majority of the game’s cutscenes, which do not mesh with her spoken attitude. Simply put, the ludonarrative dissonance is off the charts in Tomb Raider, although this is often the unfortunate sacrifice for good game mechanics.

Multiplayer is what you would expect, although that is not necessarily a good thing.

The rest of the game mechanics are well thought out and paced. Leveling up skills and weapons is mandatory in order to collect all the valuables found on the not-Lost island. Fortunately, gaining experience points is easy enough, although the various random challenges in which you can grind out extra points are often too easy to pass up. Hunting, scavenging, exploring, and completing mission goals all allow you to move faster, fight dirty, and increase the effectiveness of your arsenal. It’s a very simple progression system that offers you incentives, while locking out areas that you can fast travel back to for increased rewards. Admittedly, some of these aspects are better than others. For example, the survival tree is only thrown in to offer XP and salvage boosts for the most part, but is completely superfluous to your own skill-set.

“Superfluous” is also the word I’d use to describe the boilerplate multiplayer that Eidos Montreal developed. Considering it was farmed outside of Crystal Dynamics by Square Enix, it just adds to the tacked-on feel that gives multiplayer modes a bad name. There is really no thought put into Tomb Raider‘s multiplayer–it is a truncated version of Uncharted that is functional, but formulaic. This alone is not enough to be interesting anymore, especially in a game market where multiplayer has become varied in its approach and requires itself to be more than an afterthought. The fresher approaches from Mass Effect 3 and Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood are emblematic of this change, and it shows in the stagnant grouping of modes and progression found in Tomb Raider. Frankly, the less said the better, as it serves as a mere footnote to the main attraction.

Despite my own personal reservations regarding the flaws of this reboot, one cannot deny that it is a good game. Well crafted and visually striking, Tomb Raider does Lara Croft justice, allowing the heroine to come full circle into a new generation. If you can look past the numerous abrasions suffered along the way, Tomb Raider is able to show the world that it can do this. No doubt, this success will springboard the brand in new, adventurous directions.

A copy of the game was provided by the publisher for review purposes and completed in about 12 hours, with an additional 2 hours spent with the multiplayer component. The title was played on Xbox 360, but is also available for PS3 and PC.

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