Once upon time in the gaming landscape there lived a brave daring adventurer named Lara Croft, and she would travel to many extraordinary places to make epic discoveries. That’s a weird way to start up a review, but anyways Tomb Raider! A third person action adventure game developed by Core Design and published for the Playstation and Sega Saturn in 1996. The gaming industry was taking a huge step forward in technology at the time and with it came the opportunity to demonstrate what your studio could handle. No longer were developers limited to flat 3D sprites and textures. Their characters could now roam around using a 3D axis and their games could be more detailed thanks to 3D models. We got Super Mario 64, Ocarina of Time, Metal Gear Solid, Resident Evil, Crash Bandicoot, and many more demonstrating what next generation consoles and 3D technology could do. There also came innovation and expansion of several genres, as for example games like Metal Gear Solid and Thief would help set the basics for the stealth genre and how to implement stealth well enough. Tomb Raider can be considered another one of the more influential games at the time. There was nothing quite like it and had this energy many other adventure games had the time. Travel to unexplored places, make new discoveries, and all the playing as one of gaming’s coolest feminine heroes at the time. Female leads weren’t really popular during the 1990s, but it was characters like Samus Aran and Lara Croft who helped kickstart more diversity among gaming heroes. Without them proving females could be as badass as males we probably wouldn’t get leads like Aloy, 2B, etc.
Tomb Raider was considered a massive success when it originally released and with it came two sequels to capitalize off its popularity. After the original trilogy came several spinoffs and even soft reboots to further push what the Tomb Raider property could be, but with time this tactic was soon to be proven harmful for the franchise. Tomb Raider started to lose its edge and the new entries lacked the spark and charm of what made the original trilogy so special. Core Design was getting tired of working on Tomb Raider and after the release of The Angel of Darkness they then moved away and decided to pursue other projects. Tomb Raider was then passed down to a new studio, Crystal Dynamics, and they would spearhead the series to potential success with more reboots. The first Tomb Raider trilogy they made wasn’t that good. These games weren’t terrible, but they weren’t well received as expected. So they went back to the drawing board to decide what the ever living hell they should do with Tomb Raider. Crystal Dynamics then split into two teams who would both work on their own rebooted Tomb Raider series. One half would work on The Guardian of The Light, and the other half of the studio would work on a more modernized entry. Eventually, Crystal Dynamics was acquired by Square Enix and they would be given the fundings they needed to make this new adaptation be the best it could be.
This modern Tomb Raider reboot, simply named Tomb Raider, would follow an approach similar to that of third person modern action adventure games like the Uncharted series. In fact, I would say this game is almost exactly like Uncharted with third person cover based shooting, light platforming sections, cinematic set pieces and presentation. It’s kind of unfair to compare it to Uncharted though, so I’ll refrain myself from bringing up Uncharted for the rest of this review. People were worried how the new Tomb Raider would end up. Would it suffer the same fate as the last rebooted series and struggle to rake in a new audience? The new Tomb Raider spent five years baking in the oven and it wasn’t until 2013 that the official product came out. A fresh dish ready for us to sink our teeth into and critique. Surprisingly, the new Tomb Raider was actually quite good. Really good in fact as critics and players alike called it a fantastic new start for the franchise and some of the most fun Tomb Raider had been in awhile. The game received positive ratings and even got nominated for a couple of end of the year awards. Tomb Raider is great and this new entry would be followed up with two sequels, Rise and Shadow. I’ve been avoiding Tomb Raider for quite awhile now, because the property never really interested me. Which is weird, because I’ve played games with a similar formula and adventurous feeling. The definitive edition of Tomb Raider was put on sale recently, and I thought it was about time to see whether it was truly good or not. Is Tomb Raider (2013) as good as we remember it? The answer is “yes, mostly.” This game is far better than I expected it to be. It wasn’t perfect and there are areas where it didn’t age well, but it is a fun one that I expect players will enjoy. Today we’ll talk about Tomb Raider (2013) and why it may deserve your attention.
Story
We follow Lara Croft, a young woman attempting to carry on her family name honorably. The Croft family is known across the world for journeying to unexplored lands, making discoveries, and exposing them to the world. Lara’s father specifically being the most legendary Croft, but he passed away recently leaving all responsibility on Lara. For her first expedition, Lara decided to journey to an abandoned kingdom called Yamatai. An independent Japanese nation protected by a well trained army of samurai and led by a powerful empress. Lara is friends with someone who is a descendant of the Yamatai nation, Sam Nishimura, and she convinces her family to help fund her expedition to find the lost nation. The Nishimura family are easily convinced and afford Lara a boat and crew to journey across the sea. This expedition team consists of Dr. James Whitman, Joslyn Reyes, Jonah Maiava, Alex Weiss, and Angus Grimaldi. Tagging along for the adventure as well is Conrad Roff, a former friend of the Croft family and sort of a guardian figure for Lara. All was going well for the crew as they enjoyed the blue open skies, splashing waters, and fishy meals aboard the ship. Things went horribly wrong though when they were caught in a massive storm and the ship was torn to pieces. Lara’s friends manage to make it to shore, but Lara falls into the ocean waters and ends up stranded on an island. When she wakes up she tries to contact her friends for her, only to then be knocked out and nearly killed in a cavern.
Once Lara escapes she begins navigating the island and tries to contact for help. She finds Sam who happens to be with a figure named Matthias, but before Matthias can explain who he is Lara falls asleep and awakens to find both of them gone. The rest of Lara’s crew members find her, and learn that Matthias wasn’t aboard the ship they were on. Looks like there’s strangers among them, and upon further exploring the island Lara discovers there seems to be a trained cult killing survivors from the storm and talking about an all powerful sun queen they want to resurrect. Sam is somehow tied into all of this, and Lara has to go and rescue her. Working together with Roff and the rest of her friends, Lara will traverse the ancient wilds, survive the most cataclysmic disasters, regroup along the shores, and escape the island before things get worse. There seems to be something wrong with the island though. The more Lara explores the more she discovers ancient Japanese ruins similar to that described of Yamatai, and everytime a rescue vehicle comes to get them they are struck conveniently down by lightning. Lara will learn the secrets of the island, otherwise Yamatai if you haven’t gotten the hints.
Gameplay
Tomb Raider is a third person action adventure game that contains a good mixture of cover based shooting, light platforming, puzzle solving, and exploration. You will traverse the many biomes of the island and survive the many hazards that are thrown in your way. As you progress through the story you’ll unlock a variety of tools and upgrades, which will give you more options on how to solve problems or tackle combat encounters. The bow is your starting weapon and allows you to take out foes from or even one shot them if you shoot them in the head. Later on you unlock a rope that allows you to yank weak support beams, or create a zipline from Point A to Point A. You have a climbing ax to scale certain surfaces, but it can also be used to turn levers or hatches that are too tight for your bare hands to turn. You unlock three more ranges beyond the bow, those being the pistol, shotgun, and assault rifle, but they too can be equipped with upgrades that help you navigate the world. The shotgun is capable of blasting down certain walls, the assault rifle gains an underbarrel grenade launcher to blow up metal, and the bow yet again can have a lighter taped onto it to create fire arrows to burn things. You are getting stronger as things get worse in this game and there’s a satisfying sense of progression as you unlock new tools. You can also loot scrap by either exploring the environment or looting your enemies. Scrap can be used at campfires to upgrade your weapons. Increase their damage output, reload speed, ammo capacity, recoil, and much more. This is a good supplement for what is already a really low arsenal of weapons, and increases the sense of getting stronger.
Combat is fairly simple. You take cover, fire back at enemies, and once all the enemies are dead then the tense music stops playing signaling you can freely explore around without getting shot to death. If you take damage then you can take cover and attempt to avoid fire for a while. Doing this will allow you to regenerate health, but proceed to take damage and you will be killed. If you don’t have cover then you spam a dodge button to give you a couple seconds of invincibility frames. I-frames for short is basically the invincibility offered when dodging, and making good use of it will decrease the rate of dying. Enemies come in a variety of flavors from archers, gunners, snipers, molotov chuckers, and shielded guys who you’ll need to dodge around to counter once their defenses are open. You also have light platforming sections which are pretty easy to understand as well. You jump across gaps and even climb surfaces that are labeled with the clearly visible white paint or surfacing. You actually have quite a bit of mobility when it comes to navigating the environment and even when there’s a long gap the game will help you reach it by increasing the amount of time Lara has when jumping in the air. Occasionally there will be chests, boxes, and relics hidden throughout the environment and these can offer cool little logs for you to read in your journal. The more enemies you kill and the further you get into the plot the more experience points you gain. These points can be spent at campfires to unlock new perks for Lara and they are divided into three categories. Survivor for increasing the amount of rare resources gathered from animals, Hunter for being able to carry more, and Brawler for increasing your combat capabilities. Well that’s how I sum these categories up, but I’m pretty sure there is more to it. These perks much like weapons upgrades will increase Lara’s strength and ability to survive in the world. Besides that there really isn’t much else to explain about the game. It’s as simple as it gets and you know what I’m fine with it as long as they deliver epic moments throughout the story. Hopefully you can save Sam and get off this wretched island. No matter what it costs you.
Thoughts
Tomb Raider (2013) is an exciting adventure that managed to keep interest from right up until the end. It took me seven hours to beat the main story, and none of those hours felt wasted as the game kept a consistent pace. Gameplay-wise it was pretty fun as the mixture between combat, platforming, and epic scripted sequences kept it from becoming boring. That said, I wouldn’t say Tomb Raider (2013) excels in either territories. Combat is standard cover based third person shooting and never really felt challenging to me. That isn’t to say it’s impossible to die as there are certain sequences where you constantly have to keep moving and there are things putting a ton of pressure on you during those moments. However, enemies aren’t really that hard to kill and you never seem to run low on ammo as there is always a body or crate to loot it from. Which leads to the player never being punished for carelessly firing away or even utilizing the right tools in the right scenario. The handgun specifically feels incredibly useless and I had no use for it during my entire adventure. I know it’s supposed to be a jack of all trades, but I have three other guns that do specific things really well rather than moderately and I can easily swap to them in an instant. Speaking of which, I feel like you get all four guns rather quickly. I mean you do obtain upgrades and new alternate abilities as time goes on, but four feels rather small for an arsenal of weapons. I’m surprised they didn’t give you a sniper rifle at some point, especially since there are arenas that are big or stretch across huge plots of land. Plus Roff uses one.
Platforming is just alright. It’s nothing too complicated and there are occasional moments where you just have to hold forward while Lara slowly scales the wall. I will say though, you have a lot of maneuverability when you are in the air. Lara feels easy to control and just when you think you won’t make a jump the game helps you and lightens Lara’s weight. It makes platforming easier rather than let it be a clunky mess. Exploration isn’t all too great and the rewards you gain aren’t good either. Why did I have fun with Tomb Raider (2013) anyways? Well the game is more than the sum of its parts. Combat, exploration, and platforming aren’t great but there’s a good sense of progression as you move further. The set pieces and locations you visit become more grand in scale, and I really appreciate how there’s an upgrade system for both your guns and your physical capabilities. They feel like worthwhile investments as your arsenal becomes more deadly.The look of your guns change as you add modifications to them, and later on the stealth kill you use becomes more deadly as Lara swaps from choking enemies to literally just lodging her climbing ax into them. More powerful skills can’t be unlocked unless you purchase a certain amount across all categories, and this gets the player to invest in other categories instead of pouring all points into just one. However, I will say the Survivor category is probably the most useful amongst the bunch. Tomb Raider (2013) has a hunting system, but you never really have to give it any attention because the rewards reaped from hunting are useless and add nothing to the gameplay. It just feels like something that was tacked on and had no thought put into.
The cinematic set pieces and scripted moments are amazing, and graphically I’d say this game aged really well. 2013 is when the gaming industry really started to push what hardware could handle, both older gen consoles and the next generation consoles. You had a handful of beautiful looking games like The Last of Us, BioShock Infinite, Super Mario 3D World, Metro: Last Light, Metal Gear Rising, Pikmin 3, Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag, and much much more. Tomb Raider is another exception as the environments in this game are jaw dropping at times. I’d say my biggest issue with Tomb Raider (2013) has gotta be the story. I wouldn’t say the story is terrible, but that it gets really messy at times. You have this huge cast of characters who are there to support Lara no matter what, but none of them are really likable. Not saying they are terrible people, but you aren’t given enough time to connect to them. Like I said, the game is seven hours and has quick pacing, but the push to keep things moving led to screen time issues. Here’s a couple examples of characters you were supposed to care for, but when they die you don’t really feel an effect. Angus Grimaldi is the captain of the boat Lara and her friends rode on, and he was a kind old sailor everyone trusted well enough. He gets a few seconds of screentime, gets stupidly killed for trying to defend himself, and the game wants us to act like we should care. Alex Weiss is part of Lara’s friend group, but he never speaks during the entire game and dies while trying to get tools to repair a boat. Conrad Roff is probably one of the more active characters in the game, but he spends a good chunk of his time speaking to Lara through a walkie talkie. He’s supposed to be this mentor figure to her, but you never felt connected.
Sam, the girl you spend the entire game trying to rescue, is someone I never cared about because they never fleshed out your relationship with her! Is our main protagonist at least likable? No, I thought Lara Croft was kind of a boring character in this game and it seems like the only way they build her is through physically hurting her whenever they can. She has poor expression and I feel like the voice actress could have tried harder because all I hear is a soft British girl. There’s a point where one of Lara’s friends tries blaming Lara for the scenario they are in, but then the story tries acting like it’s the wrong thing to say. No offense, it really is Lara’s fault and some problems could have been prevented if she had tacked them more responsibly. Then again, this is the first entry in the new rebooted series and they had two whole sequels to improve her. I know I’m complaining a lot right now, but I will say Tomb Raider (2013) was an attempt to bring the series back to the land of light and for the most part they succeeded. I do recommend it for the thrills and if you want a well paced adventure, but there are a good other handful of games that do what this game does but better. Like maybe go check out another third person adventure game following a more entertaining protagonist, supporting roles, better character development, and tackles you to more varied locations. A game series that’s the synonym of “Nonplotted.” You know what the f*ck I mean. I give Tomb Raider (2013) an 8/10 for being pretty good.
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