Tomb Raider (2013 reboot)

[AttonRandom]

Permit me to say

Mass Effect 3 almost ruined my birthday in 2012. But Meshuggah and "Koloss" saved the day!

Birthday 2013. Tomb Raider and StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm are coming and I think that this year's going to be awesome as far as games are concerned. Even if Tomb Raider sucks I won't care 'cause HotS will surely be awesome.

It turned out both games were good and enjoyable. One turned out rather underwhelming (but still well-made, it was a great adventure) and the other surprisingly good, much better than I anticipated. The other one I'm talking about is of course Tomb Raider.

Old TR games aged rather poorly and the series needed an overhaul. It's funny - Uncharted is inspired by Tomb Raider (and it's basically Tomb Raider + Gears of War), so Eidos makes a game that plays like Uncharted. And it's on PC. And it's fun!

Lara Croft is pretty much the strongest point of the reboot. Not only is she pretty, adorable and more realistic, like a "girl-next-door" and not a self-parody, she's got an awesome personality, too. I think she's a nice role model for girls to look up to: she's strong, self-reliant and passionate about her hobbies and despite her being self-sufficient (at least later in the game) and strong on her own she understands her role as a part of the team, cares about and helps others, it's something that feminists should really give some thought to. I hated Sam, though, and I can't believe she's friends with Lara - she tries to change what Lara is (a modest, adorable girl with great personality) and turn her into a party-going, sexually promiscuous, uh, skank? I'd love to put a hole in her head with an arrow and a bow.



kaa kaa

The story is pretty generic and filled with cliched, generic characters, but the atmosphere of Yamatai is very nice (if you can call such a dark and creepy place "nice") and I enjoyed the design of many levels. There are some nice sceneries here all right, never expected some of that stuff. I happened to enjoy the stealth mechanic and bow much more than I anticipated (and I expected these to suck big time), not to mention climbing and platformer stages, but contrary to what some reviewers say there's plenty room for improvement.

Skill tree is completely redundant. Lara levels up in a linear fashion and there's no way to specialize in anything. Why not just do away with it and integrate abilities with the story? There's also too much crap lying around to find that's pretty much useless. Going through stuff in crates just to find XP points? Wha? Why there are no more games like Outcast where every item you picked up and every thing you did mattered in the in-game world and wasn't done just for kicks and without any sense whatsoever? I also think that there are sections where there's simply too much fighting. I like the fact that TR is probably the first game in years to mix cover-based mechanic with open spaces, at least in some, if not all levels, but too much fighting gets boring and the game seems to drag on for too long lacking variety, becoming repetitive and boring in the process.

Also, I hated QTE-s. I hate them with all my heart (I liked them in Mass Effect 2, though, but they were scarce and those renegade ones triggered some funny scenes) and Tomb Raider is just another example of them being poorly made. So, you unload tons of lead in a mini-boss' head but no, he just won't die unless you finish him off in a stupid QTE sequence. HATE IT HATE IT HATE IT

There's plenty of room for improvement in a future sequel, but I think that we'll get another game like the first installment, only set somewhere else and with some additional stuff and maybe some improvements. It might lack a theme next time - here we had this whole Lara becoming a battle-hardened adventurer thing, but will there be any room for character development or stuff that we can somehow relate to in a sequel? Time will tell.

With that said, Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light was awesome and it's the best Tomb Raider game EVER.

What do you think about the reboot?

[DemolitionSquid]

Also, I hated QTE-s. I hate them with all my heart (I liked them in Mass Effect 2, though, but they were scarce and those renegade ones triggered some funny scenes) and Tomb Raider is just another example of them being poorly made. So, you unload tons of lead in a mini-boss' head but no, he just won't die unless you finish him off in a stupid QTE sequence. HATE IT HATE IT HATE IT

THIS.

I liked TR13 but the QTE's fucking killed it for me. I'm glad I bought it for half price on Steam.

[AttonRandom]

It's best to wait for discounts these days. I mean, what's the point of buying games straight after their release, anyway? (says the guy who bought HotS right after its premiere, haha)

[Rajababa]

I like tomb rider