Tomb Raider Review
It is finally time to see how Lara Croft got her start, and in this game you get to peer behind that very curtain. You of course will be playing the part of Lara, a very, very reluctant archeologist/adventurer. She is accompanied by a band of friends, and one arrogant prick of an expert. You are in search of a hidden city that is said to be the throne of the Sun Queen, a being that was said to be able to control the very weather. Lara finds that they might be headed in the wrong direction and advises that they look in the Dragon's Triangle, and that's where the game truly begins.
Graphically this game is stunning no matter if its a cinematic, or if it is actual gameplay. This was a gorgeous game. The interesting thing about this island is that there are several different climate areas, and none of them look out of place, or poorly done. Sure there were a ton of henchmen you had to shoot down that looked identical, but everything else looked so good I didn't care. Sure there was some slight pixelation in some scenes, but the overall look of this game was just too good.
I enjoyed the voice work in this game, and I have to say that I was emotionally invested with some of the characters. The music was kind of minimal allowing the gamer to really get immersed into the flow of the game.
The controls in this game work, you're going to be using square to do your main actions, you're going to use X to jump, you're going to use circle to dodge, and triangle to do your scripted moves in dodges and to finish individuals off. You'll also be using the shoulder buttons to do your aiming and firing of your weapons.
This is just a well put together game, though it is a bit odd that you're going through a very linear storyline, and there are times where your path will be destroyed behind you, and yet you can fast travel from certain campfires to any campfire in the past. There's also a lot of collecting that's going on that sometimes takes away from the gameplay as you're trying to find that hidden trinket instead of trying to advance the story. There's also the leveling up of weapons that to me is hit and miss. I never had an issue with the guns kicking back at all, and yet there's an upgrade that I thought was completely unnecessary. Then there's also the leveling up of your character, many of the skills that you'll have to choose to unlock the better ones are completely worthless. I understand that Square Enix's name is on the game, but I would have really liked a little less RPG in my action/adventure game. I'm not saying that it was bad, but it felt slightly out of place. There's also the weapon piece search that randomly is going on. Throughout the game in random salvaging attempts you'll find a weapon piece, find enough and your weapon will upgrade allowing you more options to apply salvaged material on, which to be honest I'm not sure how that translates into some of the pieces that you magically turn into weapon enhancements.
The thing, though, at the end of the day, I enjoyed this game. Sure it had some quirks, and sure there were pieces of the game that I didn't think needed to be there or sometimes took some trial and error to get through, but this is such an amazing game, that at the end I wanted to know what was the next chapter, where was Lara going to go next, and how do I go about getting to be a part of that adventure ASAP. This game gets an 8.9 out of 10.
