Tomb Raider

Reboots and re-imaginings seem to be all the rage across both Hollywood and the video games industry these days, and if there’s one heroine who was due such treatment then it was probably Lara Croft. Back in her PlayStation heyday she was the star of bona-fide triple-A titles on a consistent basis, but after several missteps it seemed it was time for developer Crystal Dynamics to take Lara back to the drawing board and make her relevant again. The result is not only a Lara Croft that we’ve never really seen before but also a Tomb Raider game that, for the first time in more than a decade, is more than worthy of sitting alongside the top-tier games of its type once again.

The main angle Crystal Dynamics go for in this release, especially in the early parts of the game, is that Lara is a vulnerable young woman who immediately feels uncomfortable and intimidated in the environments and situations she is thrown into. Gone is the confident, sexy, cold-blooded killer of prior games, enter a scared and out-of-her-depth budding archaeologist struggling to survive on a horrendous island filled with deathtraps, savage wildlife and brutal human inhabitants.

One of the most impressive elements of this reboot is this character arc of Lara and the transformation she undergoes. Some have commented that the transition from vulnerability to badass is a little jarring, but I would argue, and so does the game itself, that if that transition hadn’t taken place as quickly as it did then Miss Croft would not have survived very long at all. I found Lara a very convincing and likeable character, helped by the fact that the motion capture and voice work from Camilla Luddington is absolutely fantastic. There are times when the constant moaning and cries of anguish might make the neighbours think you’re exploring some of the seedier corners of the world-wide web without the use of headphones, but overall the anguish and turmoil Lara is put through and the journey she goes on as a character are well-developed and convincing largely because of Luddington’s performance.

It’s somewhat of a shame that the writers were unable to place this well-rounded character into a particularly endearing narrative, nor surround her with a decent cast of ensemble characters. Whilst the plot serves the purpose of acting as a vehicle for Lara’s character development really rather well, the actual narrative itself is very cliché and very unremarkable. You’ve got your creepy cults, ‘heart-wrenching’ death scenes and Indiana Jones-esque historical hocus-pocus, and it’s nothing special.

The other characters are just a selection of stereotypes and bad accents, with only Roth standing out as Lara’s tutor and mentor. Lead villain Mathias is well voiced and has some good lines, and I particularly liked the idea of the enemies you fight developing a personal hatred of you because you’re killing their comrades (an interesting concept that come to think of it I’m surprised other games haven’t thought of), but overall there’s nothing all that memorable about the ensemble, especially when compared to its obvious point of comparison in Uncharted. Having said that, as a launchpad for future adventures, the plot serves its purpose well enough.

Whilst combat and gritty violence does eventually became a major focus of both the plot and the gameplay of Tomb Raider, it’s a while before Lara actually commits her first kill and the game uses the preceding time to introduce you to the other key mechanics such as the hunting and platforming. It’s these type of elements that do set Tomb Raider apart from the likes of Uncharted, as the extra activities you can undertake just by exploring the world through jumping, climbing, swinging and swimming make the island feel pretty large and pretty packed. Lara is helped in her traversal around the island with a variety of tools including ropes and a pickaxe, with the ability to use both in tandem to send Lara down zip lines and cover a lot of ground in an exceedingly quick time.

Lara’s first and most important piece of equipment is her bow, and whilst she can obviously use it in combat to a satisfying degree it was the more creative functions that made it stand out. Using it to send a line of rope flying across the environment and then zipping down it with the pickaxe reminded me of using the line launcher in Rocksteady’s Batman games, and indeed there’s plenty to the design of the game that draws parallels with those exceptional titles. Being able to revisit locations you’ve already been to both during and after the main story allows for the collection of tidbits like audio logs, treasures and such like, as well as the discovery of hidden tombs that are usually traversed via a few clever puzzles with a decent reward awaiting you at the end.

Tomb Raider does a great job of rewarding the player for everything they do, and the earning of XP as well as the collection of salvage, which effectively acts as the games currency, allows for the upgrading of weapons and equipment as well as being able to unlock new moves and perks for Lara, allowing you to up your arsenal for both combat and platforming. It’s a trick that was nailed in those aforementioned Batman games and it works a treat for Tomb Raider too.

So how about that combat, then? The gunplay on the whole feels fantastic and the kills are often incredibly satisfying; all the weapons have a good feel to them and the ability to upgrade them keeps combat feeling fresh. Using the pickaxe for melee attacks is absolutely savage, and the ability to scurry around and dodge enemy attacks with perfect timing allows for some pretty cool counter attacks that again draw healthy comparisons with DC’s Dark Knight. The game also employs a cover system during firefights but it’s handled in a context sensitive fashion rather than forcing the player to manually press or hold a button, and for the most part it works well and allows for some effective stop-and-pop shooting. As Lara gains more confidence with her ability to fight and protect yourself, so does the player, as the constant stream of new weapons and combat maneuvers effectively works in tandem with the narrative to transform Lara from an inexperienced hunter to a murderous badass. A cute murderous badass who cries quite a lot, but a murderous badass nonetheless.

What is most impressive about the combat is the variety of ways in which you can approach most scenarios. The bow and arrow combo allows you to take a more stealthy stance and it’s incredibly fun to pull of head shots in silent nature as enemies wonder where they’re being bombarded from as their allies fall down one by one. Sneaking around the environment for silent takedowns is also cause for satisfaction, whilst using environmental hazards such as fire and exploding barrels to your advantage is both rather enjoyable and also a provider of some of the game’s most striking visual moments; Tomb Raider arguably showcases the best looking fire this side of Far Cry 3.

When you’re not leaping about, killing your enemies or exploring the open environments there are times when Tomb Raider will throw some good old-fashioned puzzles at you. None of them gave me too much bother and in truth the game as a whole shouldn’t cause anyone with gaming experience too much trouble on the normal difficulty setting, but it’s a nice breakaway from the combat and the exploration and adds to the overall fantastic pacing of the core adventure.

Crystal Dynamics also try their hand at some Uncharted-esque set pieces and, whilst they’re not as varied or in some cases as ambitious, they do a fine job at producing some truly jaw dropping moments. There’s plenty of death-defying leaps, running through environments as they explode and even an escape from a burning building, and they all impress. Naughty Dog have had 3 games to work their way up towards the Hollywood level production levels of their set pieces, and on the evidence of this first effort Lara Croft may well soon be undertaking even more mammoth scenarios than Nathan Drake.

It’s probably clear just from the positive comparisons with Batman and Uncharted that Tomb Raider is a fabulous game, and despite a more than healthy runtime of around about 12 hours, plus the ability to dive back into the world after the credits roll, there’s also a solid enough multiplayer suite to keep online raiders busy. Again it’s impossible not to draw comparisons with Uncharted here, and again it’s not quite as good, but for Xbox 360 owners in particular it does at least provide something a bit different from the other online shooters on the market. Incorporating the platforming, as well as some of the tools and traps, from the main adventure give the online multiplayer battles a unique feel, and whilst I doubt it’ll keep many busy for more than a week or two it certainly isn’t bad.

Visually, as has already been hinted at, Tomb Raider is absolutely stunning. Next generation consoles may be just around the corner but when games are still capable of looking this good on the current selection of systems then perhaps we shouldn’t be in such a rush for new hardware just yet. The island isn’t exactly your ideal holiday getaway location but it looks absolutely beautiful, with the aforementioned fire and lighting effects making it look almost photorealistic at times. The weather conditions you face all look great; strong winds have a convincing effect on Lara’s helpless ponytail, the cold and show lend themselves nicely to some neat visual touches like footprints and the visibility of breath, and the rain looks exceptional. The aforementioned set pieces are suitably impressive, with environments crumbling and exploding with suitable levels of ‘that looks awesome’. Character models, especially Lara herself, are fantastic, with top-notch animation lending plenty of believability to proceedings. It is, quite simply, an exceptionally pretty game and it is good-looking enough to make you well and truly wince whenever Lara is on the end of a beating.

Camilla Luddington is, as already mentioned, terrific as Miss Croft, whilst the rest of the cast are slightly hit and miss. The sound effects, however, are excellent across the board, with weapon sounds standing out alongside the general ambience of life on the island. The musical score is also of high quality, and they’re definitely on to a winner with the new theme tune.

Overall it is impossible not to recommend Tomb Raider on the strengths of its single player adventure alone. It’s a wonderfully well paced game with a tremendous variety of gameplay styles accommodated for, with all of them being incredibly satisfying to perform and drawing more than fair comparisons with some of the best games of its type to be released in the last few years. As a re-imagining of Lara Croft it’s a great success, but even when you strip all that away it’s still a game that is just really fun and, perhaps most importantly, really satisfying to play. It looks great, it plays great and, just as the developer would have wanted, it makes you crave Lara’s next adventure.