So most duders I seen have really enjoyed Tomb Raider and while I enjoyed it, I definitely don't like as much as others do. Btw, there will be some spoilers since I'm going to talk about every aspect of the game.

First, let's start on the story. Its kind of bad. It's partly about this spirit that's stranded them on the island and while at the same time fighting Mathias and the cultists on the island which doesn't really make a lot of sense. Why can't it just be about the vengeful spirits and the Oni. They were much more interesting than the solari which I just thought were boring. Its almost like they felt they had to put enemies on the island so they came up with the Solari which I think hurt the story. The story would have worked better for me if was about Lara investigating tombs to find out about this vengeful spirit its protectors and how to calm it or stop it. Now you have to come up with some weird reason why the Solari are involved in the story at all when in reality, they shouldn't have even been in the game if we're honest. While I think Lara was well done, I think everyone else who is depicted in this game is a horrible trope who only served to push the narrative of Lara becoming this bad ass adventurer we all know her to be which actually hurts her growth as a character. I supposed to believe that Lara really gave a shit about the nerd dude when she's barely said two sentences to him? I know I sure as hell didn't. I think it would have worked better if either all of them died and you revisited them through flashbacks or just not have any side characters at all especially if they're going to be that shallow. And the ending was terrible. Developers really need to stop doing ending boss fights with qtes. Its not fun, just annoying.

The gameplay is actually fun. The napalm arrows are fun to use (maybe a bit op) and the guns feel good especially the shotgun which I used most of the time after the bow. Its fun to be in combat but I didn't really like the way most of the combat situations were set up. Sometimes, they would just do the uncharted thing were they just flood a bunch a bunch of guys into a crowded and have them come after you. Which can be fun but also a bit irritating (I'll get to why in a moment). I wish their was a blind fire in cover, would have made the combat situations much easier to deal with( not that they were hard, they weren't but I would have liked more flexibility with how I could approach combat situations). I liked that the cover was destructible so you had to keep moving and enemies were very good at flanking your position and trying to flush you out with fire arrows and mozolotovs. Things that I didn't about the gameplay was that when Lara approaches an area, she starts crouching when enemies are nearby. That's a nice touch, but I would like the opportunity to crouch and take out enemies. It almost as if the game is telling me in what way I should play, which is just annoying. I'm not stupid, I know there are enemies there, you don't have to alert me by having Lara crouch. Another thing (and this is a big one for me) there is entirely too much fighting. I know that sounds weird, especially since I just said that I enjoyed the combat but I don't think the combat is the best part of the game. The exploration is without a doubt fantastic in this game. Especially once you get the rope arrow, there's just a lot of places you can explore and search. The tombs were my favorite part of the game. I found them to be a lot of fun but unfortunately, there's only like 6 or 7 tombs in the entire game which is disappointing. I would have probably liked this game better if it was mostly exploring (like the previous tomb raiders) and maybe some combat but not against human enemies. I just didn't find that particularly fun or at least not as fun as exploring around the island looking for stuff and raiding tombs. There's also a lot of qte's in this game. Now, this generation we've seen a lot of qte's and action sequences in games. Hell, Heavy Rain is basically one qte after another. But Tomb Raider really over did it with the qte's I think. I really wasn't expecting that at all. I figured the first hour would be qte or cut scene heavy but the rest of the game would have little or no qtes and maybe an action sequence thrown in every once in awhile. But the game is littered with them. I think every 30-45 minutes there is a qte or an action sequence when you do the main story. While i don't hate qte's or action sequences, I think they overdid it with them. I think a better balance would have been a qte or an action sequence every 45 minutes to an hour. That way there is a balance between getting to play the game and showing off a cool action sequence (because the action sequences are cool but I think there's just too many for me to enjoy them when they happen).

The MP is pretty bad. Nothing really new or memorable to speak of and I didn't find it that fun or enjoyable. There are basically 4 modes. Team deathmatch, capture the flag, find medical supplies, and free for all. There are 4 on 4 teams divided into 3 rounds so you'll play one round as the survivors and the other as the Solari. The main problem with it is that if you don't spawn on your teammates, there's only one spot where you can spawn at making it easy for the other team to sit there at the choke point and gun you down as you come out. Idk if they've changed it yet but I recall that being pretty bad in terms of map design. Most of the maps are pretty small as well.

Now even though I've been pretty negative, I really enjoyed the game. I like Lara as a character and I'll definitely pick up the next Tomb Raider title. I just hope that the next game has more of an emphasis on exploration and less emphasis on action sequences.