Tomb Raider

We can almost assume that everybody knows by now that cut-scene bullets are the real deal, they cause pain and/or death and lead to "real life" repercussions in the game world that we are experiencing. Think Aries in Final Fantasy VII, your protagonist in Fallout 3 or any of the Modern Warfare games for evidence of this

Cut-scenes need to have this power in order to bring some real consequence to the loop holes of conventional gaming mechanics; we can accept that our protagonist can take several head-shots before going down in game but a colt 45. placed point blank to our head in cut-scene will spell doom for us every time. Suspending that disbelief is important part of immersion and, because we have become accustom to this practice, we allow the game to have far more artistic liberties through this median

Tomb Raider breaks this suspension of disbelief in so many ways that, I feel, breaks what could otherwise be a truly immersive game.

(Early game spoiler alert) So our protagonist finds herself ship wrecked on an unknown island and is then immediately kidnapped; so far so good, kind reads like a Die Hard film or something of the calibre but let's just role with it. Soon after we escape by falling through a broken wooden floor and onto a protruding metal spike. Lara get's up, for some silly reason pulls the spike out at the risks extreme blood lose (for gameplay sake she would need to remove it though), and proceeds to stumble down the cave passages looking for an exit. Her movement is only slightly impaired and her handling is a little wonky but I feel they did a good job selling this injury to me. After escaping the collapsing cave and her pursuer: Lara climbs a crashed plane and falls several feet down a sloped ledge before making camp on a ridge. So far so good, no major concerns. Flash forward to the next day and her injury is gone, a disturbing blood stain on her shirt the only post impalement reminder of what has happened the day before. Lara is fine and handles like normal

What the..?

So I get it, she can't keep holding her side forever, but you don't even address the fact that she has a wound. She fell (in cut scene, so its unavoidable) onto a metal spike, and somehow that healed overnight? I was willing to believe it, the in game effects were an awesome way of showing it, but then you choose not to resolve the issue you had specifically brought attention to less than 15 mins ago.

I'm done Tomb Raider, I'm just done.. you broke my brain

All it would have taken is a short cut-scene with her pulling out a medkit or using some leaf of the healing tree, I dunno, just some kind of acknowledgement that 'yes, this is a problem' and 'yes, she does fix it'. Hell do something in game if you want make a mechanic for it, I don't expect you to though.

The worst part is it's not just a one off oversight, it happens a ridiculous number of times. Bear traps, numerous falls, a fucking plane chasing me down a mountain; it just never stops and all it would take to fix it is a stupid little cut-scene showing her open a medkit or something. You gave impact to these cut-scene's so why in the hell didn't you give leverage or consequence to them as well??

I don't expect you to make a game where the main character just keeps getting injured and progressively less mobile, that would be a hard make and risky venture; my only request is that these cut-scene's carry the impact of other games that don't even focus on realism or gritty hard topic like Tomb Raider does

Just to be clear: I don't think Tomb Raider is a bad game or a bad reboot of the series, it's just not as immersive as it tries to sell itself.