Review: Tomb Raider

1. Reboot Raider

Read the thrilling review of Tomb Raider...

With video gaming still being a niche, even the most popular brands among gamers have trouble making it into pop culture. Tomb Raider is one of those brands that have reached everywhere across the globe, deep rooted into pop culture. It¡¯s hard not to have missed the Angelina Jolie movies. However the Tomb Raider brand has taking plenty of hits in the past, by focussing more on boobs rather than the gameplay, and letting games like Uncharted take up top position. However, with Tomb Raider, Square Eidos is wiping the slate clean, and starting afresh with a brand new reboot.
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2. Lara Croft

The protagonist of Tomb Raider is Lara Croft. You would probably remember her from the pictures above. Sporting sexy shorts and ubertight singlet, with dual guns on her hips like old western gunslingers, she is the acrobatic, british accented, female version of Indiana Jones. Over the years she¡¯s grown more curvy, blocky and a lot more absurd in her dressing style, which is hardly the couture one wears to go crawling through dank tombs searching for artifacts.
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3. Young Lara Croft

Meet the new Lara Croft. Designed as a prequel and an origin story, this Lara Croft when she just embraces the mantle of Tomb Raider, a profession that's been in a family for decades. Eidos has made sure this is rebirth by fire as Lara is a survivor of a massive shipwreck. You get to experience her origins as she gets bruised, battered, thrown into the fire multiple times to become the heroine we know and love.
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4. Story

On a search for an artifact, Lara ends up being shipwrecked on an island, lost within a Bermuda triangle like place with no hope of rescue. She must brave all the dangers of the island in order to survive and find the artifact and her way back home. As a bleeding, covered in dirt Lara pushes herself through every possible situation as a survivor screams the realistic harshness of choosing the path of a Tomb Raider. Each and every situation has you at the edge of your seat, and has you cringing every time something bad happens to Lara, which is very often. Every square minute of this game redeems itself from the mistakes of the past.
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5. Story...

While the story is riveting and Eidos has made it as real, it¡¯s not without it¡¯s glaring moments of incredulity. The beginning, Lara endures 10 foot drops, having a leg smashed, and yet she is able to rock climb like Tom Cruise in MI2. Lara Croft is voiced by actress Camilla Luddington, who does a great job most of the time. Though, it sort of feels odd that after surviving a string of disasters one of them shooting a would be rapist square in the face, then hearing the cultured, very drama queen voice of Lara droning on in perfect uppercrust British, kind of puts you off. Of Course, it goes without saying this game is meant for mature audiences as a lot of the game concerns a lot of adult themes.
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6. Gameplay

The gameplay of Tomb Raider can largely be classified as a cross between the old Tomb Raider, Uncharted with a bit of God of War thrown in for extra measure. There are platforming segments where you jump, climb and traverse dangerous cliffs and across treacherous drops and waterfalls, sometimes even through, or over hulks of old World War II era wrecked bombers. Making for some amazing cinematic moments.
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7. GunFun

After being chased everywhere across the island, forced to endure hardships and run. In the later part of the game Lara realises her destiny, and starts becoming the hunter. You can hunt people in stealth with the bow and arrow, or later in the game as you face waves of enemies you can employ the use of weapons. Which may defy belief considering you¡¯re playing a seemingly harmless girl, who suddenly becomes John Rambo.
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8. Active Cutscenes

Most of the game has you on rails as you move through cutscenes. Though you cant sit back and watch Lara drama herself through those scene. The game constantly throws control events. The set pieces are varied, and theres times where you will have to escape from ropes or bad guys in confined caves, to guiding Lara through dangerous rapids avoiding impaling tree branches. Which is fun most of the time, except sometimes it gets pretty annoying. Not only that, on PC, its very tough to know what button to press.
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9. Survival

When stranded on a desert island, with nary a charging point in sight for your smartphone to check whatsapp, survival is must. So to survive Lara has to hunt for food, by collecting herbs as well as shooting the various fauna with your bow to collect the meat. Not to mention you also have to search for salvage. As you play through cutscenes, objectives you gain survival points, where you can spend at campfires to upgrade your survival skills, attack skills or upgrade your weapons.
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10. Graphics

Fans of the TV show lost would be most at home in Tomb Raider. Eidos has thrown every magic trick in their top hat in the form some of the most beautiful graphics and animations. Lara Croft herself is beautiful, with sharp eyes and amazing features, superbly animated, and each animation gets more confident as she grows into the Tomb Raider. The flowing hair, the amazing motion capture just entrance you. The set pieces are beautiful, from the hulking wrecks of ships and planes, to the picturesque hillside Japanese villages long abandoned. Tomb Raider is truly a beautiful game.
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11. Sound Design

The overall atmosphere sound design is perfect. With, the wind buffeting around you, growls of wolves and other fauna, the sound of waves crashing in the distance, the metal rending and tearing. The voice acting of all the characters are quite good, though as performances go, it could have been made more believable. Though its neat with the right amount of the entertainment factor.
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12. Conclusion

Tomb Raider is the Phoenix that rises from the ashes of the previous games. Eidos has wiped the slate clean with an amazing, polished Tomb Raider experience that¡¯s raw storytelling will blow your mind. Sure it¡¯s not perfect, spotty in some places, but in the grand scheme of things, this is a fantastic, riveting game. Lara Croft is reborn and this game is just the beginning. A must have for Tomb Raider fans and a mature game for the new generation of gamers. Truly fantastic an experience, highly recommended.