Tomb Raider Review

Lara Croft is one of gaming’s most memorable icons.  When the original Tomb Raider was introduced in 1996 on PlayStation, Sega Saturn, and PC it took the world by storm.  It took place in a beautiful 3D world and contained exciting action as well as mystique and intrigue.  This, plus the fact that the game’s protagonist was very different from other games lead Tomb Raider to become one of the dominant franchise of the late 90’s.

The franchise became so popular that it was adapted into a couple films in the early 2000’s with none other than Angelina Jolie starring as Lara Croft.  Things seemed to be doing well but by the of the game’s fourth core release a lot of excitement surrounding the franchise had began to fade.  It’s very reminiscent of the Assassin’s Creed franchise today where the original game is so unique and different but 3-4 annual releases later you find yourself continuing to put hours into something you’re not getting much enjoyment from.

Things continued to decline over the next several years and Tomb Raider seemed destined to fade as a distant memory.  Then, after the less than exciting Tomb Raider: Underworld in 2008, Crystal Dynamics set out to reset the franchise.  From an outsider’s perspective it seemed like all the right things were happening:  the studio was taking their time to focus on quality.  The end result of these years of work is 2013’s reboot aptly named Tomb Raider.

The game begins aboard a ship as Lara is a member of an archaeological party in search of old relics.  Lara is young and is a junior member of the party.  Her own research leads her to believe that the relics they are looking for are at a different destination than the ship is currently heading and she manages to convince the rest of the team to change course.

Upon closing in on their new destination, a terrible storm breaks out and their ship crashes, leaving the entire crew stranded and scattered upon a remote island.  The scavenging crew quickly learn they are not alone and that the island’s other inhabitants are not exactly friendly.  Lara also begins to realize that there is something mysterious, and maybe even supernatural about the island.

The game plays as sort of a combination of the old Tomb Raider games mixed in with some more scripted Uncharted-like elements.  A lot of platformers back in the day relied heavily on timed and precision jump mechanics.  It has been hard for studios to translate that into modern games because games are just so much more advanced.  It’s not impossible and 2010’s Enslaved: Odyssey to the West is a good example of how to get this right.

However, this game’s platforming is just kind of mediocre.  Yes, you jump around to navigate terrain but it’s not done in a way that’s any more meaningful than you navigate through a map in any of the Call of Duty games.

One mechanic that did seem to come off nicely is how the weapons you control work.  As the game progresses your arsenal becomes bigger and better in a more fluid way.  Not only are you able to find new weapons, but you get choices in how to upgrade the weapons you have.  Looting enemies and chests yields generic supply parts which you can use for specific weapon upgrades.

This empowers you to choose what weapons to upgrade and you pick from many different options regarding how you want the weapon upgraded.  Unless you  utilize an absolute completionist style of play you most likely won’t be able to upgrade everything to max thus leaving you with critical decisions about how to upgrade.

Combat is decent.  There is enough enemy variation to prevent you from utilizing the same weapon or tactic over and over throughout the game, but after a while the intrinsic fun that comes with firefights is lost.  This fun comes back from time to time with certain larger encounters which require more advanced planning, but this is the exception rather than the rule.

Nothing looks amazing or breath-taking, and most of what you see is visually on par with what’s been out for the past several years.  That’s not to say anything looks bad, but rather that the visuals are adequate and nice enough to get the job done.

By far, the biggest problem Tomb Raider faces is that it fails to properly define its target audience.  From it’s inception, the franchise has always teetered around PG-13 territory.  Plenty of time is spent blasting away baddies but plots and themes are usually fit for all audiences.

2013’s Tomb Raider is a bit confused in this regard.  The plot, characters, and dialogue are reminiscent of something you might find in a very kid-friendly film with the only exception being that the game is laced with numerous f-bombs.  It just doesn’t fit.  I’m all for people making whatever type of game they want, but there should be a cohesive message.  Much like how a game where Mario runs around executing people wouldn’t fit, this just doesn’t fit.

It’s doubly disappointing because I was really hoping for something more substantial when it comes to the plot.  From 20 minutes into the game there is no longer any mystery and you can pretty much figure out what’s going to happen the rest of the game.

Now I want to clarify that I am not including the supposed “almost rape scene” in this category of being beyond what Tomb Raider should be about.  This was definitely the most ridiculous and sensationalized story of last year.  There is no rape scene.  There is no scene where someone almost gets raped.  It seems like the juvenile gaming press was trying to take itself a little too seriously and talk about ‘real and serious’ issues.

The heavily scripted moments were actually a welcome surprise for Tomb Raider.  Much of the game begins feeling monotonous after a while and these scripted segments provide lots of explosions, danger, and potential death.  They are exciting enough that they allow you to simply enjoy them.

Unfortunately, there are many other moments in the game that fall in the category of “false tenesion.”  You might be slowly walking across a narrow beam where one wrong move could send you tumbling hundreds of feet to your death.  The background music heightens the perilous tone.  The camera provides plenty of shaking.  Lara teeters across with some seemingly close calls, only you are never really in any danger.  There were a few times where I purposefully tried as hard as I could to run, walk, or jump of some perilous beam but was unable to.  Not good.

While nothing about Tomb Raider stands out as spectacular, it was fun enough to be a sufficient reboot.  We can no doubt expect sequels in the coming years and this serves as a good baseline to improve upon.  Lets hope Crystal Dynamics is taking note and can put together something more cohesive and compelling.  While they’re at it, having a less whiny Lara Croft would help as well.