Tomb Raider

Tomb Raider and I have had an interesting, if fleeting, past. I really did not play the original games in the late 1990′s, not sure why exactly. Likely I was deep into other games at the time. I actually had more familiarity with Lara on the movie screen and enjoyed both outings of Angelina Jolie in Tomb Raider and The Cradle of Life. It wasn’t until Tomb Raider: Legend that I actually played a Lara Croft game from beginning to end and though I quite enjoyed it, I really didn’t play any more of the series until this Spring when the reboot of Tomb Raider was released on the Xbox 360 (and many other platforms).

So this isn't really a review of how this game stacks up against the whole series or how it does, or does not, stay true to who Lara Croft is. Instead I think being a bit more detached from the overall series has made it easier for me to focus on what the game is trying to do with this new story. I will admit to coming into the game with some misgivings as I had heard a lot about the progression of Lara from an innocent archaeologist to something more, let’s just say “worldly”, when it comes to defending herself. Also I had heard a lot about the punishment that Lara takes in the game, and as it turns out, there are many, MANY wince-worthy moments for Lara right out of the gate. Thankfully these taper off over time so you can get down to the business of being Lara Croft.

So, what is her business? Rather than being a world famous “Tomb Raider”, Lara is instead just one person on a team of people looking for a lost civilization near Japan. She isn’t necessarily a peon, as she still apparently comes from money, but in this case she starts out having to do more than a bit of convincing to get the crew of the ship she is on to go to the equivalent of the Bermuda Triangle near Japan called the Dragon’s Triangle (which apparently is a real thing). A bad storm hits, and their ship crashes on the reef of an island and Lara is quickly thrown into a moment to moment survival situation which starts out almost out of control, but over the course of the game results in Lara growing as a person and survivor. This happens both in the story arc and via in game character progression through skill unlocks.

The entire story of the game is tied to the spirit of survival on the island and in addition to just keeping alive, Lara has many things she has to do. She has herself to look after, hunting wild animals and learning to defend herself. She has the other survivors to find. And to top it all off, she needs to figure out how to deal with getting off of the island alive, which seems to be impossible with all of the strange storms surrounding the island.

Beyond the narrative, this is an open world game with all that entails, including a ton of collectibles and other challenges to both discover, and then complete. Most of these are really only for the completionist who wants to unlock everything in the game (art, etc). The one caveat to that are the journals and books you come across along the way. These I think add a lot to the story, as they all contain supplemental snippets that help to flesh out the island, its history and the people on it. Most should be pretty easy to see, and in fact are sometimes the objectives in the main quest line. The rest of them will require a bit of poking around to find. I highly suggest finding all of these.

One might also expect some tombs to be raided in this adventure, and there certainly are are few. However, they tend to be few in number and are pretty short side paths off the main areas in the game. Still, there are traps to avoid and puzzles to solve which helps to break up the usually hectic pace of the game if you are plowing along on the main story line. I would hope in DLC and future installments that they would expand on the tombs a bit more.

Mechanically the game is very solid and feels a lot like other open world action games of its ilk such as Assassin’s Creed or Prince of Persia. There is lots of running, jumping, climbing and hanging off of the sides of cliffs and things as you traverse the environments in all directions. As you progress in the game you get more tools that allow you to return to previous areas and get to spots you couldn't get to the first time. Since you can fast travel from various camp fires around the island, this allows you to take a break from the main quest to go back to previous section to look for collectibles and hunt for XP.

In addition to hunting and killing bad guys, you can gain experience by completing quests and finding hidden collectibles. You use this experience to gain skill points which you can spend on three different skill lines. These are not skill trees, they are pretty linear and I didn't have a ton of trouble maxing out all of the skills that are available in the game. To me it felt like that was the design choice here, so you don’t have each player design “their” Lara with unique skill sets. I like that because I always feel like I want to try everything out in the game and this enables me to do so.

Shooting is also pretty solid and is all done from third person and has a light, but effective, cover mechanic. You acquire different weapons along the way, starting off with a basic bow. All weapons can then be upgraded with “parts” that you find around the island and scavenge off of enemies. There are many ways to apply those weapons in the game as you can play it as a straight up shooter/brawler, or you can take a more tactful and stealthy approach. I chose the latter most times, and for the most part I felt like I could do what I want to, except, of course, for the story beats where you are forced into open combat.

There is multiplayer in the game, which pits two factions against each other in various modes of battle from straight up death match, to some objective based maps. I didn't play this more than a couple of hours, so I am by no means totally experienced in the multiplayer, but from what I have seen, it all felt sort pale in comparison to the excellence of the single player story. I would say the multiplayer is totally skippable for this one, but doesn't really diminish the value of the game as it feels more tacked on, than integral to the overall product.

Overall I would say the reboot of Tomb Raider, and the return of Lara Croft is a great success. Even if you have never played one of the older games, this is actually a great time to jump in. The game plays very well and it is a lot of fun unlocking new abilities for Lara and her weapons. The island feels quite big, and the ability to go back and scour every nook and cranny for hidden items and collectibles had me happy for hours. And finally, the story just feels very Tomb Raider, even if you are not raiding tombs every 5 minutes. What you get to experience is a fun, Summer action hero style story in the vein of Indiana Jones. That is all good in my book and I for one look forward to the further adventures of Lara Croft.