Friday, April 4, 2014

TOMB RAIDER (2013)



After several recommendations (and an appropriate discount on Steam), I finally played and finished the reboot of Tomb Raider. For the most part, I really enjoyed it. Although it has been deeply inspired by the Uncharted series (which was inspired by the original Tomb Raiders in the first place), the game is solid, well implemented and contains plenty of well-conceived gameplay elements.

The biggest change over previous iterations is probably the main character herself, being Lara more innocent and less bad-ass. It's essentially her first big quest, and she learns how being a survivor along the way. The story is more character-centric than previous games, and takes more advantage of a unique location rather than travelling along the world.

Gameplay wise, they've added several leveling systems which not only promote a feeling of evolution along the game, but also allow a limited Metroidvania gameframe in which new abilities unlock new paths to explore. The game still has platforming, shooting and some chase sequences ala Naughty Dog.

On the minus side, there is nothing really new that I haven't seen in other games. Animations have a strong tendency of showing minor glitches and the story could have used some more twists, since by the 60% of it I was not particularly interested in the events and I was just engaged for closure and collecting hidden secrets.

Played the MP briefly, and I wasn't impressed either. Just an 'Online mode? Check!' feature to maintain their AAA status. Anyway, I recommend the game but not at full price. If you played the Uncharted series you're not missing much, but once it hits a 50% discount is definitively a great game to buy. Enjoy!

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