One of my most vivid gaming memories came on my 13th or 14th birthday. I don’t remember exactly which it was, but it was some time around then. I’d had some friends round to play games on my PlayStation, and one of them had loaned me his copy of Tomb Raider III. As a special birthday treat I was allowed to stay up late, so I sat, beavering away at Lara Croft’s third adventure, perpetually dying in Nevada.
Of course, a lot’s changed since then. In a similar way to Sonic, Tomb Raider rapidly rose before staggering and falling, producing games that frequently left fans disappointed. However, unlike Sonic, it seems like a reboot to the series may have done the trick.
This year’s reboot had a lot of hype going into it’s release, along with some rather strange attempted rape controversy that quickly vanished, and pretty much managed to live up to its build up. It currently sits at 86 and 87 on Metacritic (for Xbox 360 and PS3 respectively), and although we didn’t do a scored review of the game, Alex was pleasantly surprised by the early sections of the game.
Of course, before we get to the meat of the game, there is the fairly odd issue of missing tombs. Despite being right there in the title, Alex says that tombs “are mostly out of the question”, and are “Relegated to a few hidden, optional elements”. Although that’s not in and of itself a bad thing, the lack of a focus on the raiding of tombs does seem to have annoyed some fans of the series.
Crystal Dynamics aren’t lunatics though, and while the tombs are less of a focus, the game seems like it retains a lot of the mechanics and feel that sit at the core of any Tomb Raider title, with Alex saying that “It’s the same modus operandi, but largely outdoors, and it works brilliantly.”
Alex goes on to say that “the game works best when it’s you against the platforming”, which is pretty much how a Tomb Raider title should be in my opinion. In fact, this element of the game is so strong that he says that “Tomb Raider has regained its crown in this area and Uncharted 4 will do well to take some pointers”, which is praise indeed.
Although Alex wasn’t convinced before playing them the game, it certainly seems like he came away happy, wrapping up his look at the game by saying:
So whilst it might not look and feel too much like Tomb Raider games of old (although look out for at least one nod in that direction) at first the important thing is that it feels modern enough to play as you’d expect it to whilst still retaining everything that made those games so pivotal in generations lost past. Crystal Dynamics have reinvented Lara whilst sticking to genre staples, with just enough ideas of their own to keep things fresh. From where I’m standing, that’s a success.
This is WeView though, so the question is do you agree with him? Did you feel that this year’s reboot refreshed the series, or did you miss the Lara of old? Did you long for the tomb based play of some of the older games, or did you prefer the more open approach that Crystal Dynamics took this time?
No matter where your opinion lies, we’d like to hear from you. If you feel like taking part, all you need to do is drop a comment below by Sunday, remembering to include a rating on the Buy It, Bargain Bin It, Rent It, Avoid It scale. Then we’ll try and sum up the community’s views in Monday’s verdict article.
Finally, as WeView took a short break last week, the poll for next week’s game sits in today’s article. Red Faction: Armageddon, Super Stardust Delta and Transformers: Fall of Cybertron all retain their place in the poll, while
wonkey-willy
really enjoyed the single player..
so much so i have it on both consoles!
mplayer is a bit hit and miss.trying a take on uncharted but not really pulling it off.
someone with a maxed out bow sits at the top of the map taking you out from a distance.blah!
rent it for single player
buy it and persevere with the mplayer
RocketSOL
A great game with a few flaws. I really enjoyed playing it, I felt the game lasted just the right length with a decent story, each area of the island looked fantastic and the platforming is great, There are plenty of sections that are very cinematic and it works very well. I enjoyed this game more than any of the Uncharted series…which seems like the only games I can really compare it to this gen.
Sadly, the hunting isn’t used enough as I completed the tutorial for it and never bothered again as it’s not a requirement to progress. There is also too much focus on combat for me personally and not enough exploration or actual ‘Tomb Raiding’. The few tombs scattered around are very enjoyable however as they drop the combat and throw in a nice puzzle to solve. I also found the QTE’s to be a complete pain in the ass, if they just got rid of one thing then I’d love it to be the QTE’s!!
RocketSOL
Oh yeah….Buy It.
Kicks
I loved the single player and finding all of the hidden items, but I have to go with “bargain bin it”.
The multiplayer felt forced and had no real soul to it, but the story kept me hooked. One thing that a friend said to me that makes sense is that she felt cheated when she completed the game.
[Spoiler]She felt that upon completion the island should have been sunny while freely roaming.[/Spoiler]
Dazbobaby
The first and only game to make me feel motion sick, and that’s over 30+ years of gaming. Worse still, there’s no option to turn off the head bobbing.
plutoniumdragon
Wow, thought it was just me. I tried messing with the settings (PC) but just ended up playing it in shorter sessions.
freezebug2
If only for the single player, this game merits a BUY IT.
Multiplayer of this type doesn’t do it for me although coincidentally I’ve heard it’s indeed a bit shite anyway, but it’s well worth buying just to experience the single player campaign which is stunning.
plutoniumdragon
Understandably people compare this to UC, now I’m not a huge fan of UC but I did like this. Would have preferred more exploration and puzzle-solving but at least there was some, I did have the extra tombs pack so that helped a little in that regard. I agree with the other comments though, nice pacing and story build up to start, then big revelation and suddenly everything is explained and the end part of the game is a bit meh.
Still looking forward to the next one though, so bargain bin it.
Oh and another QTE hater here ;)
bunimomike
Like many, I’ve enjoyed the first couple of Tomb Raider games but slowly grown tired of what appeared to be the same game but re-badged and pushed out for yet another outing. Knowing this, the creators of Tomb Raider wanted to reboot the franchise and what an absolutely wonderful reboot it is.
The latest version of Lara Croft was superb. A beautiful, likeable young lady but bereft of the kick-arse Croft we’ve grown to love over the years. However, we’re now seeing how such a gritty and capable woman appears from someone thrust into a truly scary scenario. What I loved about the game was that you could see certain influences from the likes of Uncharted but Crystal Dynamics has made this title truly its own. You need to forgive the glut of mini-QTE moments early on as it’s merely teaching you the ropes. After that, it turns into a fantastic adventure from start-to-finish. The crafting is superbly done and the action is very rewarding no matter your tactics. It’s easily one of the best five games I’ve played in the last 12 months. One more thing about the franchise. It appears Crystal Dynamics has been mature enough to realise she might need something resembling a normal bosom instead of the hilarious fun-bags that Dead or Alive’s beach-volley babes’ sport.
Thank god!
Buy It. Definitely.
TSBonyman
The Tomb Raider reboot is fantastic, despite the misnomer. ;-)
Buy it!
colmshan1990
First up- I haven’t played the multiplayer, so this review has nothing to do with it.
And while I own it on Steam, it’s the PS3 version I’ve played more.
BUY IT.
It’s a great game, although sadly light on puzzles. The action and platforming parts of Tomb Raider are nailed, although the puzzling never really gets beyond light this rag on fire to progress, or making a rope bridge to cross a gap.
Overall the gameplay is fantastic, if not the traditional Tomb Raider experience. Lara is a character who has to grow from a young archaeologist student at the start to the capable survivor we all know and love at the end.
At times this progression seems to move too fast, but I suppose it was necessary for the purposes of making the game. Her growth and story won’t affect you like Elizabeth in Bioshock Infinite and Ellie in The Last of Us, but to compare to two of the greatest game characters of all time is a bit harsh I think.
The game looks utterly gorgeous on both PS3 and PC (although I had to turn off the hair engine on my laptop to run the game smoothly), and the acting is perfectly pitched.
This was a 10/10 from me until only a fortnight or so ago, before I played Bioshock Infinite and The Last of Us back to back. It’s been reduced to a 9 now, but it’s fantastic, and you won’t be disappointed if you buy this game.
BUY IT
(On PS3 I came across an apparently rare game breaking glitch during the latter stages of the game, but was able to sacrifice 2 hours of playtime to fix it by downloading the save file PS+ had uploaded to the cloud. It would be advisable to keep a backup of your save and update it regularly in case this happens in your playthrough)
JR.
Long time TR fan (even liked the movies…) and I loved every minute of this beautiful looking game. Gameplay/story/voice acting/graphics are all excellent and some of the best this gen. My only issue was with the five or six mini rooms (I can’t call them tombs) which were really quite poor. I finished them all and they were fun but they should have been much longer, way more difficult and they should have given you better rewards for solving them. I was also pretty disappointed with the music. It was fine I suppose but nothing compared to the original TR.
I say ‘Buy it’. Overall, Crystal Dynamics did an incredible job and it definitely lives up to the hype.
Didn’t touch multiplayer but I felt the single player campaign was worth full price alone. One thing I would like to see next gen is the option to buy single player or multiplayer separately via PSN (£25 each or both for £40).