Tomb Raider - what a game!

[Nomad8459]

Just finished playing tomb raider on my Win 7 setup with a GTX 470.

Straight from the get go, this game GRABS you and takes hold of you, it seems quite literally.

Some of the innovations are amazing, the way that the camera follows the avatar is brilliant, it engages you and drags you into the game in a way I have never seen before, the fast action sequences where you have to make snap decisons are brilliant too.

My one bugbear was that the game was over way too soon! Left me wanting much more.

I would also say that some of the old Tomb Raider trickery of hard to fathom puzzles and daunting climbs out of impossible situations has been removed to some extent, I also felt that maybe this had gone too far towards the way of just shooting at things.

In term of graphics and game play however, I believe this is a game changer and if the future of gaming is in this direction, then we are in for a treat.

Well done to the developers and a big thumbs up for windows seven, still proving that PC gaming has its merits.

I am still very much in awe of Windows Seven, I have mucked about with eight and am not too impressed to be honest, just launched a dual boot with Mac OS X and I am still convinced that Windows Seven has the edge.

Windows 7, just has everything that I want in terms of customisation, I have modified icons, changed icons for broadband and devices, changed my log on screen, all the little things that you wish you could do, you can do on Windows 7.

Long live Seven and PC gaming.

 

[Contrabardus]

It was fun, but I wasn't hugely impressed by it. It was much like a Summer Blockbuster, huge and loud, but not exceedingly memorable.

The opening suffers from way too many QTEs. Though, thankfully the game dials it way back after the opening sequence. There are a few small ones after, but they aren't out of place and don't hinder gameplay. Mostly it's 'press x to catch ledge'.

Much like Nathan Drake in Uncharted Laura Croft has the issue where every jump in the game is almost missed and precarious. That's exaggerating a bit, but there's a bit too much of almost missing or having whatever you're trying to catch fall apart. There are a lot of sequences where you have to run away while whatever you're standing on explodes, collapses, or otherwise is destroyed just behind you. I don't mind sequences like that, but when it happens once or twice every level it sort of loses it's punch after a while.

Laura is too easily distracted by shiny objects considering the constant rush the story likes to imply you need to be in. It's artificially hurried, there is no actual rush as nothing happens until you cross the invisible line of cutscene trigger. That's not horrible and it does serve to encourage exploration, but it does seem a bit odd that she'll take the time to wander into mysterious out of the way caves when her friends are supposedly in dire need of immediate rescue. It makes the tomb sequences seem out of place. [She sucks at rescuing people too.]

Also, it would have been nice if there was more reward than simply gaining more parts to upgrade your weapons with. That's pretty much the only thing doing any action in the game gets you. Completing objectives and finding secrets just nets you a bunch of upgrade parts and nothing more interesting than that.

The Hunting elements are unnecessary. They're just gameplay padding and there is no actual need to do any hunting. Aside from the first time you do it in the tutorial, there is no need to do any more. Yes, you can get resources from doing it, but you find more than enough just playing through the game. It's much like Farcry 3's hunting. Yeah, it's neat, but once you get the upgrades there's no reason to bother with it.

The Bow is overused and overpowered. Though, there is a nice scene with the handguns that is a nod to fans. The other firearms aren't very useful for most of the game though. Ammo is scarce and it's just faster and easier to take down enemies with the bow. There's a reason humans don't use bow and arrows anymore aside from recreational hunting. That's not to say you won't ever use them, but you'll find yourself going back to the bow more often than not. The shotgun is the most useful firearm, and that's just because it's used to remove a certain type of barrier and is more a traversal tool than a weapon.

The story is forgettable. Probably the weakest point of the game. Aiming is spotty, much like Uncharted it's not terribly accurate.

The biggest tech innovation in the game is Laura's hair. Which does look nice, but it supposedly takes a huge chunk of processing power to do it. The rest is nothing special. It doesn't look bad, and it does look great in 3D, which it does natively BTW, but it's not all that impressive visually speaking compared to a few other releases this year. It by no means looks bad, and can give a nice computer a bit of a workout, but it's not anything particularly amazing. Very much like Uncharted visually speaking and uses a lot of the same tricks and tech.

The camera isn't all that great either. It's not horrible. Don't get me wrong, but it's not an innovation in 3rd person gaming. It's about as good as any other modern 3rd person action game's camera.

It was a fun game, but I wouldn't say it's 'a game changer' or a particularly great model for the future of gaming. It's a very good example of modern gaming. Like I said, it was a lot of fun and I enjoyed playing through it. I was not, however, hugely impressed by it. It's a very paint by the numbers game that owes a lot to Uncharted [how ironic that is ^_^].

Get it on sale and you won't be disappointed. Not a lot of replay value, and it's not very long. Maybe a weekend of gaming for most. It's a fun fast paced game with lots of shooty elements. Laura kills many people and several endangered animals, and it's a good time for it's short runtime.

I do recommend it, but not at full price. Pick it up in a Steam sale or something. It's not hugely impressive, but does well enough to stay engaging and fun.

 

[Nomad8459]

I find myself agreeing with some of the points that you have raised, indeed your analysis was far more thorough than mine.

You were totally right about the bow, I enjoyed using the bow but only cause as you say it did a much better job of killing the baddies, the hunting thing, again you are right, not used again in the game.

Altogether I would say that this sets the scene for future releases, lets hope they expand on some of the good concepts and try to make the game at least twice as long, again two days gaming at most is right, however, I did find myself wanting to go back to it again and again.

I find with Skyrim and Oblivion, both are very slow starters, they take ages to develop and I have found myself completing those games over a long period of time, cause the grab factor is not there.

I would give Tomb Raider 7/8 out of 10 though cause it really is playable.