1. kakashi_anko

   10

   One of the few games this year that I thoroughly enjoyed playing, especially with the taut storytelling of Lara's origin story by Developer Crystal Dynamics that had me rooting for Lara every step of her way. In addition to the story, the gameplay was fantastic too, very tight and responsive controls in movement (climbing axe was awesome) and while in battle (shooting with the bow and arrows was great fun). As an Uncharted fan, I was impressed with the gorgeous majestic cinematic sequences, they were exciting and one scene near the end to me topped Uncharted, and I'm an Uncharted fan to boot. The single drawback to me was the multiplayer, it's just not as fun. I would have preferred if they had a longer single solo playthrough instead of the weak multiplayer. Highly recommended, and keeping my fingers crossed for a sequel! More of the excellent new Lara Croft, please.… Expand

   • Helpful? 1 of 1 users said Yes.
2. wesker2012

   8

   This is a great reboot for the Tomb Raider Franchise. I rate it a high 8. Everything in the game is well done. The island is very atmospheric with its awesome weather effects. The controls are solid. Tomb raider takes pretty much something from every triple A franchise before it and implements it into its own design just as well as those franchises did. There's stealth elements that feel like your playing a Splinter Cell game, combat and climbing that feels like Uncharted, bonfires from Dark Souls, brutal kills from Gears of War, etc. Everything is incorporated brilliantly while allowing Tomb Raider to still feel like its own game. The game starts off like the typical action adventure that you have played countless other times, but as you progress further and further into the game, the adventure starts opening up and throwing more variety and twists and turns at you. The game gets better and better as you move further into the adventure. An interesting note to make is that in relation to previous Tomb Raider games, this one is a lot more combat/action oriented than puzzle solving. This helps keep the games pace up, but old fans might be disappointed. The tombs are nowhere as cool as Uncharted's, but still a nice break from all the action. Also, finding the collectibles in the game adds a nice bit of challenge and reward for exploration. The reason, it doesn't get a 9 from me is that it never really does anything totally new or had me saying holy that was awesome! For every cool moment, there usually would be countless annoying deaths that followed which would mess up the feeling of excitement. And that's another big con for the game, there will be parts in this game that will piss the out of you, you will want to hurl your controller at the screen. The game starts off relatively easy to moderately easy but near the end gets annoyingly difficult and sometimes it's difficult to tell where to go or Lara just won't do what you want her to do. But overall, it's a huge accomplishment that the game is able to implement so many different features into its design so well for the first time and I'm looking forward to see what Crystal Dynamics can do with the next game.… Expand

   • Helpful? 11 of 22 users said Yes.
3. thegreatsage

   6

   I just finished Tomb Raider and felt like I had to write something about the game as I feel I disagree with a lot of the gaming websites positive reviews. My experience was really all over the place with Tomb Raider, I felt the game had little to no identity of its own. Tomb Raider is like playing Uncharted, Assassins Creed & Arkham City all in one. The game play itself is nothing new although there can still be a few fun moments in this game. Raking up head shots with the bow and arrow was a highlight, I used this for the majority of the game and found some of the other weapon options fairly pointless until very late in the game. Being a big fan of the both Tomb Raider and the Uncharted series I was really excited for the release of this game and it was disappointing that for the majority of the game I felt like I just wanted it to be over. Unfortunately they made Lara a whining cry baby who moans and makes painful noises when you do basically about anything in this game, apparently this is to show her emotional side and her struggle but instead just gets really annoying. Tomb Raider has a dull story line filled with unmemorable characters who add no substance to the experience what so ever. The majority of the characters are only introduced to you for a few seconds leaving you with no attachment or understanding of their characters at all. So when one dies, you seriously couldn't care less. Another thing that irritated me with this game is Lara’s face… It may as well have had no eyes or mouth on it at all, it remains plain and expressionless for the entire game and any close ups leave you wondering why they didn't put more detail into the main character.
   
   It may sound like it but I didn't really have that bad a time with this game, I just wish they had put more emphasis on the storyline, It just left me feeling like I wasn't doing anything with purpose in the game and instead was just jumping around from ledge to ledge picking up bits of wood to upgrade my weapons. If you are however into picking up lots of useless stuff in games, this one is for you. The tomb puzzles were fun but could have been a bit more complicated and longer.
   
   Again I just felt like the game was lacking its own identity, I can see how people would enjoy this game but it just wasn't for me. If you can borrow it over buying, I’d go for that option.… Expand

   • Helpful? 5 of 7 users said Yes.
4. JackOfAllGames

   2

   Tomb Raider has come a long way, and for better or worse I can say I've been with it almost all of the way, having bought every main console game since the first one on release day. Very few people can claim to have been looking forward to this game as much as I was, especially having to look at it every day but being unable to play due to a busy work and school schedule. Unfortunately, as I had suspected the game is a giant disappointment, not only as a Tomb Raider game, but as a game in general. With today's technology they had the potential to do something truly great, something amazing. Instead, they saw an opportunity capitalize by making an uncharted game and branding it with Tomb Raider and a Lara Croft skin for a few extra sales. It's sad seeing the series decline to this, sure Angel of Darkness was bad but at the very least that game can say it's its own game, this on the other hand can't even claim that. What once had been greatness has been thrown out the window in favor of creating what must have been a desire to compile every tired, overdone, unwelcome, noob friendly trend of modern gaming they could possibly pull out of the last couple years. You name it Tomb Raider 2013 has it, regenerating health, strong focus on cover based shooting mechanics, quick time events, linearity, over the top set pieces, unnecessary catering to nongamers, ect the list goes on. The game also seems very forgetful and insecure with the very entertainment medium in which it is a part of. For a video game, you spend an awful lot of time watching cutscenes, doing/repeating poorly implemented quick time events, dealing with other scripted events, and an underwhelming amount of time being in control of the character of this so called "video game". It doesn't say much for the game that I died tons of times due to stupidly done QTEs and not once during the actual gameplay. The time in which you do actually spend in control playing the game treats you as if you've never played a video game before in your life. The gameplay is paint by the numbers, in some cases literally stopping and telling you exactly what button you need to press and when to press it, the game is even so insecure with itself as to incorporate what amounts to an "instawin" button just incase you happen to be braindead or sleeping and get stuck on any of the simplistic puzzles or lost in the 80% of a line map. Is this what gaming has come to? At this point we're literally regressing back to the days of Sega CD and FMV games, because that's exactly what this game feels like, an FMV game. With the depth of gameplay and complexity of platforming and vastness of levels the original game had 17 years ago, there is absolutely NO excuse for this game to have inferior gameplay, absolutely no excuse, IDC how low standards are today. I remember the original games invoking feelings of excitement and terror, prompting you to hold down that X button extra strong because you were shimmying over an enormous void and one slip would send you plunging down to the ground in a cringe-worthy "crunch" sound. This game has none of that, anything cool that could have been done is done through quick time events instead of gameplay. Seeing all the praise this game gets makes me genuinely worry about where games are heading. Plotting an imaginary line of gameplay regression over the past few years would have believe we'll soon all be playing on the next gen playstation CD.… Expand

   • Helpful? 4 of 5 users said Yes.

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