Tomb Raider Reloaded

Apropos of the franchise it portrays, when I dig below the currency-ridden surface of Tomb Raider Reloaded and see what's really on offer, there's fun to be had. Dungeon crawling with an increasingly powerful Lara Croft is a blast, while watching her continue to grow more powerful with each level up allows for experimentation with combat in a manner that few other mobile titles do. It's not perfect--microtransactions continue to be an annoying sticking point in the mobile realm--but Tomb Raider Reloaded does a good job of taking the undesirable parts and making room for what this game does incredibly well. Despite a few pitfalls, Tomb Raider Reloaded is worthy of the moniker it holds, with fun mix-and-match gameplay and an ever-changing challenge waiting to be excavated.

Tomb Raider Reloaded is a simple and fun product that can keep you entertained for a few hours. After that, the problems that distinguish most of these free to play productions begin to emerge. The flow of gameplay is abruptly interrupted upon completion of the third location, a moment in which an insurmountable barrier is revealed that requires hours and hours of grinding or the use of a credit card to be able to be circumvented. The title of Emerald City Games is also less generous than other of its more illustrious colleagues and the lack of mechanics such as the automatic completion of the levels makes progression even less easy. In short, it is a perfect experience for a game every now and then, but which in the long run shows all its limits.

Tomb Raider Reloaded has a lot of potential. Overall, it needs more focus on smoothing out the last of its gameplay issues and less on the progression hooks. Opening the app to that cluttered menu only reminded me that I can get the best parts of Reloaded elsewhere. The same goes for Lara herself.

Tomb Raider: Reloaded has much potential thanks to featuring a videogame legend, but janky controls that suffer from sluggishness and delays ensure it’s not a smooth experience.