Tomb Raider- Review

"A survivor is born."

Sometimes starting an entire continuity over from the beginning is just what a series needs in order for it to become fresh and relevant again in the eyes of consumers. A reboot can allow creators to take a franchise in a different direction it may not have been able to go before, unlocking potential for new interpretations, or even for creators to bring the story closer to its original concept. Regardless of exactly what happens, reboots have been proven to help properties in need numerous times, and have their place in the entertainment world at large.

Other times, retelling a story can feel unjustified, if not outright unnecessary. It can be immensely frustrating for long-time fans to see years of plot and character development swept away simply because new creators want to "re-envision" everything. The very soul of a franchise can end up being compromised if the reboot is not handled carefully, or with the proper amount of respect for what has come before it.

One of videogaming's latest reboots to hit the market comes in the form of Tomb Raider. An action/adventure game meant as a new interpretation/origin story for legendary videogame icon Lara Croft. Incidentally, this isn't the first time that the Tomb Raider mythology has undergone a significant re-imagining. When Crystal Dynamics first took over development for the franchise in 2006, they rebooted the series with Tomb Raider: Legend. It too attempted tell the tale of Lara's origins, and was followed by two direct sequels. While I personally don't think there was anything wrong with that previous incarnation (or even the original version of Lara for that matter) I will concede that the Tomb Raider franchise desperately needed to be reinvigorated for modern gaming audiences.

Thankfully, Crystal Dynamic's latest vision of the property got more right than it got wrong. What they've managed to create was a relatively solid first installment that (for the most part) entertained me from start to finish. I would be remiss if I didn't say that would enjoy seeing this game get a proper sequel. Sadly it was also a game marred by technical flaws, some sub-par writing, and an unsatisfying climax. There was a ton of great ideas and potential here, which has made Tomb Raider a bit of a hard one for me to judge. I can tell that the developer's hearts were in the right place when they made this. There was a lot of passion evident throughout the game's duration (and that counts for a lot in my books) but its personal failings held it back from being the great game I can see it was so earnestly trying to be. Perhaps if it would have undergone another layer of polish or further development I might have had different feelings about it.

"Adventure found me..."

Our game begins with a much younger, more inexperienced Lara Croft heading out on what is to be her first expedition. Her father (a once famous explorer) has been dead for sometime, and like him, Lara wishes to make her mark on the world as well. She and her crew of fellow researchers are documenting their voyage to find the lost island of Yamatai. Legend says that the island was once home to a Sun Goddess, and is hidden in an area off the coast of Japan, known as the Dragon's Triangle. The adventurers find themselves caught up in an incredibly violent storm the moment they enter the Triangle's waters, destroying their ship and splitting the crew. Lara washes ashore at an unknown location where she is immediately attacked, captured, and separated from her friends by mysterious assailants. Finding herself alone and in mortal danger, Lara is armed only with her wits to survive. Managing to barely escape her captors, Lara realizes that she is actually on Yamatai. With no time to spare Lara sets out to search for her missing companions, as well as solve the island's many mysteries.

Since its beginnings as a franchise Tomb Raider has taken its inspiration from pulp hero/adventure stories, with its feet firmly planted in the supernatural element. While I would never have considered the series the epitome of storytelling in videogames, each installment was usually very fun and didn't require a lot of investment to enjoy. Such things as demons, monsters, and gods all played a role in the sort of adversaries Lara would have to constantly contend with. Having leeway granted from working with the supernatural, designers had the means to be really creative with enemy types, puzzles/environments, or boss battles the player faced. Thankfully the reboot did manage to maintain a supernatural core to it, but it also attempted to bring everything down to a more grounded sense of reality. While this wasn't exactly a bad thing, it did make some of the more fun and iconic elements of the franchise feel reduced, if not lost in some spots.

The more realistic approach to the narrative made for some rather noticeable plot holes throughout the experience. Granted only one or two of them I felt were large, but they didn't exactly hit me as deal breakers either; more like head-scratchers. As an example, the main villain met Lara early on, and had a clear opportunity to kill her, yet didn't. He is a ruthless cult leader who has killed anyone who ever got in the way of his plans, and yet Lara didn't become another one of his victims. Because of that she then became a thorn in his side for the rest of the game. Upon reflection, if he had just taken her out then, he would have been able to go about his plans unopposed. It didn't make sense to me that he would leave her alive, but then again, I guess there wouldn't have been much of a game if he would have simply killed her.

"The extraordinary is in what we do. Not who we are."

Don't get me wrong, I have absolutely no problems with more realistic stories; in fact I rather enjoy them. When you want to do things in a more realistic fashion though, you have to make sure that those things match up/make sense. Otherwise you risk falling into an uncanny valley effect every time artifice or contrivances are spotted in your work. I understand full well that some concessions to realism have to be made (as this is a videogame) but there were times I felt my willing suspension of disbelief was somewhat challenged. I also truly understand the vision the creators had for the game, and the type of sensations they were going for. The adventure is enjoyable, and highly cinematic when the need arises, but some moments just didn't gel. Certain scenes didn't quite link up with the gameplay, or were lacking in a sense of reasonable logic. I think if Tomb Raider had undergone another revision or two on its slightly sub-par script it might have come off as being more solid to me. Overall I'd say that Tomb Raider's story was an appropriately fun one that I felt was definitely worthy of a sequel regardless of its flaws.

The big question pretty much everyone was asking coming into this reboot was "Did they get Lara's character right?"  and in my opinion, they did. Lara is easy to relate to in this installment, more so than she has probably ever been. Mind you, she is still the beautiful/highly intelligent women we've always known, but now we get to see her in a more vulnerable/human way. I found myself really caring for Lara as she was pushed further and further to a breaking point, and by the time the credits rolled Lara was very different than how she began. Her once gentle (and even somewhat shy) demeanor changed to a more hard bitten survivalist mindset akin to the Lara of old. It all feels natural in its progression, with her first time having to kill someone to survive particularly sticking out to me. I never felt like I wasn't allowed to take in all that Lara was feeling through her journey. Her doubts, fears, and even her rage are all appropriately conveyed, with me rooting for her from start to finish.

Sadly the same can not be said about the supporting cast. Most of Lara's ship mates (and even the main villain) come off as nothing more than two-dimensional archetypes that are devoid of any distinct personality. We've seen these character types over a thousand times before, and it really does bring down the mood of the game. All too often while I was playing I found myself wondering why I should care about certain members of the crew. Beyond some journal entries (that you have to go out of your way to find) you don't really get to experience much of what makes the rest of the cast tick, and what we do get is really just not all that interesting. That is not to say that they're bad characters, they are just unmemorable. Although they do get the occasional good moment, they are just that, moments.

"After all, you're a Croft."

Gameplay is where Tomb Raider starts to become even more of a mixed bag. Opting for a play style akin to that of more modern cover shooters, Lara utilizes a combination of cover from the environment and melee maneuvers for the combat situations. The core aspects of the mechanics are fine, but there were times I felt the game was giving me conflicting messages. There was a clear emphasis put on the use of cover during combat, yet enemies aggressively charged Lara, constantly forcing her out of cover. Worse yet they would even throw Molotov cocktails at her, causing a good deal of damage, and opening the player up for life ending attacks. I can't even begin to count how many times I found myself having to run all over the map simply because the enemy A.I. seemingly had no tactic but to rush me.

There was also an emphasis on being able to address certain situations multiple ways, yet they almost always devolved into outright gun battles. For instance, stealth tactics was something that the game supported, but didn't really seem to want to have the player use. Several times I tried utilizing stealth, only to have the opposition somehow impossibly spot me, thus ruining my chances for subverting the usual bullet blitz. Gone are the days of Lara's more acrobatic maneuvers for combat as well. Instead we are given a scramble/dodge button that at times wasn't all that effective. Quite often I found that using scramble actually got myself killed a lot quicker than just running about the map, doing my best to avoid enemy fire.

It didn't help that the game was also plagued with numerous bugs and glitches. On at least eight separate occasions I ended up having to restart the game simply because something glitched. Be it an element of the game not loading/registering, or Lara clipping through a wall and getting stuck etc. etc. I found myself resetting this game far more than I should have, which honestly I shouldn't have to do at all. Granted, some of the bugs did bring a smile to my face, such as an enemy that was registered as being on the map, but was simply invisible. I don't know what happened, but apparently the game didn't render him visually, so I found myself stuck in an area with an invisible opponent. Armed only with my wits and an AK 47, I felt like I was suddenly on the set of the movie Predator. Another time during a major battle, the enemy A.I. glitched, and ended up going into a T-pose in the middle of combat. The lack of polish on the core gameplay was very evident throughout the experience, and sadly it did throw me out of the game's immersion by a good deal. Again, if Tomb Raider had simply undergone better refinement this wouldn't have been an issue.

Some points in the game are legitimately pulse poundingly good!

A severe lack of any significant boss battles also brought the game down somewhat. In previous installments Lara would be faced with plenty of unique boss encounters. Going up against the likes of a Nordic demon, or a colossal T-Rex were fun, iconic, and gratifying challenges. With the final boss battles being some of the most fun those games could offer. Here we didn't even really get a final boss battle. Instead the game opted to have Lara go through a gauntlet of enemies that she'd already faced, and then a quick time event that very anti-climatically wrapped things up. While I don't exactly have any major problems with quick time events being used in games, I will admit that Tomb Raider did tend to abuse them a bit. They mostly came off as being arbitrarily placed into the game, and by having the climax just be another one felt outright lazy. After going through all the game's challenges only to have the final encounter be resolved by tapping L1 and R1 in rapid succession, I can honestly say it just didn't cut it for me.   

Thankfully there are plenty of redeeming features to the gameplay. The island of Yamatai is quite large and open to a lot of fun exploration. A very convenient quick travel ability allows for players to go back and forth to any area that they've previously visited. I can't even begin to describe how handy this feature is, as it saves time on a lot of running around. Base camps that Lara finds as the game progresses act as the game's save points, quick travel locations, and where Lara can upgrade her arsenal. Upgrading the weapons is pretty fun and gratifying, with the materials required to do said upgrades being easy enough to come by. Seeing the weapons reflect those upgrades is also a very cool touch that only adds the atmosphere. Experience points also play a factor in making Lara more efficient in combat/exploration, with experience being rewarded to the player often. The abilities that unlock are entertaining to look at, and fairly effective.

Traversing the island is also a lot of fun, with the game taking a page out of the Metroid series for exploration. Certain areas that you find early on cannot be accessed with the equipment you have at that time. So you'll find yourself coming back to previous areas with your new tools and abilities, just to uncover all of the game's little hidden secrets. Areas on the map are fairly diverse, with plenty of unique terrain and obstacles for the player to overcome. Optional tombs that you can explore provide a nice extra challenge for those who like puzzles, but they are sadly relatively small and easily solved. Still, just the act of having them in the game does show that Crystal Dynamics hasn't forgotten the franchise's roots. Tomb Raider definitely has some longevity to it too, with a new game plus unlocking once the game is completed the first time. Tragically the online mulitplayer mode is superfluous and in many ways the very definition of something being "tacked on" to say the least. It isn't exactly bad, but there are only a select few modes of play, and not much variety in play styles. Lacking things like a cooperative campaign mode, or even just more interesting versus modes for that matter, makes everything just feel rushed and lazy. In the end, multiplayer simply feels dull. Online lobbies were practically ghost towns whenever I went to log on, so frankly I see there being little reason for anyone to really even attempt to play it.

Tomb Raider certainly has a solid art direction.

Graphically speaking, Tomb Raider isn't the most impressive game on the market. With games like Uncharted 3 or Crysis 3 being around, Tomb Raider can leave a little to be desired by today's standards. While it is certainly far from being the worst looking game, it does lack the polish that other recent titles have had. Like I said before with the bugs, there are plenty of times clipping errors occur, or a texture doesn't fully render. Polygons and textures don't count for everything though, and where Tomb Raider really shines is in its art direction. The use of Japanese mythology is incredibly well handled, with accurate architecture abound, as well as tiny elements that allude to the game's story hidden within its walls. As a fan of more muted color pallets, I really enjoyed seeing the saturated landscape of Yamatai. Everything looks and feels appropriately ancient, decayed, and forgotten. Enemy forces wear kludged together suits of armor that were clearly made from salvage; while Lara becomes more and more worn and beaten the further she travels into the island. These elements coalesce into some pretty good immersion on a visual scale, and help save what would otherwise be a pretty average looking game.

The same can also be said for the most part on the audio. The sound effects of the bullets as they fly, or buildings burning down all sound great. Some of the game's more notable set pieces were definitely on a Hollywood caliber when it came to making things sound like they had major impact. Voice acting is top-notch too, with Camilla Luddington's performance as Lara being the standout role. It was imperative to this game's success that Lara's character be done right, and thankfully Camilla brings a lot of emotion to Lara's personality. All of her major scenes ring true with an excellently conveyed wide range of emotions. Even with the sub-par supporting cast, all the actors do great with the roles they have. I never found myself feeling that a character's voice was miscast, or that an actor phoned in their performance. Sadly though, the musical score does suffer a bit. Barring the main theme, I can't really say any of the music was all that memorable. It gets the job done sure, but much like the secondary characters, it lacks that sense of leaving a lasting impression.

Overall I can honestly say that the Tomb Raider reboot is pretty good. It's not the best game out there on the market, but even with its flaws I feel that this game gets more right than it gets wrong. I know I've said it a million times throughout this review, but had this game just undergone some more refinement, had more time in development, I think we may have gotten a great game instead of just a good game. Regardless, I do wish to see this new version of the franchise thrive, and hopefully it will get its proper sequel. Everything has got to start somewhere, and Lara's rebirth here certainly marks the start of something good.

(The Playstation 3 version of Tomb Raider was used for this review. Completion of the initial playthrough was 12hrs. 41 mins.)

Positive Factors

• Reboot helps to make the Tomb Raider franchise relevant again.
• Great sense of Hollywood scale action set pieces.
• New interpretation of Lara's character is refreshing, with a strong emotional core to her story.
• Exploration of the game's setting is fun, with plenty of reason to keep coming back to the single player campaign.
• Solid art design the whole way through, complimented by some fairly good graphics.
• Great voice work from the cast.

Negative Factors

• Sub-par writing on the story and secondary characters. Gameplay and story don't always mix. 
• Glitches and bugs spoil the immersion, or even break the game.
• Lack of any real boss battles/final boss battle makes for an anti-climax.
• Forgettable musical score.
• Tacked on multiplayer mode.  

Final Rating: Splenderiffic! (But just barely)