Almost exactly 10 years ago Tomb Raider series was meant to be “refreshed”. Add characters, make it more story-driven, include RPG elements and make it about Lara Croft learning to become Lara Croft (again). It was called Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness and it failed miserably. It became the last title from the original TR developers Core Design and the studio was closed soon after. And the main reason for the failure was brutally simple – the game was only about 60% finished on release and played horribly. Ten years later, the new development studio currently responsible for the series Crystal Dynamics (a studio I admire a lot) approached the “refresh” in a very similar way. Except, this time they had a chance to finish the game before releasing it. Happy birthday yet again, Lara.
Don’t think a lot will be surprised at what games were used as the inspiration for the game this time around. The classic Tomb Raider was in many ways the original Prince of Persia, but in 3D. And when that stopped being fun for the audience, especially when Prince of Persia itself evolved with Sands of Time, TR had to change. Uncharted started to outshine the series, so it was selected as the main inspiration. But luckily Crystal Dynamics did try hard to keep the feel of Tomb Raider even with the change of how the game works and feels.
Yes, there are lots of action packed scenes, lots of shooting and without the auto-aim, lots of context-sensitive actions and barely any complex platforming. You don’t enter the room and then analyze it to figure out how to move around it to solve the puzzle. You don’t even get a single key or an artifact to use. Pretty much everything about the original moveset has been changed. Even crouching is automatic and instead of a roll you get a “play the monkey” button which is meant to be the dodge. Yet, while Uncharted is a linear action adventure about characters and awesome scenes, Tomb Raider remains a game about jumping, mythology, cool looking locations and solving problems.
Action, like in all Tomb Raider games I suppose, is a really annoying thing every time it pops up. But the game managed to make it more or less alright and, at least, not obnoxious. It suffers from a lot of the problems its main influence has, but unlike Uncharted they are less noticeable, I suppose. Instead of sticky cover, for example, the game attempts to do context-sensitive cover usage, so every time enemies are around Lara goes into a half crouching position and uses any potential cover when she gets near it. It works surprisingly well and highlights the stealth mechanics, which are also a huge focus this time around. While it is actually fun to kill the enemies from behind or using a bow, the AI is often killing the fun of the process. The game lacks any sort of “suspicion” state for enemies and due to that they either don’t know you’re there or are aware of you and can see you through walls. Another Uncharted-reminiscent problem with combat is the fact that enemies multiply immensely when action ramps up. And they constantly switch between the “can’t hit anything” and “consistent bullseye” ways of shooting. Oh and of course there are grenade throwing enemies which exist solely so the players don’t sit in one cover for too long. It’s rarely as annoying as it gets in the last hours of Uncharted 2, but is walking the line way too often.
Exploring the world is on one hand much simplified compared to the older titles, yet on the other feels more varied and interesting. There are no difficult jumps in the game (you never even need to do the backwards jump and I’m not sure it’s even possible), lots of classic moves are missing, you never need to search for keys. Yet, the game world is designed similarly to Legend of Zelda or Metroid (though, since this is Crystal Dynamics we’re talking about, Legacy of Kain would be the example) – Lara is constantly finding and upgrading her equipment and weapons which unlocks new locations and makes re-exploring the already available locations more convenient. Plus, the game has the surprisingly often used recently concept of “intuition”, which highlights the interaction points in golden glow to help in detailed location. Though it’s only working when Lara is standing still (hello AC1 Eagle Vision). Due to this, all of the “puzzles” are usually incredibly basic and often lean into physics-based concepts, like “figure out how to light that thing on fire”. Which is not particularly tough or fun, yet at least tries to keep the game closer to its roots than if none of this was in the game. Also, since there are some light RPG elements, you’re additionally motivated to explore anyway.
There are no surprises with the characters and the story either. Tomb Raider was always about the gameplay and the characters and the story were there for the show. Not like those were consistently dreadful in older titles, or that they are dreadful in this entry, but the weird part is that this time around the story, for whatever reason, is heavily emphasized. And the game was even advertised based on the story. And the “realism”. Honestly, if the game did not take itself as seriously as it does, I could’ve easily ignored the story completely and it would’ve been fine. But because of how much emphasis there is in the game on these elements, it’s almost impossible to ignore just how stupid everything is. Oh no, Lara has been stabbed by a tree branch, that looks so serious and painful. So why is that there are no consequences to the fact that almost right after that she has to walk in deep mud or swim in the dirty water? Lara’s first kill (which was already attempted before, and much better, in TR: Anniversary) looks incredibly silly simply because after an emotional scene you’re asked to kill 3 more people and she doesn’t even care. This was bizarre to me, a person already familiar with the franchise and its idiosyncrasies. How about the new audience playing the game? I mean, this reboot was done specifically to get new audience, right?
I also encountered many annoying bugs which will be, hopefully, fixed later. Also, I heard that some players had serious stability issues with the game. Personally, I only had troubles with the Steam Big Picture which I decided to test. Pretty cool thing, by the way, even if unstable. Oh yeah, the game also has a multiplayer component for whatever reason and I’ve never launched it. Heard that it’s similar to Uncharted, so maybe there will be an audience for it. Though, PC players with keyboard and mouse might break the balance of the matches. Speaking of which – the kb+mouse controls are solid, though I’ve played mostly on the controller. QTEs might be a problem though, because they’re a problem on a controller as well. They’re terrible, by the way, and don’t make much sense. Game looks great, especially on PC. Sometimes weird, though. And the TessFX hair, while it does look good, it also looks weird. And the physics seem to affect only the ponytail part. Oh and they’re always pristinely clean and shiny.
I should also mention that the optional tombs are extremely tiny, some skills are useless and you can’t dive and swim in the game (which was always a really cool and important element of older TR games). Also, I decided to pre-order the game and got a bonus tomb, which is kinda crappy – these exclusives are not a very good thing. But that’s how the games work nowadays, i suppose.
I spent 2 days almost non-stop 100% the game and enjoying it a lot. But despite that, I really hope that the next Tomb Raider isn’t going to work like this. That this new take on Lara’s earlier years doesn’t change her future and it will stay similar to how we knew her from older games. Even if the plane crash was changed to a shipwreck. Because I feel like the old Lara, who has infinite ammo auto-aim handguns and complex platforming and puzzles still has a place on the market. But credit’s where it’s due – this new Lara did a really good job.