Dave
The 2014 release of Tomb Raider is a gritty reboot of a popular game franchise that has become one of gaming’s biggest icons. Set on the remote Yamatai island you take on the role of Lara Croft as she tries to save her friends and escape to safety. Despite the simplistic framing the story is actually a detailed origins story about survival and Lara’s development in response to danger. I like the premise of what they were trying to achieve and think the series was in dire need of a reboot. Unfortunately, for me, the “Hollywood moments” and ludonarrative dissonance were prominent and my ability to suspend disbelief was constantly challenged. Fortunately the game had plenty of positives so I was able to garner plenty of enjoyment from the experience.
There are currently two versions of Tomb Raider available; the original release and a definitive edition. The definitive edition, released on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, features vastly improved visuals and a completely remodelled Lara. The core gameplay and story remains unchanged however so this will be a joint review covering both versions. Andrew played the definitive edition on PlayStation 4 whilst I played the original release on PC (albeit in December 2014).
Had you played the original before trying the definitive version Andrew? Or did you just jump straight into the latter?
Andrew
I’m quite a cynical person so when the new round of consoles was announced, I had an itching feeling that maybe, just maybe, Tomb Raider might get an ultra-HD upgrade. Low and behold, one of the first few games on both the PS4 and XBone was a new shiny version of Tomb Raider. And boy, what a great looking game.
I’ll get a little ahead of myself to start off with, but there’s a moment later in the game where Lara is climbing a radio tower and the camera moves above her, looking down as the wind blows. Snow hails around and her hair blows everywhere. It’s one of the most jaw droppingly beautiful moments in gaming that I’ve seen and showed the power of the new consoles wonderfully.
In fact, the whole game is full of great looking moments. But, just as my wife says about me, something that is good looking, doesn’t always mean it’s great. I know you had some issues with the gameplay, so I’ll let you begin with discussing the gameplay.
Dave
On the contrary, Tomb Raider’s gameplay was one of the big winners for me! Areas were relatively open and well designed with clear objectives and few to no frustrating dead ends. I really liked how levels were designed to accommodate differing play styles too. When engaging enemies you could use your bow or a silenced pistol for a stealthy approach or go in “guns blazing” to force them into cover. The feel of combat was surprisingly satisfactory as well. There were a decent range of weapons, each with their own pros and cons and the enemy AI was intelligent enough to make things interesting without making them impossibly hard. I especially liked how enemy behaviour varied depending on how you were playing. I remember one situation where I was picking off bad guys one by one with the bow until they realised where I was. They rushed me but I was out of shotgun ammo so I started dodging and stabbing them with arrows. After a few kills they all retreated to cover and started alternating fire. This sort of variation helped keep the combat interesting and unpredictable. My only complaint was that, when you “went loud”, every enemy in the area seemed to instantly know exactly where you were! Fire one pistol shot without a silencer and every enemy in the place would be rushing to engage.
When not slaughtering waves of baddies Lara enjoyed running, jumping and scaling things. For the most part this worked really well however there were a few instances where the game broke its own rules and allowed Lara to achieve something she normally couldn’t. This didn’t happen often but was confusing when it did as players use those rules/boundaries to help them ascertain when a jump is clearable or what items can be climbed. Again the level design played into this really well with most areas providing a fast route back to your target once a tricky sections had been navigated. The tower Andrew mentioned is a perfect example of this. Unfortunately Tomb Raider adopts the Uncharted trope of everything in the world is stupidly fragile. If you’re scaling a crashed plane you should expect it to fall into pieces as you climb, same for walkways on cliffs, handholds, ladders… everything. If something breaks as you climb it on occasion it makes me catch my breath; when it does it all the time I find it exasperating and annoying. I also find it disappointing as the scenery in Tomb Raider is so well presented you don’t need added incentive to give the nervous feeling as you precariously balancing at a height. Anyway, back to the radio tower. As you scale the tower it inevitably falls to pieces. At no point does Lara stop to think how she’ll get down when she reaches the top however, luckily, there is a zipline at the top that provides her a safe route down. It’s a great, basic game feature that many others forget although I still wish the tower hadn’t fallen to bits on the way up }:[
Andrew
I think the combat worked wonderfully. As you said, it had a great style of tailoring the levels to your own play style. I like this progression with games lately that have included these sorts of levels – I enjoyed the idea in Dishonored and found it a great, novel take on the FPS genre in Wolfenstein: The New Order, so was pleased to see something similar here with Tomb Raider.
Going into playing Tomb Raider, I was afraid that it would try and be too much like Uncharted – a series which, of course, takes a lot of its cues from the Tomb Raider series – and have subpar gun play. Fortunately, that’s not the case here. Shooting feels great and impactful. Finally, for me at least, shooting with a bow feels great. It’s usually a weapon I tend to avoid using in games simply because of my terrible grasp on physics in games and real life, but here it felt wonderful to use and if possible, I would use it as often as I could. The way that they include ‘upgrades’ for it as well is a smart use of environmental elements. You can set enemies or traps on fire by shooting an arrow through a hanging lantern. It’s a small thing, but I really enjoyed it compared to the usual weapon upgrade’s that games tend to have – the ‘I’ve found ten mongoose skins, so now I have the ability to have add the much needed mongoose camouflage that makes my aiming better’. It does have the silly ‘skill points’ upgrades that games like The Last of Us have where by some magical ability of finding trash in the world, you can upgrade your body to see where people are. That’s a trait I wish would stop being included in games.
As for the world breaking down around you, that didn’t bother me as much as it does in Uncharted. The island that Lara finds herself on is ravaged by storms constantly, so it makes sense that the world around here is fragile and could collapse at any time. The shanty towns and run down buildings add to the mood of the story. Part of what I love about the tower sequence is that, yes, Lara doesn’t give much thought to how she will get down from the tower because she is going to the top to turn it on for her friends. It’s a sacrifice she’s willing to make if she can’t get down from there which is great character building through gameplay. I was genuinely intrigued by the story and found her friends, and the characters she fights against to be interesting – albeit with one red herring, slightly forgettable at times. What were your thoughts on the story?
Dave
Overall the story, wasn’t too bad. It was a typical action adventure complete with all the plot markers you would expect to force Lara’s character to evolve. Aside from Lara I found the characters extremely predictable and forgettable yet they drove the story, allowing Lara to develop so, I suppose, they served their purpose. As mentioned at the outset my big issue with the story was the way it was told and the glaring conflicts between cutscenes and actions. Near the start of the game Lara makes her first kill and is, understandably, distraught. Games like Hotline Miami handle this extremely well allowing suitable time to pass before violence renewed but, for Lara, she almost immediately proceeds to kill waves of bad guys. This continues through the entire game with the actions of enemies and allies during gamplay directly conflicting with their behaviour during cutscenes. I know this is a common method, however, with Tomb Raider, it was so jarring I was unable to distance myself from it.
My distaste for Lara’s character was further enforced by the way she was voiced. Before proceeding I just want to say I thought Camilla Luddington did a fantastic job adding emotion and depth to Lara’s character. My problem with the voice acting was that it was so “breathy”. Lara is always out of breath. Be it at a campfire, in the middle of a chase or chatting with a friend she always sounded out of breath. This was particularly noticeable when speaking with other characters. While they talk normally Lara speaks as if she’s just finished a marathon. As with my “Hollywood moments” and “everything you climb breaking” gripes I wouldn’t have minded had they been used in moderation. A breathy voice can add significant depth to a character and show they’re loss of control during a pressing situation but, when used all the time, it loses its impact, especially when Lara is supposed to be gaining confidence as the game progresses.
Andrew
I found the voice acting great. I don’t recall any overly breathy voice acting though so can’t comment on that.
One small complaint I had was that the tombs were essentially optional rather than being part of the story. Most of the traversing of the environment is done is grand open areas, sadly missing the wonderfully inventive tombs. I loved these parts, but felt that they were too short and easily missed.
Wrapping up, I think this is a great step forward in revising an iconic character. The things that made Lara Croft a sex object are almost entirely gone, and what’s left is a strong female character which women and men can look up to. I do hope that there will be a revival in creating great female characters in an overly male character centric genre.
This is an enjoyable adventure game that I’m glad got a great reception at release. The upcoming sequel will hopefully build of the successes of the reboot and won’t stay as an XBone exclusive for too long.
Dave
I didn’t mind the tombs being optional as it added value for those who explored. That said I agree they were way too short and more like enclosed puzzle areas. I also agree that revising Lara’s character was a good move, however, I don’t feel her revival is necessarily something people should look up to. She has more redeemable qualities than her old version however she’s still an incredibly unrealistic action hero in a genre populated by other similar characters. I realise you’re referring more to an move towards equality in character design but, for me, I prefer more deep and realistic characters like we see in titles like Valiant Hearts or To The Moon. This is, of course, a personal preference as I feel we’re currently swamped superhuman characters who I find it hard to empathise with as their actions are so over the top and reactions unrealistic… says the guy who grew up loving Indiana Jones movies.
In conclusion I found Tomb Raider to be a great action adventure game. The mechanics are good and the game looks great only slightly let down by the overly dramatic story and “big Hollywood moments”.