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Of course, Tomb Raider isn’t exactly the same as Uncharted. The way it progresses is very different. It’s a bit of an open-world game, just not in the way you might hope. The cycle is pretty much get an objective, climb and maneuver to reach the marker, and shoot some dudes on the way. Enemies only appear when moving forward with the story, and they never respawn. This means that there are a set number of combat encounters in the game, and it’s just the right amount.
Combat moves well and has some good options. Lara starts with a bow and arrow but later finds a pistol, assault rifle, and shotgun. Each weapon feels tailored to the job it is meant to perform: The bow is good for stealth, the shotgun is great close up, and so on. My personal favorite is the bow; in fact, it’s one of my favorite implementations of a bow in any video game. It feels very different from the guns, requiring time to pull back an arrow and grab the next from the quiver. The complete silence of it also helped to sell me. I actually used only the bow for most of the game and had a great time slinking around and headshotting enemies. It’s a bit harder to use in active combat, but the challenge made it a more rewarding weapon to use well. Even if you hate the bow, the guns do their jobs well, too.
Melee is also part of the combat, but it isn’t that important. At first, Lara can’t do any melee attacks. As she finds new equipment, such as a climbing axe, she can unlock the ability to perform counter moves after a dodge or just straight-up chop at a guy’s body. This works OK for countering the enemies that run at you (of which there are several), but trying to approach and axe a guy with a gun is just going to get her killed. It’s a nice option to have, but it’s not necessary to finish the game. These kill animations also jar heavily with the tone. For someone who is squeamish about violence towards another human, Lara sure doesn’t mind shoving an arrow into someone’s throat. It’s a minor complaint, but this sort of thing adds to that dissonance I mentioned earlier.
The rest of the game has Lara exploring the island for collectibles or progressing to the next objective. If you’ve played an Uncharted game, you will understand how most of the climbing works. There are a few differences — mainly the climbing axe and its requirement of an active button push to jam into the wall — but overall it’s very similar. This means that climbing is also quite easy, requiring little in the way of timing or skill. Most of the paths are straightforward and involve you holding Up on the controller until she makes it. I would have liked to see a bit more challenge in this part of the game.
Wrapping all of this together is a light leveling system. Lara earns experience points from killing soldiers, finishing objectives, and finding collectibles. Every level earns her a point to spend on a small list of skills. These do things like highlight collectibles with her Survival Instincts (similar to detective vision from the Batman games) or enable her to hold the bowstring back longer. More of these open as the game progresses. None of these skills do anything too radical, but they make you feel like Lara is learning how to survive and adapt to her environment.
The biggest problem I had with Tomb Raider was the extremely high frequency of the Uncharted-like set-piece moments. These are scripted scenes with very little need for player control, usually just requiring you to hold the left stick forward and jumping on occasion. Several times, these scenes take place on collapsing bridges. While these moments are very flashy and well-realized, they are also extremely boring to play. They also bolster the dissonance of just how Lara can survive all this craziness. I don’t like scenes like these because they wrest most of the control away from the player. If I wanted to watch a movie, I would go and watch a movie. When I’m playing a game, I want control during most of the game. I wouldn’t be so irritated if these parts were infrequent, but they happen all the time — almost more so than the Uncharted games!
It’s a breathtaking game, though, particularly on the PC (the platform I played it on). You traverse through some beautiful environments and see some gorgeous vistas, especially when transitioning to a new zone. My particular favorite scenes are ones where a high level of wind is blowing around the area you are traveling through. Shutters clap, Lara’s hair flutters with the wind, and she puts up a hand and steels herself against the gale. It’s quite impressive. Tomb Raider even does the Batman trick of having her outfit get worn down over the course of the game — shredded and covered in blood. It really helps remind you how much she has been through.
Crystal Dynamics spent a long time with this reboot, but it clearly made a difference for the final product. Tomb Raider is a game that takes Lara Croft and her fans in an entirely new direction, one that some may not like. While witnessing the rebirth of such a beloved video game heroine is interesting, the gameplay could still use a little refinement in order to find a style that is more unique. The tone of the game doesn’t always quite line up with what I think Crystal Dynamics intended, but it gets the point across of trying to humanize the character in a way that hasn’t been done before. We don’t know where Lara is going next, but thanks to the strength of this first outing, I’m excited to find out.