It took a character who had nowhere to go and the only thing the developers could think of to make people care was to cash in increasingly on her sex appeal and gave her a personality and character arc. It made her feel like a relatable person instead of a mercenary-killing-treasure-stealing-tiger-shooting soulless action hero. It's a game about determination against the odds, about not being the hero because you were born like that, but because when you're tested you rise above the adversity and do what needs to be done for you and your friends.
And it took the franchise mediocre platforming combined with mediocre shooting, so irrelevant that the game that defined the evolution of the Tomb Raider playstyle came out over half a decade ago and finally caught up. In fact it improved it in significant and fun ways and if other games don't learn, those games will be left behind.
The combat is brutal and freeflowing, you don't stick to cover, but if you stand behind it, Lara naturally crouches under it's protection. You need to move around and use space. The weapons feel powerful and everything is dangerous but not frustrating. Enemies engage with you in a variety of ways, sometimes they ambush you, more often you sneak up on them and can pick them off stealthily, complete with distraction mechanics and enemies that are at various times in visibility range of others and then it can flow straight into combat. It's surprising how many ways certain set pieces can go. At one point a spotlight is flashing between guards. You can work out the timing and take out the guards in the periods of darkness, or you can shoot out the spotlight and they'll put it down to an electrical fault, or you can not care and charge.
This is seen in the general game structure to. It's linear but there are fairly big areas you can explore and fast travel back to to find collectables (of which the diaries and archaeological artefacts really enhance the story), but even in the corridors there are times where you can hop up a ledge or snake through a path. The little touches make the game feel less controlling. The locations are all beautiful and atmospheric
It's plenty flawed, but all the flaws are interesting and represent more complicated problems than those of more pedestrian games.
So much better
Tomb Raider 2013 achieves everything it needed to do.
It took a character who had nowhere to go and the only thing the developers could think of to make people care was to cash in increasingly on her sex appeal and gave her a personality and character arc. It made her feel like a relatable person instead of a mercenary-killing-treasure-stealing-tiger-shooting soulless action hero. It's a game about determination against the odds, about not being the hero because you were born like that, but because when you're tested you rise above the adversity and do what needs to be done for you and your friends.
And it took the franchise mediocre platforming combined with mediocre shooting, so irrelevant that the game that defined the evolution of the Tomb Raider playstyle came out over half a decade ago and finally caught up. In fact it improved it in significant and fun ways and if other games don't learn, those games will be left behind.
The combat is brutal and freeflowing, you don't stick to cover, but if you stand behind it, Lara naturally crouches under it's protection. You need to move around and use space. The weapons feel powerful and everything is dangerous but not frustrating. Enemies engage with you in a variety of ways, sometimes they ambush you, more often you sneak up on them and can pick them off stealthily, complete with distraction mechanics and enemies that are at various times in visibility range of others and then it can flow straight into combat. It's surprising how many ways certain set pieces can go. At one point a spotlight is flashing between guards. You can work out the timing and take out the guards in the periods of darkness, or you can shoot out the spotlight and they'll put it down to an electrical fault, or you can not care and charge.
This is seen in the general game structure to. It's linear but there are fairly big areas you can explore and fast travel back to to find collectables (of which the diaries and archaeological artefacts really enhance the story), but even in the corridors there are times where you can hop up a ledge or snake through a path. The little touches make the game feel less controlling. The locations are all beautiful and atmospheric
It's plenty flawed, but all the flaws are interesting and represent more complicated problems than those of more pedestrian games.