Tomb Raider (2013)

Well... where to start? I have always been a big fan of the Tomb Raider series. In fact, some of my earliest and fondest childhood memories are of me just watching my dad play the games on the PS1. It was true father son bonding where he would play and I would be the back seat driver and tell him what to do (good times). Over the years, however my dad stopped playing the games and the imaginary torch as it were was passed down to me to continue playing the series. Unfortunately, the games started to get worse and worse as the developers tried to keep up with popular games and included gimmicky features such as RPG elements in perhaps Lara's worst title 'Angel of Darkness' where opening cupboard doors increased her strength... Yea, that was a thing...

Anyways, back to modern day. The new Tomb Raider had been released and the only reason I decided to buy it was because I managed to get it at a super good deal. Was it worth it? HELL YES! The brand new Tomb Raider is not only an amazing action packed thrill ride, but it is also an emotional journey and an gaming experience that I haven't encountered when playing a game for many years. Thus it made me feel ashamed as I thought it was only going to be an Uncharted rip off. Does it have its problems? Sure! Any game does. But if you read on you can find out my verdict on what I thought of Lara's new adventure.

First of all, if your not a fan of blood and gore then this game may not be for you as even though every Lara game has said that it's trying to be 'dark', this new entry is perhaps one of the darkest and sometimes messed up games I have ever played, and I've played the Deadspace series. I can't talk too much about it without going into spoilers, but just expect A LOT of dead bodies and blood.

Lara Croft is represented in this new entry in the series as a 21-22 year old who finds herself ship wrecked on a desert island. Alone, scared and wounded she must overcome her new and daunting environment whilst learning the skills to do so. Now whereas the opening was a little too fast paced for my liking I felt it did slow down enough in order to tell the story when necessary.

The island and the rest of its environments feels realistic and inhabited whilst providing a whole variety of unique and jaw dropping sights. Nearly all the locations you see will be explored eventually, and providing you don't use the fast travel system you will not encounter any loading times which is great as it doesn't break the immersion or flow of the game.

Sadly being a huge fan of story and characters in games I felt that these areas were the weakest. Don't get me wrong! I didn't think any of the characters were bad and I thought the story for the setting and genre suited the scenarios (although taking A LOT of elements from Lost). But, the characters just don't get the characterisation needed to make them fully fleshed out. Lara definitely does! But she's the main character and therefore the story should be her own. Instead she also knows a good handful of fellow survivors from her ship who are sadly one note. If anything there were far too many of them and the cast could have easily been cut in half, if not in quarters! This is a shame as; at the start of the game Lara uses a camera to watch previously filmed footage of life on board the ship including the others thus showing their personalities and relationships with one another naturally through a documentary. However, this is only done once which is a huge shame as I was loving this method of storytelling since it was the fuel Lara needed to keep her going. Had this occurred more often later in the game I perhaps would have cared for the other characters more. Perhaps the developers initially intended to do this, but didn't as it got in the way of the game's flow? I don't know, but since the only other method of finding out their motivations and thoughts is through journals that you can potentially miss you can get left in the dark when a character reacts in a way you would only recognise had you read their journal.

Gameplay is thrilling and full of so many set piece moments that just get bigger and bigger. Just as you think the last one will be the last, BOOM! another one hits you from out of nowhere and the adrenalin comes flooding back. Fighting in the game is also great as you can upgrade and use weapons that sound appropriately loud and powerful (even the shotgun for once), and using the bow for pin point deadly accuracy like Legolas from The Lord of the Rings is SO satisfying, especially when you silently take out an entire squad this way. HECK! even just exploring the island is great as not only do you uncover its secrets and find new equipment, but from back tracking you earn a sense of exploration and discovery since new areas of the island will open up depending on the events that occur e.g. fire or an explosion in the last scene may open up a new area somewhere else. I highly recommend, however that you try and find as many of the Island's secrets before the final fight as freely exploring the island at the end gives you no opposition! Thus if you fancy going Rambo style by using any of those  lovely new exploding tip arrows on foes at the end of the game you will be sadly disappointed to find none!

Going back to Lara, she is played by newcomer Camilla Luddington who is not only British as the character should be, but she is also a wonderful actress who is able to shed tears to order, thus making us believe in Lara's pain and torment and making the character more compelling and human. I was always a fan of the past ass kicker, but I have to say I prefer this new version of her since she's now a more believable person and one you invest in emotionally, rather than staring at her for eye candy. However, even though her first kill is out of self-defence and she feels physically sick afterwards, the player will end up having to kill a good hundred plus enemies in the game, thus making the transition from innocent to predator almost instant. Still, Tomb Raider is a video game and therefore the fact that you kill is a part of the medium and what many players expect to be doing. Had it been realistically paced some players may have gotten bored. Besides, she does at times try to reason with her attackers so there is a bit of balance.

Even though I love the single player I sadly can't give the same praise to the multiplayer since unlike Uncharted’s multiplayer, where the action is fast paced, chaotic and yet still works, Tomb Raider's multiplayer is slow paced since the controls seem sluggish for some reason and there are only 8 players in rather large maps. Therefore most of the fight is spent just trying to find the opposition. It was good that they wanted to include this feature, but overall it just feels tagged on. Therefore, don't expect much out of it and just enjoy the story. If you want a better similar multiplayer experience then check out Uncharted's.

Overall if you haven't realised already you need to buy this game! Lara is a great character and the gameplay feels exciting and action packed.

Although it may only be early days in 2013, I feel that this will be one of my top 10 games for this year.