My personal review on Tomb Raider 2013

[Gazz-Salad]

I had written a review to this game for my own website. So I'll just format it for the forum for you guys to read.  I wont add all the fancy stuff I put in to it. I'll just copy the base review. 

 

 

I am simply in awe with this game. First and foremost. I have been a fan of the TR franchise ever since I was a little girl. I watched my dad play the originals, and I remember long afternoons of him playing while my mom sat and told him cheat codes and hints from player guides and the limited information the web could give us back in the 90′s. I’ve tried to sit and play the games and I have not finished one. I know what kind of fan am I? But I will one day conquer them all I promise. Anyway, the day I saw the Game informer cover, was the day I fell in love with this game reboot.

 

 

I kept up with every article and every interview that had to do with this game. I couldn’t have been more excited. Of course I ran out and bought the game when it came out. I do have a habit of starting a game then putting it down for months even years on end, but just recently I picked the game back up to finish it. Let me tell you, from the beginning cinematic to the final one. I loved every second of the game.

Lara’s personality in this game is definitely a reboot, because she isn’t the bad ass that we know. In fact she makes a comment in the game about how she hates tombs and was really dreading the idea of climbing extreme heights. And I like that about this game, this is a origin story, and it does exactly that. A novice explorer following her gut and theories ends up taking herself and the crew on a wild trip in to the “Dragon’s triangle” crashed on a beach, the team is separated and must get reunited.

The game features a level up system, you can upgrade each of your weapons and give Lara higher level skills, by the end of the game you do end up becoming OP but it doesn’t take anything away from the game play cause you still encounter enemies that require effort as well as choices between full on attacking or stealth killing through the areas. Then there are also reaction actions, they don’t clutter the game which I like as a nice balance.

I’m sorry that my thoughts seem scrambled there is just so much awesome about this game. I’ll do my best to make sense of it all.

 

So lets talk story. It can come off as your run of the mill treasure hunting plot but there is so much more to it once you dig in deeper. When I got to the half way point, everything was coming closer to being clear. I was amazed by how well it was written and made me eager to see the ending. The story makes you wish it was a book cause it could be classified as a page turner.

 

Now if you are like me and ran through the story only, you left a lot of things untouched. Which can be a great thing! It leaves extra content for you to complete, all the tombs and challenges will keep you busy for another day or two depending how OCD you can be. I plan to go back and finish everything that isn’t part of the Co-op part of the game. So TR has something for everyone to enjoy when playing the game, puzzles challenges, co-op, story. A lot a lot of stuff to do.

 

A final positive thought is the movie feel of the game. Seamless transitions between scenes and actually playing the game, take away indicators and sometimes you just can’t tell where a scene ends and game play starts. And I love that about the game, it doesn’t break my game immersion at all and I feel more connected to the game. I also love, love, LOVE how Lara changes as the game progresses.

You go from this

to this

And this is just splash art but its not far off from what she looks like in game and it only gets worse from there. But again the progression of her character design in on itself just amazing and I love it when the environment effects a character or vice verse.

And now a few things on the Con side, every good review has them.

The mechanics can be a little wonky at times, a few times I executed commands that I know where right and yet didn't seem to get recognized by the AI system. These were few and far between so it didn't make game play stutter all that much, but when the errors do happen they can make you rage. Trust me.

My other problem was plot choices, I feel they missed a great opportunity to introduce her signature duel pistols. I realize that this game being a reboot they wont reuse details from the original series. But still I would of liked to see her obtain them for you to use through out the story made more toward the end as a signal to “Lara is now emerging in to her bad assness” but that is just my opinion.

All things accounted for, Tomb Raider 2013 is a great reboot game. Crystal Dynamics did a fantastic job in making this game. I recommend it to everyone who has yet to play it, old fans or new fans. Try it out for yourselves, if you don’t like it that’s fine, and if you do even better!

so…

Plot/story – 8/10
AI and mechanics- 5/10
Replay?- Yes it has a lot of replay value
Worth release price?- Again yes, yes yes, this game is worth all the money.

Over all “Tomb Raider” gets 9 out of 10 stars from me.

[ThermoNukePanda]

Great review Gazz.  I played this on 360, but I'm kind of interested in picking it up on my PS4 when it releases and comes down in price a little bit just for all the fancy new effects and graphics.  Was a great game overall and a good reboot of the series.

[Gazz-Salad]

Great review Gazz.  I played this on 360, but I'm kind of interested in picking it up on my PS4 when it releases and comes down in price a little bit just for all the fancy new effects and graphics.  Was a great game overall and a good reboot of the series.

Thanks and yeah I had bought it for the 360, but never finished it bought it on Steam during the TR sale and finished it there. I cant wait to see the graphics update, but probably wont buy it if it doesn't have any new content aside from the visuals since its really just the same game.

[PeeKnuckle]

That was really nice, Gazz. Thank you for sharing your review with us! Please feel 100% comfortable sharing any reviews of yours in the future.

[Siren]

There was one thing for me that stood out in this game above and beyond the other Tomb Raiders; you actually care about what happens to her.  You got to watch her grow and see why she became that tough badass Lara Croft.  I really hope that they continue exploring her youth more.  I felt that it saved the series.

[vectordream]

Loved reading your review. This was one of my favorite games of 2013. Once I picked it up I could not put it down until I finished it. Siren is right, you actually care what happens. Everything in this game was well done. I would personally give it a 9/10 as well. I was shocked that it was so good.

 

The only thing I did not care for was the tacked on multiplayer. It was terrible! Devs still haven't learned, if your going to do multiplayer do it right or don't bother. It is perfectly ok for a game to be a single player experience. We don't need multiplayer on every game.

 

I was worried we may not get a sequel to this game because Square Enix said that the 4 million copies they sold were not enough and then layed off like 12 devs from Crystal Dynamics. I did some searching and it looks like we are getting a sequel!

 

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/439484/tomb-raider-sequel-charts-the-next-chapter-of-laras-development/

[Gazz-Salad]

Loved reading your review. This was one of my favorite games of 2013. Once I picked it up I could not put it down until I finished it. Siren is right, you actually care what happens. Everything in this game was well done. I would personally give it a 9/10 as well. I was shocked that it was so good.

 

The only thing I did not care for was the tacked on multiplayer. It was terrible! Devs still haven't learned, if your going to do multiplayer do it right or don't bother. It is perfectly ok for a game to be a single player experience. We don't need multiplayer on every game.

 

I was worried we may not get a sequel to this game because Square Enix said that the 4 million copies they sold were not enough and then layed off like 12 devs from Crystal Dynamics. I did some searching and it looks like we are getting a sequel!

 

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/439484/tomb-raider-sequel-charts-the-next-chapter-of-laras-development/

 

I personally didn't touch the multyplayer aspect of the game. I wanna go back and do a full clear of all the puzzles and tombs though I skipped it the first time playing, and that is awesome that there will be a sequel! I look forward to playing that as well!

[Dateranoth]

Thanks for sharing the review. I really enjoyed the game as well. Definitely an improve story, and an incredible reboot.  I raged a little at one point where I thought I was going to be wandering fetching crap all the time, but it turned out to be less of that in the game then it seemed at first.