Lights, Camera, Action
Tomb Raider is a very "cinematic" game, so much so that it often feels more like an interactive movie than a traditional game. When you're not exploring or fighting (both of which I'll come to later) you're being carried from one long set piece to another. Early in the game the player's role in these sections is often reduced to performing QTEs, or sometimes even just pushing "up" on the left analogue stick, but after some time (perhaps a little too much time) the controls do open up. From that point on the set pieces generally involve the player having full control of Lara as she runs, jumps and climbs her way along predetermined paths through environments that are in a state of rapid change. Think burning and/or collapsing buildings, crumbling ruins, and so on. I'm not generally a fan of this type of gameplay, but that may be because I've never seen it done as well as this. These are seriously lengthy set pieces and the sheer amount of love, talent, time and money that seems to have been lavished on them (and indeed whole game) consistently impresses. I'm a cynical and jaded 36 year old gamer, and yet I often found myself swept up in the moment.
This was in part thanks to the the story being told well enough to get me invested. The plot is by no means original, and the supporting characters are all well-worn stereotypes, but the execution is nearly flawless. Lara always has good reasons to up her game one more level and take the next step in her journey. The non-interactive cutscenes are frequent and well paced, and seem totally unconcerned with the needs of ADHD players. It's a refreshing change from AAA games that treat the story-hungry player like a dog who must be thrown scraps once in a while to stop him dying of starvation. The writing and voice acting are mostly great, though both suffer from the occasional mis-step (I literally cringed a couple of times).
Many reviews have complained of narrative dissonance supposedly caused by Lara's sudden transformation into a headshot master after she first gets a gun. I really have to pick this bone. I don't remember anyone complaining when "physicist" Gordon Freeman first picked up a crowbar and single-handedly defeated an alien invasion. And nobody complained when "engineer" Isaac Clarke first picked up a plasma cutter and single-handedly took care of a necromorph outbreak. Over-capable protagonists are par for the course. Let's not forget that this is not a period drama. It's a videogame, and a superhero origin story, and Lara's metamorphosis (in terms of both gameplay and narrative) is slow and gradual by the standards of both. There are a great many abilities that unlock over time, and even Lara's basic controls get better as the game progresses; she begins to run/climb/fight faster and more fluidly over time. It happens so slowly you might not consciously notice it, but that doesn't negate its effect. It's like a subliminal cinema advertisement: you don't know it's there, but it's working its magic nonetheless. I'm not sure why Tomb Raider has to deal with this double standard, but it annoys because I feel that the gaming press have allowed it to overshadow one of the game's greatest strengths: Lara's character development. Yes, I said character development. This game has it! I know right?
Catch Me If You Can
You will kill a lot of dudes. And it's rather good fun, especially late in the game when Lara is in full-on badass mode and has unlocked most of her combat skills. The larger fights (which start happening about half-way into the story) typically have several scripted stages to them and maintain that same cinematic feel as the rest of the game, but there is just enough player agency and more than enough mayhem to keep things interesting. Enemies will flush, flank, and other things starting with "fl", which is a problem for Lara because she is not human tank wearing a nanosuit wrapped in a mass effect field. And so, naturally, her agility becomes her defining combat trait. Hitting B makes Lara duck and scramble, which makes her harder to hit with gunfire. Hitting B mid-scramble makes her roll, allowing her to get to cover quickly. Hitting B when an enemy tries to hit you with a melee weapon makes Lara dodge the strike (and allows a variety of counter attacks depending which skills are unlocked). Basically you'll be hitting B a lot, but never mashing it - the timing does matter. Lara's combat acrobatics start out as frantic attempts to stay alive but become increasingly empowering and deliberate as the game progresses. This is due partly to the unlocking of skills and partly the marriage of Lara's own character progression with encounters that are cleverly designed to emphasise it. At the start of the game you're running. By the end you're assaulting.
Stealth, Not
Early in the game Tomb Raider proudly shows the player its stealth mechanics... and then promptly forgets that it has them. I hate that. I hate it when a game pretends to have stealth options and then... doesn't. Lara learns how to silently take out an enemy and then spends the whole of the rest of the game getting thrown into one forced gunfight after another. I wouldn't mind this at all if the game hadn't set up false expectations, but it does. It's fine once you realise that sneaking is pointless, but until then it's frustrating. You have been warned.
Puzzles and Exploration
And so we come to the big one. Or rather, the small one. Bottom line: all that set piece goodness and explosive action does come at the cost of puzzle solving and exploration. Tomb Raider features barely a handful of small, optional tombs that each contain a single, simple puzzle to solve. Frankly these feel like they don't even belong in the game, except perhaps as a (possibly intentional) metaphor. They, like the archaeological treasures they hold, are relics of the past; small, hard to find, and largely eroded, they provide a glimpse into the history of the Tomb Raider franchise, but little more.
Outside of the tombs is a sort-of-semi-open world to explore for collectibles (which give you XP to help you unlock more skills) but there are no puzzles, and getting from A to B is generally as simple as pointing Lara in the appropriate direction. Furthermore the item collecting feels at odds with the strong emphasis on narrative. When your friends' lives are in danger collecting a full set of mushrooms seems like a strange thing to be doing. Of course this, like the headshot thing, happens to some extent in a lot of games, but the sheer number of collectibles in Tomb Raider and the constant screen prompts to "catch 'em all" makes it more of a problem than it usually would be.
Conclusion
Tomb Raider feels like a game that knows what it wants to be and how to be it, but has been held back slightly by its reluctance to let go of its own legacy. It also feels like a true labor of love. The narrative and gameplay work well together (rather than clashing against each other as is so often the case) and the result is wild adventure that's as keen to get the player invested as it is on delivering heart-pumping action. By the end of the game I wasn't just playing Lara Croft, I was Lara Croft, and that's something I've not experienced in a long time.
Tomb Raider is a very "cinematic" game, so much so that it often feels more like an interactive movie than a traditional game. When you're not exploring or fighting (both of which I'll come to later) you're being carried from one long set piece to another. Early in the game the player's role in these sections is often reduced to performing QTEs, or sometimes even just pushing "up" on the left analogue stick, but after some time (perhaps a little too much time) the controls do open up. From that point on the set pieces generally involve the player having full control of Lara as she runs, jumps and climbs her way along predetermined paths through environments that are in a state of rapid change. Think burning and/or collapsing buildings, crumbling ruins, and so on. I'm not generally a fan of this type of gameplay, but that may be because I've never seen it done as well as this. These are seriously lengthy set pieces and the sheer amount of love, talent, time and money that seems to have been lavished on them (and indeed whole game) consistently impresses. I'm a cynical and jaded 36 year old gamer, and yet I often found myself swept up in the moment.
This was in part thanks to the the story being told well enough to get me invested. The plot is by no means original, and the supporting characters are all well-worn stereotypes, but the execution is nearly flawless. Lara always has good reasons to up her game one more level and take the next step in her journey. The non-interactive cutscenes are frequent and well paced, and seem totally unconcerned with the needs of ADHD players. It's a refreshing change from AAA games that treat the story-hungry player like a dog who must be thrown scraps once in a while to stop him dying of starvation. The writing and voice acting are mostly great, though both suffer from the occasional mis-step (I literally cringed a couple of times).
Many reviews have complained of narrative dissonance supposedly caused by Lara's sudden transformation into a headshot master after she first gets a gun. I really have to pick this bone. I don't remember anyone complaining when "physicist" Gordon Freeman first picked up a crowbar and single-handedly defeated an alien invasion. And nobody complained when "engineer" Isaac Clarke first picked up a plasma cutter and single-handedly took care of a necromorph outbreak. Over-capable protagonists are par for the course. Let's not forget that this is not a period drama. It's a videogame, and a superhero origin story, and Lara's metamorphosis (in terms of both gameplay and narrative) is slow and gradual by the standards of both. There are a great many abilities that unlock over time, and even Lara's basic controls get better as the game progresses; she begins to run/climb/fight faster and more fluidly over time. It happens so slowly you might not consciously notice it, but that doesn't negate its effect. It's like a subliminal cinema advertisement: you don't know it's there, but it's working its magic nonetheless. I'm not sure why Tomb Raider has to deal with this double standard, but it annoys because I feel that the gaming press have allowed it to overshadow one of the game's greatest strengths: Lara's character development. Yes, I said character development. This game has it! I know right?
Catch Me If You Can
You will kill a lot of dudes. And it's rather good fun, especially late in the game when Lara is in full-on badass mode and has unlocked most of her combat skills. The larger fights (which start happening about half-way into the story) typically have several scripted stages to them and maintain that same cinematic feel as the rest of the game, but there is just enough player agency and more than enough mayhem to keep things interesting. Enemies will flush, flank, and other things starting with "fl", which is a problem for Lara because she is not human tank wearing a nanosuit wrapped in a mass effect field. And so, naturally, her agility becomes her defining combat trait. Hitting B makes Lara duck and scramble, which makes her harder to hit with gunfire. Hitting B mid-scramble makes her roll, allowing her to get to cover quickly. Hitting B when an enemy tries to hit you with a melee weapon makes Lara dodge the strike (and allows a variety of counter attacks depending which skills are unlocked). Basically you'll be hitting B a lot, but never mashing it - the timing does matter. Lara's combat acrobatics start out as frantic attempts to stay alive but become increasingly empowering and deliberate as the game progresses. This is due partly to the unlocking of skills and partly the marriage of Lara's own character progression with encounters that are cleverly designed to emphasise it. At the start of the game you're running. By the end you're assaulting.
Stealth, Not
Early in the game Tomb Raider proudly shows the player its stealth mechanics... and then promptly forgets that it has them. I hate that. I hate it when a game pretends to have stealth options and then... doesn't. Lara learns how to silently take out an enemy and then spends the whole of the rest of the game getting thrown into one forced gunfight after another. I wouldn't mind this at all if the game hadn't set up false expectations, but it does. It's fine once you realise that sneaking is pointless, but until then it's frustrating. You have been warned.
Puzzles and Exploration
And so we come to the big one. Or rather, the small one. Bottom line: all that set piece goodness and explosive action does come at the cost of puzzle solving and exploration. Tomb Raider features barely a handful of small, optional tombs that each contain a single, simple puzzle to solve. Frankly these feel like they don't even belong in the game, except perhaps as a (possibly intentional) metaphor. They, like the archaeological treasures they hold, are relics of the past; small, hard to find, and largely eroded, they provide a glimpse into the history of the Tomb Raider franchise, but little more.
Outside of the tombs is a sort-of-semi-open world to explore for collectibles (which give you XP to help you unlock more skills) but there are no puzzles, and getting from A to B is generally as simple as pointing Lara in the appropriate direction. Furthermore the item collecting feels at odds with the strong emphasis on narrative. When your friends' lives are in danger collecting a full set of mushrooms seems like a strange thing to be doing. Of course this, like the headshot thing, happens to some extent in a lot of games, but the sheer number of collectibles in Tomb Raider and the constant screen prompts to "catch 'em all" makes it more of a problem than it usually would be.
Conclusion
Tomb Raider feels like a game that knows what it wants to be and how to be it, but has been held back slightly by its reluctance to let go of its own legacy. It also feels like a true labor of love. The narrative and gameplay work well together (rather than clashing against each other as is so often the case) and the result is wild adventure that's as keen to get the player invested as it is on delivering heart-pumping action. By the end of the game I wasn't just playing Lara Croft, I was Lara Croft, and that's something I've not experienced in a long time.