I completed the new TR last night and found it thoroughly enjoyable. I thought it struck the balance between scripted action sequences and small, open world environments for exploration perfectly. I had just finished Assassins Creed 3 and went straight onto Farcry 3. This was a mistake as I found it to be very similar and when I realised I would be hunting animals again, I shelved it straight away. Lo and behold, Tomb Raider has hunting in it as well but it doesn't feel so much like a chore, rather a happy distraction in a much smaller environment.
It was also nice to sit back and just let the game show me where to go. After playing a couple of much bigger, open world, choose your mission style games, a bit of hand holding was a nice change. The platforming reminded me a little bit of Enslaved as in the 'single route only' climbing sections with shifting perspective and this is definitely not a bad thing. Of course the game borrows a lot from Uncharted but Uncharted did learn from the original TR games so I guess its fitting. Circle of gaming and all that. The action sequences and characterisation was better in the Uncharted games and also injected a little bit of humour which was sadly lacking in TR.
The upgrading of skills and weapon customisation was just about perfect. Nothing too complicated and still feels like your have some control over her progress and can suit the development according to your play style. My worry is that sequels have the tendency to expand this area of the game and add more and more customisation which I think would be a huge mistake. Change it up for sure, but don't lose focus or balance on what made the game great in the first place.
Some of the areas Lara found herself in raised the tension pretty well and seeing her squeeze through tiny gaps and wade through water had me feeling a little claustrophobic at times. This was great and added to the desperate nature of the situation she was in. This could have been balanced with perhaps some much larger indoor areas that the old TR games were so good at. That, and making some more, bigger puzzles integral to the game would have been perfect. As it is, still a fantastic effort and cant wait to see where it goes form here.
edit: Did have a few glitches though that were almost game breaking and could have changed my whole opinion on the game.
- Spoiler: show
- When Lara was tied by the hands from the ceiling in one part, swinging back and forth did not free her. Had to turn the console off and on for it to work. However, this wasnt as bad as the next one...
When Lara gets the rope ascender for the first time on the ship, you are suppose to pull down a large object that smashes through the floor and allow progress. This was glitched for me and the object would not pull. No amount of restarts or reloads was working. After a bit of googling, I found a workaround in that a part of the floor is glitched and with a bit of patience, you can fall through and carry on the game. Thank fuck someone found this or I would have been well pissed off.
