Jun 24, 2014

Lara Croft: smaller boobs = better gameplay?

Finally I was able to play the 2013 Tomb Raider Reboot. I've briefly touched upon my issues with Past Tomb Raider games in the Raiding Lara rant.

I can easily see why some old school Tomb Raider fans may not like this game. Luckily, my Relationship with Tomb Raider isn't that great, so I can overlook a lot of issues Hardcore Old School Tomb Raider fans have with this game.

Unlike Toys, I use a scale of 1-10 for games. As always, the closer to zero is bad, while the further away from zero = good!

Story:
Princess Sunbutt Loves the Solarii
This is a Reboot, so past Tomb Raider Continuity is non-existent. Hardcore Old-School Tomb Raider Fans have complained about this. They also referenced characters from the old games that did NOT appear here. Basically Lara and the crew of the Endurance become Castaways on an Island near Japan.
something something Crazy Cult... Something Something
Worshiping a Sun Queen... Something Something, Lara has to man-up in order to stop the Crazy Cult from using the Power of the (possibly evil) Sun Queen.
7.0


Gameplay:
It feels a bit like Uncharted, which makes sense, since Nathan Drake owes a lot of his existence to Lara Croft. The Skill Points and Survivor mode reminded me a bit of The Last of Us... Again, a good thing. The gameplay is not perfect due to the camera. A few deaths happened to me because the camera decided to stick close to Lara and not letting me see who the hell was shooting at me when turning! Others were by the unexpected QTEs that happen once in a blue moon.
7.5

Controls:
They are responsive, aside the camera controls, as I mentioned in the gameplay section. They can be slightly unresponsive during the few QTEs that happen during the game and the game isn't as lenient here.
9.0

Music and sounds:
The music, I'll be honest it's there, but I don't really recall it. None of it reminded me of Ye Olde Tomb Raider Games... The only thing that made me chuckle, because of Nostalgia... (remember that I'm not super attached to Ye Olde Tomb Raider) was this:

The voice acting was pretty good. Most of the main character VA's I didn't recognize... and I've seen some of their other work as actors and I never put 1 +1 together.
8.5

Graphics:
I'm playing the Last Gen version (PS3 to be precise) and I KNOW that Current Gen versions (PS4 and XBOne) look better. So, for a PS3 Game, the graphics are pretty good. I did notice a few Clipping issues with a few dead bodies on some parts of the game and once Lara slipped through a climbable surface and slid up all the way to where she was supposed to go.
8.0

Fun Factor:
The game is fun, if a bit frustrating at times. There are 7 Optional Puzzles that have a Traditional Tomb Raider Flair... They were somewhat frustrating until the Solution slapped me in the face for being such an idiot. Personally I wish the game had gotten a few more. One tiny nitpick is that the game can try to hold your hand a little bit too much.
8.0

Overall:
This New Lara gets an Overall score of 8.0 That is a great score, for a game in a franchise that I am not too fond of. I would welcome a sequel to this new Lara. No need to go back to

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