New Tomb Raider is worth it!

Originally written in mid March 2013.

Lara Croft is back in possibly her most intense journey yet.

“Tomb Raider” is a reboot of the series going back to a new beginning of the main character, Lara Croft. Being recognized as one of the most recognized video game character since appearing on the Playstation in 1996. In this new adventure explores Lara as she is on an expedition to find an ancient civilization with a team. Being a recent graduate she hopes that this discovery will put her on the map. However as they approach an island, an intense storm approaches and destroys the ship. Waking up injured and alone after the shipwreck, Lara has to learn how to survive and find her friends. Lara has to survive the dangerous terrain, as well avoid being killed by a cult group on the island that has kidnapped one of her friends. 

Tomb Raider is an action adventure game that puts players to the test in order to survive trials on the mysterious island. The beginning of the game is focused on basic survival tests on staying warm by making a fire to hunting in order not to starve. It only lasts for a short before gameplay goes from only having a bow for hunting to using a handgun to take down those who are trying to kill the character for simply being an outsider of the island. It’s a bit of a quick transition in game play. 

The nice part of moving around the island is that is a semi-open world. You can go back to any previous parts of the game by resting at a camp and using fast travel to camps you have visited before. In order to traverse areas the player has to climb rocks surfaces with a climbing tool and use a rope with a bow and arrow to create ways to traverse gaps. While also resting at camps the player can increase or add skills using experience they have gained. They can also take salvage parts to make modifications and improvements to their weapons leaving a lot of choices in the player’s hands. While traversing the land there are all kinds of side missions of collecting series of collectables that build experience as well as give background information about the mysterious island and the cult that lives there. 

There are also a series of optional tombs that the player can access which sadly should have been a larger part of the game. The player has to traverse a room or two of puzzles that really makes the player think on how they need to travel. While it fun to jump around area to area and take down bad guys, it seems it focuses more on that than going through tombs and discovering secrets. But then again this is a re-boot, and no game in the past of the series has explored the beginning of the character. The game progress from someone to who is alone and scared to a hardened woman who will do what it takes to save her friends.

The only true negative portion of this game is a multiplayer mode that players can play with others online. It is sadly one of the worst examples of online multiplayer and was obviously added quickly at the end. Without a doubt though one can ignore the multiplayer and still have a fantastic time enjoying the game. While the story is dark at times, it’s a story with a young Lara who hasn’t been exposed to desperate situations before. The story shines showing the progress of a character overcoming an extreme amount of challenges. “Tomb Raider” is action packed game filled with hours of fun. If more games like this come out the only thing that needs to happen is an increased amount of tomb exploration, but it’s a start of something great.

Stars: 4/5