Digital Life

So I finished Tomb Raider last night. I feel like playing at night is the only way to get the proper ambiance is some games, lol. Anyway.

The Story

As we all know from the advertising everywhere, this is Lara's origin story, redefined. Shipwrecked on an island, trying to survive against an insane cult of other stranded people while trying to solve the mysteries of the island itself. She loses a lot, finds her own strength in the process and kicks some serious cultist ass. Pretty basic story, no major twists or anything. The major deaths are telegraphed well in advance, cliche but effective for what it is.

The collectibles are interesting in how they share a bit more about the island and the characters, both allies, enemies and others who tried (and failed) to survive. It adds a badly needed touch of empathy for characters who are just stereotypes otherwise. The timing on some of them is also poignant, if you're finding them as you go.

The Characters

Lara is of course the most defined character in the game. It's very interesting to see her transformation from scared and confused to anger to open defiance, a moment defined (no spoilers) when she first gets the grenade launcher. It's easy to feel empathy and relate to her, as things just keep going from bad to worse and all she wants to do is get the hell out and go home with what remains of her friends.

The rest of the crew are stereotypical but they play their roles well, even if it makes them less interesting as a result. Unfortunately because of the aforementioned telegraphing, I personally found it hard to connect too much with any of them, knowing most would not survive the game. I also found it more than a bit unfair that Lara had to go through all that shit while her friend just ends up being a passive pawn through the entire game. Seriously, she went through all of that for you, you spineless...grr. Yeah. I guess they don't use survivors, plural, for a reason. Lara was doing all the work. Jerks.

The World

Or I should say, the island. Heh. It's an appropriately broody place, dark and tempestuous where it isn't outright harsh, with a touch of the apocalyptic evident in the rusted hulks of vessels and ruins scattered through out. The scenery, when it isn't trying to kill you or drenched in the blood of your enemies, is strangely beautiful in its own way.

The music is tense and ominous, in places ratcheting up the already high tension with the survival elements ready to trigger at any moment. From the first dizzying moments in the tunnels to the treacherous footing on half-rotted docks, every element works together to create a very real sense of isolation and desolation. This is not a happy place.

Gameplay

The first hour or so is very linear, mostly a serious of quick time events with really gruesome failure animations. After that it begins to open up, giving you a little bit of room to explore. The game is very balanced in that it rarely falls back on the hundreds of faceless mooks trying to zerg you trope. There are some large battles but few and far between, and by that point you have weapons more than capable of handling the numbers. Like grenades. You can also as often as not take out at least a few of them by stealth, or a lot with environmental kills. You can even get up close and personal and melee them, often with brutal finishing results. Overall combat is smooth, and having Lara automatically ducking for cover can be a godsend. It's the little details, like getting your head down while people are effing shooting at you, that makes characters more realistic and combat more engaging. Scrambling for cover to line up a shot that makes an enemy drop his Molotov, setting himself and his buddies alight...now that's a good use of cover.

The difficulty can be a little bit uneven, though. Some battles are almost unreasonably difficult. It could be just me, though. But there were a couple of battles from about the middle onward that took a few tries. There are also some areas where the baddies seem to come out of nowhere, which can be annoying, especially when you're just trying to get somewhere.

Outside of combat, there's a lot of climbing, and jumping, and missing and falling horribly to your death...ok, not so much of the latter. For the most part the mechanics are smooth and Lara will do what you tell her to. Most of the time. I've had a few accidental cliff dives, I admit. And sometimes the environment is really too dark, resulting in accidentally getting too close to edges or not seeing exactly where you need to go, even with the visual language the developers used to show you the paths throughout the game. Overall though, it's fun to play, with only a few frustrating moments here and there. The checkpoint system goes a long way to help with this too, since you're never more than a few steps from where you fell. Not as much of a good thing in the middle of a battle, but for exploring it's quite nice.

I was somewhat disappointed with the tombs, all of which can be solved easily in just a few minutes. Realistically it makes sense, but it also makes for some very unsatisfying exploring. If I can figure it out without YouTube, it's too easy.

Multiplayer

I personally haven't tried this yet, but pretty much everyone seems to be meh on the quality. So make of that what you will. Mostly meh.

Trophies/Achievements

I have one gripe with this and every other action/adventure game with tacked-on multiplayer--why, for the love of the gods do you make playing the multi a requirement for platinum? IT MAKES ME ANGRY RAH! I mean seriously, I bought this game for the single player story. Why am I being forced to play an optional (and by most accounts, mediocre) part of the game if I want to platinum it? That's incredibly frustrating.

I'm totally on board with giving bonuses for playing multiplayer, just not as requirements for the platinum. It's not a multiplayer game, it's just a cheap way to make people play it longer.

Last Word

So yeah, great game, lots of fun if you like dying gruesomely and/or setting people on fire. The story is solid, if basic and Lara's journey is a powerful one, no doubt setting up for all kinds of badassery in future games of the series. Buy it!