As a two-decade-long fan of Tomb Raider, since I was a kid, I waited eagerly and played the rebooted trilogy when they came out. Completed all they had to offer, and played through them again in the last two weeks.
So finally, with the knowledge of how these games are in their full picture, and with a refreshed memory of their story and mechanics, I’ll try to do an objective complete review, with hindsight. A perspective of the new trilogy of Tomb Raider. I’ll try to keep it short.
A Survivor is Born
This game has a special place in my heart. It was the reboot of a series I loved deeply, and they were going for a bold new style. A completely different game. At first, I thought it was more like Uncharted, but I’d say it also went for some The Last of Us, because while it is about “finding tombs and treasures”, Uncharted is more light-hearted, while this new reboot had much more survival elements to it.
The player has to live with Lara all the trauma she has to endure in her journey, basically as a teenager, who is looking for the lost kingdom of Yamatai. And all the game is going to take the stage in it.
The story is top-notch, and the gameplay is very solid as well. It aged gracefully since the gameplay was already a bit ahead of its time, and also thanks to some graphic options like the hair effects – TressFX – which still today holds up amazingly.
It is a product of its time, obviously, and it was a smaller project. But it’s a great solid start, and it puts the foundations of something great. It features the tool-kit Lara is gonna use in the whole trilogy, and makes great use of it, in the exploration and tomb puzzles. The game allows Lara to use different weapons, having the bow being the main one, especially during exploration. It has weapon upgrades and a simple skill tree, which helps Lara become even stronger during the journey!
It’s almost Metroid-like when it comes to progression, having areas inaccessible until a new tool is obtained, which opens crazy shortcuts at times and encourages replayability and exploration.
It’s not a long game, but just like other games of the genre, it features some small treasures around the maps, challenges, diaries with lore in it, and some optional tombs as side content and multiplayer?
Yes. This game, as I said, it’s a product of its time. Starting with the bow as the main weapon – looking at you Hunger Games – and finishing with a multiplayer mode in a single-player game, which was very common at the time. But having played some of that too, I can say that it’s not for everyone, but the choice it’s always good to have, especially with such a great combat system!
DLCs
When it comes to DLCs this game doesn’t have much to offer in my opinion. I know that the game is so cheap right now, with all the DLCs it’s a few cents more, but I still wanna talk about what they offer, cause they used to cost much more.
I think the only DLC worth buying and playing is Tomb of the Lost Adventurer, which as the name suggests it’s a new tomb for the game. The rest of the DLCs are either skins for Lara, multiplayer stuff, or...abilities. This is one of the things I really don’t like about the DLCs: instead of making and selling you something new, they just sell easily accessible in-game content for real money, and I honestly despise it.
Conclusions
This game is worth it, especially if you like the genre. It’s a great start for the series and has a great story and some optional content for those who want to stick around.
8.5/10
So finally, with the knowledge of how these games are in their full picture, and with a refreshed memory of their story and mechanics, I’ll try to do an objective complete review, with hindsight. A perspective of the new trilogy of Tomb Raider. I’ll try to keep it short.
A Survivor is Born
This game has a special place in my heart. It was the reboot of a series I loved deeply, and they were going for a bold new style. A completely different game. At first, I thought it was more like Uncharted, but I’d say it also went for some The Last of Us, because while it is about “finding tombs and treasures”, Uncharted is more light-hearted, while this new reboot had much more survival elements to it.
The player has to live with Lara all the trauma she has to endure in her journey, basically as a teenager, who is looking for the lost kingdom of Yamatai. And all the game is going to take the stage in it.
The story is top-notch, and the gameplay is very solid as well. It aged gracefully since the gameplay was already a bit ahead of its time, and also thanks to some graphic options like the hair effects – TressFX – which still today holds up amazingly.
It is a product of its time, obviously, and it was a smaller project. But it’s a great solid start, and it puts the foundations of something great. It features the tool-kit Lara is gonna use in the whole trilogy, and makes great use of it, in the exploration and tomb puzzles. The game allows Lara to use different weapons, having the bow being the main one, especially during exploration. It has weapon upgrades and a simple skill tree, which helps Lara become even stronger during the journey!
It’s almost Metroid-like when it comes to progression, having areas inaccessible until a new tool is obtained, which opens crazy shortcuts at times and encourages replayability and exploration.
It’s not a long game, but just like other games of the genre, it features some small treasures around the maps, challenges, diaries with lore in it, and some optional tombs as side content and multiplayer?
Yes. This game, as I said, it’s a product of its time. Starting with the bow as the main weapon – looking at you Hunger Games – and finishing with a multiplayer mode in a single-player game, which was very common at the time. But having played some of that too, I can say that it’s not for everyone, but the choice it’s always good to have, especially with such a great combat system!
DLCs
When it comes to DLCs this game doesn’t have much to offer in my opinion. I know that the game is so cheap right now, with all the DLCs it’s a few cents more, but I still wanna talk about what they offer, cause they used to cost much more.
I think the only DLC worth buying and playing is Tomb of the Lost Adventurer, which as the name suggests it’s a new tomb for the game. The rest of the DLCs are either skins for Lara, multiplayer stuff, or...abilities. This is one of the things I really don’t like about the DLCs: instead of making and selling you something new, they just sell easily accessible in-game content for real money, and I honestly despise it.
Conclusions
This game is worth it, especially if you like the genre. It’s a great start for the series and has a great story and some optional content for those who want to stick around.
8.5/10