Did Lara Croft make a successful jump into the seventh console generation?
What Is It? Lara Croft had been around for two PlayStation generations already by the time this game was released in 2013. On the original PlayStation, the Tomb Raider games helped define a genre; a mix of shooting, puzzling, and a lot of platforming paved the way for many subsequent adventure titles for years. The rest of the PS1 games would refine things a bit, mostly to strong results. The PS2 games were good, although a bit less loved so, come PS3, it was time for something different. Reboot, anyone?
You are Lara as a vaguely early-20’s-ish college graduate who is setting out on an expedition to find a tomb on a remote island. Your boat crashes so you find yourself mixed up with strange cult-like figures and your objective becomes to escape with your life.
The core gameplay shares a lot with the original games. Running, jumping, shooting, light puzzle solving, the hits are all here. In contrast to the original games, the gunplay takes center stage. You will gain access to four types of weapons, from a bow to a shotgun, and spend most of the game wielding those to mow down hundreds of bad guys. No dinosaurs to be found here, unfortunately. There is a small cutscene moment early on where Lara laments having actually killed someone, she seems upset by being forced to do this to save her own life. Within the next 8 hours she will kill at least 200 more, so she quickly overcame her moral dilemma.
The gunplay is good. There is a cover system you’ll need to utilize when reloading or out-gunned, but once a true firefight breaks out, you are often better off running and dodging your way to victory. It is almost always better to rack up as many stealth kills as possible, however. This is achieved by either a bow+arrow shot or sneaking behind somebody for a sneak attack. Weapons will eventually unlock fun secondary modes such as the assault rifle with a grenade launcher or the bow being able to shoot napalm arrows. You’ll be spending roughly half of the eight hour playtime shooting things, so I’m happy to report this is a good time.
Elsewhere, you will be doing a lot of platforming. I argued that the platforming was the game in the original Tomb Raider, so I was curious how it was approached. The best way I can describe it is by saying they did a better job than any of the PS3 Uncharted games. Climbing is smooth and some smart QTE additions put some real stakes behind the actions instead of “hold up to climb the mountain.” Throughout, you will find yourself needing to make jumps that feel exactly on the upper edge of your capabilities. Not that you will miss many of them, but this is a wonderful callback to the original titles. There are a few sliding sections as well, which are mostly good except for a river-based section later in the game which is needlessly difficult to time correctly.
Gameplay is rounded out with some light puzzling. You won’t get to push or pull even a single perfectly cubed block in this game, but you will use your bow and arrow to move items into place to enable traversal. The more interesting puzzles are mostly hidden in optional tombs, so seek those out if that’s a draw for you.
Story-wise, there isn’t a whole lot going on. You get shipwrecked, find a lot of bad people, and have to fight to get you and your fellow castaways off of the island. The plot moves along just fine, but will likely slip out of your memory banks a few days after playing.
The graphics look good for the era but certainly lack the detail one would expect from newer games.
The Best Part: The progression system. Everything you do in the game earns you XP or crafting points. XP piles up until you cross a threshold which allows you to unlock a skill. Crafting points pile up and allow you to upgrade weapons. You will gain XP or crafting points by doing things like; advancing the story, killing an enemy, busting a crate, opening an empty locker, shooting and looting a bird, etc… The game is constantly handing you these points and that all feed into making you stronger and making the game more fun. It’s a wonderfully tight system which fits the tone of the game perfectly.
The Worst Part: Lack of variety. I think this is really where the game misses the mark. The only real enemy variety comes in the occasionally “big guy with shield” and “people wearing more armor so you have to shoot them a bunch.” It is fairly lazy and does detract from the game.
The Verdict: Having mostly skipped the seventh console generation, and 100% skipped the PlayStation 3, I had only ever heard of Uncharted as THE action-adventure platformer of the era. I didn’t even know Tomb Raider got a reboot that would continue into the eighth. Going back to Tomb Raider (2013) a few years after experiencing Uncharted for the first time, I was shocked that the gameplay of Tomb Raider was better than Uncharted. Yes, Uncharted easily wins in both the narrative and the truly cinematic moments, not to mention gameplay variety, but the core gameplay of Tomb Raider is better, in my opinion. Shooting is streamlined into a run-and-gun style with only the occasional need to cover. Platforming is smoother and more fun, this is especially evident in the climbing sections both games feature prominently. I’m not saying Tomb Raider (2013) is better than all of the PS3 Uncharted games, although it is absolutely better than the first Uncharted, I’m only saying that Tomb Raider plays a lot of the same notes as those games, and plays some of the most important ones better.
I wasn’t expecting a whole lot from Tomb Raider (2013) so I was pleasantly surprised to find a really good, streamlined action-adventure game. The game respects your time by providing near non-stop action with very little filler and a wealth of optional areas to explore if you’re itching for more. Tomb Raider is a successful reboot by any stretch of the term, and remains a good time over a decade after its initial release.
How to Play: PlayStation 3*, Xbox 360, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC
*console played on for this review
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