Does the new Tomb Raider manage to steal back Uncharted’s crown, or does it fall flat on its face?

“Uncharted“. That was the first thought for many upon viewing the first footage of Tomb Raider, Crystal Dynamic’s reboot of the popular franchise. The footage showed a new, younger Lara Croft clambering up unsteady structures and scrambling in and out of cover, picking off enemies in the style of a certain Mr. Drake. Even after playing, those assumptions aren’t at all unfounded. Tomb Raider borrows heavily from Nathan Drake’s adventures, with a lot of the core mechanics almost mirroring that of the ones found in the Uncharted series. Climbing things. Falling from things. Shooting things. Running forwards as the world seemingly collapses around you in a barrage of fire and dust. It’s all things we’ve seen before, but it’s pulled off with enough finesse that it isn’t a problem. Lara’s adventures mostly match the high standards of Uncharted, and it could be argued that in fact Lara is actually reclaiming her moves. After all, would there be any Uncharted games at all if it wasn’t for Miss. Croft’s original adventures?

Comparisons with Uncharted aside, Tomb Raider does a lot of things differently as well. Firstly, the tone and story are a lot different. Tomb Raider adopts a much darker feel. This isn’t a hop through the jungle on the hunt for mysterious treasures, but rather a tale of Lara’s plight: one of survival and constant danger. After surviving a ship wreck, Lara is separated from her friends and thus enters a journey to reunite with her companions. Naturally, as with seemingly all video game islands, there are bunch of crazed psychopaths in between her and her goal. The story is pretty average fare, and the supporting cast are never fleshed out enough for you to truly care about them. At certain points, as far as halfway through, the game was obviously trying to hit certain dramatic, emotional beats, but it just wasn’t working and fell flat. The characters weren’t written well enough for me to care about their tragedies, with the exception of Lara herself. Crystal Dynamics have done a fantastic job of transforming Lara from that once triangular chested…thing, to an interesting, clever, human character. This being a prequel story of sorts, it’s fascinating to see Lara’s transformation from terrified student to gritty adventurer – even if she does go from being horrified at killing someone to picking off head shots with ruthless ease a little quickly. On a side note, it’s also great to play as a strong female character after playing as an American male in almost all recent video games. I know this is a hot topic at the moment, but maybe Lara has finally kicked the trend. Hopefully developers will realize that you don’t need a male character to guarantee sales.  

Whilst the game is being touted as having an open world, this isn’t particularly the case. It’s more of a massive linear level with little offshoots filled with collectibles you can explore and return to at your leisure, but the urgency of the narrative will likely pull you forwards until you’ve completed the story. I do recommend checking out the “secret tombs” however. They’re not so secret considering a beeping indicator appears whenever you’re near one, but they’re worth checking out. The rewards aren’t particularly noteworthy, but these isolated physical puzzles are a lovely touch, and not worth missing: a nod to the old school tomb-raiding of previous installments.

Gameplay, as touched upon earlier, is mainly cover shooting interspersed with platforming. Climbing and traversing surfaces is given an extra layer of depth with the introduction of a climbing axe and rope arrows, the former requiring you to jump against certain walls and hitting a button to catch on to the surface with your axe. Rope arrows are used to yank old doors down or create zip lines. Firing an arrow with rope attached across a massive cavern and then zip lining across is great fun, and these can also be used to pull enemies towards you to deliver a lethal blow with you axe. The absence of a dedicated cover button is a welcome one as well. At first it feels strange but Lara automatically ducks behind objects to cover herself. The lack of snap-in cover encourages you to move more rather than stick behind one wall until your foes are dealt with. Not only does this make for a more varied gameplay experience, it also helps you deal with the intelligent AI, who will constantly be trying to flush you out of destructible cover with various explosive projectiles, so moving is important. 

Shooting is as you’d expect. As you progress you collect 4 main weapons: a bow, a handgun, an assault rifle and a shotgun. Each weapon genuinely feels needed and will come into its own in many situations. Levels are designed so that you’ll have to be constantly switching between each weapon to suit your current predicament. You stick with these 4 weapons throughout the game, and you have the opportunity to upgrade them using salvage you find on your travels at one of many frequent campsites. These act as checkpoints throughout the game that Lara can rest at, giving you the chance to upgrade your weapons and Lara herself, unlocking more advanced moves. These light RPG elements flesh out the experience further, providing a sense of progression that’s new to the Tomb Raider series. 

The game looks and sounds brilliant. The murky brown jungle is punctuated by glowing fires and vast horizons showing mountains miles and miles away. Animations are flowing and realistic, and weather feels like a genuine physical force, with rain and wind battering down on Lara as she pushes on. Lara scrambles up cliffs and leaps over bottomless drops with just the right mix of grace and scrappiness to really sell her character, and the woman she’s destined to be. Her gasps and screams as she finds herself in worsening situations add a human element not found in many of your hard-as-nails video game protagonists, allowing us to truly empathize with her. The score is dramatic, rising and falling where necessary to fully immerse you in what’s going on, whether in the middle of a huge set-piece or quielty making your way through undisturbed jungle, the music is usually spot on. Occasionally, you might find you hear the score building to something (usually a cue that it’s about to hit the fan) and then nothing happens which can be a tad misleading, trying to force emotion where there is none.

MULTIPLAYER

While the campaign is the real meat of the game, there is also a serviceable multiplayer mode thrown in. Although it’s nice to dabble in, the game modes really don’t feel new or interesting in any way. With almost every game having multiplayer included these days, to really stand out as a solid, multiplayer experience that will keep players coming back for more, it’s compulsory that you bring something new. Tomb Raider doesn’t really do that, with its traditional mix of Team Deathmatch and Domination-style modes. It’s inoffensive and a decent time waster but ultimately, Uncharted 3 does the same thing – just better.

CONCLUSION

Whilst this outing for Lara Croft borrows heavily from recent games and doesn’t necessarily bring anything new to the table, what is on offer is a thoroughly enjoyable adventure game – one of the best, in fact. Cystal Dynamics have delivered a great, new foundation to build upon in the future. Lara Croft is definitely back to her best. Otherwise, think of it like Uncharted, with an emo fringe and listening to old My Chemical Romance records. In a good way.

THE GOOD

– Enjoyable, solid gameplay mechanics

– A brilliant introduction to the new Lara Croft

– Graphically excellent

THE BAD

– Poor plot

– Underdeveloped characters

– Lacklustre multiplayer 

SCORE: 8.5/10

Tomb Raider is out now on Xbox 360, PS3 (reviewed) and PC.

Review copy kindly provided by Square Enix.