Right so just for a change here is a video game review as the latest Tomb Raider game has just come out so this post will cover the game that is The Rise of the Tomb Raider, which has been released for the Xbox One and 360.
So without further ado let's get that hiking gear on, load up the guns and brave the chilly mountains.....
And yep a few SPOILERS MIGHT BE AHEAD!!
STORY
OK so don't worry I won't reveal too much of the story but it follows Lara Croft (voiced by Camilla Luddington) one year after the events of Tomb Raider. Lara's travels to Yamatai the year before where she encountered the supernatural however have been covered up by an organisation known as Trinity, who are private group who are pursuing the supernatural. Lara then decides to try and find out about the myths around the world however she discovers that her late father was in a similar predicament with Trinity as they tried to cover up his findings and they discredited him. Lara then travels to Sibera along with her good friend, Jonah (voiced by Earl Bayon) and they reach the ancient city, Kitezh, which Lara belives holds the truth behind immortality. However Trinity soon follow Lara to Sibera as well and its from here she engages in a battle against the corrupt organisation and fights for her survival.
THOUGHTS
As a sequel to the tremendously successful reboot of the series, Rise of the Tomb Raider is an excellent action adventure game, which is both intense and gripping all at once. The game is filled with plenty of heart racing, suspenseful moments as well as some long intense fight scenes where Lara again has to use her instinct and her fighting skills to keep herself alive. The story is also a pretty good one and you do get involved with the characters in the game as opposed to some other franchises where you tend not to bother following the plot (depending on what it is of course!).
GAMEPLAY
As for the gameplay well its the same as the previous Tomb Raider game and as such its excellent as the game's control system is nice and fluid as before. Lara's movements are pretty much the same this time around aswell with the only difference this time is that Lara can swim in certain areas of the game where she can submerge under water to reach other areas. Another thing Lara can use in certain areas are climbing axes when she has use to climb up icy patches of mountains. Lara also has access to a grapple to allow her to jump over certain gaps and use the grapple to attach to supports for areas which are impossible to leap to without one. In fact the game's movement and platforming remains one of its best and most enjoyable features.
The game also continues with its crafting system which enables Lara to craft weapons and other items such as a variety of arrow heads (e.g. poison, rope, flame). Lara can also hunt animals with the use of a crossbow and she can skin them to make material for a coat or for food. Lara has the ability to use plants as well to heal herself by cutting of leaves and mixing them in with other substances.
Regarding the game's weapons there is a decent selection here and Lara starts off with her crossbow which can be customised, as can all the weapons in the game as Lara gains experience points she can build up her skills and upgrade her weapons features. Other weapons in the game include hand guns, shotguns, assault rifles, submachine guns and knives, which Lara can use for melee attacks or for even cutting rope. Lara can also use her crossbow with arrowheads that have rope so she can attach a rope to a far off point and she can move along the line to get to another area. The game also features a stealth attack system where Lara can sneak up on enemies from behind or even jump them from above. Again the game's combat is excellent with plenty of variation so you won't get bored quickly.
GRAPHICS
Getting onto the game's graphics well they are simply stunning as the game's environments are rich and detailed and they are also huge and varied as it really is an open game (or sandbox as they are called!). The character models for the game are also top notch as Lara at times really does look lifelike (and its good to see she has a chest that is more in proportion! ;-)) and the other characters also look great and it shows just how far the series has come from the good old days of blocky graphics and polygons! The game's lighting effects are also stunning and the game's environments change weather at different time as in certain parts of the game it snows or rains or there is sun but even the lighting in covered areas is incredible. In fact no doubt even though I played the Xbox 360 version, which looks great by its own standards, that the Xbox One version will look even better and its still annoying that they haven't released the game for the PS4, which doesn't make much sense given its a new generation game title!
SOUND, MUSIC AND VOICE ACTING
Sound wise the game sounds superb as the effects are great and there are plenty of explosions and gunfire and other noises to keep your surround system going. I only have a two speaker setup, but I'm sure it will make for an aural feast for any surround sound audiophile. Music wise the game features a pretty good score by Bobby Tahouri which is both dramatic and suspenseful and is well suited to the game's intense and at times grim tone.
As for the voice acting the cast here are excellent with Camille Luddington doing a great job again as Lara Croft even though she does kind of overdo some of her gasps and groans a bit (although Lara's actions call for them I suppose!) and she plays Lara a bit too seriously. But Camille does lend a lot of credibility to the character of Lara and she backs her up as being a believable and strong character. The other voice actors are also very good such as Philip Anthony Rodriguez as Jacob, Lara's ally in the story, Laura Waddell as one of the villains, Ana, and Charles Halford as the other main villain, Konstantin (Ana's brother) and lastly Early Bayon as Lara's good friend, Jonah.
FLAWS
As for the game's flaws........well yeah even though as good as it is, Rise of the Tomb Raider is not quite perfect and part of the problem for me with the game lies in its dark tone as I feel even though its an excellent game it just feels like they have made the game a bit too grim and dark. I guess with the series they are setting up Lara's beginnings and making it in a more gritty and (somewhat) realistic manner on purpose to move away from the more light hearted fantasy based nature of the previous games. However by doing this I think it sucks some of the fun out of the game as it just takes itself way way too seriously.
In fact it makes me think that they are trying to do a Christopher Nolan on the Tomb Raider franchise by making things pretty grim and serious, but even Nolan has some moments of humour in his films however in this game I don't think I spotted one single moment of humour at all! (I mean even the title is a nod to The Dark Knight Rises!!). And frankly I think that is something they should address for the future games as they should allow for a little humour and to show just a little of Lara's personality so its not overwhelmingly serious as if they carry on doing that it could serve to alienate some audiences, or just maybe me! ;-).
Another thing that bugged was to do with the behaviour and AI of the some of the animals in the game particularly the scene where wanders into a certain area and has to fight a bear and also later another area, a tiger. Now in these scenes she needs to use her arrows to kill the bear and the tiger separately by using poison arrowheads for the bear and possibly the same for the tiger (I used flame arrowheads for the tiger) BUT why in the hell can't she just shoot them?!!! I mean Lara can pump several rounds into these animals but they still keep going!! So we have no choice but to use the arrows to kill them! It just doesn't add up and it makes for a pretty silly bit of game programming.
And another issue I had with the game comes from Lara's almost unlimited ability to take damage as there are plenty of running action scenes where she falls off ledges or trees or whatever and crash lands hard say 20, 30 feet below yet somehow she doesn't break any bones or do serious injury to herself! And you think realistically there is no way Lara could have survived this game and the amount of injuries she sustains and even she did survive it, she would be in a wheelchair by the end of the game! But for the sake of the action we just have to suspend our disbelief I guess as it is just a video game after all.
I also felt the single player campaign was suprisingly a bit short as it took me basically three days of gameplay off and on to complete, which given the length of the first game seems a bit short with maybe seven or eight hours gameplay (or maybe more depending on what mode you play it on).
So that's it for the flaws.
SUM UP
Rightttt so to sum up Rise of the Tomb Raider is for the most part a thrilling and exciting action game with plenty of great action and some classic platforming aswell with a few tombs thrown in too! The visuals are simply spectacular and if you can afford the Xbox One version (or have one!) then I'd recommend you get it to get the best out of its next generation graphics, but it plays really well on the Xbox 360 as that's what I played it on myself and looks great on that too given the console's age.
The game however for me is still a bit too dark and grim in its tone at times and I think it would have benefited from a little bit of humour now and then to lighten the proceedings but maybe that's something they can remedy in future games (or maybe not!).
Anyway that's it for now from me and I'll be back again some other time soon with another post.
Until then bye for now.
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