I’ve been a long time fan of the ‘Tomb Raider’ series, focussing on archaeologist Lara Croft who raids tombs, shoots animals and wears ill-fitting bras in equal measure. I’ve played all of the original five ‘Core Design’ games on PC and even got a PS2 just to play the sixth, still an enjoyable game even if the controls left a lot to be desired.
Many agreed and British company ‘Core Design’ lost the franchise but left behind an impressive legacy of some truly great games, graphically inferior now but with game play, exploration and a sense of wonder that was unrivalled.
US company ‘Crystal Dynamics’ then took over the franchise, presumably because EIDOS has spent too much money promoting the letters C and D and it went downhill from there. I’ve played all their attempts at Tomb Raider games and, no matter what they did, even down to re-creating the original in an anniversary cash-in, they failed to capture the original’s magic. Sure, the graphics were far superior but the game play was linear, the puzzles simple and the game too much focussed on human combat.
These games too didn’t fare too well but well enough for the company to be in charge of the series when it was rebooted once more, in the simply titled ‘Tomb Raider’. With a trailer that sounded like a whinging teenager being sent on a holiday she didn’t want to go on and rumours of a dodgy rape scene included within it, the game soon garnered attention of the critics who awarded it the most promising status of a game that year, and have since showered it with praise since it landed earlier this year. But how does it stack up?
Firstly, they have done a good job in making the game accessible. I gave up with major PC gaming twelve years ago when I couldn’t be bothered spending hours struggling with installing games and then finding out my PC wasn’t powerful enough, heading into console gaming via the PS2, Wii and WiiU and enjoying stress free playing. But, as Eidos have short-sightedly not released this game on Nintendo’s new home console (sales aside of the new console, the concept would have fitted brilliantly on the GamePad) I’ve returned to the world of PC gaming. And, thankfully, though my PC is four years old and running Vista, I can still run the new game, albeit it in 800 x 600 on the lowest graphic settings, but play it I can.
So how does it play? Graphically the game is very impressive in full quality but also quite tolerable and neat in the stripped-back way I’m playing it. Installation of the game itself was pain free but Steam, which you have to install at the same time, took two-hours and multiple attempts to wrench onto my system due to a 27% problem that lots of people reported having. I spent most of the time humming Dappy, bemoaning my own ‘Forever 37’ motif.
But once Steam decided to accept me onto their system it was plain sailing and the game was up. Now, in a nutshell, this is the best Tomb Raider game since the days of Core Design. However, you have to wait about two hours to get to this point as you will find the first couple of hours of play very frustrating.
What they have created in the initial outset is a movie that you can play. It feels like you’ve gone into the cinema to watch a movie then every so often the action will stop and you’ll have to randomly press some buttons on your smart phone to continue the action. Now, I’m fully familiar with Quick Time Events (QTEs) that were established in the more recent games and they’re a perpetual annoyance, breaking up the game and requiring some seemingly ineffectual button tapping, but the opening of the game feels like one continual QTE. You’ll run for thirty seconds then have to stop for a bit and watch a video, or randomly have to button mash the arrow keys or the E or F key to do something – but not too much mashing as it won’t recognise it! The first two hours were a very distracting affair, wanting to play a game and enjoying the concept but forced into a linear progression of stop-start game play.
Plus, the game on PC sets you up for a nightmare of controls at the start. I imagine on Xbox 360 or PS3 gamers have no issues, and even those with a PC game pad will be fine, but for me it was a struggle. I’m used to the traditional Tomb Raider controls of left hand on CTRL, ALT and SPACE, right hand on the arrow keys. All the prompts of the QTEs say to mash the left and right so that’s naturally where my fingers fall. However, unless you want to die a lot or fade madness, then you need to use WASD as your directional keys as the mouse is necessary to control shooting and the camera work, and you’ll be doing this regularly as the camera is rubbish.
I’ve spent the last few months playing ZombiU on my WiiU and the controls work flawlessly with a strong camera. Going back to PC gaming has made me realise you can no longer play games as well on a keyboard so a gamepad is a must to fully enjoy this game; four keys are no compensation for an analogue stick.
Once you escape this QTE hell and the game opens up, it actually becomes far more enjoyable and like the old days of ‘Tomb Raider’: lots of collectables, the feeling of running around doing side-quests, not entirely sure where you are going, and doing lots of acrobatics. Combat is particularly fun in the game, primarily with the bow and arrow, and even made me overlook the fact that the franchise continues its transformation from lone-archaeologist encountering dangerous animals and perhaps a few humans but mainly puzzle solving into an action adventure game more focussed on combat. If Lara Croft wasn’t in it, it really wouldn’t deserve its title, as the tombs that do appear in the game are few and far between and though you’re on a secluded island, the sense of loneliness never really amounts to much as you’re always ten minutes away from another fire-fight with angry locals, whose AI is OK but not particularly difficult.
And that is one thing you can say about the game. Outside of the controls often making you fall to your death, the game is rather easy. Deaths at the hand of QTEs return you to just before the death and combat never really challenges you, due to a health scheme that forgoes a health bar and medipacks with one that, if you avoid fire or bullets for long enough you’ll return to health, plus ammo that re-spawns when you run out. You will find yourself dying quite a bit but it very rarely feels like a penalty like it did in the classic games.
Where the game does excel is in its set pieces; it’s a game that constantly throws new and exciting scenarios at you, carried by the well plotted story, which means when you’re stuck watching a film it’s at least interesting. There are some well created elements at the beginning, such as a stealth section, hiding behind walls to avoid capture, a truly nerve-racking climb to a radio antennae that does reflect the height very well, and a great scene involving a plane crash, though to be honest it’s actually unintentionally comic, like something out of a Looney Tunes cartoon. The game does feel like it’s constantly punishing Lara and it becomes almost sadomasochistic in one breath, and comedic in the other, as if you’re playing a Christopher Nolan re-boot of Tom and Jerry where you see how much cartoony punishment your lead can take.
Lara as a character is learning her role and does play like a constantly whinging teenager. Yes, she does get a lot of things thrown in her direction and I certainly wouldn’t like to do it, but she’s a million miles away from the confident young adventurer we’re familiar with. Though it’s well designed to see her respond realistically to injury – an early stomach injury leaves her hunched over for a while – she also should be dead long ago with the things she does through. I do sort of miss the old days of vehicles, unlimited pistols and locking butlers in fridges.
Tomb Raider may suffer from difficult controls and camera work in the non-game pad PC version and, in the early stages, be too focussed on story and less on the gamer being able to play, but it soon becomes an enjoyable play with some interesting concepts, great combat and some neat puzzles. It’s pretty easy to play and lacks the challenge of the originals, and is pretty far from the initial concept of the series, but there are unlockables and collectables a-plenty and even when you’ve finished the storyline there’s much to get. You can always wander of the beaten track and go on a bit of animal hunting or object finding, and there’s back story to work through via notes and items found, plus a vast map to navigate around, and the ability to play a new game on a four year old PC is good of the company.
It’s not really ‘Tomb Raider’ and it’s too simple, but it’s an enjoyable game to play and worth picking up for £20.
6.5/10
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