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I thought this game looked odd initially, but picked it up after watching friends play and seeing that it looked really fun. So far I would say the draw of the game is the experience. The gameplay is pretty straightforwards and the impetus for playing is seeing the story, exploring and experiencing the, er, experience. It does a good job of drawing me into the world. It has some little slightly puzzly bits but they aren't particularly arduous so far.

Some of the stuff about "inexperienced girl blah blah" is a bit overblown. There are shades of it, but Lara Croft kills more people than your average Space Marine. I can only imagine that after this game she'll be a hardened killer and won't bat an eye at taking out dozens of generic Bad Men at a time in future titles.

The QTE stuff - there are some QTEs, with the straightforwards gameplay that implies. There's some internal logic to them, though. In Tomb Raider QTE-speak, you generally wobble the thumbstick to struggle, press X to grab, press Y at a specific time to attack. It doesn't seem to switch them up on the fly or anything.

So far, it's fun! I like it and am comfortable recommending it as an experience.

Note, though, that I haven't played Uncharted, which I understand is a title that tries to accomplish many of the same things, so it's possible that it lacks some vast developments of which I am not aware.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
If you want to teach the company a lesson buy it used...

I'm mainly a PC guy these days.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:

 Mr Morden wrote:
I did not like all the button hammering sections on last one - is the new one similar?

One of the reviews I read said that the opening is a big self-indulgent, with a bunch of button mashing QTE's just to get you through the highly scripted opening, but once that's done with it settles into a more open style that has a lot more freedom.

Thanks - if its just push the odd button in a FMV sequence thats all fine - I like FMV but not mashing the button or joystick waggling around - does anyone know if the PC version gets rid of this stuff (its the main reason I stuck to the PS2 rather than getting a PS3) ?

In the PC version you'll be using A D E and F for all quick time events and the game gives pretty good ques for which buttons you should be pressing so no. These are not the nightmare quick time events that plague some games.

thanks

 Ouze wrote:

 KalashnikovMarine wrote:
Watching for more reactions from you lot before I consider dropping money on it.

It looks good.... but the last couple games were just so.... bad.

A:CM is literally the only reason I haven't pre-ordered Bioshock Inifinite. So I understand your trepidation.

Well that too, but I meant the last couple Tomb Raider games

Does this game have quick save or save points? Looks decent but I really hate save points...

My fiancee is playing it right now. I walked in and she said 'this is just like Uncharted'. From what I've seen of her playing it, that's not a bad comparison. It really does look like Uncharted with boobs.

Considering Uncharted has long been called 'what Tomb Raider should be', I don't think it's a bad thing at all.

I'm going to have to give it a go after she's finished it.


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 Cave_Dweller wrote:
Does this game have quick save or save points? Looks decent but I really hate save points...

From what I've seen it's a mixture of both. There's set 'camp fires' to save at, but there's also a quicksave checkpoint system like... every other action game in the last 10 years.

I just finished it last night. It was enjoyable enough. The QTE were limited in scope, in that there weren't any complicated sequences of button presses (I hate QTEs in general, and even more so if I have to pay more attention to the button prompts than actually getting to see the animation). I've never seen nor played Uncharted (PC gamer here), so I can't compare to that. Keyboard and Mouse controls worked well enough, for those who care about that (I don't use controllers).

I can't comment on the TressFX, as I have Nvidia graphics card (TressFX is an AMD tech), but I do have to facepalm when I read people complaining about it. For years, most games have been optimized for Nvidia tech, and now a bone finally gets thrown to AMD and people have to whine about it? Until my current card, I've always used AMD graphics and have had to accept not getting all the fancy Nvidia-only goodies.

I only have a few real complaints about the game, MINOR SPOILERS:



First, I wish there was a bit more freedom to explore. While you often have a large map for each area that you can explore for collectibles, there's usually only one predetermined path to your goal in that area.

Second, the events sometime seem just a bit too contrived to make things miserable for Lara. The game is a constant series of Murphy's Laws in action. Structures that have stood for hundreds of years with grown men stomping around on them will suddenly start to collapse in a strong wind (and this is on an island known for regular storms) or when petite Lara puts one foot on them. Sure, it creates more gameplay action, but it does start to get old after awhile.

Finally, the game is supposed to show Lara going from a young and innocent girl into the ass kicker we know from all the other games, but by the end of this game, she's killed hundreds of people, and some in extremely brutal ways, and pretty much passes it off as almost nothing since she's ready to go on another adventure. It's a bit like the problem I had with FarCry 3 in that it starts with the main character having problems coping with what's going on, but in a few hours you've turned into Col. Kurtz from Apocalypse Now. A bit more PTSD would go a long way to humanizing the character, but the only real time in the game where she actually faces the issue is early on when her mentor comments it must have been hard to kill someone, and she replies that it was surprisingly easy.

Perhaps in the next game, there will be a QTE where she struggles to deal with her PTSD prior to raiding a tomb.

 Ouze wrote:
Perhaps in the next game, there will be a QTE where she struggles to deal with her PTSD prior to raiding a tomb.

Right after Six Days in Fallujah gets published.

 Tannhauser42 wrote:
Finally, the game is supposed to show Lara going from a young and innocent girl into the ass kicker we know from all the other games, but by the end of this game, she's killed hundreds of people, and some in extremely brutal ways, and pretty much passes it off as almost nothing since she's ready to go on another adventure. It's a bit like the problem I had with FarCry 3 in that it starts with the main character having problems coping with what's going on, but in a few hours you've turned into Col. Kurtz from Apocalypse Now. A bit more PTSD would go a long way to humanizing the character, but the only real time in the game where she actually faces the issue is early on when her mentor comments it must have been hard to kill someone, and she replies that it was surprisingly easy.

This is another analogue to Uncharted. In the cutscenes, Drake is shown to be averse to violence. In one of the opening cutscenes to Uncharted 2, he's handed a gun during the robbery of a museum, and flatout refuses until it's explained it's a tranquiliser gun. He won't kill unsuspecting people, no matter if they deserve it or not.

Compare that to gameplay, where you are rewarded for sneaking up on people and breaking their neck or throwing them off a 100ft drop - unsuspecting bystanders who just happen to be armed, partularly in regions where it's likely people would be armed even if they're not outright bad people. In a war torn country, citizens would likely arm themselves for protection, but Drake happily snaps their neck. This reluctance also comes in after the first game where he slaughters his way through a few thousand pirates on his way to claiming some treasure.

I think they should at least be given kudos for showing how much of a mental issue it was for Lara the first time she killed someone - it's not something usually explored in these types of games. That cutscene was rather powerful, IMO.

http://benthesage.com/reviews/sr/sage-reviews-tomb-raider/