The Tomb Raider series has walked a hard road. Once considered a cultural touchstone, as game design moved towards shooting and away from platforming and linear "exploration," the series failed to adapt. Lara Croft has never fully dissappeared, but she's a shadow of her former self. Or at least she was. Reviews for Crystal Dynamics' reboot are in and it sounds like the new Tomb Raider is no longer a name that gamers can dismiss.
It's impossible to ignore the fact that the new Tomb Raider liberally borrows a fair number of gameplay elements from Uncharted, the series' spritual successor. Like Uncharted, Tomb Raider uses highly stylized camerawork and a hefty dose of cinematic cutscenes to successfully establish the feeling of being in the game that many games shoot for and few games actually accomplish. Gamespot's Carolyn Petit calls the game's setpieces "jaw-dropping," but notes that the game is at its best when players are "fully in control."
Similarly, while fans may notice similarities between Tomb Raider's combat with Uncharted, reviewers generally agree the combat has its own style, one that counters the series' reputation for lousy shooting. IGN's Keza McDonald was not only happy with the game's combat, but also its balance: "Whether with a bow, a shotgun or a pistol, fighting is fun, and crucially there's not too much of it (though the body-count is certainly high)." Destructoid editor Jim Sterling, who gave the game an 8.5, particularly appreciated the game's take on a contextual cover system: "The game's contextual animation is superb, and seems to know exactly the correct thing to do in any given situation."
The most important element of Tomb Raider is, of course, Lara Croft herself. Reviewers agree that, independent of the game's overall plot, Lara's character arc has interesting narrative of its own. The new Tomb Raider is an origin story: Instead of raiding tombs Lara begins as an academic forced into terrible situation. Game Informer's Matt Miller points out that, while the emphasis on Lara's transformation from survivor to warrior doesn't stay in focus for the whole game, it kickstarts the development of a well-executed character: "Emotional, nuanced voice acting and stellar animation for the character help make her believable, even if that focus on authenticity is at odds with Lara's seemingly inhuman ability to suffer wounds, falls, stabs, and burns and still marshal on." Miller scored the game 9.25 out of 10.
Some writers noted that the game's initial attempt to make Lara vulnerable by beating Lara down goes a little too far, leading to some uncomfortable moments. Eurogamer's Ellie Gibson says: "When Lara's not screaming, shrieking, panting or squealing, she's busy getting chased, groped and tied up. When she dies, it's with the kind of orgasmic groan that would make Ben Dover demand another take that's less over-the-top."
Though Tomb Raider does everything you'd expect from an action-adventure, and does it well, not everyone feels the game lived up to its potential. While EGM's Eric L. Patterson, who gave the game an 8, didn't have a problem with the game's systems or performance, he felt it devolved from a game about survival into a very recognizable third-person shooter: "It isn't long before I find myself comparing the Lara we're given here to late-era John McClane. Obviously, we know that our main character will never not pull through-but the ease at which Lara overcomes every danger she faces makes it hard to appreciate the journey she's supposedly struggling to survive."
As invested as they were with game's single-player campaign, reviewers seem less enthused about the multiplayer offerings. Polygon's Phil Kollar called it "the inverse of the single-player," because it "pulls together many of the best traits of the current generation of game design; the former, many of the worst - specifically shoehorning in multiplayer where it's not needed." GamesRadar's Ryan Taljonick is more succinct, simply stating the multiplayer "isn't fully realized."
It sounds like Tomb Raider is a worthy successor to the original series. It may not be a unique, groundbreaking experience, but it's an extremely well-executed game for fans of action games, shooters, and interactive storytelling.
UPDATE: It's launch day, which means it's time for a launch day trailer. Enjoy.