The reboot of "Tomb Raider" is a brand new take on iconic heroine Lara Croft. This new title is the best "Tomb Raider" yet.
"Tomb Raider" is the story of a young Lara Croft. We meet her while out sailing with friends and colleagues as they search for the lost Japanese city of Yamatai. This is where Lara's story begins, and this is where she learns to toughen up and become the heroine we've grown to love.
At the beginning of the game, Lara is on a ship in the middle of a crazy storm and she gets thrown off of her bed — the first of many times Lara will be thrown off something. Things quickly escalate as Lara gets smacked in the head by an unknown assailant. She awakens tied upside down in a mysterious cave.
The first thing you realize is that Lara is not a killer. She had emotional problems after making her first kill, which was only a deer. Later in the game, when enemies attempt to kill her, she pleads with them to leave her alone because she doesn't want to kill anyone.
When the game truly begins and the player is pushed into taking on enemies, climbing and jumping, many gamers will realize how similar Tomb Raider is to other, better, titles. Lara's "Survivor Instinct" is similar to the Detective Vision in "Batman: Arkham Asylum." The way Lara is always falling or having something always falling on her is similar to "Uncharted." In fact, many parts of Tomb Raider shamelessly ripoff "Uncharted."
While climbing and jumping plays a huge role in Tomb Raider, not every area is accessible at first. Like "Metroid" or "Castlevania" games, players will have to come back to certain areas once they've unlocked a new skill or gotten a better piece of equipment.
We also liked the open-world aspect of Tomb Raider. While it's not a full open-world, it does allow the player to return to places you have explored before by way of fast travel. This is a great addition, as it makes for doing non-quest-related things without replaying the entire level. Sadly, gathering items in the game that have nothing to do with upgrading weapons adds zero to the gameplay. It's a complete waste of time.
With such a great singleplayer, the developer chose to tack on a very lackluster multiplayer mode. Tomb Raider doesn't need multiplayer.