The history of Tomb Raider dates back to the advent of professional 3D development. A few great pioneers from the early days of 8-bit 3D had made great strides in bringing forth bold new ideas that rapidly saw the advancement of 3D animation and environment generation.
Tomb Raider was destined to become a massive success creating a world gamers had never seen come to life with state of the art animation and brilliantly well design puzzles that occasionally encompassed an entire level.
It also introduced Lara Croft to the world. The world quickly embraced her and her digital fate was set. Immortality beckoned.
Last year, we saw a brand new Tomb Raider game taking the origins road. We are reintroduced to Lara once again but at an earlier time in her life, long she became a supreme athlete and a dead shot expert and wielding dual pistols. Like most resilient human beings, we soon discover that Lara has a knack for survival. She is tough and determined and lucky.
The new Tomb Raider introduced many new and not so new elements and meticulously packaged it. The game balanced all these elements seamlessly to give the gamer an outstanding experience. The game world was divided into areas which were filled with challenges and dangers to keep the player on their toes. It introduced a crafting section which gradually provided better upgrades to the numerous tools and weapons available. It also gave the player new skills and techniques to overcome obstacles. This allowed the designers to slowly introduce more abilities to Lara. It was a great touch that was well paced.
Now comes the continuing saga of young Lady Croft and this time she is thrown into a much larger environment compared to her last adventure. As expected, the developers retained all the best elements from the previous game and introduced a host of new ones to enhance the experience.
Making its debut are the tombs. Hidden around the game are an ample number of tombs that draw the player away from the main story and introduces a massive puzzle in the form of each tomb. Each tomb is mentally challenging but not to the point that draws out frustration. Beating each tomb provides it own set of rewards and guarantees personal satisfaction.
Another great addition is the inclusion of sub quests. Lara can take on special missions to help a variety of non player characters that people the game world. While not quite as challenging, they provide a change of pace.
Crafting returns better than ever. Salvaging and scavenging is vitally important if Lara is expected to improve her gear. The game also presents the ability for Lara to craft ammunition on the fly. This an important feature in one of the many life or death situations Lara will be faced with. This on the fly crafting allows her to modify arrows, for instance, to use explosive tips or simply tipped with poison.
Gameplay has been spiced up noticeably. Players can hone Lara with a variety of skills and ability that will make her more silent, cunning and deadly.
Each scenario offers a a few different ways to overcome. Combat can be conducted with a soft or hard approach. But Lara can also use deceptive methods to distract opponents that can be modified to lure enemies into deathtraps. The freedom to tackle each challenge really adds to the excellence that this Tomb Raider offers.
There isn't much originality in the whole damn story. But then again the Tomb Raider games were always well known for the heart stopping action and mind numbing puzzles. Story took a backseat as it does in this new incarnation as well.
Conclusion
While it delivers is the best Tomb Raider title to date it comes highly recommended as a farewell gift to the previous generation consoles and a fitting swansong to the console gamers who have to abandoned the old for the new.
For the current gen, here is a game that has traits lacking many of today's new console games. Substance, great gameplay and that good old feeling of excitement and accomplishment that was thought long dead throughout the last year.
SquareEnix has to be commended for being the foremost publishing software house in the last 10 years. They have boldly backed risque project that would otherwise have not seen the light of day. Their faith gave us gems that includes Rise of the Tomb Raider and hopefully many more memorable giants of the gaming era in the future.
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