Tomb raider (2013)
A very competent attempt at revitalising the TR franchise, which had been in a steady decline for quite some time. This new entry brought a different setting and a new Lara, in vein with the extremelly popular Uncharted games, meaning a more straight forward, action packed adventure. The pacing and overall atmosphere of the game is spot on, it draws you in from start to finish, great controls, fluid combat, acceptable exploration and overall lots of fun with the limited sandbox youre given to play with. Even after finishing the campaign, I found myself going back to previous areas and complete the side quests and optional tombs, it was great and felt rewarding enough for a 100% completion.
Now, my only criticism is in how the devs treated the franchise itself, you see, I played this on my old PS3 and had a great time, so much so that I went ahead and got it again for the PC with this improved version. It was clear to me that TR got dumbed down, the old games were unforgiving in terms of difficulty, however, you can bump it all the way if you want a proper challenge, so I can give it a pass. But the puzzles are so laughable when compared to the old games its not even worth going there. back then it was an accomplishment to beat a TR game without a guide or a walkthrough, heck, I did beat the second game without help and it felt great
But with this we also have a bunch of extra outfits for Lara and none of them are based on the older games, not even one, and it really feels as if the devs just flat out dislike the Core era of Tomb Raider which is a shame. I don't mind a re-imagining of Lara, go ahead, but you have to respect the foundations of the character and the franchise. This game is fantastic, it really is, but doesnt feel like a TR game and this version of Lara is nowhere near the original which was fun, sassy and quick witted. I know I'm going on a rant here, but I keep seeing these new kids picking up on older franchises, being video games, movies or TV shows, and disrespecting the originals to a point that a certain disgust starts setting in. You know when you were young and when roleplaying with other kids everyone would just say their character was better just because it was, yeah, thats exactly whats going on.
