I'm a Tomb Raider of old fanboy and the thing that irks me the most about this "new direction" is that we may never get to see what the next evolutionary step for the Tomb Raider franchise will be. The last TR games released had some interested puzzles which involved mass and weight, and the last game to come out had you exploring the ocean and made swimming really fun. I was curious to see what the next game would have been like. Maybe more physics or mass and weight based puzzles. I kind of accepted the co-op game with the indian dude as an in-between break between main games, but I'm not excited to try out the new Laura Croft game. Just give me some cool puzzles man. I appreciate your thoughts on this game. You pretty much read my mind on the subject of the TR reboot. I'll eventually try out the new game, but I'll just keep replaying the wonderful HD collection for now.
Why I Cannot Beat the Tomb Raider Reboot
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 On 05/11/2013 at 04:30 PM by Casey Curran See More From This User » |
I have reached that point in the Tomb Raider reboot where I cannot take it anymore. This game is boring. Ignoring any comparisons to the past games it is not technically doing much wrong. Controls are tight, weapons (especially the shotgun) feel good, and the graphics are stunning. Yet these are not ingredients to good game design, they are garnishes. And that's why Tomb Raider is such a bore: Gameplay elements are either outclassed by another game, don't really work right, or too easy.
It feels like a mix of Far Cry, Uncharted, and Metal Gear Solid 3 yet neither captures what made any of them fun nor creates an identity of its own. Far Cry's appeal, for instance, is how it succeeds as a sandbox game with open shooting segments. This clashes terribly with how Tomb Raider's island is more like a more connected Metal Gear Solid 3. Meanwhile it lacks the wealth of options in how you approach a scenario MGS3 provided. There was usually one way, maybe two you could approach a scenario. The stealth felt more like Uncharted while the firefights felt like MGS3 with Uncharted's controls. In other words, the exact opposite of what could have made it great.
Meanwhile it lacks what made UC's setpieces great: That you were in control of them. You still had all the movement options while a building was crumbling down. You had to decide yourself when to jump from one truck to another. You were doing crazy things, but you never lost control of Nathan Drake. Tomb Raider's either limit control or do it during a quick time event. Setpieces only really work when the game offers full control, othewise I am just focusing on how I feel limited rather than the awesome things that are happening on screen.
LOOK AT ME!!! I'M A REBOOT THAT IS GRITTIER AND MORE REALISTIC
There was one instance where I was truly enjoying the stealth and shooting. It took place in a huge section of the island, the shooting was actually great. I would hide in a hut shooting arrows through the window, taking note what direction they were heading to the entrance with and sneak out only to take a few out from behind then sneak away before the ones in the front noticed. It was intense. It made me think. It was still a little too easy, but I had fun which I cannot say for the rest of the game.
New Lara is more realistic and put in a scenario that tries to make her more than just another action hero. Yet the irony in this is that Crystal Dynamics thought this would be enough and in doing so Lara in Legend (the best representation of the character) is much more interesting.
The real crime with Lara however is they give us a huge cast of characters yet use only one of them to have her show any emotion and even then it is passable at best. Everyone else around her age feels like nothing more than a stock character while the rest either made me feel nothing when something terrible would happen to them or in one case cheer over it. Legend and Underworld had her exchange some very fun and witty banter between Zip and Alister which despite happening while she would perform near superhero like feats of strength and agility felt more real and human than anything in the reboot.
Okay, but let's say you do not like the old cheesy action girl. You need the down to earth option. Well, I have new for you: Lara is still an action girl, they're just pretending very badly that she is not. This has frankly been said a thousand times, but it is true: She takes out a small army on her own yet is still shown to be vulnerable. It is very similar to what the aformentioned games Uncharted, Far Cry 3, and MGS3 did. So why did it work in those games when it did not work in Tomb Raider?
Let's start with the one that pulled it off worst: Uncharted. I know people have issues with UC for the same reason, but it never bugged me because I always thought it did a good job of just demonstrating Nathan Drake is really, really lucky. His snide comments work in the game's favor as he comments on how he can't believe he just did that. It helps present that this was a 1 in a million shot and he actually made it. I'm not saying this will work for everyone but in Tomb Raider not doing this, so it gives the impression that Lara could very easily do these tasks again.
I'm an awesome game that just so happened to reboot this series first.
Far Cry 3 (cannot comment on the first two as I haven't played enough) meanwhile pulled this off in how it showed that Jason was becoming less human as the game progressed. He was tapping into his wild side while Lara remains more or less the same person as the game progresses. There was no arc to her. And don't even get me started on MGS3. In a game with a guy juggling revolvers, a guy who controls bees, and Eva doing a flip on her motorcycle, a guy plowing through a small army was the least of my worries. Also Snake was at least a military guy. Tomb Raider tries to make Lara a vulnerable college aged girl in way over her head. The gameplay however turns her into female Solid Snake.
Then there's other things that do not make any sense. Shooting an arrow into a barrel causes it to explode. Lara at one point takes a fall that beats her up so much that jumping hurts her...yet she still takes bullets like a pro. This is not an exception to Tomb Raider, it is a rule. It sets itself up as more realistic, yet only tries making things this way when it is convenient.
The platforming? Don't make me laugh. I could go on for days, but this blog is getting long enough. As far as timing based platforming goes, it slows it down to bullet time every time this would be really challenging, making it impossible to fail. The "How do I get there?" moments meanwhile are gone. There was a part where I had to get up a radio tower and it was just a simple climb. No severely broken pieces I had to navigate a cliff to get over, no grappling from one area for another. Just Lara climbing. In a fucking cutscene.
Lara was better with bigger T&A and not because she had bigger T&A
I am not going to turn this into an Assassin's Creed 3 because frankly it is way too boring for me to get pissed over. It's not bad, it's average in every single way imaginable because Crystal Dynamics made a game that was safe in every way imaginable. Weapon upgrades, leveling perks, stealth, a gritty and more down to earth take on Lara, Uncharted-esque scripted events, and an open island to explore do not exist because they would fit in well. They are in because other much better games who found success with them and Crystal Dynamics wanted a piece of that.
In doing so, Tomb Raider is a game developed to make money. There is little time spent on tough puzzles because they were afraid people will trade in the game if they got stuck. The timing based platforming bits slow things down because they were afraid people would trade it in if they had to repeat a section too often. It is a shooter because they were afraid people would not buy a platformer. The sections where I just experimented, trying to figure out how to get to the next area, those were the best parts of the game. I am trading it in because I was not figuring out how to get to the next area enough and would rather play a much better shooter with a much better story.
If you want a platformer, buy one of the other Crystal Dynamics TR games, a Prince of Persia, or Sly 4. Hell, even Devil May Cry is offering better platforming than this. If you want a game about a college student trying desperately to survive and save their friends on an island, buy Far Cry 3. I could go on and on with this, but my point is no matter what need you want out of Tomb Raider, there is some game which does it much better. And that is why I will not beat this game.
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