Tomb Raider (PlayStation 3)


Note: There is a lot of blood and gore if that is something that bothers you.

Tomb Raider for the PS3 follows the adventures of Lara Croft before she was a dual pistol wielding, badass archeologist, to when she was a... single pistol wielding, slightly less badass archeologist. This is an origin story of sorts for the iconic character. On an expedition with a small team including her friend Sam and a famous senior archeologist, Lara and co. are searching for Himiko, an ancestor of Sam's and previous Sun Queen of the Island of Yamatai. Lara's instincts tell them to head in to the Dragon's Triangle, an area of strong storms, in order to find this Himiko. After some convincing, the crew agrees.



Fortunately Lara's instincts were correct. The Island of Yamatai and Himiko were indeed where she thought they were. Unfortunately the strong storms cause a crash landing on this island. This leads to the crew getting separated and trying to find a way to escape. There's more to the island than it seems, however, and escape might not be so easy. Lara Croft must face angry wolves, a crazy cult, and supernatural storms in order to get herself and her crew away from Yamatai.



Tomb Raider is an action-adventure game where you control Lara Croft and watch her go from scared and uncertain to determined and strong. This involves shooting enemies, rock climbing, crate burning, shooting more enemies, rope climbing, falling down stuff and barely surviving, shooting more enemies, enjoying some story, upgrading your stuff, and continuing to shoot enemies. You'll gain a variety of equipment on your adventure including a pickaxe, a pistol, a shotgun, a rifle, and a bow and arrow (my favourite). You'll get a few other things and you can upgrade your equipment as you find salvage and as the story progresses. You'll also gain skill points to give Lara some skills such as stabbing people with arrows or shooting them in the face. Also quick time events. Be ready for those.



The game progresses at a pretty even pace and slowly introduces to you new concepts and equipment to use so you don't easily feel overwhelmed. The game also auto-saves quite frequently so dying is not a huge problem as you can just restart and try again. These things may not be as good for the hardened fan, but if you're new to the series and the genre, this is a very good introduction game as it has a smooth learning curve and isn't very punishing, allowing new people to try it without getting frustrated. With that being said, your skills will definitely be tested in the later part of the game as you'll be faced with increasingly difficult puzzles and more challenging groups of foes. While the game is mostly linear, there are certain areas that allow for wider exploration and you'll often be able to fast travel to previous locations in order to collect new stuff with your upgraded equipment. There are a ton of collectables hidden all over the island for you to try and find, and these add some atmosphere and lore to the game.



Overall I enjoyed Tomb Raider much more than I was expecting. It isn't really my genre of choice since I'm not very good at them and don't have the best reflexes or stealth skills to be successful. As I said though, this one is very beginner friendly and I never found myself frustrated or overwhelmed. It provided some freedom in terms of how I would upgrade my stuff and what weapons to use, but it also guided me along new gameplay mechanics at a pace I could keep up with. While some areas still challenged me and I died (a lot), I was able to quickly retry and improve, which was nice. I really enjoyed exploring the island and finding collectables. There was a good variety of different areas to explore and the story was pretty interesting. The characters interacted in a way that felt natural and believable, and Lara grew as a character in a subtle but substantial way that I appreciated. I will definitely try the new Tomb Raider when I get a chance and I had a lot of fun with this game, more than I thought I would.

Verdict:
LIKED IT