Tomb Raider GOTY

This is a great action video game, very gore and very violent. Once you've started you never stop before reaching the end, always with bated breath and never getting bored. However, it has one major flaw, namely that of being called TOMB RAIDER, given that it has nothing to do with the latter. ADVISED!

Or press F. Or mash F. Or press E. But only in a very specific moment, otherwise you'll light a torch. And sometimes it's hard to tell if you're in a cutscene, or you're about to die, because you didn't start moving right after the cutscene apparently ended. It's a fairly fun game. Somewhat linear, but it's all right. The graphics are nice, jumping around and scoring headshots is quite enjoyable. But the QTEs and button mashing are the horse fly in the creme brulee.

It's one of very few games that I wanted to finish most of it. At the end I had like ~95% completion. I had lot of fun with it, good for 80% prize. Pros: - diverse world - it's a place of different cultures & sceneries - huge part of collectibles are good - each relics & documents give you some information & image interlocked with main "story", they are not huge amount of them, some of them are in harder to reach places - exploration requires some little thinking, it's not just "press some key" to climb some building like in first Assassin creed. - Most fights weren't very long and had few different things to show. - Characters (mainly through "documents") aren't very boring. Not something very memorable but they more or less fit into story. - puzzles are not very hard - some tombs have interesting puzzles - from time to time game changes from shooter/stealth game to something else. It's not always great but it's novelty Cons: - requiring certain tool/weapon makes you go back to certain places or go back to thing with a new tool/weapon. At least it's mainly at the beginning of the game. - Sometimes you just have to press a key to move. There is no danger or other interesting things. - Fights not very diverse. You shoot some random guys when they are in larger group. With smaller group you can: 1) kill some guys stealthily and finish them later with other methods. 2) try to blind them and attack them with in CQC situation (requires some upgrades) - mash E to do some stuffs - fast travel is not nice. You can only travel when you are in specific places. - Collecting stuffs is boring -> later in a game even you have all tools and know what to do you still have to do many stuffs - Hunting just gives you some stuffs & exp. I think there is only one situation where heroine needs meat. - some upgrades are not very noticeable - few times game requires you to do exact things to reach certain place even when you should be able to do it other way (e.g. she won't grab edges).

PROS ------- -Well optimized, will run great on high settings -Great gameplay & level design with focused linear maps -Good voice acting -Great feminine Lara model. -Serviceable story that at least tries to be coherent. -Great visuals that hold up by todays standards. -Minimal but decent mods available on Nexus Mods. CONS -------- -Over reliance on QTE(Quick Time Events). Takes away player autonomy. -Too many "disaster" cutscenes. Used to pad the game runtime. Takes away player autonomy. -Very few tombs. They are basic rooms with very little puzzling. -Mature subject matter. A bit more gory then previous TR titles. BOTTOM LINE ------------------ This is a good game & a steal if you get it on sale. Probably the best 5 bucks you will ever spend. It was realeased in 2013 but still holds up today. It's a lot of fun & entertaining for the average 12 hour gametime.

This made Tomb Raider finally playable for me. In earlier games, when you hit forward on your keyboard, Lara moved into the direction, that she was facing and the camera and you as the player had to deal with that somehow. I never really could. Now when you hit forward, Lara moves into the direction the camera and you as the player are looking, regardless of the direction Lara happens to be facing right now. That changed everything for me. For the better. There are a few QTEs in the game, but luckily not many. Most of the time you will be fighting, climbing and occasionally exlore a tomb or two. All of that will feel very good. I've played through that game at least ten times by now.