I was sceptical at first, I wasn't very interested in a young Lara who is always crying and near a mental break down. But a friend lent me his Steam for a week and I got around to play it. And it was so much better than I expected. The Tomb Raider feeling was there, though there were too many shoot outs for my taste, but at least it made sense storywise. The crafting was fun and useful, and I started looking for secrets which I usually ignore in these games. But here the exploration itself was reward enough, the world design is so well done! I don't buy games on other platforms than gog because I want my games DRM free, so this is a wellcome surprise, I hope the next two games will also pop up very soon so I can start the whole trilogy! That is something I wanted to do for a long time!
Exploration, climbing, atmosphere, level design, Lara's personality, here everything comes together perfectly. The controls are great, as is the camera (which made problems sometimes in the later games). This is one of the examples of a well done reboot. As a bonus it still looks very nice!
This is a great remake, but be aware that it is buggy. The first time I wasn't able to finish it because of some scripted event just not activating. It might help to enable VSync, the second time I played this everything worked with this hint from the net. Controls are ok, but sometimes Lara just doesn't do what she is supposed to. Jumping in a weird angle, or just refusing to jump at all. Patience in these situations is a virtue, but it makes an already tough game (especially near the end) even tougher. After all it doesn't feel as polished as Legend. But was it worth it? Yes, in the end I'm glad I played through it. The atmosphere, the reimaginations of the classic levels, that's all top notch!
Let's cut it short Pros: - Great atmosphere - good graphics - great sound design - interesting setting and story Contras: - no own savegames, you can quicksave, but in the end you have only four slots which you can't really control. If you made a mistake (like I did) and want to turn the situation around, chances are you are screwed for good. - silent protagonist. If your comrades panic over radio and ask if you are ok, but you just don't talk to them, it feels like I'm playing an asshole. Or in other conversations, I feel like I'm the dumbest person on earth because I can't even answer the simplest questions. And my wife talks to me and talks and talks and I just don't say anything to her. And she is still head over heels for me. This finally kills the mood the game sets up. - no FOV slider. I'm not playing this on console, so why do I have to edit an .ini-file? Seriously? - no change of difficulty ingame. If you discover after two hours that this mode isn't for you, you can start all over, with all the ingame cutscenes that take forever in Moscow. Not fun. There is so much potential, but even simple things were screwed up. Still, it gets tree stars because if you can ignore these errors and can live with the occasional frustration, there is a very atmospheric world to explore.
