Review: Tomb Raider (2013)

• April 12, 2013
• James Skemp
• gaming, review

Reboot: Successful

I've never bought a Tomb Raider game before this one. Actually, I did buy the Lara Croft PSN/Xbox Live game, but that's not really a Tomb Raider game in the classic sense. I also received a free copy of Tomb Raider: Underworld via PlayStation Plus, but I've yet to finish it, and don't have much drive to.

However, Tomb Raider is not only the first Lara Croft game I've paid full price for, but one of a very few games I've picked up almost immediately after it was released. And it wasn't a bad decision.

After playing Tomb Raider I not only cared about Lara's story, I want it to continue. I want to pick up Tomb Raider 2 (or whatever they call it).

So it has a good story. How about the game play? I dare say that it's taken what Uncharted has done and stepped it up a level. Done what Darksiders II should have done to successfully follow up Darksiders' Zelda-like features. It is a sandbox game that knows when to stop expanding, and when to draw the story to a close.

The only issue I really have with the game is the multiplayer. Trophies/achievements give you an idea of what the developers were thinking. Almost a third of the trophies/achievements for this game are in multiplayer. However, the multiplayer is, at best, lackluster. And with the announcement that future DLC will only be for the multiplayer, I'm disappointed they felt they had to throw MP into an otherwise solid game.

Despite this, it takes nothing away from the core experience. Tomb Raider is a solid game, and I found it to be well worth the $60, and at less than that it would be a steal.

5 of 5 stars (or 9 out of 10).

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