![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Generic Of The Tomb Raider
Apr. 24th, 2019 05:04 pmHello I have been playing a TOMB RAIDER GAME, it is not the latest one, it is called RISE OF HER and apparently it's been out for YEARS and I just ignored it until last week.
1) Overall it is polished, the various elements such as skill and weapon upgrades and resource gathering are quite tidy and straightforward. Graphics aside from the odd funny-looking NPC are good. The survival instinct mechanic (which makes useful things glow) returns which makes completing some of the optional quests a bit less tedious than they might be.
2) There is no minimap! I need a minimap! But only if it's useful. The main map is frequently not useful, and I have the same problem as with FFXV in that your destination is very close but you can't physically get there because of many barriers that aren't shown on the map. Luckily teleporting around is quite easy as there are about 35 fast travel sites.
3) Classic Tomb Raider puzzling is again limited. There are I think 9 optional tombs and some of them have great, classic-feel puzzles, but each tomb tends to only have the one puzzle. There are also optional "crypts" which don't have puzzles in at all, just a bit of gloomy platforming if you're lucky.
4) That thing of unlocking moves as you go works imperfectly. It's usually a way to create a soft-barrier (at least it always was with games like Banjo-Kazooie back in the day) but it just makes Lara look under-skilled and under-prepared. It's a bit silly how she'll happen across something that would have been useful before and she just didn't bother with. Platforming on the whole is fine and somewhat reminiscent of Legend with its rope swinging and such, but there's very little real challenge in it.
5) Environments are very generic. It doesn't help that aside from one section the whole thing is in one part of the world, so it lacks the variety of many of the classic games. There's certainly nothing like Legend's Japan level, for example, or TR3's Aldwych for another.
6) There are a handful of references to TR2 which I appreciated, including a music cue in the Croft Manor library (more on that in a mo), a journal in which the butler complains about being locked in the freezer by a mischievous younger Lara, references to a Tibetan monastery and the warriors of Xian, an unlockable TR2 costume (which I used for all the post-game stuff - it worked surprisingly well) and more.
7) Overall the game was more comfortable with its legacy than the previous one, and the Croft Manor level was a good example of that, giving you a short puzzle-based adventure that involved exploring the house. It's a shame this level was limited in its platforming, and thus lags behind some of the classic Croft Manor levels (TR3, Legend and Anniversary most obviously).
8) Music is very ordinary and forgettable, lacking the distinctive melodic themes of classic games. I think the original main theme is half-quoted during one of the optional tombs, but it's low-key enough that I can't be sure. It's not a terrible score, it suits the tone and is in the same overall style as Folmann's excellent scores for Legend and Anniversary, it's just very bland
9) There is a fair bit of combat, more than I care for, and in particular there are some semi-scripted fights that I found irritating. You are expected to use a variety of items lying around to distract / hurt enemies and Lara can craft molotovs on the fly etc, but usually I just ran in and blasted folk with me shotgun. Another possible reference to TR2 is the terrible AI of the baddies who tend to just stand there even when the guy next to them just got an arrow in the head. Then again, sometimes they are T-posing while they stand there, so maybe it's just buggy.
10) There are some insanely tough animals to kill, such as bears and tigers. To give you an idea of how tough, I shot one of them several hundred times with rifle rounds, a shotgun, and flaming napalm arrows, and he wasn't bovvered, even when he was literally on fire. He eventually succumbed to a couple of poisoned arrows. Possibly he's simply immune to everything except that, I don't know.
11) There is a "score attack" mode that is similar to the old time-trial modes from the Legend trilogy, but much more complex, as you have to play with deliberate penalties such as weaker health to get a decent score. I played this for a bit but got fed up quite quickly, and as the trophies have a completion rate of around 2%, I wasn't the only one. (Completion of the main storyline is around 50%, which isn't as bad as it sounds, plenty of games are in the 30%s.) It's a nice idea but over-engineered. Also I think it's a mistake when developers show just how little content their games have by showing that each one of a couple-of-dozen sections can be completed in around five minutes if you know what you're doing.
12) The ending of the story felt quite drawn out to me. There's one bit where you have no choice but to backtrack over quite a large area two or three times to progress. That said, I think one of the side-quests I did was actually DLC that they included in the version I bought, so maybe the game felt a bit too long overall because of that. Certainly a game that's too long is preferable to one that's too short, like Legend and Underworld were.
13) The basic plot is, well, basic. Some bad folk want immortality, spoilers, they don't get it. Characters are quite lightly-developed. I don't think Rhianna Pratchett is a very good writer, but perhaps she's just not suited to AAA games. The dialogue is full of cliches, and the whole thing feel rather pre-fabricated, as if the game was not so much designed as assembled from whatever was in stock. Voice acting is a bit better than the previous one but nothing special. Overall I feel nostalgic for the banter between Lara, Zip and Alistair in Legend, particularly during the King Arthur's Tomb section.
CURRENT PETE RANKINGS OF TOMB RAIDER GAMES LOL:
Tomb Raider (i.e. TR1, i.e. the first one ever)
Dated and a bit unpolished, but a beautiful learning curve and like nothing else at the time.
Tomb Raider Legend
My favourite of the Legend trilogy, it's all great but overall a bit on the short side.
Tomb Raider II
Possibly this should be higher but I didn't want it to look like I was just going in order. A more refined and varied experience than the first one, only the combat lets the side down.
Tomb Raider III
Perhaps a bit too difficult overall, and also not that different from II, but some great levels such as Aldwych save the day.
Rise of the Tomb Raider
Provisionally a mid-table entry, the game is perfectly competent but unambitious and the optional tomb puzzles give a glimpse of what might have been.
Tomb Raider Underworld
I haven't played this in years so maybe it deserves to be a bit higher or lower. Rounds out the trilogy nicely, the opening sequence is memorable and effective and there are some gorgeous levels, but like Legend it's rather short.
Tomb Raider (i.e. the reboot, i.e. the one before this one)
Almost might as well be a different franchise, given Lara's comparative newbness and distinct lack of the devil-may-care insouciance that was her trademark. Fast-travel stops it from being a too-linear Uncharted clone, but there's too much killing dudes and too little raiding tombs.
Tomb Raider Anniversary
Looks and sounds gorgeous, and the only decent length in the Legend trilogy, but there are a number of mis-steps in comparison with the game it's trying to homage (turning the T-Rex into a fully-fledged boss fight, for instance).
Tomb Raider Chronicles
I don't think I even completed this. The original PS1 engine was looking long-in-the-tooth, but the idea of telling several flashback short-stories to remember the departed Lara (she dies in the fourth one lol) stops it from being completely stale.
Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation
I had to go look up the title for this, which is not a promising sign. It was supposed to be a back-to-basics after the controversial III, with a large number of short, crisp levels set around Egyptian ruins. A great idea, but somehow I never got very far into it, and you almost never hear anyone mention anything about it.
Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness
I also never got far into this, it was buggy as hell on the PC at least, with lots of random freezes and clipping through walls. An attempt at a more story-driven adventure, it was a bit of a mess, with unintuitive controls and an initially underskilled Lara. But the worst thing was Lara wore DENIM!!!! DENIM!!!! Lara Croft in DENIM!!!! Like a PERSON!!!!!!! WRONGNESS.
So that is my thinks as to Tomb Raidery. There is another one out with another forgettable title (just guess one of the Planet of the Apes titles, chances are it'll be near enough). So one day I will be playing BATTLE FOR THE PLANET OF THE TOMB RAIDER!!!! Or something idek
1) Overall it is polished, the various elements such as skill and weapon upgrades and resource gathering are quite tidy and straightforward. Graphics aside from the odd funny-looking NPC are good. The survival instinct mechanic (which makes useful things glow) returns which makes completing some of the optional quests a bit less tedious than they might be.
2) There is no minimap! I need a minimap! But only if it's useful. The main map is frequently not useful, and I have the same problem as with FFXV in that your destination is very close but you can't physically get there because of many barriers that aren't shown on the map. Luckily teleporting around is quite easy as there are about 35 fast travel sites.
3) Classic Tomb Raider puzzling is again limited. There are I think 9 optional tombs and some of them have great, classic-feel puzzles, but each tomb tends to only have the one puzzle. There are also optional "crypts" which don't have puzzles in at all, just a bit of gloomy platforming if you're lucky.
4) That thing of unlocking moves as you go works imperfectly. It's usually a way to create a soft-barrier (at least it always was with games like Banjo-Kazooie back in the day) but it just makes Lara look under-skilled and under-prepared. It's a bit silly how she'll happen across something that would have been useful before and she just didn't bother with. Platforming on the whole is fine and somewhat reminiscent of Legend with its rope swinging and such, but there's very little real challenge in it.
5) Environments are very generic. It doesn't help that aside from one section the whole thing is in one part of the world, so it lacks the variety of many of the classic games. There's certainly nothing like Legend's Japan level, for example, or TR3's Aldwych for another.
6) There are a handful of references to TR2 which I appreciated, including a music cue in the Croft Manor library (more on that in a mo), a journal in which the butler complains about being locked in the freezer by a mischievous younger Lara, references to a Tibetan monastery and the warriors of Xian, an unlockable TR2 costume (which I used for all the post-game stuff - it worked surprisingly well) and more.
7) Overall the game was more comfortable with its legacy than the previous one, and the Croft Manor level was a good example of that, giving you a short puzzle-based adventure that involved exploring the house. It's a shame this level was limited in its platforming, and thus lags behind some of the classic Croft Manor levels (TR3, Legend and Anniversary most obviously).
8) Music is very ordinary and forgettable, lacking the distinctive melodic themes of classic games. I think the original main theme is half-quoted during one of the optional tombs, but it's low-key enough that I can't be sure. It's not a terrible score, it suits the tone and is in the same overall style as Folmann's excellent scores for Legend and Anniversary, it's just very bland
9) There is a fair bit of combat, more than I care for, and in particular there are some semi-scripted fights that I found irritating. You are expected to use a variety of items lying around to distract / hurt enemies and Lara can craft molotovs on the fly etc, but usually I just ran in and blasted folk with me shotgun. Another possible reference to TR2 is the terrible AI of the baddies who tend to just stand there even when the guy next to them just got an arrow in the head. Then again, sometimes they are T-posing while they stand there, so maybe it's just buggy.
10) There are some insanely tough animals to kill, such as bears and tigers. To give you an idea of how tough, I shot one of them several hundred times with rifle rounds, a shotgun, and flaming napalm arrows, and he wasn't bovvered, even when he was literally on fire. He eventually succumbed to a couple of poisoned arrows. Possibly he's simply immune to everything except that, I don't know.
11) There is a "score attack" mode that is similar to the old time-trial modes from the Legend trilogy, but much more complex, as you have to play with deliberate penalties such as weaker health to get a decent score. I played this for a bit but got fed up quite quickly, and as the trophies have a completion rate of around 2%, I wasn't the only one. (Completion of the main storyline is around 50%, which isn't as bad as it sounds, plenty of games are in the 30%s.) It's a nice idea but over-engineered. Also I think it's a mistake when developers show just how little content their games have by showing that each one of a couple-of-dozen sections can be completed in around five minutes if you know what you're doing.
12) The ending of the story felt quite drawn out to me. There's one bit where you have no choice but to backtrack over quite a large area two or three times to progress. That said, I think one of the side-quests I did was actually DLC that they included in the version I bought, so maybe the game felt a bit too long overall because of that. Certainly a game that's too long is preferable to one that's too short, like Legend and Underworld were.
13) The basic plot is, well, basic. Some bad folk want immortality, spoilers, they don't get it. Characters are quite lightly-developed. I don't think Rhianna Pratchett is a very good writer, but perhaps she's just not suited to AAA games. The dialogue is full of cliches, and the whole thing feel rather pre-fabricated, as if the game was not so much designed as assembled from whatever was in stock. Voice acting is a bit better than the previous one but nothing special. Overall I feel nostalgic for the banter between Lara, Zip and Alistair in Legend, particularly during the King Arthur's Tomb section.
CURRENT PETE RANKINGS OF TOMB RAIDER GAMES LOL:
Tomb Raider (i.e. TR1, i.e. the first one ever)
Dated and a bit unpolished, but a beautiful learning curve and like nothing else at the time.
Tomb Raider Legend
My favourite of the Legend trilogy, it's all great but overall a bit on the short side.
Tomb Raider II
Possibly this should be higher but I didn't want it to look like I was just going in order. A more refined and varied experience than the first one, only the combat lets the side down.
Tomb Raider III
Perhaps a bit too difficult overall, and also not that different from II, but some great levels such as Aldwych save the day.
Rise of the Tomb Raider
Provisionally a mid-table entry, the game is perfectly competent but unambitious and the optional tomb puzzles give a glimpse of what might have been.
Tomb Raider Underworld
I haven't played this in years so maybe it deserves to be a bit higher or lower. Rounds out the trilogy nicely, the opening sequence is memorable and effective and there are some gorgeous levels, but like Legend it's rather short.
Tomb Raider (i.e. the reboot, i.e. the one before this one)
Almost might as well be a different franchise, given Lara's comparative newbness and distinct lack of the devil-may-care insouciance that was her trademark. Fast-travel stops it from being a too-linear Uncharted clone, but there's too much killing dudes and too little raiding tombs.
Tomb Raider Anniversary
Looks and sounds gorgeous, and the only decent length in the Legend trilogy, but there are a number of mis-steps in comparison with the game it's trying to homage (turning the T-Rex into a fully-fledged boss fight, for instance).
Tomb Raider Chronicles
I don't think I even completed this. The original PS1 engine was looking long-in-the-tooth, but the idea of telling several flashback short-stories to remember the departed Lara (she dies in the fourth one lol) stops it from being completely stale.
Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation
I had to go look up the title for this, which is not a promising sign. It was supposed to be a back-to-basics after the controversial III, with a large number of short, crisp levels set around Egyptian ruins. A great idea, but somehow I never got very far into it, and you almost never hear anyone mention anything about it.
Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness
I also never got far into this, it was buggy as hell on the PC at least, with lots of random freezes and clipping through walls. An attempt at a more story-driven adventure, it was a bit of a mess, with unintuitive controls and an initially underskilled Lara. But the worst thing was Lara wore DENIM!!!! DENIM!!!! Lara Croft in DENIM!!!! Like a PERSON!!!!!!! WRONGNESS.
So that is my thinks as to Tomb Raidery. There is another one out with another forgettable title (just guess one of the Planet of the Apes titles, chances are it'll be near enough). So one day I will be playing BATTLE FOR THE PLANET OF THE TOMB RAIDER!!!! Or something idek
