On March 5 2013 Square Enix released a Reboot to the Tomb Raider franchise by Crystal Dynamics. Tomb Raider is available for PC, Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. Tomb Raider is a origin story and evolution of the Lara Croft before she became a famous archaeologist adventurer.
The story is the origin of the legendary archaeologist adventurer Lara Croft. Lara and her crew are in search of the lost domain of the Sun Queen Himiko on the island of Yamatai. It is rumored that the Sun Queen had power be on belief with the ability to control the weather. The crew finds themselves shipwrecked on the mysterious island of Yamatai after their ship gets hit with a out of nowhere strom . Lara must explore island and defend herself from a cult of followers that want to sacrifice the crew the Sun Queen. Lara is faced with a cold truth on this island that if she wants to survive and rescue her friends she will have to either kill or be killed. The transformation that Lara goes through is that of courage and determination.
The style of gameplay is third person shoot and cover and puzzle solver. The cover is very well designed as to only be activated when there are enemies near. It works very well in letting you know that danger is near and figure out how you want to approach the situation. You are able to decide if you want to go all sealth and use silent kills or to just go guns blazing (which will alert every enemy in the area). Combat will range between close and mid range. Combat will involve dodge melee attacks and counters. As you explore the island you will find four upgradeable weapons: The Bow, a Handgun, Machine Gun and a Shotgun. Weapon are upgraded by using salvage that are found in crates, kill enemies and animals and by finding weapon parts. Upgrades will increase power, reload, ammo cap accuracy and some other special upgrades. There is also a character upgrade system which will upgrade Lara Hunter, Survival, and Brawler skills. These skill upgrade everything from max ammo to being able to find a bit more salvage from kills. Another one of Lara skills are her Survival Instinct which will highlight points of interest and indicate if an enemy can be taken down without anyone noticing. There is also a good amount of puzzle solving in which Lara must figure out to escape and areas or to acquire some hidden treasures in tombs all over the island.
I played Tomb Raider using the mouse and keyboard. The controls are tight and responsive. Besides the to normal movements the action keys are set to E and F by default. When doing a quick time event for the first time the game will tell you what key to mash, but after nothing is shown just an icon and you have to make a quick life or death choice on what button to press.
Tomb Raider is a fantastic reboot with a great female lead in Lara Croft. I was very much invested into the game in watching Lara become a strong and determined survival.
