Tomb Raider (2013), the reboot of the long-running Tomb Raider series of platforming games, puts the series in a fresh new direction. The game is charming, and is a great effort that reinvents the game whilst keeping it true to its core.

Tomb Raider explores the story of a young Lara Croft as she gets throw in the middle of an adventure that she didn't ask for. The game starts off with young Lara getting stranded in the middle of a island off of Japan, and she ventures forth into the wilderness in a quest of survival and discovery. The story itself is not terrible, but I'm not sure if it would win any awards - the character arc of Lara is a bit too short and rushed to give her the sense of transition from fresh-faced city girl to hardened tomb raider. Various story pieces also feel a bit convoluted, with some deaths being shoved in out of nowhere. However, the overarching mystery of the island and its back story is excellent and drives the player to seek out more journal entries and artifacts to learn more about the area. Sadly, I feel that the game rushes the end, and leaves a lot of lore hanging in the air, which is a shame, as it was a very good ride to the end.

Graphically, Tomb Raider may very well be one of the better looking releases in recent memory. Model and texture quality is excellent. The environments are all well designed, varied, and interesting. Each area manages to deliver the ambiance that the developers set out to, and I felt a bit terrified in some areas of the game, truth be told. TressFX is an interesting feature, but is a very big performance leech - you wont lose much from turning it off, as it only affects Lara's hair. It's fairly well optimized - on launch, I ran it on a 7970M on max, save for TressFX, and was averaging around 40-50fps. Now, when I go back to it with my current laptop sporting a GTX 765M, I still run it on max, albeit at 900p, on 60fps. It is a well optimized game, and should run well on most modern systems.

The gameplay takes a big leap from old Tomb Raiders. Based on personal experience, I did play Tomb Raider 3 on my PlayStation 1 - combat there was far more sparse, and emphasis was on puzzle solving and tomb raiding. This time around, combat takes a bigger role in the game - indeed, the actual tomb raiding is now set aside as optional side quests that give you perks if you do them. They are, however, well designed, if not a bit small - each tomb is unique, with various puzzles, and well-thought designs. The only bothersome thing about the game is the QTEs - they are numerous, but not enough to completely wreck the game, in my opinion. They are a nuisance, however - less would have been better.

Overall, this game is a great restart for the franchise. Hopefully Square will listen to feedback and tune it further, but that remains to be seen.

Tomb Raider (2013), the reboot of the long-running Tomb Raider series of platforming games, puts the series in a fresh new direction. The game is charming, and is a great effort that reinvents the game whilst keeping it true to its core. Tomb Raider explores the story of a young Lara Croft as she gets throw in the middle of an adventure that she didn't ask for. The game starts off with young Lara getting stranded in the middle of a island off of Japan, and she ventures forth into the wilderness in a quest of survival and discovery. The story itself is not terrible, but I'm not sure if it would win any awards - the character arc of Lara is a bit too short and rushed to give her the sense of transition from fresh-faced city girl to hardened tomb raider. Various story pieces also feel a bit convoluted, with some deaths being shoved in out of nowhere. However, the overarching mystery of the island and its back story is excellent and drives the player to seek out more journal entries and artifacts to learn more about the area. Sadly, I feel that the game rushes the end, and leaves a lot of lore hanging in the air, which is a shame, as it was a very good ride to the end. Graphically, Tomb Raider may very well be one of the better looking releases in recent memory. Model and texture quality is excellent. The environments are all well designed, varied, and interesting. Each area manages to deliver the ambiance that the developers set out to, and I felt a bit terrified in some areas of the game, truth be told. TressFX is an interesting feature, but is a very big performance leech - you wont lose much from turning it off, as it only affects Lara's hair. It's fairly well optimized - on launch, I ran it on a 7970M on max, save for TressFX, and was averaging around 40-50fps. Now, when I go back to it with my current laptop sporting a GTX 765M, I still run it on max, albeit at 900p, on 60fps. It is a well optimized game, and should run well on most modern systems. The gameplay takes a big leap from old Tomb Raiders. Based on personal experience, I did play Tomb Raider 3 on my PlayStation 1 - combat there was far more sparse, and emphasis was on puzzle solving and tomb raiding. This time around, combat takes a bigger role in the game - indeed, the actual tomb raiding is now set aside as optional side quests that give you perks if you do them. They are, however, well designed, if not a bit small - each tomb is unique, with various puzzles, and well-thought designs. The only bothersome thing about the game is the QTEs - they are numerous, but not enough to completely wreck the game, in my opinion. They are a nuisance, however - less would have been better. Overall, this game is a great restart for the franchise. Hopefully Square will listen to feedback and tune it further, but that remains to be seen.