TechCentralTechCentral
    Facebook Twitter YouTube LinkedIn
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn YouTube
    TechCentralTechCentral
    NEWSLETTER
    • News

      Fixing SA’s power crisis is not complex: it simply takes the will to do better

      12 August 2022

      Consortium makes unsolicited bid for state’s 40% stake in Telkom

      12 August 2022

      Actually, solar users should pay more to access the grid – here’s why

      12 August 2022

      Telkom says MTN talks remain on track

      12 August 2022

      Analysis | Rain muddies the waters with approach to Telkom

      11 August 2022
    • World

      Tencent woes mount, even after $560-billion selloff

      12 August 2022

      Huawei just booked its first sales rise since US blacklisting

      12 August 2022

      Apple remains upbeat about iPhone sales even as Android world suffers

      12 August 2022

      Ether at two-month high as upgrade to blockchain passes major test

      12 August 2022

      Gaming industry’s fortunes fade as pandemic ends

      11 August 2022
    • In-depth

      African unicorn Flutterwave battles fires on multiple fronts

      11 August 2022

      The length of Earth’s days has been increasing – and no one knows why

      7 August 2022

      As Facebook fades, the Mad Men of advertising stage a comeback

      2 August 2022

      Crypto breaks the rules. That’s the point

      27 July 2022

      E-mail scams are getting chillingly personal

      17 July 2022
    • Podcasts

      Qush on infosec: why prevention is always better than cure

      11 August 2022

      e4’s Adri Führi on encouraging more women into tech careers

      10 August 2022

      How South Africa can woo more women into tech

      4 August 2022

      Book and check-in via WhatsApp? FlySafair is on it

      28 July 2022

      Interview: Why Dell’s next-gen PowerEdge servers change the game

      28 July 2022
    • Opinion

      No reason South Africa should have a shortage of electricity: Ramaphosa

      11 July 2022

      Ntshavheni’s bias against the private sector

      8 July 2022

      South Africa can no longer rely on Eskom alone

      4 July 2022

      Has South Africa’s advertising industry lost its way?

      21 June 2022

      Rob Lith: What Icasa’s spectrum auction means for SA companies

      13 June 2022
    • Company Hubs
      • 1-grid
      • Altron Document Solutions
      • Amplitude
      • Atvance Intellect
      • Axiz
      • BOATech
      • CallMiner
      • Digital Generation
      • E4
      • ESET
      • Euphoria Telecom
      • IBM
      • Kyocera Document Solutions
      • Microsoft
      • Nutanix
      • One Trust
      • Pinnacle
      • Skybox Security
      • SkyWire
      • Tarsus on Demand
      • Videri Digital
      • Zendesk
    • Sections
      • Banking
      • Broadcasting and Media
      • Cloud computing
      • Consumer electronics
      • Cryptocurrencies
      • Education and skills
      • Energy
      • Fintech
      • Information security
      • Internet and connectivity
      • Internet of Things
      • Investment
      • IT services
      • Motoring and transport
      • Public sector
      • Science
      • Social media
      • Talent and leadership
      • Telecoms
    • Advertise
    TechCentralTechCentral
    Home»Editor's pick»Tomb Raider: the rebirth of Lara Croft

    Tomb Raider: the rebirth of Lara Croft

    Editor's pick By Lance Harris12 March 2013
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn WhatsApp Telegram Email
    Tomb-Raider-640-1
    Lara Croft as a young adventurer

    There are two ways to see Tomb Raider: as a much-needed reinvention of an ageing franchise, or as dumbing down and actioning up of a much-loved series in a sop to the latest fads in a fickle gaming market. It’s a game that is extremely good at what it does, though die-hard Lara Croft fans might not necessarily like what that is.

    Developed by Crystal Dynamics, which created the other Tomb Raider games of this console generation, Tomb Raider eschews the precision platforming and the gently teasing environmental puzzles of its predecessors in favour of cinematic action. It’s a template that takes a great deal from Naughty Dog’s mighty Uncharted franchise, which, ironically enough, was once tagged “Dude Raider” for its borrowings from Tomb Raider.

    Initial impressions of Tomb Raider are not good. In its opening hour or so, the game forces you as a young, inexperienced Lara Croft through a gauntlet of linear set pieces and annoying quick time-events as it sets the scene. Shipwrecked on a mysterious island that is home to a bunch of crazy cultists, Lara is punished by the elements and hunted by the inhabitants as she tries to reunite with her friends.

    The amount of player interaction in these opening scenes feels curiously limited; push “up” to keep going through Lara’s pain and degradation. It helps little that new voice and motion-capture model actor for Lara — Camilla Luddington — overdoes the screeches and howls of pain. In these moments, the class that Keeley Hawes’ dulcet voice brought to the character is missed as are the measured pace and sense of exploratory wonder of earlier Tomb Raider games.

    HOW IT SCORES
    Graphics:
    9/10

    Eat your heart out, Naughty Dog. Tomb Raider is as pretty the Uncharted games, plus it’s a multi-format release.
    Sound: 8/10
    Great background music and sound effects, but some of Lara’s yelps and moans are a little over the top.
    Gameplay: 7/10
    The combat mechanics are robust and the set pieces are spectacular, but the puzzles are laughably simple, there are a few too many QTEs and the multiplayer is just there to tick a box.
    Value: 7/10
    The adventure takes a good 10-12 hours to complete, and more if you scout the island for secrets and collectibles.
    Overall: 7/10
    Tomb Raider is a slick reinvention of a gaming icon that will ensure her relevance for years to come. But nostalgic fans might miss some of the elements that made the earlier games special.

    Stick with Tomb Raider, though, and its confidence grows as quickly as Lara’s does in her transition from frightened whelp to kickass adventurer. Tomb Raider sets out as a shaky attempt to copy the elements that have made Uncharted and similar games so popular, but it quickly turns into a serious contender for Uncharted’s heavyweight belt. The claustrophobic corridors widen out into breathtaking vistas of sweeping valleys and towering mountain peaks, and the game’s iron grasp on the player’s hand relaxes.

    One of the many cues that Tomb Raider takes from Uncharted is the way it recasts Lara as a less-than-superhuman figure, far from the unflappable aristocrat of the earlier games and her improbably buxom chest and short shorts. Like Uncharted’s Nathan Drake, she makes mistakes, has fears, and experiences regrets.

    Rhianna Pratchett — Terry’s daughter — writes a credible and gritty origin story for Lara. There is a sense of disconnect between the vulnerable, battered Lara of the cinematics and the super-dexterous, cold-blooded killer of the gameplay, perhaps, but that points to the limitations of the medium more than to any flaw in the writing.

    And what of the gameplay? You’ll be spending a lot more time killing people than you did in the earlier Tomb Raider games. Luckily, the shooting is tight and satisfying. The game features the same sort of robust combat duck-and-cover combat engine you might find in any other contemporary third-person shooter, complete with melee moves for close-up combat and vicious stealth kills to be used on unsuspecting enemies.

    There’s still plenty of platforming — with some vertigo-inducing ascents in the later sections of the game — but it is the sort of simple, automated jumping and climbing you’d find in Uncharted or Assassin’s Creed. Unlike the earlier games, Tomb Raider’s platforming won’t test your timing or your accuracy.

    But the game environments are wonderfully designed with a breadcrumb trail of collectibles to follow. Hunting down these collectibles helps you earn experience to boost Lara’s skills while collecting salvage gives you the currency needed to upgrade her weapons. The telltale glint of a relic hidden in the brush or on a ledge above is a tantalising invitation to explore.

    Tomb Raider preview (via YouTube):

    The puzzle solving has also been simplified, with nothing that will detain you for more than a few minutes. To appease fans of the older games, the game has a few optional tombs to raid (you know, like the game’s name indicates), but they’re one-puzzle chambers that can easily be completed in five or 10 minutes. Like Uncharted, Tomb Raider wants to sweep you through a story with some jawdropping set pieces, and it does so very well.

    On some level, Tomb Raider embodies many of the worst trends in the gaming industry. With its dull, tacked-on multiplayer (barely worth a mention) and its focus on narrative over gameplay, it is yet another example of the ongoing homogenisation of big-budget games. (Another recent victim is Dead Space 3.) No longer do we have stealth games, survival-horror games, third-person adventure games — they’re all turning into third-person shooters with cinematic elements.

    But Tomb Raider is such a superbly executed game that it brushes these concerns aside, demanding to be assessed as the game it is rather than the game some of us want it to be. The Crystal Dynamics team which has worked with Lara Croft for so many years clearly cares about her a great deal – despite the harrowing ordeal they put her through. Tomb Raider is an engrossing adventure with fantastic product values. Rest in peace, Tomb Raider. Long live the new Lara Croft.  — (c) 2013 NewsCentral Media

    • Reviewed on Xbox 360. Also on PS3 and PC
    Crystal Dynamics Lance Harris Lara Croft Rhianna Pratchett Tomb Raider
    Share. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn WhatsApp Telegram Email
    Previous ArticleDigital tax to hit consumers
    Next Article Post Office strike losing steam

    Related Posts

    TechCentral’s top 10 movies of 2019

    31 December 2019

    TechCentral’s top 10 games of 2019

    23 December 2019

    The best movies of 2018

    31 December 2018
    Add A Comment

    Comments are closed.

    Promoted

    Get your brand in front of TechCentral’s amazing audience

    12 August 2022

    Pricing Beyond CMYK: printers answer the FAQs

    11 August 2022

    How secure is your cloud?

    10 August 2022
    Opinion

    No reason South Africa should have a shortage of electricity: Ramaphosa

    11 July 2022

    Ntshavheni’s bias against the private sector

    8 July 2022

    South Africa can no longer rely on Eskom alone

    4 July 2022

    Subscribe to Updates

    Get the best South African technology news and analysis delivered to your e-mail inbox every morning.

    © 2009 - 2022 NewsCentral Media

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.