Tomb Raider Review

Considering the furore surrounding Crystal Dynamics’ expensive reboot of Tomb Raider, it’s been hard to separate the actual video game from the cacophony surrounding it. We’re not reviewing marketing campaigns, misspeaking developers or PR scandal though. We’d much rather just focus on the game. And as it turns out, there’s still plenty to talk about. Who knew?

As pointless as it is to concentrate on PR bluster, it’s just as futile to focus on what Tomb Raider isn’t. Many will lament the loss of puzzle-heavy exploration in favour of Uncharted-style directed spectacle, but clamouring for a game that doesn’t exist is bloody stupid. Here’s Tomb Raider – it looks incredible, is incomprehensibly slick, and thoroughly good fun from beginning to end.

In fact, Tomb Raider is quite a safe and conservative video game. A spectacular one, absolutely, but not a game that takes great risks or pushes boundaries. And nor does it have to. This is genre fiction for the modern console age – a heady mix of clambering, man-shooting and scenery-tearing blockbuster madness; about as archetypal a Triple-A action game as you could hope to see.

The action takes place on a mysterious lost (Lost?) island somewhere in the Pacific, where a young Lara Croft is shipwrecked after misadventure with her archaeologically inclined boat-buddies. Lara is battered and beaten in the opening minutes by an environment that seems intent on killing her, yet she battles adversity, conquers fears and concentrates all of her powers on the game’s overriding theme: survival.

Any concerns that this Lara would undo all the female empowerment her angular predecessor established should be chucked off a cliff. Lara’s arc is compelling. She's a strong character with admirable spirit and courage. I know I’d have given up after about three minutes in her situation, curled up into the foetal position and let the waves take me away to the bump-mapped depths.

 Compelling, if at the same time not entirely convincing. Unsurprisingly, the action soon falls foul of the Drake-dichotomy, where a character who displays vulnerability and inexperience in cutscenes turns into the world’s greatest killer during extended in-game shootouts. It’s jarring, for sure, and although the narrative at least makes reference to her murderous bent, it’s very difficult to ‘buy’ Lara physically overpowering giant Russian men, mowing down an army’s worth of soldiers with a bow and arrow, and choking out enemies with the force of a Gracie.

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