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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