henke on 10/7/2013 at 19:22

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Started playing this yesterday and I'm past the halfway mark now. A lot of the criticisms I've heard defenitely are true. Lara comes across more like a female Rambo than a female Indiana Jones in this one. Just like in FC3 you will need to suspend your disbelief to believe a rich white kid can kill dozens of hardy mercenary types without breaking a sweat. Luckily you won't have time to worry too much about things like that because you will be having an absolute blast killing those mercenary types. It's not often that a game clicks with me like this, almost instentaneously, but before long I was taking down a handful of badguys at once using only arrows, ropearrows, fistfulls of dirt and my trusty climbingaxe. I'm playing on the hardest difficulty and early on I set the limitation on myself to not use any guns. That went well up until about halfway through the game when I started coming up against a lot of heavily armored dudes whom neither arrow nor firearrow did much to harm. Time to break out the assaultrifle with grenadelauncher attachment. I'm playing the 360 version which apparently does not have AS MANY GRAPHICS as the PC version, but I wouldn't worry about that. It looks gorgeous, and with a gamepad it plays like an absolute dream.

As for the story. I understand that supernatural stuff (like the giants) is part and parcel of Tomb Raider games but I wouldn't have minded at all if they'd gone for a more realistic route with this reboot. I like the idea of the earlier survivors being unable to leave the island because of natural weather phenomenons, and forming a cult around the Sun Queen as a result, ritualisticly sacrificing new arrivals to the island in an attempt to sate her wrath and let them off the island. That's killer stuff right there, a commentary on the nature of religion and the things people are prepared to do and believe in when things get bad enough. Why did the devs feel the need to mess it up by throwing actual supernatural stuff in there?

Ostriig on 10/7/2013 at 21:37

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May wanna stick some spoiler tags in there in case someone stumbles in and reads across posts. I do that every now and then. I agree that perhaps keeping it more grounded in the way you describe would've been an excellent shot at worthwhile commentary, but I did enjoy the supernatural elements the way they were, felt they added to the overall sense of mystery and exoticism.

I thought the plotline was interesting enough, it kept me engaged to see what happens next, but I wasn't too impressed with the characters. The supporting cast felt pretty shallow, and Lara herself struck me as incoherent at times. It was funny, though, how she took all of ten minutes to go from the shock of nearly being raped (well, just a friendly murder, as it turns out, but she doesn't know that) to (http://theoatmeal.com/comics/cats_actually_kill) WOOO HEEHEEHEE GOT YOUR LEG NOW YOU MUST RUN CROOKED!


P.S. The PC has MUCH MANNIER graphics in this case, especially if you have a ATI card. First game I couldn't max on this rig, The Witcher 2 had come closest before. I guess it shows I haven't played Far Cry.

zajazd on 11/7/2013 at 08:01

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Because they are incompétent as we in France say.

zajazd on 11/7/2013 at 11:12

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I know you secretly like it.

henke on 11/7/2013 at 12:32

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I'm, as always, very happy to discover that stealth is a viable option in a game. Last night I cleared out the night-time forrest area just after Roth dies without ever alerting the guards. The last 3 guys were a bit tricky but I discovered that I can shoot an arrow to lure one of them away from the rest, after which he'll come and investigate the area from where the arrow was fired. Then it's simply a matter of sneaking up and burying my climbingaxe in his brain. :D


Alright, well I'm only halfway through the game yet so I should reserve final judgement until I'm done with it. Perhaps the supernatural stuff gets really cool towards the end.