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Old 05-10-17, 22:51   #1
Costel
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Default Tomb Raider review after playing the main story only. (CONTAINS SPOILERS)

So I decided to play the two reboot TR games concentrating only and only on the story.
Not on analyzing the story but playing just main story without getting any collectables or completing any chalenge.Not even
those that were in my path that I didn`t had to search for.Exceptions are 2 documents that Lara picks up in 2 different
cutscenes.
It took me 7 hours and 10 minutes to finish the game with a gameplay completition of 56%.
I enjoyed what I played but in the same time I am dissapointed. Not because it was a short experience but because
Lara barely arrives in one place cause she has to move to the next one. The island is big but the areas felt short
when you are not doing side things.
The exploration is inexistent. If I were to make a quick description it would be something like this: run, jump, climb,
kill some bad guys, cutscene, repeat. Some zones(too few) are: run, jump, climb, kill some bad guys, solve a puzzle,
cutscene. There are areas free of human enemies but these are too few and too short: Scavenger Den, Mountain Pass,
Mountain Descent, Chasm Shrine and the climbing to the top of Chasm Ziggurat. Why is not Chasm Monastery free of enemies?
Why is not Cliffside Village free of enemies? Why do Lara has to fight bad guys inside Himiko`s palace. She should have
explored the palace, solving puzzles and uncover secrets of the island. The combat should have been in the exterior of the
palace. Speaking about the puzzles, there are 6 in the whole game and 3 of those 6 in the last 2 hours of the game.
I won`t be talking about the difficulty of the puzzles cause that is different from player to player.
Started the game with Lara shipwrecked on the island and one hour later Lara was recovering Roth package from the wolf`s
den. 2 hours and half of gameplay and now she escaped a plane that almost crashed on her and now Lara has to run trough
this collapsing japanese huts in Cliffside Village. And why has to be like that? Why is the Cliffside Village this way:
slide and avoid obstacles, run on collapsing building and shoot bad guys? All of that takes 10 minutes. Why Lara is not
exploring Cliffside Village, solving puzzles and uncovering secrets of the island? Why 80% of the island secrets are in
optional documents? Where is the exploration in the main story? Or run, jump, climb to reach the next destination
count as exploration?
3 hours of gameplay and Lara was in Shantytown and 1 hour later she is entering Geothermal Caverns and 15 minutes
later she is out running through fire and explosions and killing enemies. 5 hours of gameplay and Lara arrives at Shipwreck
Beach. 1 hour later and Alex is dead and Lara enters in Stormguard General tomb. 7 hours of gameplay and Lara has to kill
Mathias. Here I died 5 times but not because Mathias is the reincarnation of a Dark Soul boss but because I had to remember
that I need to mash the E button like I hate the E button with passion. 7 hours and 10 minutes of gameplay and credits are
rollin on the screen.

I said I wont be analyzing the story but I want to talk about some plot holes. Actually is one plot holes: Lara is alive.
I want Lara to be alive but why is she alive?
Why in the Geothermal Caverns, Mathias did not ordered her execution right
then and there and continue with the ritual after or kill her after the ritual. He had no problem in ordering her execution
at the entrance of Chasm Monastery so what stops him the second time?
Why did the Stormguard Warriors did not killed Lara but just hung her up from the ceiling in Chasm Monastery.
If I were to talk about the characters I would say this: I liked Lara, Reyes was annoying, the others were meh. Didn`t
cared who died and who stayed alive.
The last thing I would say about the story is that is much more interesting when you read the optional documents too.
In conclusion Tomb Raider is an action-adventure game with big focus on action and zero exploration.
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Old 05-10-17, 23:20   #2
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Interesting read.

As for the plot holes I agree that Mathias should of just killed you there and then when you tried to save Sam. He's quick enough to kill his own men if they displease him slightly and at that point of the game Lara has caused him enough trouble but you know, it's Lara. We can't have her dying so they use the cliche story telling of 'Capture the protagonist for the protagonist to escape 5 seconds later even though there was a clear opportunity to kill her'.

It's the same thing with the storm guard but I view that as them already thinking she was dead, let's not forget that she was in fact knocked out when they took her to the Oni's dining room (What do you even call that room?).

The biggest plot hole for the scene was the fact all the other victims where hung upside down yet Lara was hung upright for an easy escape.
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Old 05-10-17, 23:34   #3
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Because Lara has the case of "Protagonist Syndrome", so she cannot die
Here's another one I never got: Why was she hung up upside down in the very beginning?

I did what you did in my latest replay of this game: just progressing through the story, bypassing all collectibles, only difference being that I completed all optional tombs after finishing the story. My experience was very similar to yours. There's really nothing to do in this game when it comes to the main campaign, apart from combat, and you can never really take a breath and be alone, nor do some fun puzzle solving needing exploration. Platforming was also superficial, and unfun.

Tombs were ridiculously short, and made me feel so unsatisfied. I was like "ready for the next step...oh, it's over, already..."

I was actually trying to remember how many puzzles were in the main game, but I knew that they were less than 10, so thank you for giving a number. But it wasn't just the number, but also how insulting it was to call it "puzzles". Even TRU and Legend made you do a bit more work to progress.
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Old 05-10-17, 23:37   #4
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Lara_Fan1 View Post
Interesting read.

As for the plot holes I agree that Mathias should of just killed you there and then when you tried to save Sam. He's quick enough to kill his own men if they displease him slightly and at that point of the game Lara has caused him enough trouble but you know, it's Lara. We can't have her dying so they use the cliche story telling of 'Capture the protagonist for the protagonist to escape 5 seconds later even though there was a clear opportunity to kill her'.

It's the same thing with the storm guard but I view that as them already thinking she was dead, let's not forget that she was in fact knocked out when they took her to the Oni's dining room (What do you even call that room?).

The biggest plot hole for the scene was the fact all the other victims where hung upside down yet Lara was hung upright for an easy escape.
I hate when the protagonist survives just because is the protagonist.
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Old 06-10-17, 00:21   #5
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That's an interesting review, thanks for sharing!

I always wondered how short the game would be if you only do the story related stuff. Interesting to know that it's not longer than the LAU games.
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Old 06-10-17, 03:08   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Costel View Post
I hate when the protagonist survives just because is the protagonist.
I love when the protagonist dies even if he/she's the protagonist. TLR has a great and iconic ending.
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Old 06-10-17, 09:24   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Anakzunamuhn View Post
I love when the protagonist dies even if he/she's the protagonist. TLR has a great and iconic ending.
But that's a different matter : in TR4 , Lara ""dies"" at the end of the game , and Core were intending it to be the last TR game anyway , it's not the same with TR2013 .

If I'd give another explanation of why Mathias didn't kill Lara straight away and ordered his men to "take her away" other than the "protagonist syndrome" is that maybe after all the troubles Lara caused he wanted to put her in a special room and then pay her a visit and then throw all kinds of gruesome torturing that would make her beg for death

Anyway , interesting review Costel , thanks for sharing
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Old 06-10-17, 10:43   #8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Patrick star View Post
But that's a different matter : in TR4 , Lara ""dies"" at the end of the game , and Core were intending it to be the last TR game anyway , it's not the same with TR2013 .

If I'd give another explanation of why Mathias didn't kill Lara straight away and ordered his men to "take her away" other than the "protagonist syndrome" is that maybe after all the troubles Lara caused he wanted to put her in a special room and then pay her a visit and then throw all kinds of gruesome torturing that would make her beg for death

Anyway , interesting review Costel , thanks for sharing
Its still a bit of a Plot hole...but its one of the most common plot holes out there.
Even the best games or movies have such a plot hole.
They could have made it clearer as to why he didnt told them to kill her...but its not the biggest problem in the world.

One of the few Criticism i can get behind is the fact that the game focuses so much on shooting and combat.
That hurt the game a bit and as Rise showed, CD realised that too.
But in terms of the overall narrative it makes the most sense to focus on this in the game.
You have to keep the game interesting and when you consider where you are in the game, having it be mainly focused on shooting makes the most sense.

You cant have many and deep tombs because the place is a "relative" small island, having dozens of tombs that have plenty of rooms and puzzles simply makes no real sense.
Especially since tombs in the first place are quite often nothing more than 2-3 rooms and a chamber.

The pacing of the game fits the story and all well, i would like for the games to slow down a bit, but i can live with how it is.
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Old 07-10-17, 01:04   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Patrick star View Post
But that's a different matter : in TR4 , Lara ""dies"" at the end of the game , and Core were intending it to be the last TR game anyway , it's not the same with TR2013 .
Yes, that's totally true, I wasn't talking about the protagonist being always dead, even in Sottr it would be a really bad thing if "Lara" "dies".

Anyway the supposedly death of main protagonist it's a good tool, at least for giving the game (or movie) another playable character and give some refresh to the experience, specially in that heavy story that is the Reboot. And while everyone knows that the main will not die, one wants to see how he/she survives the conflict.
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Old 17-10-17, 17:47   #10
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So you only focus on the main plot without exploring and your main complaint then is the lack of exploration?
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