Wishlist for the next Tomb Raider game

[killchan]

the thing I liked the most about the grapple axe in Rise was that you could use it anytime, anywhere.

a fast and context-free swinging mechanic is all it needed to be perfect.

but no: in Shadow they nerfed it and made it even more scripted and context-sensitive

[Samz]

Originally Posted by killchan

the thing I liked the most about the grapple axe in Rise was that you could use it anytime, anywhere.

a fast and context-free swinging mechanic is all it needed to be perfect.

but no: in Shadow they nerfed it and made it even more scripted and context-sensitive

I guess? but in Rise it also didn't work half the time for me, I've had Lara throw it, it connects, then it spazzs out and Lara is dropped still under the ledge, IN the ledge if it was a pillar with bits of the inside missing or above the axe, but not actually on the ledge.

I like free-form stuff, but thats dramatically undercut when it doesn't work consistently.

So yeah, bring that back but make sure it actually works consistently this time.

[paulojr_mam]

I want the grapple gun to replace the bow and arrow combo. I need the bow gone. Perhaps she can use a crossbow instead.

[Samz]

Originally Posted by paulojr_mam

I want the grapple gun to replace the bow and arrow combo. I need the bow gone. Perhaps she can use a crossbow instead.

Just re-balance the weapons so the bow is actually genuienly useful and not because of overpowered boring generic trick arrows.

The weapons in general suck honestly, guns have bad SFX and feel underwhelming to use with poorly balance stats for their varients.

As cheesy stock as they were, at least TR1 had Punch-y shotgun/magnum sounds.

Lose the cover-shooting where enemies just get tougher, as then headshots become king and anything that doesn't rapidly deliver headshots or instant-kills is pointless, the shotgun only works as a shotgun for a bit before enemies just get too bullet-spongy for it to be worthwhile.

You CAN have an athletic movement game with a cover-system for situations that need it. (Look at Dead to Rights for instance.) but move the camera be more behind Lara so headshots aren't so easy (instead of that weird over-the-shoulder zoom.), have her bullets actually come out of her gun and get stuck on the environment if we try to shoot at impossible angles.

Shotgun range needs to be more like the classics (where it was still video-game short but at least had more than point blank) or realistic (Where it can go for a good distance.) but balance with RARE ammo.

Charging the Bow should effect Damage, Speed and arc, if Thief can do it in 1998 then we should be able to do it in 2019.

Either NO silenced guns, Silenced guns needing weaker subsonic ammo that is harder to find OR the silencer isn't completely silenced and only the bow is.

Crossbow could work as an actually meaningful weapon variant.

Regular Bow: Weak unless charged and fast firing due to "reloading" pretty quickly.

Crossbow: WAY stronger to the point of 1-hitting weaker enemies, no need for charging before a shot but a painfully realistic long reload making it impractical against melee enemies and missing a very real danger.

[paulojr_mam]

^You have good ideas and seem to understand and care a lot about combat.
But you mentioned Dead to Rights, and by videos the combat doesn't look manual. How could that be reconciled with TReboot's style?

[Samz]

Originally Posted by paulojr_mam

^You have good ideas and seem to understand and care a lot about combat.
But you mentioned Dead to Rights, and by videos the combat doesn't look manual. How could that be reconciled with TReboot's style?

Just make it more like max-payne/Ghost in the shell for the ps2 for aiming (Since that game is acrobatic and uses manual aim, I was using Dead to rights as an example of mixing acrobatics/cover shooting.)

Obviously with more animals, it shouldn't be the main focus, but the same acrobatic skils we use in exploration should also generally be tested in combat and on that same note, use a cover button, but also have us use it to traverse narrow cliffs or something, so its not a completely combat feature.

Make it so Lara's ability-set is more useful for both combat/exploration instead of almost completely separate moves that are practically exclusive to combat/exploration, Legend got good use out of the grapple for this.

Combat in general needs to be designed so it works out of arena-locations with chest high walls so the level design can get more creative with combat encounters, in 2013/Rise almost every combat encounter feels like the same flat arena, admittingly the classics generally never got too creative generally, but situations like being ambushed on that narrow bridge (with no rails stopping Lara falling off) in the Golden Mask TR2 expansion by a bunch of melee blokes is the sorta stuff we should have.

Maybe bring back ledge-firing (but with free-aim) and have a few times where Lara gets attack mid-climbing and we have to fire from ledges.