scumble on 7/6/2016 at 22:37
Because there was probably a Tomb Raider thread some years ago...
I loaded it up again because I have a computer that can run it with the nice hair effects. Also LC's closely fitting trousers are rendered in splendid detail.
I was pleased to see a game where the character gets convincingly filthy given what's actually happening. Too many games have a protagonist running through disgusting places and coming out the other side looking like they just had a shower.
I've not played very far yet, but there are things that are bothering me. I'm not keen on the "press left and right to struggle" followed by "press F to kick" then "mash E". It might work to make some moments more cinematic, but it's not that fun to watch LC get her neck snapped 5 or 6 times while I get the timing right. This game mechanic has been creeping in for years yet is going back to laserdisc games of 1982.
I was also just sliding down a mountain with a plane crashing over my head and jumping across a number of crumbling village huts. Oh the tension. I'm kind of rolling my eyes at the artifice waiting to get back to the bits where I'm mostly in control.
Overall it's quite fun yet I'm feeling it's an example of everything being planned so I just have to press W while LC climbs up a radio tower.
Maybe I prefer this sort of thing with genuine open world mechanics at least available outside the main story. Yet the absence of too many choices is quite relaxing.
The modern AAA games dilemma? Would I have more fun with Far Cry 4?
Nameless Voice on 7/6/2016 at 22:49
Yeah, I kind of liked it but it had a bunch of annoying things in it.
In brief:
Nowhere near enough focus on exploration, platforming and puzzle-solving.
Way too much emphasis on combat
Related to the above, a huge gameplay-story separation - Lara is supposed be sympathetic but ends up mass-murdering a few hundred people.
The setting is nice, the story is decent enough and well-told, the characters look great, but it could honestly have been about a completely different person and it wouldn't have affected the story at all. It had fairly little in common with the other Tomb Raider games... though, uh, to be fair, outside of the first game and its remake, Lara Croft is a really horrible person anyway.
The QTEs were mildly annoying but not as bad as some other games. At least it told you which buttons to press / mash. I'm sick of the ones that just show you some random symbol or colour and you have to die several times until you work out what key the symbol means.
I still hate QTEs, though. If a game has truly good mechanics, then you should be able to use those to solve all of your problems, rather than bizarre context-sensitive singular actions.
henke on 8/6/2016 at 05:27
Yeah I liked Tomb Raider well enough to play through it twice.
RE:QTE's. Thankfully it seems the gaming industry have mostly abandoned them with the new console-generation. I think the only new game I've played that had them was The Order.
scumble on 8/6/2016 at 19:09
I had to look up QTE because I'm a n00b. I hope you're right henke. Even the Witcher 2 appears to have these things.
Interesting comment about the story actually. The character of Lara is supposedly her surviving over fear, yet here we are sinking bullets into hordes of bad guys. I guess this just has to be accepted. Far cry 3 is also a bit odd where some spoiled kid turns into a lethal killer in a few hours.
scumble on 8/6/2016 at 21:27
Continuing the raiding and found an optional tomb with an annoying puzzle - close the shutters and then wait the correct amount of time to raise a platform. Maybe I'm getting impatient, or the payoff was a bit of a letdown. To complete the ruin LC opens a chest full of gold things and puts something in her pocket. Wandering through the tunnels is more enjoyable I think, as discovering stuff is in line with the game's concept. One is pretty much the female Indiana Jones, beating up minions.
The visuals are good I have to say, and it's balancing the annoyance.
Things were veering towards horror with the pile of body parts and the giant thing that looks like a golem.
I'm just not sure what I'm salvaging from dead bodies however - belts? Underwear elastic?. Wouldn't it make more sense to pick up ammo or something? I'd rather just pick up salvage from the crates which is at least partially convincing.
Yet the salvage idea seems a bit weak overall. It would have felt more immersive to actually collect materials that will form part of the upgrade. Bits of rope, wood etc. Who collects generic "stuff" to make muzzle brakes and extended magazine cases?
Nameless Voice on 9/6/2016 at 00:00
Yeah, it's funny that the tomb raiding that the game is named for is only in completely optional side areas, and that you can only take one small piece from the hoard each time - though I guess she wouldn't be able to realistically carry an entire tomb around.
Sulphur on 9/6/2016 at 03:56
TR2013 and RotTR are very good games that are, to an extent, a bit unfortunate as they're caught in the shadow of today's AAA zeitgeist. The lack of tombs to raid and sudden shift to mass-murdering compared to the rest of the story (for TR2013, anyway - RotTR tries to justify it with some slight context at least) is a direct consequence of CD's earlier TR games being reviewed well by critics but receiving lukewarm sales. TR:A, TR:L, and TR:U featured some pretty damn good platforming and fairly irritating combat, combat that was mostly incidental and thus never got too overbearing. With the TR reboot, though, priorities have shifted to what the market is perceived to want. Apparently, what we want is shooting up shit so that it explodes, killing things, and combinations thereof.
Having said that, CD's reworked combat model for TR2013 and RotTR is fairly good - enjoyable, even, when it was a failure in the previous TR games. They've streamlined the platforming, but it's now so streamlined that the platforming might as well not even be there as there's nil skill required in negotiating levels or obstacles. Instead, the meat of the effort goes into light puzzle-solving when you're not shooting shit up, which is something we can blame Uncharted for (as much as I love that series).
The one thing that could have swayed me into liking the reboots more would have been the story: but it's simultaneously overwrought and undercooked, which is unfortunate if they wanted us to relate to Lara. She's graduated from the cipher status she had in the original TR games, but she's only been given hints of a personality, one that's defined by having superhuman tenacity (which the first game feels is best illustrated by having her impaled by rebar and healing a few minutes later, then beating her up some more physically and mentally) and a burning need to deal with the looming spectre of her dad, but most of this is shoved to the side because she has to deal with tribes of assholes who've taken her friends and want to kill her, or a cult of assholes who're trying to take her friends and want to kill her. And her friends remain almost completely personality-free, even Jonah who, despite the amount of importance he's given, never moves beyond random words of encouragement and needing to be rescued by Lara in an amusing damsel in distress role-reversal. The games don't have the time to flesh these people out, or don't know how to do it effectively. The gap between interesting characters and ones no one gives a toss about isn't one they've cleared successfully, and they probably need to take more notes from The Last of Us or Uncharted if this is really something they want to spend so much time on.
At the very least, though, these games are extremely competent at letting you kill things and showing you grand vistas that turn into combat setpieces where you kill things, with some light puzzling on the side. And they're always gorgeous to look at, which I guess is why I keep playing them.
Starker on 9/6/2016 at 05:31
I think I would have liked for survival to play a much bigger role. The way the game started, I was kind of expecting to be hunting deer and sneaking around bad guys for much longer. And I don't think less action would have hurt the spirit of the game either. I mean, Indiana Jones doesn't stop to kill every bad guy that's in front of him.
Of course, a return to the Lost World type of pulp would be nice too, but that train is probably long gone. Oh well, maybe Horizon Zero Dawn will hit the spot.
scumble on 9/6/2016 at 21:56
A few holiday snaps:
Staggering across some boards waiting for them for fall off for a Dramatic Moment
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It's a bit windy up here...
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Ouch. I killed LC a few times sliding down a mountain rapid. The designers apparently got a taste for trying to skewer the poor girl in various ways. Actually found it a bit jarring to repeatedly end up driving a spike through her head with the number of required retries.
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I'm lighting things for bonus points! I ended up exploring for a bit and realised I'd ended up back where I started - it was looking a bit familiar. I like the fact that it's not totally linear and parts of the island haven't been closed off.
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It gets a bit emotional sometimes:
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Still the expressions are generally pretty good.
I do find the Drama is pushed pretty hard. I've just played the bit where LC is injured and starts getting blurred vision while still having to fight off some jerks, but it made her seem only slightly less superhuman.
Also she burned herself with a hot arrow and suddenly was alright to incinerate about 20 more minions. I keep hoping for a chance to just sneak past some people, but it doesn't seem to be possible at all. She doesn't seem vulnerable enough given the amount of stress she is evoking from all the dialog recordings, wheezing and groaning etc.
Nameless Voice on 9/6/2016 at 22:39
One thing that I really like from the recent Tomb Raider games (including the previous reboot, and possibly including the original series but my memory is fuzzy there) is the character animations, especially when doing acrobatics. They're really nice and detailed, and full of little things like the way she hangs differently from a ledge if there's something to rest her feet on than when there isn't.
