Tomb Raider review by Tyson
Overall
Buy
Tomb Raider is one of those games where people will compare future 3D action-adventure games with the standards set in this game. Tomb Raider simply is just a great action-adventure game that everyone needs in there PlayStation library.
Gameplay
Tomb Raider starts off with our heroine and expert treasure finder Lara Croft being offered a job to claim the Scion, an artifact of great power, for a lady named Jacqueline Natla. In order to claim this Scion Lara will need to adventure to places like Peru, Greece, and Egypt.
In order for Lara to find the Scion that she seeks she will need to explore various caves, tombs, and other dangerous areas. Exploring these levels is just plain awesome. The size and scope of many of the levels is simply breathtaking. As you are exploring the levels you will need to use all of Lara’s physicals abilities to make near death jumps, swim in large underwater caves, and climb up tons of objects. Along with exploring the levels you will need to be wary about various instant death traps like spike pits or swinging blades.
Along with your exploration you will encounter some basic puzzles. Most of the puzzles you come across are pull a switch to open a door mechanic. Sure it may sound boring but opening a door and getting to said door is another puzzle in of itself. I also found a few cool puzzle setups like one level where pulling a switch will modify the water level in an area.
I did find a few faults with Tomb Raiders gameplay. I didn’t find the combat all that great. Sure you get some cool weapons like dual pistols and a shotgun but fighting wasn’t all that great. For example most combat situations have you just jumping around and shooting at something like a wolf until you or it is dead. Another fault is also the fact that it is easy to die in the game. A misstep or misplaced jump can cause Lara to fall to her death and with the games save system setup to where you can only save at certain spots in a level this can lead to some frustration. Still even with these faults I found Tomb Raider to be a really revolutionary and fun game.
Control
Tomb Raider uses a tank like control setup similar to games like Resident Evil. Pushing up on the dpad will cause Lara to move forward what ever direction she is facing while say pressing back will make her hop backwards for what ever direction she is facing. I found that once you get use to this control setup it is easy to play the game.
Graphics
Tomb Raider has some pretty well done graphics. Areas are huge and have lots of little details to them. Lara animates well and has some nice flavor animations like doing a swan dive or a handstand while climbing up on an object. The only real downside to the graphics is some frame rate dips here and there and there are some clipping issues with objects in the environment.
Sound
I came away impressed with Tomb Raiders music and sound effects. While it is weird at first to not have music playing in the background of the games levels but it also helps add to this being alone exploring an area atmosphere that the game has. When the music kicks in for certain puzzles or combat situations it does sound well. Plus I really loved the games main theme that is played on the main menu or throughout certain spots in the game. I found the voice work for characters like Lara to be excellent as well.