Vagabond142
04-13-2006, 11:09 AM
Okay :D
I've been pimping on this game ever since playing the demo, so I thought it only fair to offer my biased and totally subjective review of the game :thumbsup: So, after picking it up last night and playing about 5 hours in, I thought I would offer my initial review
First of all, I am massively impressed with the whole feel of the game. I bought the PC version (preordered a long time ago, actually), and the controls feel mostly natural. What I mean by that is that for the PC, the crouch key is set to "F", while I'm used to the FPS standard of Left-CTRL. Just a quick dab into the options and the control setup fixed that. ALso, the game feels smooth and easily played, but still challenging as you have to time things, and in levels such as Ghana and Khazakstan, actually have pressure situations requiring you to quickly jump between ledges, bars, etc whilst dangling hundreds of feet in the air. It FEELS like a Tomb Raider game, instead of the platformer that was TR III-VI. They aimed to return to the feel of the original two games, and they caught the ball perfectly and ran with it.
Another thing that impressed me is the ability to go almost splinter-cell in stealthiness. When crouched, Lara makes almost no sound and you can sneak up on enemies, slide kick em and kill. Or, if you want to sneak up behind an enemy on a higher level, you jump and grab the ledge, then insead of the regular up+jump to haul yourself up, you press and hold up+jump and Lara does a handstand that generates no noise.
Graphically, this game is very very very very VERY pretty. If you have an nVidia card or get the XBOX 360 version, you also get some very light HDR and very heavy Pixel Shader 3 effects, which make the game look 10x prettier (EDIT: With the ATi X1800 or X1900 series of cards, you get HDR and AA at the same time). But even with a standard X800XT PE, I'm getting lovely framerate, glorious reflections and render distances to put most games to shame. A perfect example is the Ghana level right at the start, where you stand on a cliff and you can look down over the entire first part of the level and EVERYTHING is rendered, despite being nearly 500 (in game) feet away. And then you have to swan dive off the cliff (not a spoiler, as this is what the game tells you to do), which in itself is a lovely bit of rendering as there is no pop-in whatsoever. It's just smooth. Very well done.
Voices are okay, although Alistair does get on my nerves a bit. Lara's voice actor does her voice perfectly, being sharp and sarcastic when needed and soft and sad when needed. Zip is just kickass, and is also the comedic relief of the game, with some great one lines (Zip: "Every time you look DOWN, I want to throw UP" *this said while Lara is dangling by her fingertips on a mountainside above cloudlevel)
Difficulty-wise... on easy, the games enemies do provide a slight challenge, but not too much. Regular difficulty has you actually having to dodge shots instead of sitting there tanking them as the shots do more damage. On hard, you have to really fight tactically as well as master Lara's three special combat moves (jump kick, slide kick, and grapple yank) to be able to fight effectively. No matter what difficulty level, though, the game is FUN, so it works perfectly
Puzzles (a mainstay of the TR series) can be challenging, one of them requiring you to look very closely at the surrounding environment to find the last piece needed which is hidden in plain sight. That one puzzle actually had me looking for that piece for 20 minutes straight :whipped:. Otherwise, the puzzles are not entirely brainbusting, but they do require you to think logically about how it would work if you were there yourself. And believe me, if you take 30 minutes to figure out the hair-ripping one in Japan, then you're there with me :)
Overall... I would say that Eidos did the best thing they could have in dumping Core Design and bringing in Crystal Dynamics to produce and make the game, as it really is a return to the tomb-raiding feel of the first two games. While some parts may be frustrating, everything in the game has a solution. You just need to think about it (like "my, that air conditioning unit looks like it can be climbed up" then go and try it)
Graphics: 4.5/5 (Only cuz Oblivion looks prettier. I'd put this graphically where F.E.A.R. and Quake 4 are. Very nice, lighting effects, shadows, feels great to just stop and look around sometimes)
Gameplay: 4/5
Sound: 5/5 (Alistair is annoying, another character is slightly grating, but everything else feels right. Music is awesome, sound effects work perfectly)
Replayability: No score (haven't finished the game yet, but there are unlockable items so I'm assuming a few more playthroughs are yet to come)
OVERALL IMPRESSION: 4/5, or 8/10 if you use a 10 scale :P
I've been pimping on this game ever since playing the demo, so I thought it only fair to offer my biased and totally subjective review of the game :thumbsup: So, after picking it up last night and playing about 5 hours in, I thought I would offer my initial review
First of all, I am massively impressed with the whole feel of the game. I bought the PC version (preordered a long time ago, actually), and the controls feel mostly natural. What I mean by that is that for the PC, the crouch key is set to "F", while I'm used to the FPS standard of Left-CTRL. Just a quick dab into the options and the control setup fixed that. ALso, the game feels smooth and easily played, but still challenging as you have to time things, and in levels such as Ghana and Khazakstan, actually have pressure situations requiring you to quickly jump between ledges, bars, etc whilst dangling hundreds of feet in the air. It FEELS like a Tomb Raider game, instead of the platformer that was TR III-VI. They aimed to return to the feel of the original two games, and they caught the ball perfectly and ran with it.
Another thing that impressed me is the ability to go almost splinter-cell in stealthiness. When crouched, Lara makes almost no sound and you can sneak up on enemies, slide kick em and kill. Or, if you want to sneak up behind an enemy on a higher level, you jump and grab the ledge, then insead of the regular up+jump to haul yourself up, you press and hold up+jump and Lara does a handstand that generates no noise.
Graphically, this game is very very very very VERY pretty. If you have an nVidia card or get the XBOX 360 version, you also get some very light HDR and very heavy Pixel Shader 3 effects, which make the game look 10x prettier (EDIT: With the ATi X1800 or X1900 series of cards, you get HDR and AA at the same time). But even with a standard X800XT PE, I'm getting lovely framerate, glorious reflections and render distances to put most games to shame. A perfect example is the Ghana level right at the start, where you stand on a cliff and you can look down over the entire first part of the level and EVERYTHING is rendered, despite being nearly 500 (in game) feet away. And then you have to swan dive off the cliff (not a spoiler, as this is what the game tells you to do), which in itself is a lovely bit of rendering as there is no pop-in whatsoever. It's just smooth. Very well done.
Voices are okay, although Alistair does get on my nerves a bit. Lara's voice actor does her voice perfectly, being sharp and sarcastic when needed and soft and sad when needed. Zip is just kickass, and is also the comedic relief of the game, with some great one lines (Zip: "Every time you look DOWN, I want to throw UP" *this said while Lara is dangling by her fingertips on a mountainside above cloudlevel)
Difficulty-wise... on easy, the games enemies do provide a slight challenge, but not too much. Regular difficulty has you actually having to dodge shots instead of sitting there tanking them as the shots do more damage. On hard, you have to really fight tactically as well as master Lara's three special combat moves (jump kick, slide kick, and grapple yank) to be able to fight effectively. No matter what difficulty level, though, the game is FUN, so it works perfectly
Puzzles (a mainstay of the TR series) can be challenging, one of them requiring you to look very closely at the surrounding environment to find the last piece needed which is hidden in plain sight. That one puzzle actually had me looking for that piece for 20 minutes straight :whipped:. Otherwise, the puzzles are not entirely brainbusting, but they do require you to think logically about how it would work if you were there yourself. And believe me, if you take 30 minutes to figure out the hair-ripping one in Japan, then you're there with me :)
Overall... I would say that Eidos did the best thing they could have in dumping Core Design and bringing in Crystal Dynamics to produce and make the game, as it really is a return to the tomb-raiding feel of the first two games. While some parts may be frustrating, everything in the game has a solution. You just need to think about it (like "my, that air conditioning unit looks like it can be climbed up" then go and try it)
Graphics: 4.5/5 (Only cuz Oblivion looks prettier. I'd put this graphically where F.E.A.R. and Quake 4 are. Very nice, lighting effects, shadows, feels great to just stop and look around sometimes)
Gameplay: 4/5
Sound: 5/5 (Alistair is annoying, another character is slightly grating, but everything else feels right. Music is awesome, sound effects work perfectly)
Replayability: No score (haven't finished the game yet, but there are unlockable items so I'm assuming a few more playthroughs are yet to come)
OVERALL IMPRESSION: 4/5, or 8/10 if you use a 10 scale :P