Tomb Raider - Xbox 360

Old Name, Remarkable New Series

Matt Miller — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 15:00:00 GMT

The gaming world has much to say on the idea of reboots and relaunches. They’re the best way to keep a series relevant. Or they’re the death of all things new and creative. Opinions abound, but when a fresh start to an old series is as engaging and exciting as Tomb Raider, it’s best to just sit back and enjoy a brilliant new release on its own merits.

Tomb Raider begins with a focus on narrative and atmosphere, and in a rare feat, maintains that focus for the many subsequent hours. Lara Croft is a young but uncertain adventurer out with a documentary crew searching for a lost island off the coast of Japan. When her ship mysteriously tears itself apart in a storm, she and a small band of survivors are cast away on a dangerous island filled with ritualistic cultists and inexplicable weather events. Whether it’s the opening cave sequence, outrunning a crashing airplane, or tumbling down a whitewater river, the cinematic flair excels at engaging players without taking control away. The story takes a few predictable turns, but it’s easy to forgive as the tale weaves through exotic locales, fun character interactions, and amazing set-piece moments.

Lara is a great lead. Emotional, nuanced voice acting and stellar animation for the character help make her believable, even if that focus on authenticity is at odds with Lara’s seemingly inhuman ability to suffer wounds, falls, stabs, and burns and still marshal on. Even so, few games have managed such a likeable and relatable protagonist, scaling up from vulnerable ingénue to hardened survivalist.

Tomb Raider strikes a near-perfect balance between traversal, exploration, and combat, and it does so by letting players set that balance themselves. While the critical path is mostly linear, stages are large and have plenty of options for shaping gameplay. Like stealth? The game does an admirable job supporting quiet melee kills, enemy distraction, and distant bow shots that send opponents silently tumbling from cliffsides. Want more action? The gunplay is precise, headshots are appropriately rewarded, and mobility is encouraged as you dodge and leap between cover points. Looking for puzzles? Most of Tomb Raider’s best puzzles are set aside in optional tombs, available whenever you want a break from the fighting.

Tomb Raider distinguishes itself from similar third-person action games in two ways. First, a deep system of gear and character upgrades encourages players to go after high XP kills, hunt down salvage, and choose early upgrades wisely. Second, the game allows players to take breaks from the forward momentum of the story and fast travel back into previous locations. Almost all areas include several gear-gated nooks, secrets you might have missed, or hidden treasures and journals that offer insight into the island. In big and little ways, Tomb Raider embraces the joy of discovery, and the player can’t help but be pulled along for the ride.

A big part of me wishes that the game started and stopped with the single-player offering, but that’s not the case. The multi-player isn’t awful, but it feels like a whole different game in everything from the muddy textures of environments to the sloppy feel of the action. Asymmetric matches demand separate objectives for the competing survivors and their island cultist opponents, which are implemented and balanced well. However, the combat feels loose and frantic, and character animation is choppy. Explosions are hard or impossible to detect, and often result in cheap deaths. The interesting idea of platforming during a multiplayer session is hamstrung because it just exposes you to attack. I enjoyed upgrading weapons and unlocking characters, but these systems don’t deviate much from expected standards. Other dedicated multiplayer experiences are more worth your time.

The lackluster multiplayer is absolutely no reason to avoid what is otherwise one of the best action adventures I’ve ever played. Crystal Dynamics has nailed a pitch-perfect new vision for one of gaming’s most recognizable characters, and revitalizes her for what I hope will be many more installments. Whether or not you’ve embraced the previous games that went by this moniker, this is the time to take another look at Lara Croft.

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Extended Walkthrough Shows Off More Tomb Raider Gameplay

Jeff Marchiafava — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 20:09:58 GMT

Crystal Dynamics has released a new demo video of Tomb Raider, narrated by creative director Noah Hughes.

The 11-minute demo shows off a wealth of combat and mechanics which should be enough to get any action fan excited. Some nice touches include a dynamic cover system that has Lara ducking behind objects automatically when enemies are near, and the ability to create her own ziplines with a bow and arrow and some rope. It turns out Lara ain't too bad with a shotgun, either.

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Tomb Raider will be available on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC on March 5. For more on Tomb Raider, check out this Guide to Survival video.

Lara Gets Put Through The Ringer In New E3 Demo

Dan Ryckert — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 02:52:00 GMT

We still have nine months to wait until Crystal Dynamics’ reboot of the Tomb Raider series sees its release, but the developer offered the media a new look at the survival-themed title at E3. Taking place shortly after Lara’s ship crashes, we saw the heroine get put through the ringer for nearly thirty straight minutes.

Fresh out of college, the 21 year-old aspiring archaeologist finds herself overlooking the ship Endurance’s wreckage at the outset of the demo. Scrambling to find any potential survivors, she begins blindly exploring her unknown environment. She walks over fallen trees and climbs across a small, crashed plane before eventually finding a pile of supplies that may belong to her group.

Attempting to communicate via a radio she found in the supplies, she’s met with nothing but static. As night falls, her breath becomes visible and she struggles to stay warm. She finds a match box amongst the wreckage, but it only contains one match. Luckily, she’s able to maintain a small fire and survive the night.

Morning comes, and Lara’s need for warmth has shifted into an immediate need to eat. While further exploring the area, she comes across a decaying body hanging from a tree. This should probably be reason for concern, but all Lara seems to care about is the bow attached to the corpse. She climbs a tree and knocks the body down, falling hard herself in the process. With her new weapon, she’s now able to hunt.

Lara takes down a deer with a couple of arrows, and is rewarded with XP upon skinning the animal. This experience system will allow her to upgrade her items and weapons, and also grants her new survival skills. These include Hunter, a perk that makes edible animals stand out more, making them easier to hunt.

After eating, Lara heads inside what appears to be an abandoned outpost. She climbs down a ladder and encounters a room filled with rotting meat. With a look of disgust, she pulls a tool out of one of the animal carcasses. Crystal Dynamics referred to this tool as her pry axe, and it can eventually be upgraded and strengthened as more XP is earned.

She exits the building to encounter one of her fellow survivors at a fire next to a shady-looking man with a crutch. He feigns friendliness before holding Lara’s friend at knifepoint. As he escapes with the girl, Lara fails in an attempt to hit him with an arrow. She tries to pursue the man, but becomes ensnared in a bear trap.

With her leg rendered immobile, she then has to defend herself against a pack of hungry wolves that leap through the tall grass surrounding her. Once several wolves are taken down, the rest of the survivors appear and help to free Lara’s leg. The Endurance’s expedition was led by a character known as Dr. Whitman, and he sets off with Lara to find the captain of the ship.

They climb stone stairs on their way up a mountain, and eventually come across a new camp. Wolves attack once again, and Lara and Whitman are met with more dangerous-looking men once the animals are taken out. Lara is tackled and bound by the men, then dragged to a location that houses the rest of her (also-bound) crew. She manages to elude her captors, and runs off with her hands still tied.

One man shoves her up against a wall, but Lara is able to take him down with a knee to his groin and a painful-looking bite of his ear. With the man knocked down, she scrambles to grab his gun. He pounces on top of her, she struggles to point the gun at his head, and then shoots him directly through the brain. The man convulses on the ground, making nonsensical noises for a few seconds until he finally dies. Clearly distraught over killing a man for the first time, Lara appears almost ready to vomit. She stands up with the gun in her still-bound hands, and the demo ends.

It’s a shockingly gruesome scene, especially for a franchise that has never been known for graphic violence. Considering this all happens so early in the game, we can’t imagine how much more pain Lara will have to endure when the game releases next March.

Tomb Raider Trailer Time

Matthew Kato — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 22:57:18 GMT

Today we follow up our previous coverage with a video showing off some of what this reboot from Crystal Dynamics is all about.

The game is impressing show goers, and now you can get a sense of what all the buzz is about.

Also, be sure to read Matt Helgeson's impressions of the game, look at the screens below, and check out our Tomb Raider cover story Hub.

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A New Level Of Tomb Raider Unveiled In E3 Demo

Matt Helgeson — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 02:45:00 GMT

Square Enix gave us a behind-closed-doors demo of Crystal Dynamics' Tomb Raider reboot, one that showed off a previously unseen level. The first half of the presentation revolved around the familiar sequence where a young Lara escapes death in a waterlogged cavern -- a scene first described in our Tomb Raider cover story and shown a few days ago at the Microsoft E3 Press Conference.

However, things got interesting in the second half of the demo, when a new level of the game was shown, one that takes place in a mountain village. It provided us with a little more of the game's attempt to develop Lara Croft as a character, and also showcased her legendary platforming abilities.

The sequence starts with Lara stumbling upon Conrad Roth, her mentor of sorts, locked in a battle with a wolf. The deadly lupine eventually retreats, but not before mauling Roth badly. Lara rushes to his aid, helping him walk closer to his base camp and the campfire.

Things are bad. Roth need medical attention and a radio transmitter he left in the wolves' den. Lara is forced into action and begins platforming over the building in the village to reach the opening to the abandoned mine that serves as the den. Overall, the platforming seems easy and fast -- more akin to Assassin's Creed than the laborious platforming of earlier Tomb Raiders. Weather also factors in, making things more difficult; at one point Lara slipped off a rainslicked fuselage of a crashed plane suspended in the mountain.

After Lara makes it to the highly perched mine, she enters the dangerous den. At one point, she's attack by a wolf and is forced to use one of her arrows as a weapon, an encounter that plays out like a brief quick-time event. Finally, she finds the transmitter and the first aid kit. From there, Lara negotiates her way back down the base camp and minister to Roth's wounds. At this point, the presenter stopped to tell us that base camps serve a purpose in the game, as they are points where Lara can buy new skills and upgrades, craft new gear from salvage, and fast travel to other campsites.

Here, we get to see a more emotional side of the game. Roth tells Lara she has to be the one to find and climb the radio tower to install the transistor that might bring them help. As opposed to the quippy Lara of past games, this Lara is unsure of herself and scared but also willing to risk her life to help her mentor. It's a nicely done sequence and helps cast Lara in a more complex light. With this nice end to the demo, I once again came away impressed by Tomb Raider.

New Tomb Raider Screens Galore

Matthew Kato — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 16:56:00 GMT

Most games try to reboot because nobody cares about the franchise anymore. That's not the case with Crystal Dynamic's Tomb Raider. The game is taking Lara in new directions, and is using a whole new look and new gameplay.

Lara definitely is younger, and she's in trouble like never before, being battered, bloodied, and in dire straits.

Take a look at the slew of shots showing off the game in the gallery below, and for more on the game, check out our Tomb Raider Hub. Also, come back soon when we'll have more info on the title as well.

Tomb Raider Turning Point Trailer Unveiled

Annette Gonzalez — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 16:07:00 GMT

"A famous explorer once said the extraordinary is in what we do not who we are. I'd finally set out to make my mark to find adventure, but instead adventure found me..."

A peaceful ride on a ship takes an unexpected turn for Lara Croft. This Tomb Raider trailer from Crystal Dynamics shares a mere glimpse of how young Croft's survival skills will be put to the test. Check out the trailer below.

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