What's Up with Tomb Raider?

Hey guys, it's hardcopy again.  I got another post for the new Tomb Raider game coming up later this year.  This time I'm going to be a little bit more in depth and specific about why I think the original Tomb Raider had to get rebooted and how that series had to get rebooted as well.

So it's been a while since I have even touched Angel of Darkness and any game before that.  A lot of the most popular were obviously the first through the third.  In between these projects there have been many other knock off games with more challenges and for some reason time trials.  But the whole purpose of Angel of Darkness was really a revenge story about Lara.  She is wanted in Europe for killing a friend and mentor in the past, but I don't need to say much else to explain to you why this game has to do with stealth.

The problem here is the huge lack of actually raiding tombs.  You know...like she does in all the other games but not this one?  Well basically this made for a bad reputation and a great loss of money for the franchise.  The storyline, although some say was alright, was really terrible compared to the other games according to other fans of the series.  What irked me most about this game was how frigging stupid it was to give her a possible love interest/partner in the game who you also control for a small portion.  If this happened earlier in the series (like how you can control other people in the second Uncharted), then I would have been ok with that, but so far we have been playing multiple games as just Lara.  This is a one woman career.

So this other guy on the right in this picture is Kurtis Trent.  He has a blade disk thingie and can use some type of power that I can't remember what it was actually called only because I really was so pissed off about that feature.  Basically when you play as Kurt, you throw the disk in the air like a Frisbee then you use his telekinesis to control it.  You know...with bullets...at least they go as fast as light so to speak.  But just tossing a disk in the air doesn't seem to be as practical so it's not going to cut it.  And I also think that the use of having a character like him using magic was way too far out of the Tomb Raider name and face.

The whole dark theme was also really annoying, and I mean dark as in you will not see the light of day in this game at all.  But when you see the game series's lush and well designed environment, you are completely spoiled into thinking there would be more of this only to find dark alley ways and catwalks to sneak around on.  Basically Darkness was a different change, something different, but it wasn't executed well.  Oh yeah the graphics were great for the time, but the glitches killed that experience.  Holy Lara's short shorts, Batman, there are SO many glitches.  It almost made the game virtually unplayable.

 Then Cyrstal Dynamics and Buzz Monkey came in.  Tomb Raider Legend.  Awesome game.  Tomb Raider Anniversary.  Even better awesome game.  Although the reputation for these games have been brought down so much, true fans of the series have a love relationship Legend and Anniversary.  They both got great reviews, and oh man, is platforming ever sweet.  They seemed to boost the image for Tomb Raider  but it was also getting a new fan base for those who haven't played any of the other ones for PC and so forth.  Therefore a lot of the older fan base dropped because of the different direction the series went before these two games.

So to top off the trilogy and the fail history of Tomb Raider, Underworld came out a few years ago.  I'm just going to put this out here: DO NOT PLAY the PS2 version!  Yeah, it was one of those that had to come out in both the PS3 and PS2 platforms.  The PS2 game is very different and very full of suck.  But once I got around to playing the PS3 game, my doubts weren't comforted.  They got worse.

One of the biggest issues I had with this sequel was how cryptic it was.  According to the developers, the game is supposed to be about how you see a particular scene and instead of having just one way to get somewhere, you have different options of platforming.  So to speak you'll have to use your brain and imagination instead of using a path already set out for you.  Some of the ledges are not highlighted or visible as you think they will be compared to the other games.  Sometimes you have to take a chance and dive off into a direction until you will see what platform or ledge you can use.  There are a lot of other platforming moves and attributes added to Lara's character.  But because there are so many things to do, I feel that the game is trying to cram all of it into each scene you get to.  Lara is more nimble and there are other logical things you can do with her that you wondered why she couldn't do them in the previous games.

With that said, getting lost happens all the time.  You do get a sonar map in your PDA, but because it's sonar without detail, it doesn't really help much for people like me.  Unless you have the perfect memory, I will guarantee you will be lost every once in a while.  As for me, I have a terrible sense of direction so sometimes I would be doing a level way longer than needed and that gets me tired of playing.

Another aspect that I can't stand about this game is this freaking dark theme again.  There is probably only one level where it's bright and that's it.  You're underwater, in a jungle where it's raining, in the Arctic circle, and finally down in the depths of a ruined underworld.  Too many themes of dark places, and besides, most of them aren't tombs anyway.

The glitching in this game is not as bad as the PS2.  The PS2 version was really unplayable because of the jumping glitches.  Besides that, the camera in the PS3 version is absolutely terrible, and I know for a fact that other reviewers also commented on the camera problem, too.  It sucks when you can't jump from another ledge behind you  when you can't see it.  The camera was never an issue in the other two games previous, but I guess better graphics can also alter the game to have these problems.

The last thing I absolutely despise is how enemies can run off screen even when you have a locked gauge on one.  When you face thralls and tigers, you better make sure you are on their ass because they always arrive in a group and they jump and scurry all over the place.  This makes it more difficult to dodge attacks when you can't see them.

Tomb Raider Underworld had terrible sales, and all of the same mistakes from Angel of Darkness was present in this game again.  Now we have a new Tomb Raider coming up, and this time it's published with the help of Square Enix.  Square is now the China of the world; they are going to make all of the games and gain in profits by just their name.  It's unbelievable but true.  Just watch.

We're going to deal with a survival horror game this time.  I'm excited, but I'm also concerned that this fail cycle is going to kick into place again.  You can't retire Tomb Raider, it's always going to be around because of the multiple things you can do with the game itself, such as what's going to happen this year.  I'm going to be terribly disappointed if the game after this fails the name sake.  But in the mean time, we'll see how this one goes, and if it does fail, well at least they did something different.  I am confident that Square is going to have a lot of good input, and if they don't, something is seriously wrong with having them as a publisher.