Just finished the game. Omfg this game is so incredible. I have not fallen so in love with a game since Uncharted 2. It does almost everything to perfection. Amazing setpieces, great platforming, top notch combat, beautiful graphics, awesome puzzles, a story that brings you in every step of the way, and a main character who was written masterfully. When things happen to Lara, you fell those too. When Lara killed her first person, I've never had a game that conveyed that emotion better. When she lost someone close to her, you felt that as well. They did an excellent job in showing us how Lara matures from what she is at the beginning of the game and how she becomes the Tomb Raider. The puzzles were a lot of fun, and I loved coming across them frequently in the story. The optional side tombs were a blast. Hopefully next time around they can take those a little further and make the tomb raides longer. The ability to stop what you're doing in the story and explore certain areas is great. Platforming up to a ledge and finding that relic is a lot of fun that you don't get in a lot of games.
This game gets a lot of comparisons to the Uncharted series, and rightfully so, Tomb Raider originally inspired Uncharted, and now you see that reversed in this game. However, with their so many similarities, they are also very different, which is nice for both. Tomb Raider offers you a much darker tone than the usually light-hearted Uncharted games do. The world they created in this game was dark and just downright creepy as hell sometimes. The added explorable areas and character/weapon upgrades were also nice to see (and I wish Uncharted would offer similar character upgrades).
Overall I think Crystal Dynamics has set up an amazing character here and I can't wait to take part in Lara's next adventure *fingers crossed*. You would be hard-pressed to find a game that tells a better origin story than this one right here. It's very cool, a couple times during the story they throw out little things to the long time fans that I couldn't help but smile at. Honestly, I'm having a hard time trying to find things wrong with this game to not give it a perfect 10 out of 10. Oh, one minor thing I think they need to address: they need a killer theme song. It's very rare when you come across a game that makes you a little sad when you finish it, and that's exactly how I fell here lol. I just wanted it to keep going and going.
, the XP system seems smartly done and I love searching for the collectibles.
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