Date of review: 2013-03-07
Tomb Raider Reborn review
My slogan about this game is: No dinosaurs, no home, no medipack. This actually means that the old Tomb Raider is dead and we Tomb Raider fans won't get what we really wanted. I think that it is time for the old Tomb Raider series to say goodbye, since the developers of Tomb Raider Reborn are actually trying not to bring it, which is not logical but they won't do it anyway. Reborn was like a horror game, but if you ask me, it seemed more brutal, especially at the way Lara dies during the game.
The game was just another Tomb Raider Legend with much better graphics and optimization. There are also a lot of bugs found by the community, but still they are nearly unnoticeable. You always move the same, there is no running so you could press a button and move faster, just like the older series. This one, even though they tried their best and that is stated when you complete the game, Reborn is still a cropped down version of old amazingly optimized Tomb Raider games. Even though stuff is getting easier to create, we see less and less optimizations in games and this is due to a lot of problems, only because of the graphics added.
Lara now can grab just like Assassin's Creed, use campfires just like Dark Souls game and a lot of other stuff which is clear that the same programmers are doing the same stuff over and over again. If you try a lot of games you would notice very little differences and still it feels a real pain. This basically means that Tomb Raider is just another imitation of other games, which won't actually be so good for gamers. They also added an FX effect to Lara's hair which was a good idea and the exact place to add it.
There are a lot of bad stuff in the game, which I don't want to talk about, but overall the game was amazing. I know that Tomb Raider fans won't be actually happy with this, but it is still very good compared to other games. There are a lot of other areas where the game was actually difficult and it was really good, I personally really liked it. The game was somewhat interesting at the quarter of it, but it lost my attention since the plane was attacked by the lightning storm. The problem is that the game gave some unrealistic ideas and they killed some of Lara's friends. This is not really good since I was waiting better characters, especially like the old Von Croy and other key characters on Tomb Raider games.
The graphics were very good, simply amazing. Even though a lot of people say about the bad optimization, I didn't notice anything at all. Even if I would notice, there won't be too much to cry out. I really liked the game and it was clear that its developers tried their best. They really wanted to kill the old Tomb Raider and tell the fans, don't wait for it anymore. If they try to remake Tomb Raider 4, The last revelation with this game engine, that would be maybe the best Tomb Raider ever made. There had to be more difficult areas and not a game completed in a single day. This is very disappointing, but compared to all other lame games that are coming out, I have to agree that this was the best a Tomb Raider fan would pretend.
Still the game had its ups and downs. For example, there was no Lara's home, which was a very bad idea and I sincerely don't know why, since that was a key feature of the game. No animations, no health bar, no medipacks, but there were other stuff like weapon upgrades, upgrade points, level ups which I personally think that just removed the need of those other features. They even pushed the game from September 2012 to March 2013 which is quite a lot of time to create the best gaming possibility ever. This is actually the best game you are going to get around, no matter how hard you would try. One of the best features the old Tomb Raider game had, were the misterious places and it just made you to play the game no matter what. Also, the very difficult areas which I think that none tried to create some difficult areas on Reborn. Only the ancient tombs, which were not part of the actual main objective, were the most difficult to unveil the secrets.
After finishing the game, finally Lara got two weapons and a lot of words about unfinished stuff will also mean that we are going to have a better and newer Tomb Raider, but I sincerely hope they bring back one of the Tomb Raiders. Either way, the game had a very huge map, you could fast travel from one point to another and what I didn't mention, which was very interesting, was the survival ability which was very interesting. That made the game far easier though, because you could see where you had to go and complete the objectives faster than it could be originally possible.
Overall the game is a must, no matter if you are a fan of Tomb Raider or not. It is a huge difference between the previous Underworld game, which I have reviewed before and this one. I would definitively recommend this game, even to its fans, so have fun!
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