wow, you guys really fell for this? Does it suddenly not become typical AAA bullshit after 4 hours? Cause as patronizing and easy this game is, I'd be shocked if it got any better, gameplay wise.
This is progress quest bullshit. It gives you EPIC SETPIECE, you run around and shoot 10/10 hidden objects for XP, you do some risk-free platforming (with lots of grunts and canned animations to make you feel like you're not just pressing the analog stick forward), and kill some dudes. The puzzles are not puzzles, they're just running from point A to point B and flicking a switch or doing some simple physics task.
Every time I think I have to put some thought into survival, the game does everything for me. I'm backing out of a cave full of wolves because I know they're in there. Instead of getting attacked by the wolves and having to defend myself, I get a cut scene where Lara is walking dum-de-dum facing forward out the cave as if nothing was going to happen and then I'm jumped by a wolf and its EPIC MASHING QTE TIME!!!! Mash A to survive! Actually it wasn't even that, it was a segmented QTE fight scene that required a couple timed presses. And before I got to the cave, she was talking about a pack of wolves. I was going into the fucking wolf den. I heard them howling and I was a bit nervous...it sounded like a pack as well. And then there's one dumb wolf there who you take out in a cut scene.
Even the forest animals you hunt just come running up to you so you can shoot them in the head. The real mystery of this island is why there are so many dumb animals. And how this endangered girl got rebar through the gut, didn't patch it or clean it, and survived, going on to make bounding inhuman jumps a minute later.
There's no actual freedom, aside from going up and down on the "technically not a hallway, but feels like it in practice" trajectory of the game. You can go back and complete fractions for XP to unlock all kinds of skills for a game that isn't even balanced around them. You don't need extra firepower or anything when you get the jump on every pack of guys and can just stealth kill them with your raw bow. These are just little conveniences they're gonna trickle out and make this already brainless game easier.
Not to mention a fucking EXP meter pops up on screen every 10 second to congratulate me on walking 10 steps without getting lost. And before I turned off button hints, the game reminded me every 5 seconds to use Lara's super power of gold highlight vision, which basically flays open the level design for you, killing any sense of exploration. I'm purposely not using it just to make this game's navigation half way interesting. You come to a cool patch of forest, the path is unclear, and you're unsure what's ahead...are you excited or do you hit LB just to make it easier? The answer depends on whether you're a lazy douche bag that's killing gaming or not.
The "platforming" requires you to hit the A button at a ledge and thank fucking god for that. It makes you wonder why they didn't just automate it, since everything else is. I have yet to find a height that she can't survive from. I assume she dies when it's obviously too high, but the platforming only puts you high up every once in a while. Otherwise, failing platforming just means your progress is set back a second.
Tomb Raider just tantalizes with all these promising RPG elements, hints of dangerous survivalist adventure, and beautifully designed set pieces, only to neuter them with brain dead game design that renders everything a challenge-less and meaningless grind.
They aimed for the largest mainstream demographic and they'll hit it. This is a game made for reviewers on the big media sites and average bro who might be turned off from the game by the female protagonist, until he sees how much shit she kills.
It'll have its place in my collection and I'll get in the mood to play it at some point, but this is not a good game at all. It couldn't be more run of the mill. Tomb Raider: Escape From AAA Island
But yeah fucking awesome game dudes
