Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition (PS4 Review)

(All screenshots in this review have been captured from the PS4)

Having never played a Tomb Raider game before gives me a perspective that may differ from others when addressing the reboot. The only thing I can draw comparison to is Uncharted. I'm quite a fan of Uncharted, actually. I love the massive set pieces and explosions, I love cover system shooters, and I'm a sucker for treasure hunting stories. Many friends made it clear to me that if I enjoyed Uncharted I would enjoy Tomb Raider. For the most part, they're right. In other cases, Tomb Raider looks to be a game trying to stand out from its newfound competition; but it hasn't found its footing just yet.

Gameplay wise Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition has seen a nice facelift from its PS3 days, running at a mostly consistent 60FPS and bolstering some character remodels and new lighting effects. I've played both versions of the game and can say with certainty that this upgrade definitely affected my enjoyment of the gameplay for the better, making the action more fluid and the environments engaging. The cover system is a mixed bag; unlike the usual snap cover style of gunplay common with this style of shooter, Tomb Raider incorporates the cover system mechanics automatically. If enemies are nearby and there's something to hide behind, you'll duck behind it without the need to input a command. It's looser and allows for more freedom. For the most part the system works fine, mostly because enemies will seldom come at you in any other direction than in front of you. Flanking is rarely an option, so instead they'll use a barrage of molotov cocktails and grenades to force you out in the open scrambling for safety. The real problem is that this is about as far as the gunplay goes. Apart from a brief final chapter that explores a mildly different enemy variant, the game follows this formula the entire way through. It's this lack of variety and lazy AI that really make Tomb Raider suffer. By the end of its fairly short campaign the action will simply not make a lasting impression.

By far the best aspect that Tomb Raider has going for it are the larger, more open-ended areas. There are plenty of items to collect in the environment and optional tombs you'll be entitled to solve on your adventure. It's such a shame because you only wish there were more...a lot more. Figuring out the 7 tombs, each with its own distinct look and mechanic, feels like a step that the series should look to greatly elaborate on in later installments. It's not really that the tombs are challenging, they're just fun to venture through. In fact traversing the environment is definitely one of the more distinct qualities that Tomb Raider has over Uncharted. Things are less scripted and therefore allow for a greater sense of overall freedom. Here's hoping that Rise of the Tomb Raider will build a richer and denser world with more nooks and crannies to explore.

In the end the weakest part of Tomb Raider falls on the conceptualization of a reboot and how it goes about redefining the series. We begin with a scholarly and young Lara Croft venturing by sea to discover a mythical Japanese city known as "Yamatai". As you can probably imagine, all hell breaks loose as the crew is left shipwrecked on an island cursed by violent storms that obliterate anything that comes near. Lara is snatched away by ghoulish inhabitants of the island and she awakes in a crimson cave reminiscent of the horror film The Descent. In fact, there are quite a few comparisons to this film that become exceedingly more difficult to take as coincidence. Maybe that's part of the problem and where this reboot begins to appear inconsistent. It tries to do so many different things with Lara to transform her, whether by horror cliches or mythical forces or survivalism or sacrifice, that by the time our heroine comes into her own it feels unnatural and forced. Roth, Lara's mentor, is constantly there to remind us that "you're a Croft." As if you always had a tendency for violence and you only needed to be on one really bad vacation to conjure up within you a legendary gunslinger. It just all comes together like handwaving, administering an intense gauntlet of trial by fire that leaves Lara like two sides of a coin changing face effortlessly rather than truthfully. Sometimes the story takes itself far too seriously for its own good, and yet at other times it goes completely bonkers, existing only as if to stand distanced from Uncharted's more grounded rationalization of myths. It's definite by the end of Lara's journey that she has changed...you jut don't buy any of it. I wish there was some ability to suspend disbelief and perhaps this would have been possible had not they chosen to explain the origins of such an iconic character. It simply bears the question as to why they chose to explore something so personal so personally while also trying to squeeze in a sizable body count.

Overall Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition is not a game I can recommend to anyone at full retail price. The length would never warrant the cost and neither would the quality. But for $20 I think there's enough for both new players and those that have played the original version to hop in and get something of value out of it. It's just a shame that the most enjoyable features of the reboot are also the most short in supply.

Grade: C