Tomb Raider

[Tiberius]

RoJoHen wrote:

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The only thing I find I'm not enjoying is the lack of hand-to-hand combat. Maybe it's just because of the other types of games I usually play, but whenever an enemy gets close to me, I instinctually hit the Square button to punch them...only in this game, it doesn't do anything! If an enemy is that close, I feel I should at least be able to whack them with my bow or the butt of my gun. Instead, they usually end up stabbing me in the neck.

One of the upgrades you can get is to be able to whack them with your ice axe.

[ThunderAeroI]

Tiberius wrote:

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One of the upgrades you can get is to be able to whack them with your ice axe.

At teir III, you become a melee super-hero. Press shift to avoid them, stab them with your arrow and then press F. They die in mear moments. Plus there is stealth kills.

MY big problem right now is there is no one left to kill. Once the game is completed and your running around completing things, there is no threat left.

[Sheep]

I've played WAY TOO MUCH of this game the past two days.

The gameplay mechanics and controls are some of the best I've seen. Unlike most other games that require a lot of jumping and precision, I've never felt like I died as a result of poor controls or an uncooperative camera. (I'm looking at you, El Shaddai, a recent $3 XBLA purchase in which I feel like every other time I die is due to the god-awful camera.) The controls are very tight and allow for a good amount of exploration without fear of dying. Don't get me wrong, my Lara has fallen off a few ledges but it was my fault for not seeing the jumps I was supposed to make. My most unexpected death so far has to be standing directly underneath an oil lantern, shooting it with my bow because it's a collectible, and watching Lara burn to death thanks to my own stupidity.

And on that note, apparently I'm a stone cold psychopath given the amount of pleasure I take in shooting arrows at the heads of those trying to kill me. Early reviews indicated a great degree of dissonance between innocent, inexperienced Lara and how quickly she becomes accustomed to killing people--I actually did feel that in Uncharted with Nathan Drake killing hundreds of people, but the bow and arrow and game mechanics in general are so damn fun that I'm not getting that same feeling at all here.

The environments are great too. The game hides its "point A to point B" paths quite well with enough stuff littered around the maps to keep you busy searching and the ability to travel back to previous parts of the map to unlock things you couldn't get to the first time around.

My only issue with the game is that there is far too much ammo lying around. I'm fairly certain I've been at "full" for at least 75% of the time I've played and I'm pretty liberal with spraying tons of arrows and bullets everywhere. I'm hoping they add a game mode that emphasizes the survival element and drops the available ammo considerably.

I'm guessing I'm about halfway through the game and I'm already dreading when I inevitably finish it in the next week or so (or possibly days at the rate I'm playing it). This is truly how a video game reboot should be done.

[ThunderAeroI]

For an island in the middle of nowhere it does seem to have allot of ammo just laying around, as if the pirates/Russians have so much ammo they just casually leave it where ever they feel like it.

The game does a good job of showing you what are valid jump point by their color and style choice. It also does a good job training you on what to expect from future actions like what you just did.

I have only one zone left to 100%, but I'm sick of the game now to be honest. I'm burnt out. The best boss fights by far are the 'tank' and the 'oni'...not sure if there really was any others.

I replayed the ending again just to get this. The entire ending went from about 40 minutes to 10 I think - I stormed right through it. I did die once though.

[AlphaMan]

I just finished it!! It seems like at least a few people agree with me that this game is something special. I have to agree with ThunderAeroI regarding the distinct lack of enemies after you finish the game. I ran across several tombs during the story that I had planned to come back on, but just running around an empty jungle is killing all desire to do that.

I started to try multiplayer, but after waiting 5 minute for a lobby to get enough players to start a match, I just said forget it. Not a good sign during the first week of release.

The controls are great, the story is compelling and the graphics are amazing. The gameplay is what keeps you coming back. I'll probably give this another spin in April... Aftr I finish God of War Ascension and Bioshock Infinite... Just before Star Trek!!

Final Rating: 9.0/10

[ThunderAeroI]

Whioe clearing shipwreck cove i did come across some mobs. They died fast. Other than that no mobs amywhere and no mobs in any tombs. I want some new tomb and hard dlc.

Id agree it was worth the purchase price and id suggeat anyone remotly interested in tomb raidee to give it a try. About the only thing wrong with the game is you cant fast travel away from a camp. You have to be at the camp to do it. Perhaps another thing wrong is how little there is off the beaten path, its all rather linear. But thats not all bad.

[BigFoot]

^ There are also some bad guys in Shantytown and the village with the crashed plane.

[Rincewiend]

Picked it up saturday...
Good game, but right now i'm on my way to the beach at the point with the gondolas where Lara is getting shot at from one side and i have to jump a large gap or something...
Maybe a little bit too many of those "OMFG everything is collapsing around me, RUN!" sections...

[ThunderAeroI]

Rincewiend wrote:

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Picked it up saturday...
Good game, but right now i'm on my way to the beach at the point with the gondolas where Lara is getting shot at from one side and i have to jump a large gap or something...
Maybe a little bit too many of those "OMFG everything is collapsing around me, RUN!" sections...

That is tomb raider though, my only problem with those sections is the camera angle and I think should be forward is actually backward. Like when you are running towards you on the bridge. I'd press W, but the game says I have to press S. I die almost all the time at least once.

[Rincewiend]

See, that is a lot easier with a controller...

[ThunderAeroI]

I am stuck on an optional tomb...I think I understand what I am suppose to do, but it just cant be done. Hall of Ascension sucks

[BigFoot]

^ Which one is that? I beat all of them without any guides. Maybe I can help you out.

[RoJoHen]

ThunderAeroI wrote:

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I am stuck on an optional tomb...I think I understand what I am suppose to do, but it just cant be done. Hall of Ascension sucks

Pretty sure I just did that. Is that the really windy one?

If so, I had a small issue before I realized I was supposed to close the window. Once I did that, it was a piece of cake.

[ThunderAeroI]

RoJoHen wrote:

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Pretty sure I just did that. Is that the really windy one?

If so, I had a small issue before I realized I was supposed to close the window. Once I did that, it was a piece of cake.

I pretty much knew what I had to do by looking at the room, I just couldn't get the platform to swing far enough, like my Lara got fat or something. I watched a video and thought to myself my room must be bugged cause my platform goes no where near that far. I closed the program down, reloaded the save and started over and it worked fine.

None of the tombs are very complex. The first one I did was the flooded vault and it took a few moment for me to understand the tomb concept after that it wasn't hard at all.

[Trekker4747]

I'm not sure where I'm at in the game, I just sent out the radio message and survived the rescue plane crash. Though at first I thought Lara sliding through the collapsing debris field was a cinematic and wasn't controlling Lara and ended up getting impaled. Ooops.

Still finding it to be a beautiful, fun, engrossing game. I do wish hand-to-hand combat was possible as I was in a section where I was very scant (if not out) of ammo and had nothing to fight back with. Eventually I managed to trick the guy into throwing his own Molotov Cocktail on himself.

Great, amazing, game. Look forward to more from this series in the future with this new version of Lara Croft whom with every passing section I'm sure can kick Batman's ass.