When the new reboot of tomb raider came out
on Xbox 360 and Ps3 everyone had noticed the improvement in quality from all of
the previous games especially in all of the cinematic scenes. So it came as a
surprise when Square Enix had decided to release an improved version for the
Xbox one and PS4 consoles.
But nonetheless, playing through the
Definitive Edition on PlayStation 4 is excellent. The Xbox One can’t quite keep
the frame rate up at 60fps, but I’ve been appreciating the difference. Tomb
Raider is still one of the best of its genre, up there with the Uncharted
series - but if you’re wondering whether this version is an improved experience
beyond extra visual flair, the answer is: No, not enormously.
Realistic mud and sweat is not the next-gen
revolution that gaming has been waiting for - but happily Tomb Raider doesn’t
need extra special effects to make it worth playing.
One of the main reasons for rebooting the
tomb raider series is for all of the people transferring over onto the next
generation consoles, this game focuses on the younger Lara croft before she
became a woman of action.
The Definitive Edition comes with all the
DLC - though this isn’t as significant an addition as you might hope. The only
significant single-player DLC is a single extra secret tomb, those little
self-contained tributes to Tomb Raider’s puzzle-driven heritage. The rest of it
is either superfluous weapon attachments or multiplayer maps and items, and
sadly the multiplayer hasn’t magically gotten better over the course of the
past year. It still isn’t worth much of anyone’s time.
One of the more interesting things that you
can now do on the next generation consoles are the voice commands to aid you in
the game.
You can say “show map” to pinpoint your
location or name a weapon to equip it. The down side to this is that sometimes
the Enemies shouts can trigger the voice commands and change what you are
doing, this can also happen when you are in a party with your friends.
Depending on the volume of the party other people can also trigger the voice commands.
These new control features and DLC don’t
add anything to what was already a smooth, satisfying, genuinely thrilling
action game, held together by an iconic, sympathetically written main
character, fast-paced and varied combat. The opening hours of gameplay can be a
little tough especially if you skip the cinematic scenes as the gameplay does
relay heavily on them, but it’s all for the sake of setting up Lara’s
character.
It really is all about Lara - she’s
vulnerable here, but never disempowered, and never less than totally capable in
the face of extreme danger. We see flashes of her genuine nerdy passion for
archaeology, too, as she marvels over artefacts and ancient structures. As much
as I love Tomb Raider as an action game, I miss it as an explorative puzzler;
there’s not much actual tomb-raiding in this origin story, but the secret tombs
hidden around the island show that Crystal Dynamics still has great talent for
environmental puzzles. Hopefully there will be more of this in the sequel.
Each area of the island, from mountaintop
village to forest to flotsam-littered beaches, is an adventure playground
littered with hidden treasures, constructed for climbing and jumping and
lateral thinking. The first time I played Tomb Raider, it was only when I went
back to these areas without the story pushing me through them with a pistol in
the small of my back that I appreciated how well designed they are. This time
around I enjoyed it from the start, spending much more time exploring them for
trinkets before moving on with the story’s agenda.
It really is stunningly beautiful, too, and
even more so now. The Enhanced Edition gives you plenty of opportunities to
admire the island from cliffsides, misty mountain outlooks, and precarious
climbing ropes. The story, too, still has power the second time around, despite
the weak supporting cast and not-entirely-welcome supernatural elements. Lara
is strong enough to carry it.
Lara’s quick transformation into a hardened
head-popping action heroine after her traumatic first kill still feels jarring,
and marks the moment of Tomb Raider’s transition from survival game to all-out
action. A few hours later, when you’re enjoying the full range of Lara’s
weapons and combat techniques, it feels strange to remember that she goes
through the first few hours of the game without a gun. But then, Tomb Raider is
never afraid to change up the pace. You’re never in the same place doing the
same thing twice, and that’s a large part of what makes it so memorable.
Final verdict.
The upstep in visual detail from the older
console versions is a nice bonus, but Tomb Raider didn’t need massaging. It’s
the same well-realised action reboot for Lara Croft that came as such a
pleasant surprise last year. It’s still well-written, sympathetic, exciting,
beautiful, and just incredibly well-made.
