I finished the reboot recently on hard. Took me a few days. Collected everything except the collectibles which arent shown in the map. I wasnt very impressed by the game design, gameplay, set pieces etc.
i found it quite silly at times. The pacing was not good and it was trying too hard to make it cinematic. There were too much over the top scenes that didnt fit. Dialogues were ridiculous, Lara's comments were also silly. An english accent and commenting on her silly and impossible discoveries doesnt make her sound "smart". Shouting her friends' name every time they are in trouble etc doesnt add drama. I didnt care about any of the characters. Everyone was talking about Lara as if she needed padding on the head and we had to be convinced that she is special. At any given chance everyone mentioned her name, even when it was clear that they were talking to her because for some reason I had to be reminded all the time that "this is Lara. She is Lara Croft. and Lara is special". At every given chance they made Lara "suffer" to shove in our faces that she is helpless and we should care about her, and yet I didnt give a damn about her because she was not ineteresting. Despite the developers effort to make her look helpless, she was a killing machine that destroyed armies, she could traverse the most impossible areas without prior indication that she had such developed skills and she was under 18 years old. Then I realized that the reboot reminded me of a teen movie.
In the old Tomb Raider games, Lara Croft was the female Bruce Wayne. She was a silent skillfull smart sexy cool headed woman that need no one to convince me that she was special. This is probably ne of the reasons she became such a symbol in gaming as she portrayed a strong female figure in all fronts in direct contrast from other female portrayals in gaming. In the reboot even though she does all the things she does for some reasons she doesnt appear as strong. Perhaps its the fact that she spends more time shooting at people and expressing pain and discomfort, instead of portraying her as someone who is very confident and is willingfully going to ancient places with the sole purpose to find great discoveries. Lara Croft in the past was someone who was battling with the forces of nature knowing vert well the difficulties she was going to find. In the reboot she is someone who goes for excavation and finds her self at more trouble than she anticipated. The sequel footage has not given me a different vibe so far.
Ultimately the gameplay was also uninspiring. It lacks the flow and convincingness of some other games. Everything felt disconnected to me for some reason. And these videos reveal that the gameplay hasnt changed much.
It looks like watching new DLC for the original
