Tomb Raider

[loekf]

This is actually the first time I've considered getting some duct tape to hide that stupid LED of the controller. I can live with a constant light, but not that stupid flickering that is totally unnecessary and adds nothing to the overal experience, besides getting annoyed about it.

Ahh.. so it reflects the tension or your health ?

Though my controller was blinking because of an almost empty battery ;-))

 

[BoardBonobo]

Ahh.. so it reflects the tension or your health ?

Though my controller was blinking because of an almost empty battery ;-))

It's supposed to reflect the flickering light of your torch but it only really works if you sit by an open fire and waft log smoke into your face whilst singeing your hair. Not that I've tried that of course...

 

[RenegadeRocks]

Got the game today : I am surprised at how good it looks, I was exppecting a very last-gen like game, but no siree, thanks to some really coherent art design, it looks fabulous ! And loving the gameplay too, still near the beginning though. But loving it !

Won't regret buying this at all !

 

[Phil]

IMO the 60fps really transforms this game. In fact, the gameplay running through the woods gave me a bit of a feeling of Jak & Daxter on the PS2 - smooth and incredible precise. It's nearly like a jump 'n run! This will make it so hard to go back to normal 30fps games...

 

[Cyan]

Tomb Raider 2 to be more like Skyrim.

http://www.gamesreviews.com/news/01/tomb-raider-2-skyrim/

I think that Skyrim’s a good analogy. If you see it, you can get to it and go out there, and that to us was what the promise of this is. Now that we’ve seen what we can do [with] Definitive Edition, it starts opening up our eyes of how much further can we push ourselves. What [are] our next steps towards let’s get out to that mountain now, how do we get out there, how much bigger can those spaces be, and that’s for the future.

 

[DieH@rd]

Tomb Raider 2 to be more like Skyrim.
http://www.gamesreviews.com/news/01/tomb-raider-2-skyrim/

This is more in line with the original vision of the TR reboot. They created working pre-alpha demo of lara being on a open world island full of monsters, she could ride horses, use flamethrower, and even have "Shadow of the Colossus" boss battles. "Protec a young girl" trope was also present.

 

[RenegadeRocks]

This is more in line with the original vision of the TR reboot. They created working pre-alpha demo of lara being on a open world island full of monsters, she could ride horses, use flamethrower, and even have "Shadow of the Colossus" boss battles. "Protec a young girl" trope was also present.

Thanx for the link buddy, I just checked the concept art section in the menus and I was instantly thikning of finding a video of that version. Remember seeing some screenshots long time back !

 

[Sigfried1977]

Tomb Raider 2 to be more like Skyrim.

http://www.gamesreviews.com/news/01/tomb-raider-2-skyrim/

Yuck

 

[AlNom]

Needs more horse armour.

 

[Gradthrawn]

Needs more horse armour.

Off topic: Brings back memories. I recall quite a bit of outcry at the audacity to sell a small cosmetic digital item as downloadable content! What were Bethesda thinking? Pure madness!

 

[joker454]

Needs more horse armour.

I wouldn't be surprised if they start selling alternate Lara outfits as dlc at some point.

 

[AlNom]

Maybe some alternate TressFX hair styles too

Spoiler

for the horse, I mean

.

 

[Nesh]

I wouldn't be surprised if they start selling alternate Lara outfits as dlc at some point.

Lightning Returns says hi with TR costume

 

[RenegadeRocks]

I am loving exploring each nook n cranny. Love it when you realise "Oh! I can climb up here too!" after a barrage of scripted traversal in other games !!!

 

[RenegadeRocks]

This game has fantastic art and colour pallete !

The star:

The AO is also very fine, ambient lit areas have a fantastic look to them. Ground textures have perfect colours, look so real.

 

[Deleted member 13524]

I can see where they're coming from with the Skyrim reference.
In Tomb Raider 2013 they wanted to respect the origins by having the tombs, but they avoided accusations of tomb raiding as chores as much as they avoided the jiggling in Lara's breasts.
An open-world game would allow just that. You want to go check that tomb, you get in. You want to keep with the action-packed story, you pass the tomb.but you can go back at any given moment.
While we could go back to certain places in the first title, from the way things were threaded I never had the feeling that it was an actual open-world single map like GTA or Skyrim.

Maybe that's what they're trying to achieve this time. It would also serve as a contrast with Uncharted. They don't want their title to be branded an Uncharted clone.

 

[DieH@rd]

I can see where they're coming from with the Skyrim reference.
In Tomb Raider 2013 they wanted to respect the origins by having the tombs, but they avoided accusations of tomb raiding as chores as much as they avoided the jiggling in Lara's breasts.
An open-world game would allow just that. You want to go check that tomb, you get in. You want to keep with the action-packed story, you pass the tomb.but you can go back at any given moment.
While we could go back to certain places in the first title, from the way things were threaded I never had the feeling that it was an actual open-world single map like GTA or Skyrim.

Maybe that's what they're trying to achieve this time. It would also serve as a contrast with Uncharted. They don't want their title to be branded an Uncharted clone.

I dont agree with you. In 2013 game every single tomb was optional, same as you describe them being possibly optional in open world game. And players could easily go to any previously discovered areas using camp fast travel.

CD made tombs optional, but instead of making tombs challenging, they made them to be easily solvable by 5 year old children in under 1 minute. They completely borked that aspect of the game, and they had zero excuses. Tombs were not blocking the main path, and even worse, every single tombs had same difficulty level.

 

[Phil]

Now that I'm replaying the game, some of the criticism is coming back to me. For instance; I liked how you had the Tombs that you could discover, but don't really like how they're implemented. It's too optional. It's precisely what I think Siegfried77 said - the game feels IMO too much like surviving the island, rather than "tomb raiding".

What I would like to see is a game that is more like the original Tomb Raider. Discover some distant from civilization disconnected place, discover a Tomb, that leads to some mythical device etc. In that sense, I want the tombs to be bigger, much more central to the entire game and story, rather than the disconnected "mini tombs with mini puzzles" that we got in this game.

In the original Tomb Raider, you got 4 locations if my mind serves me correct:

Peru, Greece, Egypt and Atlantis.

What I found most enjoyable about the original game was that you got to traverse, explore and discover 4 totally different locations with very different architecture, type of puzzles, natural enemies. The adventuring and exploring mythical places defined the enjoyment of the game.

If you effectively limit the locations to one single one, I am concerned that you will end up traversing various places multiple times, limiting the variety and exploration of the game.

Exploration was always the series biggest advantage IMO. Where Uncharted is a mix of story driven 3rd person shooter with a bit of adventuring conveyed through the different locations, Tomb Raider should be exploring (perhaps more openly), less but more effective combat (less enemies, but perhaps more challenging ones) ones.

As an example; In the original Tomb Raider - progressing deeper and deeper into the tomb at Peru... you really got a sense you're in some magical place filled with traps and puzzles. If you actually tried to reach the more hidden less accessible caves within the cave, you came across Dinosaurs (and that encounter with the T-Rex) which was totally WOW. Totally optional, but one of the most memorable parts in gaming. It's a pitty the 2013 Tomb Raider is totally absent from moments like these. I really hope it's something they can change with the sequel.

 

[Deleted member 13524]

I dont agree with you. In 2013 game every single tomb was optional, same as you describe them being possibly optional in open world game. And players could easily go to any previously discovered areas using camp fast travel.

CD made tombs optional, but instead of making tombs challenging, they made them to be easily solvable by 5 year old children in under 1 minute. They completely borked that aspect of the game, and they had zero excuses. Tombs were not blocking the main path, and even worse, every single tombs had same difficulty level.

How is an open-world game going to prevent Crystal Dynamics from making tombs more challenging?

Exploration was always the series biggest advantage IMO. Where Uncharted is a mix of story driven 3rd person shooter with a bit of adventuring conveyed through the different locations, Tomb Raider should be exploring (perhaps more openly), less but more effective combat (less enemies, but perhaps more challenging ones) ones.

Exactly, and IMO more and better exploration is enabled by an open-world map.
They just have to make it large enough so that it can have different landscapes, like we see in Skyrim. In fact, I think that's why they mentioned Skyrim (and not GTA, for example). Skyrim just makes you want to explore.

 

[pjbliverpool]

Now that I'm replaying the game, some of the criticism is coming back to me. For instance; I liked how you had the Tombs that you could discover, but don't really like how they're implemented. It's too optional. It's precisely what I think Siegfried77 said - the game feels IMO too much like surviving the island, rather than "tomb raiding".

What I would like to see is a game that is more like the original Tomb Raider. Discover some distant from civilization disconnected place, discover a Tomb, that leads to some mythical device etc. In that sense, I want the tombs to be bigger, much more central to the entire game and story, rather than the disconnected "mini tombs with mini puzzles" that we got in this game.

In the original Tomb Raider, you got 4 locations if my mind serves me correct:

Peru, Greece, Egypt and Atlantis.

What I found most enjoyable about the original game was that you got to traverse, explore and discover 4 totally different locations with very different architecture, type of puzzles, natural enemies. The adventuring and exploring mythical places defined the enjoyment of the game.

If you effectively limit the locations to one single one, I am concerned that you will end up traversing various places multiple times, limiting the variety and exploration of the game.

Exploration was always the series biggest advantage IMO. Where Uncharted is a mix of story driven 3rd person shooter with a bit of adventuring conveyed through the different locations, Tomb Raider should be exploring (perhaps more openly), less but more effective combat (less enemies, but perhaps more challenging ones) ones.

As an example; In the original Tomb Raider - progressing deeper and deeper into the tomb at Peru... you really got a sense you're in some magical place filled with traps and puzzles. If you actually tried to reach the more hidden less accessible caves within the cave, you came across Dinosaurs (and that encounter with the T-Rex) which was totally WOW. Totally optional, but one of the most memorable parts in gaming. It's a pitty the 2013 Tomb Raider is totally absent from moments like these. I really hope it's something they can change with the sequel.

As much as I enjoyed Tombraider 2013 and really do think it's a great game in its own right, I completely agree with everything you said there. It does completely lack that adventure/exploration aspect in relation to the original (and TR2 for that matter).