Tomb Raider PS3 review

[saturn-gamer]

Legend was a small and short game, and it sold well. So well that Lara Croft was back which resulted in the more ambitious Underworld. But that game was unfinished and felt cut short. It had lots of glitches and a worse camera than Legend. I think it was also lagging behind schedule to begin with.

Its Underworld that sort of bombed and also cost some guys their jobs. Thats why we're here at this current reboot.

But I think CD also went along with the time. Lara from Underworld was still the stoic and robotic Lara of old, something that doesn't really work out well anymore. They made her more human, ofcourse she's still a hardened killer in the end but she does have more of a personality this time around.

They could pull a Duke Nukem and left her unchanged (or let the franchise die), or do what they just did. And TR 2013 seems to be succesful afaik.

[nonny]

To those that have finished the game. What is the deal with the weapon parts to unlock new modifications?

I am on the final level of the game. I've completed all challenges, have all skills maxed out. I've plundered every single body, scoured through every level for salvage and basically gone through the whole world extracting what I can to level up... yet I am only 70% upgraded on the Bow?

I've seriously got Salvage to waste but I've not found any Bow parts to max it out (and get the respective achievement for all weapons maxed). Weird? I've read online it might be random but its slightly annoying that I am sitting at 94% and not obtained this.

[rmoxon]

Ive no idea for sure as I haven't gone for 100% yet, but I got a few weapon part drops from enemies, so maybe you missed them by not searching every corpse?

[nonny]

Nah I dont think so. I literally went into survival mode and searched every dead body around the place as they light up as yellow in that mode... I was pretty exhaustive in my search! /

Ah well. Seems to be a lot of conflicting information online about how you actually find them. You definitely get some through the course of the game by just accessing a new part of the story but others crop up randomly in a certain area... Bah.

[shaffy_oppa]

I assume you need to upgrade to the Competition Bow? One piece can be looted from an enemy in Chasm Monestry and the other two are in salvage crates at Shipwreck Beach.

They're not completely random but a little? In certain areas on a certain thing but randomly on that thing? lol

Explosive arrows > deers FUN TIMES!

[nonny]

I've got the competition bow from Jonah. I'm still at 70% though and missing Napalm arrows etc... Who knows maybe I will unlock them before the end? Just seems a little late in the scheme of things so worried I'd missed things somehow.

[rmoxon]

I've got the competition bow from Jonah. I'm still at 70% though and missing Napalm arrows etc... Who knows maybe I will unlock them before the end? Just seems a little late in the scheme of things so worried I'd missed things somehow.

You buy an upgrade for the napalm arrows with salvage, you should be able to get them now. I'm sure the upgrade unlocks once you're given the bow from Jonah on the beach.

[nonny]

Nope. I got the bow and I've got over 2,000 in salvage and no option to buy any more upgrades. I'm missing the napalm arrows and two more things?

I'm now in the chasm monastery and no option to backtrack, yet I've got 100% completion up to here. I dunno, perhaps something is glitched...? Anyway as I can't go back might as well finish it and see what happens.

[shaffy_oppa]

You can still upgrade once you find the piece in Chasm Monestry. Check how many pieces you still need. If its just the one then you're on the right track.

[Lebowski]

Spent two nights on this and I'm loving it, the whole survival thing really adds to the character of Laura and makes who she is in later games all that more believable. After the first few kills she seems to get into her stride, I'm loving the stealth kills and the hunting aspects, taking out an area full of enemy's before they discover you is great fun here, and she doesn't seem to shy away from things whether its scaling mountains or clearing out areas of enemy.

I'm not sure why a lot of reviews think its tense game Laura seems to be able to take care of herself pretty well in this. Perfect game and i can quite easily see me 100% it may even chase down all the achievements too.

[MrKirov]

Considering how much love the game has been getting I can't see people forgetting about it any time soon.

DMC says hello.

[djtickle]

I'm not sure why a lot of reviews think its tense game Laura seems to be able to take care of herself pretty well in this.

The only reason I can think is if you are playing the whole game stealth. But like you say, she can handle herself if everything goes pear shaped!!

[fallenangle]

She is Lara croft, she's just a younger Lara croft. She's basically like the Daniel Craig James Bond. She is still the same character, but before she fully developed into what we know.

Maybe you should try playing it before you make silly comments.

There's nothing silly in what I said.

The new TR story does not fit in much that I can see with the old TR timeline, or even with CDs own Legend and Underworld which, partly, made chronological sense in respect to the original Core TRs. The Lara of Legend was younger (student age) than for the Core games and, I would have said, the same sort of age she is meant to be in this new game.

If you know your TRs you should know that Core featured a young Lara in both TR4's prologue with Von Croy as her mentor and in TR5, her earliest adventure, The Black Isle, which was told as flash back with her as a young teenager. TR5 referenced young Lara's mentor relationship with Von Croy in TR4 and in Angel of Darkness that relationship was also an integral part of the storyline.

So this new young Lara Croft is, without argument, a completely reconstructed character in both history and behaviour.

The Bond/Daniel Craig analogy I reject. When a new Bond is chosen the character of the actor and how he is written defines the tone of the film but the film is still a Bond film. You could insert any old Bond: from Connery to to Craig, into the recent films and they'd still be recogniseably Bond. This is because the films are essentially the same: car chases, girls, big set pieces and shooting the bad guys trying to take over the world.

Bung any Bond into almost any similar franchise, like Bourne, and with very little writing changes it would become a Bond movie. But what we have with new TR is somebody who is Lara Croft in name only, she's not the same character, she doesn't have the same backstory and the gameplay is very different.

I found this apt and amusing description of the difference between the new and old Lara in a review:-

"Exhibit A; classic Lara - mostly heartless killer who got a laugh out of stealing shiny things, who was unapologetic and who was not a hypocrite.

Exhibit B; new "Lara" - emo killer with a pathetic "it's not my fault, it's those nasty men" rationale and a remit to make archaeology edutainment movies for the Discovery Channel rather than nicking stuff (probably)."

Finally because of all these inconsistencies Rhianna Prachett, the lead writer for the new TR, is actually bringing out some form of publication rewriting Lara's history so it fits in with the new game.

[rmoxon]

You really just don't seem to grasp what the term "character development" means. She is suppose to be different in this game, she's still young.

However she is still Lara. She does have mostly the same backstory and she certainly isn't worried about stealing things from tombs as she does it throughout the game, she actually dislikes the fact that one of the other characters sees archeology as a stepping stone to fame.

You either haven't played the game or haven't taken any notice of her character becuase most of what you stated is incorrect.

Again I suggest you play the game before making silly statments that you've lifted from what appears to be some hack reviewer who probably didn't spend much more time with the game than you have.

[MrKirov]

So you completely ignored the part about the history of Lara Croft at a YOUNGER AGE than she is in this game, then go on to slag someone off for not actually playing the game.

Perhaps you could apply that methodology to yourself, and read the complete post before you come out with childish comments?

Personally, I enjoyed the game. But to me it was another uncharted clone and nothing to do with the Tomb Raider I loved. Same with Resident Evil 6. I suppose that's just the way gaming has gone and I accept it.

I do however understand the frustration that a company can come along and rewrite the history of a much loved character and series with little thought for its original fans.