KylieDog said:
I'm gonna post a mini review my partner wrote somewhere, I agree with pretty much every word, probably because we dicussed it before it was wrote:
Singleplayer
My main gripe with the game is the story and the gameplay just do not mesh at all and due to this my suspension of disbelief kept getting broken.
Right at the start Lara takes a nasty fall and a stalagmite punches clear through her abdomen which she then has to pull out. She holds it for a while but this is soon forgot about completely. Meanwhile she meets up with other survivors, one has a sprained ankle and gets a bandage put on, Lara just sits by a fire and ignores the set of holes in her gut. Shortly after she gets a bear trap spring on her own ankle and just shrugs it off.
Later on she meets another crew member who has hurt his leg and needs medical supplies, so he sends Lara who at this point has two holes in her gut and had a bear trap spring on her ankle not to mention several very nasty falls, possible stuff I forget too, to go fetch the supplies. Lazy bastard if you ask me. Anyway Lara gets these supplies, gives him treatment...and still ignores her own injuries which are far worse. It is only towards the end of the game she suddenly decides randomy that medical supplies for herself are important and a priority, at which point suddenly you cannot even jump without losing health.
Next up is the normal girl turning into a killer. This was done terribly also, one moment she is hunting a dear and saying sorry to it for killing it, then she is slaying wolves, then soon hundreds of fully armed people like she has been doing it her entire life. It doesn't fit into the character they're trying to portray her as. She is not a survivor, she is a killer, this is especially evident at the end where she takes on an entire army of ancient warriors that even the guys she has been killing all game fear
Everyone Lara knows is dumb, Lara often is too and the twist they leave until near end game is blatently obvious to anyone playing. Despite this the story early on keeps you wondering and remains interesting until end game. Story is a thumbs up overall, though Lara is not.
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As to the gameplay, for the most part it is good but in many ways is inferior to older TR games.
Puzzles - It doesn't really have a lot of them and they a joke compared to older games. If you find a puzzle the answer/everything you need is within 10ft of the puzzle. Compared to older games where a puzzle could be an entire level with multiple puzzles within puzzles and can take a long time to clear, TR2013 having puzzles confined to a small room with everything you need, lasting only 20 seconds is pretty poor.
Those are very few, mostly contained in 'secret tombs' (that aren't even always tombs), you know they are secret because whenever you get remotely close to one a big message you cannot turn off appears on screen telling you "SECRET TOMB NEARBY". They also have big door entrances and plenty of painted signs outside pointing to the entrance. Most of the games 'puzzles' are just masses of collecting items, items that get marked on maps and are completely optional, as are the secret tombs. So puzzles get a massive thumbs down.
Combat is a step up from older games, I guess needed be as the clear focus of the gameplay is combat this game. The dodge move is pretty overpowered though especially with the counter attack upgrades. Combat gets a thumbs up though combat shouldn't be a focus.
Platforming has also taken big steps backwards, as expected has ditched the need for timing, judging run-ups, even aiming the jumps isn't very important, general direction needed only. There is a fair amount of platforming but the path to climb is always clear, the entire island looks like someone run around with a can of bright white paint to mark all the climbable ledges, no working out where to climb, no challenge to it. Only involved parts to it are timing your hook on wall jumps. Platforming gets big thumbs down.
The action set pieces are ok but compared to Uncharted they don't quite measure up, Uncharted also does a great job of keeping the player playing during the set pieces while in TR when they get too action packed they tend to cut away player control to a scripted sequence so nothing to do but watch.
Multiplayer
Shameful really. The quality of the campaign just isn't there, the matchmaking is bad, balance is bad, hitboxes are dodgy, melee system is terrible, the perks they added don't work well with the game modes they created, the animations are terrible. If you get a full game it is just barely playable. The traps are a nice addition to what Uncharted offers but otherwise if you want a platforming TPS stick to Uncharted 3, better in every way. MP isn't worth anymore words.
Overall I enjoyed the game a lot, it is a good game, but a number of disappointments and missing extras like chapter select, new game+, alt costumes, infinite ammo. Starting the game from scratch at the beginning every time kind of sucks.
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