legacyzero
Banned
Survival's not fun, yo.
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Tomb Raider Review Thread!
- Thread starter Tricky I Shadow
- Start date
Survival's not fun, yo.
-tetsuo-
Unlimited Capacity
Played a few hours now. I will get this out of the way first. I am a huge Tomb Raider fan. I have played all of them, beat the first 4 and all of the ones released this gen. I think that Anniversary is one of the most underrated games this gen as well.
The easiest way to describe the transition is by comparison, and I compare this game to Resident Evil 4. It took was was a methodical adventure game and turned it into an action/adventure game.
From that influence, Crystal took away the single most import thing that it could have from RE4 and that is pacing. Tomb Raider has about a pitch perfect tempo. It is something that most of the AAA cinematic titles get wrong nowadays and that goes a long way in bringing down a games quality. The combat is also very well done. It starts off simple enough, but after you advance Lara the flow of it picks up quite a bit. The shooting feels great and so does the melee. I think it is actually better than Uncharted in this regard.
The easiest way to describe the transition is by comparison, and I compare this game to Resident Evil 4. It took was was a methodical adventure game and turned it into an action/adventure game.
From that influence, Crystal took away the single most import thing that it could have from RE4 and that is pacing. Tomb Raider has about a pitch perfect tempo. It is something that most of the AAA cinematic titles get wrong nowadays and that goes a long way in bringing down a games quality. The combat is also very well done. It starts off simple enough, but after you advance Lara the flow of it picks up quite a bit. The shooting feels great and so does the melee. I think it is actually better than Uncharted in this regard.
They didn't sound crazy to me. I think their expectations were not as rigid as others. The ones I read said they played Contracts and Blood Money so they had previous Hitman experience.
I'll admit I have middling standards and expectations. If a game can entertain me to completion, thats all I need. Not to say I can't recognize the flaws, but they have to be really egregious for them to affect my enjoyment.
That's how I always feel when I watch someone else playing a game on Youtube.
Yeah watching footage of someone else playing a game is the ultimate buzzkill. It's like watching a cutscene that you never gain control of. Eugh.
I've detailed my criticisms of the game in exhaustive detail both before and after I played it. I'm a bit tapped out on that front now, and frankly now that it's bombed hard and sunk into the abyss it belongs in it'd be nice if we could all just forget its existence and move on.
But this game isn't trying new things...
Of course there are plenty of criticisms against the old games. It would be nice to see them properly transitioned and updated beyond PS1; something that hasn't happened yet.
RE4 of the series baby B)
Tricky I Shadow
Banned
I remember when I got laughed at for comparing this to Resident Evil 4.
brandonh83
Banned
I think I may be in a good place with this game because I've found all the games to be really boring and even unplayable; I simply detested the controls in the earlier games. I acknowledge that this is a personal issue, much like how some people didn't like the older Resident Evils because of the tank controls, but then loved RE4. So I'm not taking a decade or two of love for this franchise into this new vision. I simply hope it's a good action/adventure game.
Because you were comparing it in quality to RE4, not in the way he was doing which was a similar style shift.
Neither of those games are remotely like any iteration of TR anywhere. I'm guessing you may be referring to fear of death, but TR had plenty of checkpoints and later save anywhere neutered that pretty much.
Demon Souls/Dark Souls also didn't have shitty control
This made me laugh. "So the game didn't sell extremely well so I'm not going to debate with you". I see it's much easier to just have an opinion than expand on it and have a conversation of discourse.
Weak stuff there Derrick, weak stuff.
unknownhero
Member
true but you get a sense that that would be fun to play yourself. I didn't get that feeling with this game. I'm not sure what the problem was, maybe it was the pacing, who knows.
Baconsammy
Banned
It's not hard to have better melee than Uncharted. Or platforming.
Just watched Kezza's review. Definitely hyped to play it now. Looks great.
TheFLYINGManga_Ka
Member
Which is why I don't agree with Machinima's review saying the combat is horrible.
It's like if 10 guys say a game is great but one guy says it sucks, do I listen to that one guy's opinion?
Anyway, I mentioned earlier comparing it to RE4 and Metroid Prime, especially MP. It got a lot of criticism and backlash when it was announced as a FPS, but now it's praised.
I hope TR has that reception once people actually play it and love it.
you're so wrong, not boring at all
The last thing anyone on this board could accuse me of doing is not expanding on my criticisms of Hitman Absolution. I just don't want to do it again, for the 30th time, months after it came out and passed by. In the wrong thread no less.
Stop feeding him.
Meristation (spain) said littlerally: It does everything Uncharted does, even better, because it's not restricted to a single path.
Take that as you wish.
kunonabi
Member
re4 had tank controls. they liked it because all they had to do was shoot things.
legacyzero
Banned
Getting dog piled as usual.
At least I love you Derrick.
Cant the man have an opinion??
At least I love you Derrick.
Cant the man have an opinion??
You didn't discredit what I said in the other thread though, I even accused you of not understanding the systems in the game and I got no reply.
Whatever then, you say everyone should forget it existed yet you love to join in the conversation on how shitty it is. Expecting people not to debate what you say is delusional.
That's not the problem, sweeping statements with no exposition or real thought put into them makes a person a target for debate.
brandonh83
Banned
It had "tank controls" but a different camera perspective which made it a lot easier to move and shoot. The tank controls were bad in the older ones because of the fixed camera. There's no denying that RE4 is a lot more welcoming than the older ones when it comes to the control scheme.
Tricky I Shadow
Banned
Derrick01 said:
Actually no, I did compare it to the similar style shift as well as the quality. And the quality of the game doesnt even look that far off Resident Evil 4.
All I got from some responses was that "Resident Evil 4 kept the essence of Resident Evil in tact." And apparently Tomb Raider abandons everything.
My only issue with Derrick01 is he's mocked and derided fans of the games he dislikes. I don't think stating the people that enjoy Skyrim suffer from some mental illness should be tolerated in a place that supposedly prides itself in civilized debate and discussion. Other than that, he is free to hate whatever AAA tripe he wants.
legacyzero
Banned
But I love Skyrim
Net_Wrecker
Member
Considering how regularly games journalism will praise the most boring of combat systems because they're blinded by spectacle, yeah I think I'll pay attention to the few reviewers that happen to call out the negatives for once. The Machinima review is one of the few that bother to go in depth into what their issues were with specific parts of the combat. That means a whole lot more to me than "Oh combat's great. Explosions and brutality and junk."
Fear of death, fear of the environment, environmental storytelling, isolation, the feeling of exploration, etc. etc. The Souls games are more like what I'd think a Tomb Raider reboot would be than this game. If they had expansive multilayered puzzles, I wouldn't have even been paying attention to this game.
ViewtifulJC
Banned
kunonabi
Member
tank controls were good because of the fixed camera. that was one major reasons behind them and why fixed camera angles are so incredibly problematic in games that didn't have them. it wasn't re's fault some people never learned right from left.
Ok I get that, I never really associated the two brands really. The overall atmospheres seem fairly disparate to me.
Prime is a bad comparison because, although a bit slow, it was pretty much Metroid in 3D. People threw a fit over the perspective choice, which pretty much just came down to aesthetics.
The youtube footage has shown several hours of the game and it's very light on the platforming and puzzles, heavy on combat and scripted sequences/linear setpieces (many of which are absolutely ridiculous).
Tricky I Shadow
Banned
Search your heart - you know its true.
ViewtifulJC
Banned
As close as 7/10 can be to 10/10. I mean, that's only like 3 digits!
Or shooting.
The
creepy
EDIT: There are also these pre-order DLC skins:
The Avatrix one looks much more grounded in reality and is more believable and less pandering than the original "costume", imo.
It's actually the opposite. The fixed camera only worked because of the tank controls. Objective character movement only works in games that don't shift perspective constantly, subjective movement makes it functional.
CambriaRising
Member
If I was the developer, I would frankly be insulted if there was no Nude Raider mod. It is tradition at this point.
-tetsuo-
Unlimited Capacity
CD "gets" combat more than naughty Dog, it seems. First of all, there are not waves of enemies. Your foes are laid before you, and you have to eaither sneak around them for stealth kills or take them out. The cover system works really well, you just crouch behind a piece of cover and move freely, no button presses. Lara pops out herself and everything. it is actually so smooth that I didn't notice it until an hour or so after I started shooting. Also, the scramble action is great. You can branch into some things from it by leveling that make it pretty damn fun to use. This is all on top of the actualy shooting being pretty damn good.
Creepy Gamespot guy was wondering why Lara doesn't just take off her shirt and run around in her wet white undershirt.
brandonh83
Banned
Keep in mind I like the older ones a lot more than RE4. I'm just saying that gameplay wise it was a lot more accessible to people due to its perspective -- the people who didn't like to control the older RE games had a hard time with the tank controls combined with the camera angles. RE4 still had tank controls but the perspective made it a lot more playable to people. I didn't have any trouble whatsoever with the older games, but RE4 was easier to play.
Tricky I Shadow
Banned
Loving the sound of these glowing impressions....
Jasper Avenue
Member
I already have this preordered, so seeing these reviews is making me pretty excited. Who really would have expected these reviews after all of the whining about it from the games media this past year?
Everyone?
grosvenor_92
Member
Machinima came down a lot harder on this than most to the other reviews but all of them seem to have the same complaints like the disconnect between the story and what's actually happening and the qte's
SlasherJPC
Banned
Jasper Avenue
Member
Actually, good point.
GenoZStriker
Neo Member
D: Combat isn't exactly the best part about Uncharted. Any puzzles/tombs or get chased by wolves yet? You are making it sound like you are playing Gears of Wars.