Lost in the Dragons Triangle

I finished the new Tomb Raider game last week. It took about 13 hours to play trough the plot and complete it 67%. I was very exited to play it, but didn't expect too much because almost all of the Tomb Raider games after Chronicles have been shitty, and the idea got a bit overused. There just wasn't any more excitement doing the same stuff in different (and not so different) environment over and over again.

 I knew things hit the rock bottom when Lara was adventuring in a French City with 3 people in it who where standing in the same spot for an eternity and repeating their badly written lines in made up French accent. Like the new game, Angel of Darkness was suppose to change the game to something totally different but failed, badly. After that came more games, but very one of those have had a game breaking bug or a ridiculously overpowered boss fight, which kill the joy of gaming pretty fast. And whatever that was, it was not something I want to see in a Tomb Raider game.

This new game is something different. It changes much, but in a refreshing and new way. The changes are mostly focused to Lara's character and gameplay.  Lara is not trowing clever comments all the time and is more humane. She is shown being bloody, dirty and scared, and has to learn all the skills bit by bit.

The gameplay is much more hectic, which some players may consider as a bad thing. The situations change very fast, and sometimes Lara's horrible death is so close that surviving from it is pretty unrealistic. But, that is one of the things I like in the game: it doesn't itself too seriously all the time. The combat parts are very fun to play, because they are very action movie like.

And of course: I love the graphics. Tress FX hair is amazing, mountains and forests look beautiful and people realistic. Characters are also animated very well. The game has it's flaws as well, like the stupid reaction minigames during combat and Lara's unrealistically fast development from a scared girl to blood-hungry action hero. Anyway, worth checking out and one of the best games of this year.

All the screenshots in this entry are by me (in Ultra graphics setting).

In the next post I will share my Dragon Age: Origins screenshots and character :>