I would have reviewed the entire series, but seeing as how the extent of my experiences with the previous games was about five minutes on a Playstation demo with (I think) the second installment, I doubt it would be practical.

Truth be told, I was never very interested in the series. It looked like it offered little more than a much less imaginative Resident Evil starring a very well-endowed protagonist. And sadly, I never really found Lara Croft attractive until the Legends incarnation. So my incentive to play the previous games was very low, and given so many of the later games had poor reviews... her improved appearance wasn't exactly helping.

And then, I saw artwork of a realistic (very attractive) looking girl covered in dirt and cuts, with something on her face that I'd never expect to see in the series; emotion. I quickly found out that this girl was, somehow, Lara Croft. It didn't make sense until I realized "Tomb Raider" wasn't a sequel, but a reboot. Between this new image of the classic character, and knowing it was going to be changing things, I was considerably more interested. So, hearing positive feedback (rare for a reboot of a popular franchise), I decided to rent it.


And...

Tomb Raider is one of the best games I have played in the previous year.

The game focuses on a completely revolutionized Lara Croft, one that feels and looks like a genuine person. She still has larger breasts, but they've been reduced to the point of realism. This allows the player to still enjoy them in some more obvious shots, but not be constantly distracted by them so they can actually experience the character they're attached to, and the game she's stuck in the middle of.

The first thing I'll mention are the graphics. Given the new look of Lara Croft, I was hoping for some pretty strong visuals to show off what I consider a vast improvement. And I will say this, the graphics for the rendered cutscenes (especially the opening), as well as the scenery are breath-taking. The entire opening scene practically feels real. Lara -looks- real and moves like a real human being. The environments all feel beautifully deep and intricate. Sadly, the gameplay graphics are nowhere near as impressive on the character models, and a majority of the cutscenes in game use those effects. Even so, it's only underwhelming when you get a close-up on a character, and the one thing that does carry over into the gameplay are the amazing visuals on the scenery and environment. This is the biggest plus to the game's look. If you spend too much time focusing on the character models, you're going to be let down... but if you pan the camera away from the center of attention, and look around yourself and off into the distance, you very quickly become immersed in a world that feels real and limitless.

Which brings me to my next point, the environment itself and 'level' design. While I won't lie, the game does keep things in the real world very strictly and never tries for much imagination in its settings, it takes a realistic world and does a beautiful job of making you feel like you are really there, and you can do anything. There are limitations to where you can go, preventing the game from being a truly open-ended sandbox like The Elder Scrolls and Fallout, but it wasn't necessary to give us more than Tomb Raider gave us. It gives you enough free roaming to explore for hours at a time, but keeps it confined enough to keep you on track when you need to be. I never felt lost or confused on where I was meant to go, even when I went off exploring for hidden tombs or treasures.

And the treasures? While a majority of the treasures are, in fact, 'busy work' collectables, the bigger treasures are displayed in a three dimensional model that can be examined from any angle, often uncovering hidden facts, while Lara speaks her impression of it and educates the player on its history. They may not add to the gameplay, but they give you a feeling of satisfaction when you find them. You can also discover hidden diary entries and letters, filling you in further on the backstory of the game and the side-events. These are a majority of the character development for side characters, and while I do appreciate them and enjoyed finding these items, I do admit I wish they had done more with it in the main storyline.

The game is also graced with skills for Lara and upgradable weaponry. You spend the experience you gain from killing enemies and finding collectables on improving Lara's capabilities and combat, allowing for deeper and more enjoyable gameplay the further you make your way into the game. You also collect salvage from boxes and enemy corpses throughout the environment, which can be spent on improving your weaponry in various aspects. But the truly rewarding finds are when you find weapon pieces to 'evolve' your weapon, transforming it into a more advanced and powerful version with new aspects that can be upgraded. This never grows stale, and you're unlikely to obtain enough salvage to completely upgrade more than one weapon in a single play-through.

As for the weapons themselves? You get four different primary weapons (guns) and a back-up melee weapon. While the melee weapon isn't usually very important for combat, and is maxed out through upgrades early on as a very well implemented tutorial of how to upgrade weapons, the guns themselves have so many different ways to improve them you'll often find yourself torn between many choices. This is further enhanced by all of the weapons feeling genuinely useful and effective in different situations and styles, and none of them feel thrown in as filler. My personal favorite weapon was the bow, but I can see why any of these would be a favorite.

However, weapons aren't any good if it doesn't have good combat mechanics. So, how is the combat in Tomb Raider? While at first it takes getting use to, especially given the earliest enemies are wolves and your only weapon at the time is a fairly slow-moving bow, you start off feeling overpowered and helpless, but that's one of the most beautiful things about Tomb Raider. The game makes you feel like you get better as you go through the experience. Your weapons and character improve in important and useful ways, and you just naturally get faster and more skilled with your weaponry. This is strongly enforced by the enemy distribution, such as starting against enemies you are clearly at a disadvantage against, then slowly finding small groups of enemies that are more than manageable with some though, but entirely lethal if you mess up, and by the end resulting in being able to take down entire mass groups of enemies with machine guns and grenades without being touched. You never actually feel overpowered, you just feel like you've evolved from pacifist explorer Lara Croft, to bad-a** "Killing is easier than I thought" Lara.

That brings me to the characters, especially Lara herself. It's no mystery that I'm incredibly pleased by the redemption of the character and her long overdue evolution into a real person, and they've done a very good job at this. Early on I felt this change was a bit hyper extended and they made her too real, almost bland... but the character developments very naturally and intensely over the course of the experience. But what really shows how real the character feels isn't what she says or does voluntarily... it's how she reacts to her struggles. When Lara is cold, she shivers. When she's scared, she stutters. There is so much expression through facial and bodily expression in Tomb Raider that it could do fairly well (on Lara's part) without a single spoken word.

Sadly, the side characters weren't as lucky. Due to the way the diaries and letters you find are distributed, you're likely to miss a few important developments on these characters that would otherwise entirely change your view of them, and since a majority of what you get out of these characters are told through these easily missed passages, you'll often find yourself looking at them as background fodder and not much else. I found myself often hearing Lara speak to somebody on the radio, or mentioning someone's name, and not being sure who that person was. They just never have enough face time or depth to them to be worth remembering their names. There are a few characters that I really genuinely liked on the side, two in particular, but those characters are fairly short lived through the story and I found myself sad to see their involvement ended so soon.

And that's where storyline comes in. The gameplay is spectacular, the exploration is incredibly immersive, and the visuals are gorgeous... but how is the plot? Well, to be honest, the first half of the game plays out like a generic action flick that has little to no imagination beyond "These guys are bad and have guns, and with these guns they shoot people." The story does improve, however, and even ends up getting fairly intense and engaging. It never really does rise above and beyond fairly average standards, but it becomes solid enough to leave you satisfied and to connect the gameplay from moment to moment. The finale in particular is very well done and satisfying.

The only other thing I can really address are the quick-time events. By this point, I don't think it's a mystery to anyone this game likes using them, and by ten minutes into the game I found myself describing the title as "Lara Croft in Quick-Time Events the Movie", but the quick-time events are never unfair or too tedious, and after their excessive use early on (mostly to teach you to expect them and how they work), they greatly slow down in frequency and let you breath.

In the end, Tomb Raider is easily one of the best games I've played in the last year, and a very, very solid game all around. But the flaws it does have are largely due to the positives. The game does so many things well, but only within the safe confines of previous established standards. The game takes all of the best aspects of its genre and implements them beautifully and fluidly, but it at no point pushes any boundary or offers something new. Ultimately, Tomb Raider is among the best of its kind, but nothing else. It perfects the genre, rather than evolving it, and therefore occasionally feels a tad cliche or generic. However, it does for Tomb Raider what the franchise deeply deserved and, more importantly, needed... and while I wish the DLC costumes had offered a little more in terms of 'sexy' (the game does everything it can to distance Lara Croft from being a sex symbol without actually making her unattractive), it does what it sets out to do masterfully.

If you're only going to play single player, I sadly cannot recommend Tomb Raider for anything more than a rental. I finished the game at 73% completion on Normal difficulty in a little over eight hours, and due to the game offering a skill later on that reveals all treasures and tombs, I can't see 100% completion taking more than ten hours for just about anybody. However, while I haven't played the Multiplayer yet, it seems to offer a large variety of options in the way of both playable characters, maps, and weaponry, and if it plays like the single player experience... this alone would be worth buying. But regardless, rent the game first. Finish it, and try out Multiplayer. Use your judgment on its value to you from there.

But seriously, rent it. It's more than worth the experience.