REVIEWED ON PS4 AND XBOX ONE / 24 JAN 2014
TOMB RAIDER: DEFINITIVE EDITION REVIEW
At pretty much no point when I was playing Tomb Raider on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 a year ago did I stop and say to myself, “man, I only wish this looked better.” Lara Croft’s excellent, cinematic reboot adventure doesn’t need extra special effects to make it worth playing.But nonetheless, playing through the Definitive Edition on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, which stacks up against the PC version’s high resolution and fancy hair effects, is excellent. The Xbox One can’t quite keep the frame rate up at 60fps, but I’ve been appreciating the difference. Tomb Raider is still one of the best of its genre, up there with the Uncharted series - but if you’re wondering whether this version is an improved experience beyond extra visual flair, the answer is: No, not enormously.
Realistic mud and sweat is not the next-gen revolution that gaming has been waiting for - but happily Tomb Raider doesn’t need extra special effects to make it worth playing. It’s still an excellent cinematic action game, up with Uncharted at the peak of the genre. The question for you, then, will be whether you fancy playing through it again and marvelling at a 1080p version of its stunning setting and resilient, likable heroine. (Assuming you haven’t already played on the great-looking PC version, that is.)The Definitive Edition comes with all the DLC - though this isn’t as significant and addition as you might hope. The only significant single-player DLC is a single extra secret tomb, those little self-contained tributes to Tomb Raider’s puzzle-driven heritage. The rest of it is either superfluous weapon attachments or multiplayer maps and items, and sadly the multiplayer hasn’t magically gotten better over the course of the past year. It still isn’t worth much of anyone’s time.More interestingly, the Definitive Edition employs voice and gesture control on Xbox One and PS4 (if you have the camera add-on). You can say “show map” to pinpoint your location or name a weapon to equip it. I did actually start using that last feature, until the Kinect interpreted the sound of my kittens having a playfight on the carpet as me saying “bow” in the middle of a shootout with three men with assault rifles. Enemies’ shouts also sometimes seemed to activate voice control, though I’m reluctant to blame Tomb Raider for that so much as Kinect itself. The last new addition is the ability to use Kinect to physically grab and rotate the artefacts that Lara finds, or lean left and right at cinematic moments to change the camera angle; I much prefer doing that with a control stick, considering it’s already in my hand.
These new control features and DLC don’t add anything to what was already a smooth, satisfying, genuinely thrilling action game, held together by an iconic, sympathetically written main character, fast-paced and varied combat, and some breathtaking action set-pieces. The linear story pulls you through at breakneck speed, taking Lara from frightened castaway to hardened survivor. The opening hours still feel self-indulgent, relying a little heavily on carefully planned cinematic moments, but it’s all for the sake of setting up Lara’s character. This is done so well that the forced linearity is easy to forgive. Tomb Raider reconnected me with Lara Croft, adding a new emotional dimension to one of gaming’s great heroines.It really is all about Lara - she’s vulnerable here, but never disempowered, and never less than totally capable in the face of extreme danger. We see flashes of her genuine nerdy passion for archaeology, too, as she marvels over artefacts and ancient structures. As much as I love Tomb Raider as an action game, I miss it as an explorative puzzler; there’s not much actual tomb-raiding in this origin story, but the secret tombs hidden around the island show that Crystal Dynamics still has great talent for environmental puzzles. I dearly hope we see more of this in a sequel.
The clever environment design distinguishes Tomb Raider from the linear action games whose set-pieces and tropes it borrows (see: the escape-from-a-burning-building sequence, sliding-down-a-slope-or-waterfall interludes). Each area of the island, from mountaintop village to forest to flotsam-littered beaches, is an adventure playground littered with hidden treasures, constructed for climbing and jumping and lateral thinking. The first time I played Tomb Raider, it was only when I went back to these areas without the story pushing me through them with a pistol in the small of my back that I appreciated how well designed they are. This time around I enjoyed it from the start, spending much more time exploring them for trinkets before moving on with the story’s agenda.It really is stunningly beautiful, too, and even more so now. The Enhanced Edition gives you plenty of opportunities to admire the island from cliffsides, misty mountain outlooks, and precarious climbing ropes, and it really makes me feel like an explorer when I crest a hill and look down on a complex nest of ancient buildings and forest paths, or when I’m climbing a mountain towards a far-off signal tower. The story, too, still has power the second time around, despite the weak supporting cast and not-entirely-welcome supernatural elements. Lara is strong enough to carry it.
Lara’s quick transformation into a hardened head-popping action heroine after her traumatic first kill still feels jarring, and marks the moment of Tomb Raider’s transition from survival game to all-out action. A few hours later, when you’re enjoying the full range of Lara’s weapons and combat techniques, it feels strange to remember that she goes through the first few hours of the game without a gun. But then, Tomb Raider is never afraid to change up the pace. You’re never in the same place doing the same thing twice, and that’s a large part of what makes it so memorable.The VerdictThe upstep in visual detail from the older console versions is a nice bonus, but Tomb Raider didn’t need massaging. It’s the same well-realised action reboot for Lara Croft that came as such a pleasant surprise last year. It’s still well-written, sympathetic, exciting, beautiful, and just incredibly well-made.
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