Tomb Raider: the model of a modern megagame

[Administrator]

With their reboot of Tomb Raider, developer Crystal Dynamics and publisher Square Enix are going for the jugular. And I don't just mean in the savage scenes where Lara must defend herself from rabid wolves by ripping their throats open with an arrow.
After three hours playing the game, it's clear that no expense has been spared on this reinvention of the action-adventure series and its iconic heroine Lara Croft. No trend has been left unfollowed, either. Tomb Raider is an exhaustively complete collection of fashions in contemporary blockbuster game-making.
Graphic violence, bad language, gritty art, brutal finishing moves, shaky-cam quick time events, experience points and upgrade trees, mini meta-challenges, 'detective mode', survivalist gameplay, stealth assassinations, collectable backstory, a lead character on a personal journey: it's got the lot. You'll run, jump and raid tombs, of course, but you'll also harvest resources, craft weapon upgrades, press Y to execute and then cry at the cut-scene. (Maybe.)
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