Tomb Raider review

The environments are rich in colour and life regardless of which area you’re in. There’s some that display beach-side vistas of waves crashing against ocean wreckage, others that display disgusting viscera of near-stomach churning mounds of assorted human remains. The level of detail is staggering. The PC version allows players to turn on “Tress FX” technology that purports to make Lara’s hair far more realistic and reactive to movement and wind, rendering strands separately. This technology hasn’t quite reached the point where it works as intended yet. The constantly shifting hair can become a distraction and is better switched off. It’s worth seeing for the novelty but doesn’t quite provide the experience as advertised.


As it’s an attempt at a modern video game, Tomb Raider has to include a multiplayer mode in order to increase the sense of value. Those are the rules. Regularly in other games this comes with a sense of disappointment and the feeling the assets or production time could have been used elsewhere. That’s not really the case here. There’s no shortage of content in the singleplayer and the multiplayer is enough of a draw in itself.

The multiplayer’s strengths are in it’s simplicity. It doesn’t try too hard to break a mould. It carries the same gradual upgrade system over from Call Of Duty 4 that’s become the standard for the industry. The action barely differs from what you do in the single player with all your abilities carrying over, but the equipment varying based on your loadout.


Multiplayer modes have alternative goals for each sides. In one, the team of survivors needs to collect medical supplies while the island tribe just needs to kill enough of the other team. The teams are asymmetrical in their abilities too, each of which filling roles that are better suited to attacking or defending. The “Solari” have access to long range weaponry while the survivors are based on close range damage. The multiplayer is at worst inoffensive and at best actively recommendable, but it’s still not the strongest reason one should pick up the game.


Tomb Raider is an excellent game. It’s an excellent game because it takes cues from other excellent games. There’s nothing you’ll find in here that wasn’t instigated elsewhere and it doesn’t ever surpass these other sources, but it’s well iterated and will provide you with an experience you shouldn’t miss.