The 2013 Tomb Raider game by Square Enix is savage, bloody, and brutal-and I love it. Laura Croft is...well a Croft so she has to figure out what that means in this game. A Croft; simply put, is a survivor, and oh is Laura doing everything in her power to survive. The game is jam-packed with so many action scenes ending with explosions that I thought Michael Bay was going to come into a scene and ask how I liked the explosions. Let’s delve into the game a little as this is a Chareview (yes I just made that up) of the 2013 Square Enix game: Tomb Raider.
Firstly, let’s talk about the plot. Laura and her crew get stranded on an island after getting caught in some hard-hitting water. They are put on an island that so happens to be the island they were looking for. They get attacked-a lot -by the other people on the island who want to sacrifice one of Laura’s friends Sam to the goddess Himiko and Laura does everything she can to save her friends from that fate. Now add in some beautiful-for-its-time visuals, great action scenes, and friends bickering all the time and that’s the plot of Tomb Raider. It’s nothing too special but it gets the job done.
Secondly, let’s talk about gameplay. The controls are simple and easy to learn so it didn’t take long to adjust to the controls. Combat is fluid with you being able to use guns, a mountain climbing axe, and a bow and arrow to strike down pesky enemies in your way, and small cute rodents who dare cross your line of sight. Yes, you do have the right assumption, I did kill innocent creatures in this game multiple times to scavenge them for resources and I don’t regret it one bit. There is also a leveling system where you take all your collected salvage to upgrade your weapons and there is a skill point system where you can upgrade Laura’s abilities in the game.
Figuring out where to go can be daunting but luckily the game is a way to track where you need to go with a survival instincts ability that allows you to know the next point you should reach. Use this at all times when it feels like there is nowhere to go or if you get lost and no I didn’t get lost (too many times) while playing the game.
Finally, there are optional tombs you can do in the game. These tombs have puzzles that if you solve them will reward you with a collectible and more salvage to upgrade yourself which is the main reason I did them. There are also cutscenes in the game where if you mess up, you will understand why I think the game is so savage.
Tomb Raider is an amazing game and I am kicking myself for not trying it sooner when it first came out. The game left me wanting to go on another adventure where I put Laura through terrible survival conditions to see her suffer then triumph. If I had to describe Tomb Raider in one word it would be: brutal-and I wouldn’t have it any other way.