That's why I think they should never even have bothered trying to make her the 'vulnerable' type to begin with because it just is ludicrous how she goes back into Ms Rambo mode in record time. Also, the game took itself too seriously. There's no humorous remarks found anywhere. Just all death and gloom until the very end.

I didn't think the writing was all that great. Typical video game fare. Making Lara a bit whiny doesn't equate to fleshing out her character whatsoever. I want my cheeky rough-and-tumble heroine back. =P As I said in another thread, I wish they'd given me the option of stealthy bow-hunting throughout the entire game, but that's pretty much impossible to do in later sections of the game. Lastly, the 'tombs' were a fucking joke. "Hey, look! Another itty bitty physics puzzle!" *groan*

Haven't tried multi at all because I really don't give a shit about it one way or another.

For what it is, TR is fun enough, but it could have been better. Though it's one of the few games in which I bothered to collect most items - there were only a few challenges I couldn't be bothered to complete. Gotta upgrade Ms Rambo's arsenal, after all. ;)

You're right, it doesn't - but that's the thing, they didn't do that at all. Lara is slowly changing and actually developing, which by itself is better than 99% of videogame protagonists out there. There is the vulnerabily period at the beginning, yeah, but then there's she coming to terms with what's going on, which slowly turns into Lara getting more and more confident and you can see her react differently to similar situations troughout the game in a very logical and human fashion. Development is fluent, relatively slow and actually shows on the gameplay itself.

I agree. On a whole, I loved this game. The QTEs could have been cut to focus more on free exploration, but at least they were entertaining.

Excellent well optimized graphics engine! When I started the game I was just staring at the environment with my jaw dropped. Really impressive work.

The "puzzles" I felt were on the poor side. I realize a need to appeal to a broad audience, but I found them a little too straightforward. I hope they make them a little more challenging in the next one.

Overall, though, I really enjoyed the gameplay. Action, exploration and upgrade system were top notch.
Will definitely play again soon!

Glad to know more people thought the same about the animation and the care put into details that awe me, the way Lara exclamates, looks for support in walls, looks around, adapts to her surroundings in such a (what I felt) smooth movement and a bunch of other minor details that make all look real. I think it had the right balance of armed fights and solo exploring, plus sometimes it incentives stealth action which I liked a lot, it´s not just run guns blazing.
And the environment being where it is depicted and how it was done is beautiful, some times it makes you feel like whiping out Sam´s handy cam or pressing F12 :P.
Also loved the hidden items and journals, that rain some background story details that make it all the more mysterious but give you hints of what is really happening.
I´m just hungry for more.
And that´s just the only bad thing from playing through it, that I´m already hungry for the next installment which may pass some time before it´s done.

The latter of which has clearly been inspired by earlier TR titles itself to a good degree (plus a good helping of modern day Indiana Jones). It's just completing the circle. ;)

Personally I was kind of disappointed by the game. What I liked in TR games was the exploration, puzzle solving and acrobatics... but here all those things felt like second thought.

Here it was more a cross between Uncharted and Farcry 3, it was very "action" oriented (action as in silting throats of a gazillions of bad guys) , the "tomb" exploring part felt like it was tackled on at the last minute and only because somebody suddenly remembered that the game had the word in its title.

Lara was ok but the supporting cast... well let's just say that they managed to make me regret Alister. The plot was, like all the other Rhianna Pratchett plot, adequate but nothing special.

In the end it was a good/ok games but, for me at least, it didn't fell at all like a TR game, I hope the next games will go back to the "tomb raiding" part because when it comes to third person "cinematic"-oriented action games; Uncharted does it better.

Technically perhaps, although that is always a dangerous path to go on since you'll eventually end up saying some kind of tennis game on an oscilloscope was clearly the inspiration.
But what it boils down to is that they've strayed from the TR mold in making it and it could just as easily have been called Indianette Jones or Miss Uncharted.
In the case of the TR series where I did not like the originals I don't have a problem with it, quite the opposite in fact.

Eeeeeey that felt like reading from a different universe.

QTEs is the least of problems with this game.

First off it is not a Tomb Raider game but an Uncharted clone, finally introduced to the pc platform, but with much better action and shooting mechanics however with much worse writing and characters.

It has the annoying auto-platforming that makes me feel like a fifth wheel by the game controller.

There is almost no exploration in this game, at least not in the sense of Tomb Raider.

The few puzzles that this game has are embarrassingly simple.

I guess Underworld will remain as the last real Tomb Raider which is sad.

You mean you don't get to jump around looking for supplies? ... I think that's what you do half of the game.
Underworld was a terrible mess from what I've played. Buggy, unpolished, ugh.
What's auto-platforming?

Yeah, I hear the QTEs get better later on, but I just couldn't muster up the courage to find out, the game made me genuinely angry, if it doesn't to let me play it then I don't want either.

From my experience the game just felt like "Uncharted, but shit".

In the classic TR games you got to explore vast areas and tombs, so it felt like a non-linear adventure. I never felt like that in the new TR.

I played the ps3 version of Underworld. Apart from some unfinished animations it was great. The action was clunky but there was so little of it that it didn't bother me.

Auto-platforming is when, for example, you jump and the game automatically stretches your jump so it feels like the game is playing itself rather than you are playing it. I believe it first appeared in the Uncharted games.

I disagree with those who say that the new TR is a bad Uncharted - I think it is good Uncharted (minus the characters and dialogues) but the problem is that this kind of game doesn't hold much value for me as a game, it's more like a movie experience.