Posted December 06, 2014
Although this game is not on GoG (yet?) but i've gotten a chance to play a large portion of the game over the last couple days. So i'll put out my thoughts.
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Graphics are Beautiful. Breath-taking. Since my rig can handle the game on High/Ultra it looks really good, probably at any given time if you took screenshots only a few tiny tell-tale tidbits would hint that it's not real. When in instinct mode (black&white) you can't tell it's a computer game... except when something's glowing yellow or red.
Audio clips and samples are really good too. Some of the lore and historical objects found are actually quite interesting.
Facial animations are lacking even if the faces look great. Most jarring is probably when Lara is on the radio talking in a non-skippable cut-scene where she doesn't look like there's any real emotion to her, mostly her jaw moves up and down. Maybe they could have done something else...
CutScenes are okay, but the shakey-cam is annoying since it looks like someone's trying to capture the event on a cell phone. It's annoying. What's more annoying about the cut-scenes is there's cases you would have done something completely different. Against a cult room filled with 100 guys and you use a bow & arrow? Hell no! Assault rifle or Shotgun, and she had both! The scene also made her seem less skilled with the bow than she's been to this point, fumbling with her arrows. With her other weapons she could have taken out at lest a dozen of them, perhaps all of them if she backed up into that cavern and made it a choke-point. However since the 'main villan' is present he can't possibly get killed so the scene finishes up and dumps you somewhere else after Lara escapes. Although when Lara's watching the camcorder, it's a nice touch to see the battery life and time left on the video stay pretty consistent.
The game is predictable, in a nut shell. At least a dozen times i see a destination, perhaps a rope going over it with a rock face cliff under it and i'm like 'they're going to come out of nowhere and cut the line'. And it happens, then i have to catch myself using the climbing axe (no big deal, just press X)
All in all it feels very much a hallway-shooter. Yeah it's open looking, but you can only go one direction (unless you want to backtrack and find GPS caches and fulfill tiny little mini-quests). There's tombs, but the puzzles are minimal and seem more timing based rather than complex. And then quite often you get locked in an area so you can't backtrack or escape and you have to follow the pre-scripted story.
Pointless jumpscares. There's nowhere that someone can come from, and yet they do, like at the beginning where they are 'there to help you'. Or coming out of the ceiling and charging you when you are being completely silent. Quite often the encounters feel forced, and you can't just sneak by the enemies, you usually have to fight and kill them all. Some of the scenes are fixed QTE's that you have to complete correctly or die and then backtrack like 15-30 seconds and try again...
Dirty fighting skills... Useless. Also when i try to use the weapon mastery skills (for finishing moves), and i get unexpected results or haven't had a good chance to get good at them. I sneak up on an enemy, pull out a silenced pistol, hit Y, what happens? She pulls out her climbing axe and takes him out.... Scrambling more often than not doesn't do anything useful.
Ambushes are confusing and are merely jumpscares when you enter an area. Unless you're making a racket they shouldn't know you're coming, and yet they are ready for you (or think they are).
AI is generally unimaginative unless they are actively fighting, often standing around for no reason. Sometimes they are programmed only to look away so you can 'sneak by them', then they complain when they can't find you...
Some of the audio is funny as you listen to the cult calling out. 'It's just one girl!' 'Well that girl is kicking our asses!', and 'She's got a weapon!', like somehow she never had one before this point...
[spoiler]
Finally the story is confusing, and to a degree stupid. Certain obvious mistakes that should have been dealt with right away, like when Lara comments Dr. Wittman's 'chased for miles' and hadn't broken a sweat, and earlier when he had basically free reign to walk among the cultists.
Just stuff you would have done differently would have given you a better result...
[/spoiler]
Final Thoughts: To me it's merely an okay game. If it comes to GoG and goes on sale for $5 (like it was on steam like last week) i'd pick it up. Beyond that, the game has no replay value and much like Beyond Two Souls, once done you put it down and never touch it again.
edit: Finished the game... Opinion stays the same...
---
Graphics are Beautiful. Breath-taking. Since my rig can handle the game on High/Ultra it looks really good, probably at any given time if you took screenshots only a few tiny tell-tale tidbits would hint that it's not real. When in instinct mode (black&white) you can't tell it's a computer game... except when something's glowing yellow or red.
Audio clips and samples are really good too. Some of the lore and historical objects found are actually quite interesting.
Facial animations are lacking even if the faces look great. Most jarring is probably when Lara is on the radio talking in a non-skippable cut-scene where she doesn't look like there's any real emotion to her, mostly her jaw moves up and down. Maybe they could have done something else...
CutScenes are okay, but the shakey-cam is annoying since it looks like someone's trying to capture the event on a cell phone. It's annoying. What's more annoying about the cut-scenes is there's cases you would have done something completely different. Against a cult room filled with 100 guys and you use a bow & arrow? Hell no! Assault rifle or Shotgun, and she had both! The scene also made her seem less skilled with the bow than she's been to this point, fumbling with her arrows. With her other weapons she could have taken out at lest a dozen of them, perhaps all of them if she backed up into that cavern and made it a choke-point. However since the 'main villan' is present he can't possibly get killed so the scene finishes up and dumps you somewhere else after Lara escapes. Although when Lara's watching the camcorder, it's a nice touch to see the battery life and time left on the video stay pretty consistent.
The game is predictable, in a nut shell. At least a dozen times i see a destination, perhaps a rope going over it with a rock face cliff under it and i'm like 'they're going to come out of nowhere and cut the line'. And it happens, then i have to catch myself using the climbing axe (no big deal, just press X)
All in all it feels very much a hallway-shooter. Yeah it's open looking, but you can only go one direction (unless you want to backtrack and find GPS caches and fulfill tiny little mini-quests). There's tombs, but the puzzles are minimal and seem more timing based rather than complex. And then quite often you get locked in an area so you can't backtrack or escape and you have to follow the pre-scripted story.
Pointless jumpscares. There's nowhere that someone can come from, and yet they do, like at the beginning where they are 'there to help you'. Or coming out of the ceiling and charging you when you are being completely silent. Quite often the encounters feel forced, and you can't just sneak by the enemies, you usually have to fight and kill them all. Some of the scenes are fixed QTE's that you have to complete correctly or die and then backtrack like 15-30 seconds and try again...
Dirty fighting skills... Useless. Also when i try to use the weapon mastery skills (for finishing moves), and i get unexpected results or haven't had a good chance to get good at them. I sneak up on an enemy, pull out a silenced pistol, hit Y, what happens? She pulls out her climbing axe and takes him out.... Scrambling more often than not doesn't do anything useful.
Ambushes are confusing and are merely jumpscares when you enter an area. Unless you're making a racket they shouldn't know you're coming, and yet they are ready for you (or think they are).
AI is generally unimaginative unless they are actively fighting, often standing around for no reason. Sometimes they are programmed only to look away so you can 'sneak by them', then they complain when they can't find you...
Some of the audio is funny as you listen to the cult calling out. 'It's just one girl!' 'Well that girl is kicking our asses!', and 'She's got a weapon!', like somehow she never had one before this point...
[spoiler]
Finally the story is confusing, and to a degree stupid. Certain obvious mistakes that should have been dealt with right away, like when Lara comments Dr. Wittman's 'chased for miles' and hadn't broken a sweat, and earlier when he had basically free reign to walk among the cultists.
Just stuff you would have done differently would have given you a better result...
[/spoiler]
Final Thoughts: To me it's merely an okay game. If it comes to GoG and goes on sale for $5 (like it was on steam like last week) i'd pick it up. Beyond that, the game has no replay value and much like Beyond Two Souls, once done you put it down and never touch it again.
edit: Finished the game... Opinion stays the same...
Post edited December 07, 2014 by rtcvb32
