We’ve seen Lara Croft in many forms over the years, from busty action-heroine to Atlantean explorer to wise-cracking aristocrat. But we’ve never seen her like this before. Crystal Dynamics‘ new Tomb Raider sees a young Lara on her first expedition, shipwrecked and stranded on an island bristling with danger, pushed to the limits of her ingenuity and will to survive. Over the course of the game we see this intelligent, resourceful young woman become something closer to the Lara Croft we know, fearless in the face of danger. It is a greatly successful origin story, a series reboot that feels both authentic and hugely exciting.
Tomb Raider is a little self-indulgent at the beginning – the first hour is a sequence of carefully scripted set-pieces and, yes, a cavalcade of button-mashing QTEs. But it’s all for the sake of character development, and Tomb Raider is so good at this that you’ll forgive the strict direction – especially after the game opens out past the 60-minute mark and lets you loose on the island. Camilla Luddington‘s performance as Croft is impressively convincing, and throughout this adventure you’ll really feel for Lara – she is just not having a good time out there. It is a compelling reading of the character; we see Lara’s vulnerability, but she is never disempowered, and never less than totally capable in extreme danger.
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Source: FULL ARTICLE at IGN Video Games
