Tomb Raider

[SacredWarrior]

Pretty much every gamer worth their salt knows about this great franchise right? Is anyone else here a fan of it? If so, how did you get into the franchise and what is your favorite TR game? Also what are your thoughts on the other games?

My story for how I got into Tomb Raider is this:

When I was about 10, I had went to GameStop and I saw Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness which I had just enough money for. I bought it and took the game home. Needless to say, I quickly found out just how shitty the game is and I practically gave up on the second level! I took the game back to GameStop and traded it in for Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi and Sonic Mega Collection Plus.

I didn't play another Tomb Raider game again until I was able to rent Tomb Raider Anniversary from Hollywood (it was the PS2 version sadly) and I played it relentlessly until it was time to take it back.

Back in 2014, I bought the Tomb Raider Trilogy on Amazon which contains Legend, Anniversary, and Underworld and before then, I was playing the older games for PS1.

I've played the reboot and I LOVED IT! Absolutely phenomenal! Definitely a masterpiece in my opinion! I haven't played Rise Of The Tomb Raider yet because I'm waiting for the PS4 port and unlike most of the spoiled brats in the TR fanbase, I'm not mad about it.

My favorite game in the series is Legend. Although it's short and a bit linear compared to the previous games, it was such a breath of fresh air after Angel of Darkness and I found it to be very enjoyable!

Hopefully there are other Tomb Raider fans here! D: I don't wanna be alone!

 

[Darog]

*looks at how the current developers of Tomb Raider were the ones who created Legacy of Kain, and that still hasn't got another game within the franchise yet*

;_________________________________________________________________;

 

[Windsong]

Why must you always go on to belittle a group in every threeeeaaaad!?!

Never got into the newer games. Lara felt gutted. Lost what made her an awesome female protagonist like Samus. Honestly it felt like her weakness and femininity were what did it for me. Yeah she still does cool things and is generally a badass. But she's not this cool solo Fendiana Jones I used to enjoy playing with her seven polygon breasts.

Also I miss her fighting dinosaurs and alien monstrosities.

 

[SacredWarrior]

Why must you always go on to belittle a group in every threeeeaaaad!?!

Because I'm a misanthropist and hate everyone :P

 

[Windsong]

Because I'm a misanthropist and hate everyone :P

Be still my smouldering heart..

.. Ya' wanna go down to the forums sometime and laugh at people for having shitty taste later? Hear it's lively this time of year, just toss a hook and you've got something!

 

[Mid]

I enjoy the newer version tbh. It just excites me so much 8D BAD ASS SNIPING SKILLS WIT DAT BOW YO!

 

[Kestrel]

Tomb Raider reboot was almost like playing a game. You get to shoot sometimes, even. Or press buttons during cutscenes that take up more time than the gameplay that tell a story with so little breaks in pacing it's more exhaustive than exciting a few hours in. It just felt more like a simulation of a game that was supposed to simulate a survival experience, split up by frustrating quick-time events. Oh, you got eaten by the wolf again because you didn't know what button to mash! Here's another five minutes in which you can do it all again!

I mean honestly, there's things to be said for it's presentation. The camera logs were fun, too and the amount of voiced lines is pretty stellar. Even sniping arrows before people can spot you is satisfying. It's just that those are more tiny points of light in a very messy experience, rather than elements that can carry the game. 'cause at it's core it tries to tell a story and that is just exhaustive in it's pacing and tries to evoke the feeling of danger so often it stops feeling like danger. Meanwhile most of the gameplay plays second fiddle to that.

Also I forgot about all the old ones and didn't play Rise of the Tomb Raider.

Opinions. Fun.

 

[SacredWarrior]

. Or press buttons during cutscenes that take up more time than the gameplay that tell a story with so little breaks in pacing it's more exhaustive than exciting a few hours in. It just felt more like a simulation of a game that was supposed to simulate a survival experience, split up by frustrating quick-time events. Oh, you got eaten by the wolf again because you didn't know what button to mash! Here's another five minutes in which you can do it all again!

Quick Time Events suck eh? Especially if they lead to death like in Bayonetta 1 >:( UGH!

 

[Kestrel]

Quick Time Events suck eh? Especially if they lead to death like in Bayonetta 1 >:( UGH!

It depends. In something like Heavy Rain that was built on them and used them as an immersive thing (ie a lot of your failures would impact the progression of the game) they were tolerable. In fact it was really cool, cause if you fucked up there'd be a chance you'd have one of your characters die and the story would move on without them. It was full of meaningful potential to fail. Not to say the game didn't have it's issues or that it made quick-time events actually fun, but it used cheap gameplay as an immersive tool and made it work because it was consistent in it's application, impact and atmosphere.

Pick something like Tomb Raider on the other hand, where a lot of the gameplay emphasises on you being a badass when you get good at the game (silent headshots for days, take out twenty people with rifles on your lonesome np, even if the story tries to be more balanced about it ) it suddenly puts you in a helpless state against something you could predict was behind the corner. Relying on how quickly you can follow instructions versus your resourcefulness and aiming skill. Like, the wolf thing I mentioned, feeling everything prior was sort of anti-climactic I actually made sure to check behind corners if I saw anything. There wasn't. Then boom, unforgiving quick-time event. From all you trying to carefully observe your surroundings and generally being rewarded for it, the game says NOPE YOU MISSED THIS for no other reason than to throw you in a quick-time event. Don't get me wrong, I know what they're trying to do. They're trying to make Lara more human and relatable by emphasising her lack of control and then use the story and quick-time events to evoke that in you as the player. It just doesn't mesh at all with the other gameplay. It doesn't feel good to overcome and in general isn't very fun.

I'll put a stop to my ranting now, though. Just figured I'd give my two cents on application of quick-time events.