The new Tomb Raider - trying to have its cake and eat it?

[bartholen_v1legacy]

I haven't played the new Tomb Raider, but whilst I was watching Gametrailers' review of it something popped up on my mind. They pointed it out in their review, and it's been bothering me ever since. And it's the violence in the game.

Since I haven't played the game, feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but the level of violence in contrast to how the devs talked about the game just doesn't feel right. We're supposed to feel Lara is in a terrible, inescapable life-or death survival situation where every step could mean death, but when the action ramps up, it suddenly goes into full-on Gears of war violence porn mode. Case in point, the execution moves in the game


The one in particular where Lara shoots a guy several times in the stomach, chest and head stood out as completely out of place in the situation we're supposed to think Lara is in. Anyone who knows anything about firearms knows that the move in question would be incredibly stupid for a number of reasons. It just seems odd to me that they marketed the game as more survival than action, but still have the game revel in the violence, IMO not in a way that makes me go "Ew, nasty", but "Phwoaaarr, got that guy, yeah!"

I believe I had some more points, but I'm in a hurry, so I'll have to leave this now. Thoughts?

 

[hazabaza1]

Haven't played it myself yet so I won't talk much on it, but isn't this supposed to be part of her transition from "survivor" to "super murder death badass"? From what I've heard by mid-game it's commonplace for her to be gunning down entire squads of guys every few seconds.

 

[Dryk]

Haven't played it myself yet so I won't talk much on it, but isn't this supposed to be part of her transition from "survivor" to "super murder death badass"? From what I've heard by mid-game it's commonplace for her to be gunning down entire squads of guys every few seconds.

The thing is if you're going to bother to make a story like that at all you have to make the transition believable... lots of people seem to not be believing it.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Yes, the fire fights contradict Lara being depicted as a struggling survivor, since she's obviously kicking ass. But the fire fights are so good that this vastly outweighs the character inconsistency.

In the end this is the same old Lara, except this time she seems to genuinely experience pain while performing her badass feats.

 

[Zhukov]

You can only unlock the weapons-based execution moves later on, once Lara is far past being a miserable survivor.

To begin with you can only stealth kill (she chokes them out with the handle of her bow). Finishing a wounded enemy causes her to either pick up a rock and crack them in the head or just hit them with her pickaxe.

I'm guessing that was deliberate.

 

[Vivi22]

I haven't played it, but I'm not really sure why you have a problem with the level of violence displayed in that video. If you're going to kill people with a climbing axe, it probably should look pretty damn brutal.

 

[Arkley]

The jarring disconnect between combat and story that you're talking about - the one that people are mentioning a lot - occurs quite early in the game. Lara goes from killing one chap in desperation and feeling rather bad about it to killing five guys in the next 15 minutes. It is pretty odd, but kind of understandable. As Ms. Pratchett said in her interview, once players get hold of a gun, the want to use it, and restricting the player for the sake of having the narrative make a little more sense isn't a good thing.

That being said, for the rest of the game, Lara's development takes a more steady and believable path. The kills you're talking about are acquired later in the game, unlocked along a sort of skill tree. Her early skills involve choking an enemy with her bow, and tossing dirt in an enemy's eyes as she comes out of a dodge scramble (which is super funny) . From there she learns things like jamming an arrow from her quiver into an enemy's knee after ducking a melee attack or finishing wounded enemies with a desperate axe swing. From there you learn the more elaborate finishers.

 

[Zenn3k]

I wish I could care, but Tomb Raider is just so damn fun that I find myself not caring.

 

[anthony87]

Meh, sounds no worse than Far Cry 3 and it's rich yuppie kid who can skin animals and use guns from the second you control him.

 

[remnant_phoenix]

Haven't played it myself yet so I won't talk much on it, but isn't this supposed to be part of her transition from "survivor" to "super murder death badass"? From what I've heard by mid-game it's commonplace for her to be gunning down entire squads of guys every few seconds.

The thing is if you're going to bother to make a story like that at all you have to make the transition believable... lots of people seem to not be believing it.

Lara's transition from "I've never killed anyone before" to "I'm offing handfuls of people with skill" is there, it just happens VERY quickly in order to serve the gameplay. I wish it had been more gradual, but an action game wanting to get into the action faster? I can't really fault the debs too much for going that way.

Full disclosure: I absolutely love the game. I'd never played a Tomb Raider game before this one, but I love the gameplay, the story, and Lara's character. It may be one of my favorite games of this generation.

 

[Colt47]

Honestly, I've seen reviewers go back and forth on the subject of this game, and from what I've seen it's basically an Uncharted game with Lara Croft. I'm wondering if we're desperately looking for a new strong female lead character since Samas Aran got massacred by Metroid Other M, because it borrows from other games (including it's own series) and doesn't really execute any one part as well as the source material the part is drawn from.

Heck, I don't even think I really got that much into the game that it draws the most inspiration from, which is Uncharted. It felt like one of those games that is technically fine, but just not that interesting to play.

 

[gigastar]

The game was fun. Thats all that mattered to me.

 

[Epic Fail 1977]

I haven't played the new Tomb Raider, but whilst I was watching Gametrailers' review of it something popped up on my mind. They pointed it out in their review, and it's been bothering me ever since. And it's the violence in the game.

Since I haven't played the game, feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but the level of violence in contrast to how the devs talked about the game just doesn't feel right. We're supposed to feel Lara is in a terrible, inescapable life-or death survival situation where every step could mean death, but when the action ramps up, it suddenly goes into full-on Gears of war violence porn mode. Case in point, the execution moves in the game


The one in particular where Lara shoots a guy several times in the stomach, chest and head stood out as completely out of place in the situation we're supposed to think Lara is in. Anyone who knows anything about firearms knows that the move in question would be incredibly stupid for a number of reasons. It just seems odd to me that they marketed the game as more survival than action, but still have the game revel in the violence, IMO not in a way that makes me go "Ew, nasty", but "Phwoaaarr, got that guy, yeah!"

I believe I had some more points, but I'm in a hurry, so I'll have to leave this now. Thoughts?

Wait, some marketing turned out to be BS? WHO'D HAVE THUNK IT!!! Seriously, learn the difference between marketing and reality. Speaking of reality...

The actual game doesn't make those OTT killmoves available until very late in the story. Nevertheless there is plenty of violence from about half-way into the story and Lara is very skilled at it. If you're looking for total realism then this isn't the game you want. Buy ARMA or something. This is a superhero origin story about a scared girl who discovers that she has superpowers, and thematically it is no less compelling for it.

 

[Moralio]

Lara's transition from "I've never killed anyone before" to "I'm offing handfuls of people with skill" is there, it just happens VERY quickly in order to serve the gameplay. I wish it had been more gradual, but an action game wanting to get into the action faster? I can't really fault the debs too much for going that way.

Full disclosure: I absolutely love the game. I'd never played a Tomb Raider game before this one, but I love the gameplay, the story, and Lara's character. It may be one of my favorite games of this generation.

I can easly sign under this. I only played original TR and this one, and had an absolute blast. After all it is a video game, it is not supposed to be 100% realistic. Also after all the things that Lara had to or were forced to do in the beginning I kinda grinned when new options opened up and I could do a nice little payback trip.

So far best game I played this year.

 

[m19]

I don't really care for 'the disconnect' in any game. But I think it works better than people give it credit. After her first kill, the second fight is forced on her and there is no choice. Even the gentlest cornered animal can be vicious. I see no logical reason why she can't shoot back after her initial shock. And then she say, "It's scary how easy it was." Which I can buy too. It's the other shock of realizing what she is capable of and that the sky didn't fall because of what she did earlier.

 

[Quellist]

she learns things like jamming an arrow from her quiver into an enemy's knee

So the guy used to be a bad guy then he took an Arrow to the Knee?

 

[MeChaNiZ3D]

I haven't played it myself, but I'm pretty sure executions aren't available straight away. But in regards to (I think) the main issue, the disparity between her character and actions as far as murderous violence goes, the executions look pretty utilitarian to me. She has to throw her weight around a bit because she's not well-built, but everything she seems to have done (except the stupidity with the gun) is very direct. Smash their skull in and move on. I didn't see any moves where she's repeatedly hacking away at someone where the first impact did the job.

 

[m19]

she learns things like jamming an arrow from her quiver into an enemy's knee

So the guy used to be a bad guy then he took an Arrow to the Knee?

And became a guard.

 

[HanFyren]

I haven't tried it yet, but I have mentally prepared to sort that disconnect under psychotic break.