Zero Punctuation: Rise of the Tomb Raider

Recommended Videos

C117

New member
Aug 14, 2009
1,331
0
0
Glad I'm not the only one who doesn't like the new Lara. She always felt unlikable to me, not helped by the plot bending over backwards to her every whim. So yeah, seems like a safe skip.
 

Casual Shinji

Should've gone before we left.
Legacy
Jul 18, 2009
20,519
5,335
118
It's mainly the voice for me, too.

No offense to the voice actress, I'm sure she's a nice person, but the posh gasping behind every silibil grates on me so bad.

And next game, fix that perpetually wavey hair, girl!
 

Neurotic Void Melody

Bound to escape
Legacy
Jul 15, 2013
4,953
6
13
Oh so they gave her tits now. Sounds like that innovation you were on about last time. Though i am pretty sure DOA has that area pretty ...UNcovered! Hahah! Oh, nnnnnnnnnggghh! Must digress before more digging into the ress.t; Is extra puncuation no longer a tuesday afternoon thing? Nobody tells me nothin'!

What i don't understand is why they don't put in different enemy types that require different weapons and tactics, even traps? Shadow Warrior makes it feel as if each weapon has a use for different enemies so you are constantly thinking on your feet. Do these AAA developers not play any great games at all? Make the game grow tougher enough against the player as they play, to force them to upgrade or die. The experience would be less monotonous and the player may even appreciate working for the next upgrade.

Le sighs. Just Cause 3 very soon, guys... amirite?? ;)
 

Sheo_Dagana

New member
Aug 12, 2009
966
0
0
The 'too many options' problem sounds irritating in this one as well. If you don't challenge the player, no amount of decent functionality is going to stop it from getting boring when your story is also pretty by the numbers.

Probably worth a rent, then. I liked the rebooted Tomb Raider just fine, but I didn't buy it either.
 

Mangod

Senior Member
Feb 20, 2011
829
0
21
So, am I to interpret it that this game is still trying to portray Lara as this poor young women way out of her depth, despite having the ability to murder a small nation? Y'know, like the last game did?
 

Spushkin

New member
Nov 2, 2011
75
0
0
Did anyone else feel that Yahtzee made at least 4 jokes that sounded like they are the last one in the video, but then it continued?
 

Johnny Novgorod

Bebop Man
Legacy
Feb 9, 2012
19,347
4,013
118
I'm playing the reboot right now.
I don't like new Lara. She always sounds exhausted and she's exhausting to hear.
Game's fun but could use more puzzle-platforming, less set pieces. Don't mind the action as much as how rigurously scripted it is.
 

Jburton9

New member
Aug 21, 2012
187
0
0
Depleted Uranium Friendship Bracelets, DUFB's will surely be the next big thing!

Thank you for the review, I really enjoyed it, right before the local holiday here! Now I will have polite conversation material - please pass the cranberry stuffing.

Ah what a bummer, when they do these reboot things, I am always filled with cautious optimism, I try to give it a benefit of a doubt. *sigh* In this day and age it seems that art is tapped out and no one wants to stick with truly expressing something so it feels real vs clamped on "so what is my motivation again?"
 

Aiddon_v1legacy

New member
Nov 19, 2009
3,672
0
0
"that's as good as the writing gets", a phrase I have heard with every single game written by Rhianna Pratchett.

I think what utterly kills me about this reboot is how every keeps gushing about it, like it's some savior for the video game industry when in fact it's just an Uncharted-alike with writing that never rises above average. It's like how critics wore kid gloves for the awful attempt at a DMC reboot (though admittedly Tomb Raider is at least functional with a middling story as opposed to NT's....THING, that had bad gameplay with a downright offensive plot). We practically have stones loaded and ready when a series takes on aspects of games that came after it (just look at how much shit Thief 4 caught for blatantly ripping off Dishonored in places like setting and narrative) and yet people give Tomb Raider a free pass.

As for Lara herself, she's just a milquetoast non-character. She doesn't really make any choices, isn't anything close to a complex character, and her personality is just dull. All this makes me realize is that we are seriously starved for heroines if this Lara is somehow a groundbreaking revolutionary in writing when in fact she never even comes close to matching the legions of women who have come before her like Aya Brea, Lenneth Valkyrie, Elly van Houten, Terra Branford, Tifa Lockhart, Samus Aran, Kid from Chrono Cross, every female character in Blazblue and Guilty Gear, the girls of Persona, the Odin Sphere women, and tons of others. I have just named close to two dozen women that would curb stomp Lara in the character department harder than Kazuma Kiryu after he's had a few belts of whiskey. In their haste to not make Lara a caricature, they ended up just making her boring. One step to the side, with no real progress, the eternal tale of game writing.
 

09philj

Elite Member
Legacy
Mar 31, 2015
2,154
949
118
Sheo_Dagana said:
The 'too many options' problem sounds irritating in this one as well. If you don't challenge the player, no amount of decent functionality is going to stop it from getting boring when your story is also pretty by the numbers.
It's much better to find many uses for one mechanic than many mechanics for one use.
 

Logience

New member
Jun 25, 2014
100
0
0
Huh. Why the heck is Escapist hiding this review? It's not showing up on their front page.

I thought it was a unanimous conclusion that Yahtzee is all that's keeping this site afloat.
 

Steve the Pocket

New member
Mar 30, 2009
1,649
0
0
Spushkin said:
Did anyone else feel that Yahtzee made at least 4 jokes that sounded like they are the last one in the video, but then it continued?
Yeah. And despite the video being a roughly typical length, when all was said and done, if not even a little short.

Guess there wasn't much to talk about, since all the mechanics are apparently exactly the same since the last one. Which is fine if you can make compelling setpieces -- it's the reason people appreciate the Half-Life 2 episodes, and for that matter the Half-Life expansion packs that weren't even made by Valve -- but the game I'm now choosing to call Tomb Raider Origins like a proper reboot-prequel should be was pretty spare in that department to begin with, and I wasn't really expecting the team responsible for it to suddenly do a 180 in that department.
 

Neurotic Void Melody

Bound to escape
Legacy
Jul 15, 2013
4,953
6
13
Logience said:
Huh. Why the heck is Escapist hiding this review? It's not showing up on their front page.

I thought it was a unanimous conclusion that Yahtzee is all that's keeping this site afloat.
The consumerism, all of a sudden, is strong with the escapist, for some reason. Stronger than their strongest content creator. Life lesson; money defeats all!
This may be my first escapist christmas. Maybe this is the norm here.
 

Darth_Payn

New member
Aug 5, 2009
2,868
0
0
Aiddon said:
"that's as good as the writing gets", a phrase I have heard with every single game written by Rhianna Pratchett.

I think what utterly kills me about this reboot is how every keeps gushing about it, like it's some savior for the video game industry when in fact it's just an Uncharted-alike with writing that never rises above average. It's like how critics wore kid gloves for the awful attempt at a DMC reboot (though admittedly Tomb Raider is at least functional with a middling story as opposed to NT's....THING, that had bad gameplay with a downright offensive plot). We practically have stones loaded and ready when a series takes on aspects of games that came after it (just look at how much shit Thief 4 caught for blatantly ripping off Dishonored in places like setting and narrative) and yet people give Tomb Raider a free pass.

As for Lara herself, she's just a milquetoast non-character. She doesn't really make any choices, isn't anything close to a complex character, and her personality is just dull. All this makes me realize is that we are seriously starved for heroines if this Lara is somehow a groundbreaking revolutionary in writing when in fact she never even comes close to matching the legions of women who have come before her like Aya Brea, Lenneth Valkyrie, Elly van Houten, Terra Branford, Tifa Lockhart, Samus Aran, Kid from Chrono Cross, every female character in Blazblue and Guilty Gear, the girls of Persona, the Odin Sphere women, and tons of others. I have just named close to two dozen women that would curb stomp Lara in the character department harder than Kazuma Kiryu after he's had a few belts of whiskey. In their haste to not make Lara a caricature, they ended up just making her boring. One step to the side, with no real progress, the eternal tale of game writing.
I would like to hear more about how you think RebootLara compares to OriginalLara. I thought the latter was more confident and decisive, if not a bit dim. And what you said about game series "borrowing" from other series brought to mind Duke Nukem: Time to Kill from the PS1. It felt like playing a Tomb Raider game, but with a more cooperative camera and smoother controls.
 

Arcane Azmadi

New member
Jan 23, 2009
1,232
0
0
Yahtzee, Yahtzee, you should always wear deodorant before you visit a prostitute- while they have to service you, the less they like you the less effort they'll put into it! You don't want your money to be wasted, do you?
 

phogue

New member
Mar 27, 2015
6
0
0
I kinda had a feeling that he would make some off-hand comment about fallout 4 by this time.
 

EternallyBored

Terminally Apathetic
Jun 17, 2013
1,434
0
0
Aiddon said:
"that's as good as the writing gets", a phrase I have heard with every single game written by Rhianna Pratchett.

I think what utterly kills me about this reboot is how every keeps gushing about it, like it's some savior for the video game industry when in fact it's just an Uncharted-alike with writing that never rises above average. It's like how critics wore kid gloves for the awful attempt at a DMC reboot (though admittedly Tomb Raider is at least functional with a middling story as opposed to NT's....THING, that had bad gameplay with a downright offensive plot). We practically have stones loaded and ready when a series takes on aspects of games that came after it (just look at how much shit Thief 4 caught for blatantly ripping off Dishonored in places like setting and narrative) and yet people give Tomb Raider a free pass.

As for Lara herself, she's just a milquetoast non-character. She doesn't really make any choices, isn't anything close to a complex character, and her personality is just dull. All this makes me realize is that we are seriously starved for heroines if this Lara is somehow a groundbreaking revolutionary in writing when in fact she never even comes close to matching the legions of women who have come before her like Aya Brea, Lenneth Valkyrie, Elly van Houten, Terra Branford, Tifa Lockhart, Samus Aran, Kid from Chrono Cross, every female character in Blazblue and Guilty Gear, the girls of Persona, the Odin Sphere women, and tons of others. I have just named close to two dozen women that would curb stomp Lara in the character department harder than Kazuma Kiryu after he's had a few belts of whiskey. In their haste to not make Lara a caricature, they ended up just making her boring. One step to the side, with no real progress, the eternal tale of game writing.
Who is calling the reboot the savior of the games industry? Every review and site I've been to have called it pretty much what it is: a competent reboot that plays everything safe and by the numbers, much like the original uncharted was at least inspired by Tomb Raider, the reboot seems to jack a lot of mechanics from the Uncharted series.

I've seen some people praise the rebooted lara as being a better character than the original, but that wasn't exactly a high bar as old lara barely had a personality worth ripping off, even then most will still acknowledge that the gameplay and story aren't exactly going to be winning any innovation awards.

You compare it to Thief 4, but I played that game, and it had a hell of a lot more problems than the TR reboot did, and I think that's why people are generally warm towards it, in a world where reboots of series that have been dead for awhile are often just shitty cashins, even a middling decent reboot can be seen as a positive. They really do need to add more actual ruins exploration and traps though, the game only seems to have spike pits and spear traps, I know timed trap puzzles are kind of archaic nowadays, and the puzzles in the sequel are a step up from the previous game, but the series would really be improved with some more interesting puzzles and platforming between combat set pieces.