Following “the first kill”, Tomb Raider temporarily becomes a third-person shooter without a cover mechanic. The shooting is enjoyable enough, but it feels thematically inappropriate. Meanwhile, many of the platforming sections feel rudimentary at best: graspable ledges are quite obviously signposted.
“There are certain things we have to get across," Horton continues. "But the things I'm more excited about with the medium is that we're able to do more visual storytelling and that sort of optional interactive storytelling that you can perceive when, instead of killing a dude [straight away] you can wait and listen to a conversation. you can get more of the fiction without being forced to stop and wait.”
The team's determination to tell a great story shines through in every part of the game, from the lovingly rendered jungles and their convincingly torrential weather systems, through to the seamless traversal of the world. No loading screens roam here, unless you die. Horton cites films like Children of Men and Apocalypse Now as inspiration for his art direction, films that “dealt with very horrific things, but dealt with them in a way that makes you feel you could have been there.”
So it's disappointing that after a protracted series of firefights and one or two short puzzles, I finally make the last victorious steps toward the radio tower... and the game takes control. What could have been a marvellous - transcendental - journey, turns into a cinematic.
Yes, it looks gorgeous, but I don't feel like I'm there . Which is a shame, because when it lets me play, Tomb Raider is pretty fun.
