Develepor/Publisher: Crystal Dynamics/Square Enix Released: March 2013

Played on: PS3 (also on 360, PS4, Xbone, PC, Mac)

I expected this game to be lazy and exploitative, so was surprised when reviews for the game were almost universally positive. A few months later I snatched it on sale to try out myself.

Tomb Raider effectively reboots the franchise, with the iconic Lara Croft embarking innocently on her first expedition. Shipwrecked and separated from her shipmates, Lara must learn to survive in her treacherous new surroundings by firstly learning to hunt for food, then to take the lives of the maniacal locals. Lara’s first kills are given a lot of weight, and actually treated quite sensitively in the moment, but that effort is effectively nullified as Lara then becomes as effective a killer as Nathan Drake or Doomguy. The story of a Japanese island full of crazed stranded castaways and eventually supernatural Samurais is standard videogame fare, and decently done, but not particularly compelling. Lara’s relationships with her shipmates, built through flashbacks and cutscenes, is a little heavy-handed but competently fleshed out. Still, it feels like a flimsy fiction and any real connection to the characters is marred by clunky dialogue.

Despite a safe and unmemorable story, Tomb Raider excels as a thrill ride. Navigating the island is fluid, combat is well executed, and even though the large tomb puzzles of old have been scaled back, there are enough tricky environmental puzzles to appease fans of the old games and plenty of optional small tombs to raid. It is slightly QTE heavy at the start of the game, but they soon disappear and the spectacular set pieces and their inevitable destructions are completely thrilling. Uncharted stole and enhanced the Tomb Raider formula, and here Tomb Raider takes a lot of notes from Uncharted’s gameplay, but delivers a faster-pace and a protagonist that feels more agile to control. The characters and environments are well designed and look quite beautiful, truly pushing these old consoles to the limit. Much like Uncharted, Tomb Raider feels slightly unbalanced with a few too many dozens of goons to eliminate, but it lacks the Naughty Dog game’s deft storytelling craft.

Lara Croft’s new design is less overtly sexualised than previous incarnations, but she still manages to get around mostly in tight pants and a tank top. I’m curious to know if it affected potential sales (doubt it, it seems to have sold great!) The developers have made a real effort to make her character as well-rounded and believable a young woman as possible, and they mostly succeed – I look forward to future incarnations of this new British archaeologist who can defeat entire evil cults with a single bow.

Verdict: A gorgeous looking, excellent third-person action/adventure game with a great mix of combat, exploration and environmental puzzle solving. Occasionally naff characters and story don’t get in the way of an excellent 10-12 hour single player campaign. I didn’t try the multiplayer.

Should Bradley play this: It’s really fun! Don’t put it at the top of the list, but maybe check it out if it’s on sale and you have time to kill.