LO1 - Game Analysis - Tomb Raider (2013)

Tomb Raider (2013)                                   (PC)

Tomb Raider is a reboot/prequel to the long running franchise by crystal dynamics, the franchise has been credited as one of the names that first made the 3D platforming genre so popular.  This new iteration whilst still being very much a platformer has elements of 3^rd person shooting, something becoming a genre convention in platformers nowadays. The game also offers players different methods of traversal as they progress through the game and allows them to visit older areas to use these to unlock new secrets. This is something that has become very common in games nowadays especially in open world and platformers. Whilst Tomb Raider is an open world game, it doesn’t offer much as one, with only a few collectable and secrets to be found, Tomb Raider instead focusses on delivering a more streamlined narrative that sets up great set piece moments. There is also a 3^rd person shooter multiplayer added to the game to try and keep players playing for longer, this too is becoming an increasingly popular method in games .

The narrative is a prequel to the popular Lara Croft game series and follows the title character in her first encounters with danger and how she becomes the “Tomb Raider”. The story involves her getting stranded on an island whilst embarking on an archaeological dig and having to rescue her friend from the cult of murders who inhabit this island. The story works to get players to explore the island and sets up several action set piece moments. The story is decidedly darker than the rest of the Tomb Raider games and is the first game in the franchise to be rated an 18 by PEGI. The game also strays in the supernatural elements that we’ve seen in previous games, however in this game the way that they are brought in doesn’t feel as smooth with the grittier narrative and could’ve been handled in a better way.  The NPC characters in this game are mostly only present in cutscenes and in the home hub that you find later in the game, this gives the player a sense of isolation during the main gameplay sequences, however it also means that these characters can sometimes feel underdeveloped and whilst the story manages to progress well with them, it’s not the games strongest point.

The game was developed by Square Enix and published Eidos Montreal, it was built on the foundation