#Tomb raider 2013 ps4 how to
#Tomb raider 2013 ps4 Ps4

These puzzles often require you to play with the mechanics in ways you haven’t likely thought of, using things like weighted objects, rafts, and flammable projectiles in interesting and clever ways to reach a solution. The tombs themselves are great and offer more challenging puzzles than what you’ll fight anywhere else on the island, but there’s only a small handful of them, as in single digits. This is one of the areas a lot of people are going to be potentially disappointed with. Although most of your time in an area is going to be spent moving the story forward by completing the main objective, each location is packed with secret treasures, hidden notes, challenges, and yes, even tombs.

The moments when you realize you’ve looped around to a previous area, found a faster way through a chunk of the island, or can simply see a previously visited section off in the distance are exciting and capture that “aha!” feeling perfectly. In fact, simply discovering all of the different ways places are connected is one of the best parts of the game. Each area connects to another via shortcuts, hidden pathways, and ziplines, making thorough exploration a rewarding activity. While by no means a sprawling open world, the entire island is an interconnected web of discovery. There’s an organic nature to how you learn things and it does a great job of nudging you in the right direction without constantly shouting at you what your next objective is. What makes this all so great is that it feels naturally inserted into the story and not like an overt string of tutorials.

#Tomb raider 2013 ps4 how to

Hunting a deer for food teaches you how to wield a weapon for combat, climbing across a broken plane serves as a training ground for your traversal skills, and an early puzzle involving water and burning debris reinforces the importance of observing your surroundings. The first hour is designed to teach you the basics (combat, climbing, puzzle solving) and the way it gradually builds on each of these mechanics is fantastic. One of the things that makes it such a joy to play is its pacing, specifically with how and when it introduces you to new mechanics. Thankfully, nearly every second of the gameplay feels focused and engaging. The more quiet and reflective moments at rest points feature inner monologues where Lara talks about the trauma of killing, but it ends up feeling like tonal whiplash when put next to how viciously and frequently you take down your foes. Lara kills an attacker near the start of the game and is shown to be (understandably) shaken by the act of taking a life, but then spends the rest of the game shooting enemies in the head, blowing them up with explosive arrows, and stabbing them. The most notable example is how inconsistent the theme of mental trauma works with the gameplay.

The game does a fantastic job of setting up situations for her to test her athletic abilities by introducing fun and challenging exploration and platforming segments on a consistent basis, but it stumbles in other areas. She starts as a bright and curious explorer, but she’s quickly forced to push herself to extremes to find a way to get her and her friend’s home. This is a story about Lara’s growth and transformation. When a dangerous storm destroys their expedition vessel in the middle of the ocean and maroons the crew on a mysterious island, Lara learns that not all adventures are safe, and that even the most outlandish legends have some truth to them. This story is centered around Lara and a group of researchers and documentarians searching for the lost Japanese kingdom of Yamatai. However, this first chapter in the reboot trilogy serves as an origin story, showing players how Lara became a world-renowned adventurer.

#Tomb raider 2013 ps4 Ps4

While this review is based on the “Definitive Edition” that released on PS4 and Xbox One the following year, the two versions are similar enough that my thoughts apply for both of them.Īlthough I haven’t played the original games myself, it’s to my understanding that they started with Lara already being a proficient tomb raider. Since I grew up in a conservative Christian household, these weren’t exactly the type of games I could ask for, so I didn’t have my first tomb raiding experience until I was an adult and played the 2013 reboot. Along with her keen sense of adventure, Lara was also famously clad in a pair of short shorts and a tight top that drew attention to her, uh, “pointy polygons”, which earned her a reputation as a gaming sex symbol. This tomb raiding, dual-pistol wielding, acrobatic heroine became an instant gaming icon in the mid-to-late 90’s, leading to a successful run of video games and two big blockbuster films starring Angelina Jolie. Even if you aren’t a fan of video games, you’ve likely heard of Tomb Raider and know the name Lara Croft.