Tomb Raider Review

Crystal Dynamics rebuilt Lara Croft from the ground up and the physical craft is undeniable. Yamatai is a filthy, storm lashed island rendered with the best lighting and material work of its console generation, and the traversal has real weight, with rope arrows, ziplines and scrambles that make climbing feel like effort rather than animation. The opening hours are the good ones, when she is injured, frightened and improvising, and the willingness to let a blockbuster protagonist be genuinely fragile was the entire point of the reboot.

Then it forgets. Within a few hours Lara is clearing camps of dozens of men with a bow and a rifle, and the survival framing collapses into a competent but conventional cover shooter. The story chases the same tone and settles for generic supernatural island lore. What is left is a tremendously well made action game that keeps promising to be something braver, and the sequels never quite fixed it either. Worth playing for the first act alone.