Monday, March 4, 2013

Tomb Raider reboot

Diana and I just finished playing the new Tomb Raider reboot, and we enjoyed it far more than we expected. I think it's worth posting a bit about it for this reason.

Expectations


We went in to Tomb Raider without high expectations. I've never thought particularly highly of any of the previous games, and I tend to think that the Uncharted series mostly took the crown for this genre. However, having met some of the developers at Crystal Dynamics a few years ago and hearing about their plans for the game (it was in early preproduction at that time), I was certainly interested to see how well they were able to realize their vision.

I'd avoided reading anything substantial on the game, and I hadn't really planned to play it, expecting to just read some reviews and be satisfied with that. However, after coming down with a cold just before the weekend and seeing that the game was out already, we decided that there were worse ways to spend a couple of days, and so we gave it a go.

The concept of a gritty reboot of the rather tonally questionable series sounded like a good idea to me. It seems to be working for every other reboot these days, and I certainly wasn't going to go near a Tomb Raider game otherwise! I could see that there was actually some potential if they did it right.

Good borrowing


Overall we both enjoyed the game a lot. I find it very interesting because it's hard to pin down exactly what was good about it. There was no real single idea that was new or innovative in its own right, yet somehow the game as a whole worked really well. I think it is an example of a game that takes lots of good ideas from other games and combines them in just the right way. I would compare this to Sleeping Dogs, another game that does nothing new, but combines lots of good things well. 

I don't see this as a negative statement on the game or its developers. Genuinely new gameplay mechanics and level design ideas are pretty rare, and most of the time developers are taking existing ideas and just refining them. Sequels are quite often just polishing of ideas from the previous game, so a game that takes lots of ideas with potential from various other games and refines them all into a single experience is a good thing.

Structure


If I had to compare Tomb Raider to other games, I think Uncharted is clearly the obvious one, but the level design is strongly reminiscent of Arkham Asylum. This is due to the mechanic that both games share of having areas of levels that are initially inaccessible, but as new equipment is unlocked you can go back and access these areas. This has been done by several other games too, and I think it's a clever way to make a mostly linear game feel much less so.

The narrative of Tomb Raider is definitely linear. You move through a fairly interesting and well paced story. The new equipment mechanic allows it to feel less linear, though there are only a couple of major places in the game where you will revisit if your strictly follow the story. However, you have the freedom to go back to any previous section at any time by finding the nearest fast travel campsite, which will then let you instantly travel to any other discovered campsites on the island. This allows you to search for the various collectibles in previous sections or open up areas you couldn't access before (generally to gain access to collectibles).


Gameplay


One of the big strengths of the game is that it knows not to make any sections drag on for too long. Just like Uncharted, you will find yourself in sections where you are climbing to reach a destination; fighting sections; puzzle areas; cinematic sections where you're running/jumping/sliding either away from or towards the camera as things around you crumble/explode. Unlike Uncharted, these sections are usually kept quite short, so you never get bored or get forced to replay an overly large amount.

The optional tombs are a good example. You find several tombs across the island, and if you choose to complete them you will get a nice loot/xp reward. The tombs themselves are quite short, typically centered around a single physics puzzle, usually with a moderately simple but still satisfying solution. Most games would probably be unable to resist stringing half a dozen of these puzzles together in each tomb, but I think the designers knew that puzzles can be frustrating if you can't solve them, so limiting each tomb to a single one will stop the game experience from getting derailed for struggling players.

As the game progresses, items are unlocked such as a pick that allows you to climb up certain rock faces, rope arrows that allow you to pull distant objects or set up a zip line between points, and a simple shotgun that allows you to blow open certain blocked passages. As you master each of these, the game will start mixing them together more frequently, which helps increase the difficulty without changing the mechanics.

One of the best things I can say about this game is that it doesn't screw up the gameplay near the end. Too many games introduce boss fights that require gameplay that is mostly unrelated to the rest of the game, or just spam you with lots of overly hard enemies, such as taking some of their minibosses from earlier in the game and hitting you with two or three at a time. This has always struck me as lazy design. A good game will build up to a finale by testing the skills you've been developing throughout the game, and the final fight will bring together all of those skills. Tomb Raider does this very will, with the lead up to the finale requiring a rapid mixture of all of the navigation and fighting skills you've been developing.

Upgrades


Tomb Raider has multiple upgrade systems that help keep the game feeling fresh. Unlike games such as Call of Duty where variety is gained by having lots of different weapons appear throughout the game, but limiting the number the player can carry, Tomb Raider has a small array of weapons, all of which are carried by the player once unlocked. To keep it interesting, there is a system of upgrades available for each weapon. Generic salvage can be picked up throughout the game, and this can be spent upgrading weapons as the player sees fit. 

Separate to this is a character levelling system fuelled by experience points that are gained by killing enemies or finding collectibles. As the player levels they are given skill points which can be applied based on the player's gameplay style. You will end up unlocking most of these by the end of the game, but it's still nice to have some control over the order of the unlocks, and also fits with the overall character arc.

AI


Enemy behaviour is interesting and well executed. The standard patrolling/searching/fighting states are here, and variety is mostly achieved through different classes of enemy. Enemies have substantially different behaviours based on weapons, so you get the melee charging types, the slowly advancing shotgun guys, ones with assault rifles that tend to favour moving from cover to cover, long distance archers, and so on. Enemies will use fire bombs or grenades to flush you out of cover, and cover can often be destroyed by both you and AI using fire or grenades.

I like the fact that enemies do not take an unreasonable number of hits to go down, though this is affected by whether they have body armour or helmets. There is also the ability to temporarily incapacitate by shooting in the legs, which gives the chance to close in for a finishing move. There is a simple but effective dodge/counter system that stops close range from being frustrating without implementing a full melee system which is clearly not the focus of the combat here. 

Once again, there is nothing particularly new here, but it's all well done, with the combat being nicely balanced so that it never gets frustrating but also still leaves you feeling satisfied when you clear out an area. Some people will probably find it too easy, but I dislike games where I have to play action bubbles repeatedly to beat them, and in Tomb Raider I found that I usually beat a section with one or two tries. Note that this was on normal difficulty.

Conclusion


I've only touched on certain aspects of the game here, not even dealing with things such as graphics and sound (both of which are very good). I hope I've managed to capture some of the reasons why this game stood out for me as a particularly good example of a how to make a game right in a well established genre.

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