MovieChat Forums > Tomb Raider (2013) Discussion > A big step above Uncharted.

A big step above Uncharted.


I played this when it was released in 2013, and again in 2015 when Microsoft gave it away for Games with Gold.

Listen, I played Uncharted 1-3 back-to-back-to-back a few years ago and LOVED them. Can't wait for 4. But if Naughty Dog didn't take notes from this game, they'll have officially fallen behind Tomb Raider.

On my second playthrough of Tomb Raider I was floored all over again at how good it was, from the extremely smooth shooting and climbing mechanics, to the story and particularly Lara's character development.

Nothing against Drake, but he's always kind of just "existed". Not a ton of personality, his backstory is forgettable (if they even got into it, I truly don't remember). I really have no real reason to root for him other than that he's the "good guy". He's actually a selfish jerk for most of the series, really.

Then this game comes by and over the course of 12-15 hours turns an innocent, naive, whiny girl into a scarred to hell (physically and mentally) resourceful killer that's come to realize what her father was doing all her life wasn't stupid at all. She's truly been born on this little island getaway.

As opposed to Drake... who just "exists", really. And cracks a joke every now and then. Don't flame. I'm getting UC4 the day it releases.

Beyond the characters, TR's mechanics are very similar to UC but with a huge difference: TR doesn't force an asinine fixed camera angle on you at every given opportunity as UC so often does. And when TR DOES have a fixed camera, it's perfectly fine and moves WITH Lara as she climbs, etc. I don't think I've ever died in 30 hours of playing TR due to either a camera or control issue. As opposed to at least once a section in every UC ever.

One more thing TR does much, much better than UC: why is it that in UC I'm travelling to some ancient temple or city, yet somehow there are HUNDREDS of enemy soldiers waiting for me? This is the impossible to find, locked, ancient temple/city we're talking about here. It's annoying as hell to fight off wave after wave of soldiers that physically shouldn't be there, and it's just plain bad/careless game design (not to mention bad writing).

In TR, we're on a small island where it's established there are a couple hundred Solarii, already dug in from years of being stranded. There's a REASON why they're where you're going. And even THEN, you never fight more than 10 at a time. Almost like the TR writers realized fighting thousands of soldiers doesn't mean the game is good.

Bottom line, I love what they did with Tomb Raider and Naughty Dog had better be taking notes or their game is going to be more of the same. That is to say, not bad but technically frustrating and officially #2 to Lara Croft.

I want Rise of the Tomb Raider more than a lot of games coming out this fall. Can't wait.

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True that!

I don't have broadband at the moment so I dug out some older games with a good story mode last night. Popped in UC3 first as I only played it once but got bored and frustrated with the movements so I put it TR though I completed it a couple times before.

Boy, was it the right decision! I've been playing it for about 24 hours straight with little sleep and enjoying every second of it.
The story, the characters, the action, the gore!
It's like xmas came early, though I'm planning to get ps4 with RoTR next week...

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