The game direction was masterful, Lara is her usual psychotic self and the climbing / traversal mechanics are rock sold. If your after tombs there is a much larger ephesus on eliberat well thought out tombs which I’m glad to say are of a greater volume than the previous games and have much more variety and flavour both in the theme and the approach to completing the tombs. They are also placed expertly just off the beaten path for you to stumble upon as you explore. Acting as palate cleansers as you progress through the jaw droppingly beautiful environments of this tightly focused 30 hour spectacular.

I had a lot of technical issues / conflictions with my AMD R390 which caused the game to crash 15-20 times and display artifacts around the weapon select wheel and reticule. This really did frustrate me and drag me out of the experience. It is a testament to the design and artistic direction of the game that I pushed through these technical issues to the end whereas with lesser games I would have stopped playing.

It's a shame that the team behind this game were not slightly more confident in gameplay and writing they had, which apart from the the server technical issues is the only criticism I can give the game. This lack of confidence emerged in 2 ways. The first and most emerson breaking was the incessant popping up of tutorised text in the world, displaying how to dive into water or repel down a rope. This is an effective way of teaching the player how a mechanic works and and is helpful the first, possibly the second time you need to make this action but to have it prevalent throughout the game all the way until the last cinematic is just plain maderning to the player. There should at least be an option to turn it off. There is the option to turn of the white paint highlighting climbable geometry which I found really useful as the camera design in this game masterfully and subtly guides your eye to points of interest without the need of this white paint along the critical path.

The second display of lack of confidence in what the development team had with this superb title comes at a pivotal moment in the plot where the writers backtracked and undid the bold twist in the character's development. This turned a poignant raw humanistic moment into one which felt stereotypical and cheep. It left a bad taste in my mouth as a player who had become surprisingly invested in Laras plight. If only the writers had the bravery to fully commit to this twist, the story could have been transformed into something glorious rather than throw away.

All in all the game is fantastic if it runs on your machine and it is only because the bulk of the game was so supremely well put together that the 1 or 2 flaws became so apparent against that contrast. Play this game if you get the chance.