Picked this one up in the collection pack for $20 recently (all of them ever made up to this one) and decided to hop right into this one.

I've gotta say that it's a major league improvement over any of the past titles in the series by leaps and bounds. Lara quite literally gets beat to pieces in this one and you get to actually see and experience each and every bit of that along the way. I've gotta tell you--it gets very brutal in some places if you aren't used to violence in games by now. She wades through muck, mire, and even blood at one point all while gathering bits of it all over her since that would naturally happen to anyone else if placed in those real-life environments. And about those environments: they are pain-stakingly beautiful and rich--even if some were a bit too gruesome for my taste.

The puzzles in this game are interesting but once you get used to solving them they actually get quite predictable since there's only so many ways to present the same thing over and over again. I even found myself locating all of the treasures and relics along the way the first time through the game--instead of backtracking over previously explored territory (was I supposed to do that?). Probably the most frustrating aspect of the game is the quick-action events (or whatever the game called them, ugh) that often end up punishing you with some brutal death-scene rather than allowing you any adequate amount of time to accomplish anything. So, you end up repeating a short section of the game until you get it just right.

All in all this is a much-needed step in the right direction for the Lara Croft/Tomb Raider series and I hope she has many more successful games in this franchise left in her before she sees retirement! ;-p

Picked this one up in the collection pack for $20 recently (all of them ever made up to this one) and decided to hop right into this one. I've gotta say that it's a major league improvement over any of the past titles in the series by leaps and bounds. Lara quite literally gets beat to pieces in this one and you get to actually see and experience each and every bit of that along the way. I've gotta tell you--it gets very brutal in some places if you aren't used to violence in games by now. She wades through muck, mire, and even blood at one point all while gathering bits of it all over her since that would naturally happen to anyone else if placed in those real-life environments. And about those environments: they are pain-stakingly beautiful and rich--even if some were a bit too gruesome for my taste. The puzzles in this game are interesting but once you get used to solving them they actually get quite predictable since there's only so many ways to present the same thing over and over again. I even found myself locating all of the treasures and relics along the way the first time through the game--instead of backtracking over previously explored territory (was I supposed to do that?). Probably the most frustrating aspect of the game is the quick-action events (or whatever the game called them, ugh) that often end up punishing you with some brutal death-scene rather than allowing you any adequate amount of time to accomplish anything. So, you end up repeating a short section of the game until you get it just right. All in all this is a much-needed step in the right direction for the Lara Croft/Tomb Raider series and I hope she has many more successful games in this franchise left in her before she sees retirement! ;-p