Started playing this some days ago. I've played around 7 hours or so.
At first I was loving it. I love the atmosphere, I adore the art direction and the love and detail that was put into the environments. I think Lara looks amazing and I even like the voice-acting by Camilla. I like the overall story of the island...the japanese lore and the whole cultist thing going on is really cool IMO.
But man, honestly, this must be one of the dumbest games I've ever played. I don't mean the story or characters. I mean the game design. It honestly feels like it was made for dumb people. There is absolutely no challenge in anything. The combat feels good, the sound of the weapons is amazing and all...but the overall thing is just pure dumbness.
Everything is extremely obvious, but as if that wasn't enough, they are constantly telling me to use the "Dumb instinct" mechanic. Almost all the enemies seem to love to take cover near a fucking red barrel, of which there seems to be an awful lot on this island, in the most idiotic places. I won't even talk about the puzzles that were made for my 4 year old niece.
All the hunting and gathering is absolutely basic, dumb, and virtually useless. There is nothing about it. You don't even need to do it. You kill an animal, you loot it, you get a little bit of XP so that you can invest in useless skills that will only give you more XP or salvage.
The weapon customization is pretty ok and I like that the weapons actually evolve through the course of the game.
The mini-challenges...I don't really know what to think about them tbh. They feel so displaced, but I guess they do add a bit of (dumb) variety to such a basic game.
I just don't know what is going on. It feels like every single mechanic in this game was dumbed down to the most basic and easy point they could get it to.
It's really sad, this could be a much, much better game if it actually had some depth, even if it was just a little bit.
I will try to finish it, but overall I'm just feeling really disappointed, and I doubt it will get any better going forward, since all these flaws are at the very heart of the game design.