After spending ~5-6 hrs with the game [not my copy], I'm giving it my sea lion of approval. Its phenomenal take on Uncharted game, and people shouldn't be mad because of if. Few recent TR games did not sell well, and this to me looks like it will be perfect reboot. If this game dont sell well, I will be 1000000x more mad than I was with Binary Domain and Singularity.
Zero spoilers ahead, but still inside of spoiler code for those who want to remain pure.
Positives:
Lara's movements are very nice and there is shitton of land of explore.
- Combat is extremely satisfying and even better than Uncharted [better variety of weapons/tactics, melee is 10x better with no QTE's]
- Upgrade system gives surprisingly good things [both char upgrade and weapons upgrade]
-In few places graphics made my jaw drop [PS3 version], game moves trough several very nice environment shifts.
-Overall, graphics is excellent, PC version should be stunning with higher rez and better textures. Im very curious to find out will her tresstx hair change color in one specific situation.
[Reeeeally small] negatives:
- PS3 version rarely looses good framerate.
- Supporting cast is not really good [except one].
- I'm not interested in hunting animals, so one upgrade skill tree is pointless for me.
Big negative:
So far, all tombs that I found were reeeeally small with just one puzzle in them. However, visual design of few of them was awesome.
My take on new Lara:
She's excellent. End of story. Sure circumstances forced her to become a killer, but she did not have choice. Bastards actively try to kill her and her friends, and Lara is literary the only person in the expedition that can "get shit done". After two really big set piece moments she really became capable and willing to go on the offensive [IMO justifiably].