Hi folks. Jonathan Slater aka JonFromSeattle here. I picked up a copy of the new Tomb Raider video game on Friday after work. Crystal Dynamics and Square Enix partnered together to make a fantastic re-boot of the Tomb Raider franchise. She's younger, bold, brash when it comes to telling it how it is, and will do whatever it takes to make sure she and her companions survive. So what's the back story on this game? You're a young archaeologist on a ship looking for the lost treasures and land of the fabled Himeko. It's been said that Himeko was a young shaman capable of controlling the elements, and everything that the sun's rays shined upon would be hers. Sam, a good friend of Lara's is the direct descendant of Himeko, and the rightful heir to her treasures. The crew is being filmed as part of a new reality t.v. series. Upon taking Lara's advice to head into a storm just to the south of Japan, in a Bermuda like triangle - their ship is tossed about and Lara nearly drowns. After coming to shore and trying to re-group with her cast mates, Sam has gone missing. Most of the party goes to find Sam, and the stuck up lead archaeologist goes with you to find Roth - one of the other missing crew mates. Upon entering your first tomb the lead archaeologist practically hands you over to the crazies on the island, but you fight your way out of their make-shift camp learning the controls of Lara and what she's capable of in doing so.
The graphics of this game are just splendid. I could stare at the sunset for hours. The open world atmosphere of this game will have you searching for hidden tombs with treasures inside (of course), as well as hidden documents on the island, and GPS caches. You can upgrade your equipment through cache bundle finds which you use your torch to burn bundles and pry crates open. Lara's first weapons are a bow and her pistol. You'll later upgrade to using the pick axe and a machine gun. You can hunt for food which will give you XP in the game as well. As for puzzles, yes puzzles are back in this game and they will question you as being a brash or patient gamer. Don't give up hope when you think there isn't a solution. There is a solution to everything of course.
Multi-player? I haven't tried it myself, and rarely play multi-player games on my xbox due to people just cussing you out over Xbox Live when you're looking to just play a game with some random folks or even your friends online. But G4TV said the MP was lack luster at best, and just didn't feel right. The combat controls were lacking, and the switch up style of variances were missing from this. They should have taken a cue lesson from Halo 4. I've been told that if you like the MP in Uncharted, then you're pretty much just playing that. I'm not an Achievement whore, but for anyone who is - playing MP will get you some nice achievements of course.
For the single player aspect of this game I give this a 9.5/10 Some of the location beacons in this game are quite difficult to find, but that's what makes the game even more interesting. Finding what hasn't been found before. -.5 because of the MP. Go out and get this game folks. It's worth the 60. Use our affiliate Amazon for your order. http://tiny.cc/geekioamazon It costs you nothing extra, and it helps share a little love back to us so we can get that fancy recording equipment we need to make this podcast network even better than it already is. We can't do this alone, but with your help we can be even better.