Skulls, skulls, skulls!
Even the natives have mascara!
Misandry
So much crap is on fire I almost missed a base camp.
The combat in this game is weird. First time I ever died in combat was just now. They sprinkle so many ambient cans and liquor and smoke bombs and explosive barrels around the area that you have a comical number of options for taking out any bad guys. Not to mention explosive arrows, fire arrows, poison arrows, and so on. Plus your four weapon slots: bow, pistol, rifle, shotgun. The smg and rifle are kind of plink-y, but that shotgun is a monster.
I hate the way after a big battle they immediately rush to cutscene before I can loot the bodies. And then the 10+ guys you just killed are magically gone. I need those springs for upgrades, damn you!!
Stealth is workable, lots of bushes and climbing vantage points, though it’s hard to tell how visible you are without some kind of visibility indicator. I guess there’s an indicator over guys’ heads that changes, and they’ll say “hey let me check out that noise”. But I’m so wussy at stealth that the minute anyone sees me, I’m like to hell with all this save point retry stuff, kill 'em all and let god sort 'em out. Plus: the body looting!
I remember how little combat there was in early Tomb Raiders, it was almost exclusively exploring with brief punctuation of combat at key points. There was certainly no weapon choice other than the signature two pistols, either. Here there’s a ton of combat that gives you options, for sure, but just isn’t all that interesting compared to the exploration.
Speaking of exploration, that rope grapple / wire reel is bad ass. Now Lara feels as nimble as you’d want her to be. It all makes me wonder if an open world Tomb Raider with a ton more exploration and findable stuff, more of a “Far Cry meets Lara Croft” vibe, would be a better fit than this story and combat corridor stuff. Yeah. I think it would.
