A survivor is born... In a title that was already used in a long series that was developed over a decade ago...

Seriously? The Hell is up with game developers making a new game in their series and giving it the EXACT same name of a previous game? What happens if they make a prequel to the prequel? Call it Tomb Raider Minus or Negative 2 or some weird crap like that? *sigh* Lack of creativity with something as simple as a title... At the very least they could've subtitled it something like "The Legend Revealed" or something. They DO make a big deal with the ad quote "A survivor is born" but it's not incorporated in the title. TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE!!!

If you've read my review on Tomb Raider: Legend you'd know why I dislike the Tomb Raider series. If you haven't I've sum it all up here: Her breasts, forehead, and eyes were too big, her entire lower face was too small, her stomach was tiny and looked as though she had no internal organs, and finally the stories and mythology was taken WAY the Hell over the top and looked like something from Stargate with the exception that aliens are never mentioned. Now, her appearance was changed to be more realistic looking in Legend and in this game... Well just see the difference for yourself...

Now in THIS Tomb Raider game (Which is suppose to be how she became a badass adventurer) Lara's a bit of a spoiled rich college girl. She's on this huge cargo ship with some other friends and an annoying College professor who seems to be so jackass he has a hard time comprehending "Put pants on just ONE leg at a time." Anyway, the ship is on an excavation to find the lost Japanese kingdom of Yamatai and Lara Croft makes the suggestion to have the ship go into these dangerous waters, the ship capsizes in a suden storm, only a few people survive... Oops! But Lara's right, the island the group find themself on IS the long kingdom of Yamatai... Which is now crowded with these crazy cult people worshipping Himiko, a shaman queen who could summon fierce storms who's been long dead for centuries... Or has she?!

"Huh... That windstorm came out of nowhere. Plus it was snowing like crazy yesterday. But I don't believe in magical dead women, that's just absurd!"
- Lara Croft

The graphics are pretty good and the gameplay is top notch, there's a certain cinematic atmosphere that feels more like your watching a movie than playing a game. This feeling however, I discovered playing Uncharted which is a pretty awesome Indiana Jones-like game created exclusively for Sony's systems...

"Damn you, Lara Croft! Look, I don't care if your last couple of games sucked and companies are trying to "restore your name to glory", you don't go copying another game's mojo... In this case, MY awesome game's mojo!"
- Nathan Drake, star of the Uncharted series

There's 3 other things that stand out in THIS Tomb Raider game: For starters, the M rating; the developers really wanted to make a grossed out gory and creepy stranded and surviving game, it's not really so much about raiding tombs. Another thing is the mythology... Yes, the supernatural stuff is present but unlike feeling like a super cheesy sci-fi movie, the magic is more primal and is merely summoning storms, prolonging life, necromancy, really not what I was expecting in a Tomb Raider game. The 3rd being the developers pretty much did away with the dual gun thing Lara Croft is known for... Matter of fact, the dual gun usage only appears in an interactive cutscene at the end of the game. No, instead her weapon of choice is a makeshift bow which can be upgraded very RPG meets Scwarzenegger from Predator-like. She also gets a pistol, machine gun, and shotgun, but the bow is her thing is this game.

Taking all things into consideration from the untold origin story of Lara Croft to her annoyingly emotional "I can't do this" whining which in truth is very human and adds character to her otherwise bland self in previous games, and to the obvious "Well Uncharted is popular, let's redo Tomb Raider like that!" copy-catting... I give Tomb Raider 5 out of 5 ancient Japanese relics... Surprised? Yes, I actually really enjoyed this game. Though I will close saying this: "It really doesn't feel true to the Tomb Raider name, more fast paced action and less adventuring and puzzle solving. Also, if you were to change just a few things around... This game could've EASILY been made a totally kickass Green Arrow game."

Anyways, I'm off for the night... Have fun...