PROs:
✅ Cute & Hot Lara Croft
✅ Surprisingly fun and satisfying exploration, making 100% completion enjoyable.
✅ Progression offers more ways and new things to explore
✅ Fluid and responsive assisted parkour that makes traversal feel great.
✅ Entertaining and well-animated “Lara in trouble” cutscenes.
✅ A solid weapon and skill progression system.
❔ Ryona for those who into it
CONs:
❌ The stealth system and enemy AI are comically bad.
❌ Exploration feels more rewarding after the campaign is finished.
❌ Some annoying technical bugs (I had to revert to an older build “743”).
Comments:
I decided to jump into the Tomb Raider franchise with the newest reboot, and I was genuinely surprised by how much I enjoyed this game. The exploration is the absolute highlight; it was so much fun that I actually cleared all areas 100% with collectibles and challenges. The world is enjoyable to traverse, with some nice scenic spots and clever puzzles.
The story is a bit of a mixed bag—it starts with a “teen drama” feel and eventually dives headfirst into voodoo cult magic. While the plot itself isn’t particularly great, it’s completely carried by Lara Croft. She’s a solid, well-written character with great dialogue, believable reactions, and a satisfying growth arc. She’s the best part of the story.
Combat is decent, though I spent most of my time using the bow because, well, bows are fun. The weapon and skill upgrades feel meaningful and make both combat and exploration easier as you progress. However, the combat system is severely let down by the enemy AI. The stealth is a joke; enemies detect you randomly and will sometimes alert the entire map, shooting you through walls. In open combat, they are morons, often running directly into your cover just to stare at you until you kill them.
The exploration also feels a bit weird until you beat the game. A lot of your key tools are gated by the main story, so you’re forced to constantly backtrack through old maps with every new upgrade. Because of this, it’s honestly more efficient to just save most of the collectible hunting for the post-game once you have everything unlocked. Luckily, the game lets you do just that.
Despite the weak AI, the game’s main charms—the satisfying exploration and Lara’s excellent character—are more than enough to carry the experience. If you enjoy collectible hunting and exploration-focused action games, this one is definitely worth a try.
🌟 Total score: 7/10 🌟
Game status:
✅ Finished
Reviewing info: How I review/rate & other info on my website through my profile. (desozone)