Tomb Raider

---{Gameplay}---
☐ Try not to get addicted
☐ Very good
☑️ Good
☐ Nothing special
☐ Ehh
☐ Bad
☐ Just dont
---{Graphics}---
☐ You forget reality
☐ Masterpiece
☑️ Beautiful
☐ Good
☐ Decent
☐ Will do
☐ Bad
☐ Awful
☐ Paint.exe
---{Audio}---
☐ Eargasm
☐ Very good
☑️ Good
☐ Decent
☐ Not too bad
☐ Bad
☐ Earrape
---{Audience}---
☐ Kids
☑️ Teens
☑️ Adults
☐ Everyone
---{PC Requirements}---
☐ Check if you can run paint
☐ Potato
☑️ Decent
☐ Fast
☐ Rich boi
☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer
---{Difficulity}---
☐ Just press a bunch of buttons
☐ Easy
☑️ Significant brain usage
☐ Easy to learn / Hard to master
☐ Not so easy
☐ Difficult
☐ Dark Souls
---{Game Time}---
☐ Long enough for a cup of tea
☐ Short
☑️ Average
☐ Long
☐ Depends on you
☐ Endless
---{Price}---
☐ Just buy it
☑️ Worth the price
☐ Wait for sale
☐ Maybe if you have some spare money left
☐ Not recommended
☐ Dont throw money into a rubbish bin
---{Bugs}---
☑️ Never had any
☐ Minor bugs
☐ Few bugs
☐ Can get annoying
☐ Ruining the game
☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs

Oh man, where do I start with TR2013?
Like many in the recent generation of players, I got this as my first Tomb Raider game back in March 2020, during a 3-day free-to-keep promotion from Square Enix which ended up in the game hitting just shy of 90,000 concurrent players - the most it had ever recorded on Steam, and likely on PC overall. What a decision it was for them to do that, given that player numbers for Rise and Shadow saw equal peaks in the following days and weeks as players found 10 hours or so to set aside and experience a playthrough of modern Tomb Raider.
I look back on it now and I couldn't be more thankful that I grabbed this game on the last day it was free those 4 years ago. After I completed this game it left me with this pit-of-despair feeling that can only be expressed as my sub-conscious blaring:
"God, I fucking WISH there was more of whatever THAT was."
I haven't been able to pinpoint why I have such a strong psychological and emotional bond with this game over all others I've played, but in my latest bout of video game excitement droughts that I experience with more frequency than ever nowadays, I installed this game after 4 years and gave it another playthrough, this time 100%'ing the map (all collectibles and challenges). And what an experience it was to play this game again. So, what is it about this game that cements it with a special place in my heart over the subsequent releases in the Survivor trilogy? Well, I think I've finally cracked what sets this one above the rest.
ATMOSPHERE
One of the biggest gripes that I've realised I always had with Rise and Shadow compared to TR2013, was that those games delved a lot more into the sort of conventional open-world elements you see in modern games, which are present in the vast, expansive levels that pop up throughout the game, typically in the form of a large settlement such as the Soviet Installation in Rise, or Paititi in Shadow. The issue with these in the last two games, is that it pulls them away from what I think was a fundamental element to the "feeling" of playing through TR2013. Isolation.
Crystal Dynamics said they wanted a far more bleak, grim and gritty setting for the reboot and Yamatai feels like a perfect encapsulation of what they set out to achieve. Because beyond the intentionally bland colour palette that brings a sense of dread and despair, you don't really speak to anybody outside your friends and crew aboard the Endurance when you reunite with them in a one-on-one engagement or a group reunion, and it's pretty much only cutscenes save for a couple instances later in the game. There's no NPC's with side quests, nobody to talk to for "lore" and no alliances with other NPC's in missions. This game is lonely, and I feel like that couldn't be more perfect - especially considering Lara is known to prefer working alone.
On top of the loneliness and isolation that Yamatai presents, it's also incredibly unforgiving. Some of you may be aware of the brutal death scenes in this game where you can get crushed by a pair of boulders in the beginning, or impaled on a fucking branch, sliced by an aircraft propeller, executed by bow & arrow or being drawn up on a pike by a Stormguard. This may have been a touch menacing even for a Tomb Raider game, but I believe that they serve an ultimate purpose. It's to remind you that Yamatai is CURSED, and EVERYTHING wants to KILL YOU. There is nobody and nothing you can trust on this island except for your friends from your crew, and even then some of them have ulterior motives, deluded by ambition. After all, this island isn't present on modern maps ingame. It isn't supposed to even exist, a myth of an island cursed by an immortal queen, blinded by wrath.
Also, ARTSTYLE
The environments are so masterfully crafted and fitting for this game too. It's got that certain look to it that fits in really well with the grimey aesthetic of all the structures and geography of the island. Yamatai is meant to be a lost island, forgotten in time and its only legacy is as a myth known by only archaeologists, so it makes perfect sense that every environment is a dilapidated, neglected and borderline abandoned setting (i say borderline since Mathias and his followers inhabit the island, presumably being responsible for the Shantytown), it really helps seal the setting that outside of cutscenes with your crew, you are all alone out here on your quest to ultimately save as many of your friends as you can, and get the hell off the island whatever it takes.
All of the environments are so blatant, so instantly recognisable as "forgotten" or "lost to time" by the eye, whereas the last two games don't have this going for them, but I think this is mainly because of what I feel is the increased focus on conventional open world elements, as said before, it doesn't make sense for everything to be rotting away if there is a clear human presence dedicated to upholding their little piece of civilisation and their culture. Mathias' people have no care to settle, and would avoid committing as much as possible. You can often hear them talk about finally escaping the island if the "new queen" is accepted in the ritual, and how it'll probably be another cooked chick to presumably throw to the dungeon dwelling cannibals.
The actual design of elements such as the weapons didn't strike me as much as the environments did however. There's nothing wrong with them in particular, the guns themselves make sense and the upgrades fit right into the design of the game like a glove, but I think another thing that does contribute to my preference towards this game in the Survivor trilogy over the others, is the design of Lara herself.
If you're like anyone who went straight to Rise of the Tomb Raider after finishing this game, you'll have noticed that Lara looks slightly different in Rise and Shadow. That's because for TR2013, they actually used a model called Megan Farquhar for Lara's lookalike, not the voice and mocap actress, Camilla Luddington.
Because of this, Lara looks FAR younger in TR2013 and for me it's less that it makes sense for this point in the timeline, but more for the fact that it plays into the theme that Lara has to endure the trials that Yamatai throws at her to become the character we know she is today, and that obviously means she's younger, more naive, less battle-scarred/hardened. She's canonically straight out of university in this game, and Camilla's stellar performance absolutely adds to the isolation factor that I mentioned earlier. (However, some of you fucks tend to appreciate her acting for different reasons.)
This borderline rant is getting quite long, and if you've stumbled across my review and said "i ain't readin allat" then that's fair enough but I can't write a TL;DR because it will be another paragraph. So I'll just conclude this bollocks instead.
To sum up my feelings, Tomb Raider 2013 is a very special kind of game to me, because it's one that I actually think about a lot afterwards. Not many games can do that for me at all, and the last game to do that for me was Devil May Cry 5. But TR2013 is beyond that personally. It's one that would drive me to move heaven and earth to experience it for the first time again, and that's why even thinking about this game always leaves me with bittersweet embodied as an emotion, because I don't think any game will make me feel that way ever again.
10/10, would pay a brain surgeon to fry the neurons in my mind that remember this game so I can experience it for the first time all over again.

If you've never played Tomb Raider this reboot is the best starting point. The story is about Lara's first adventure and how she was hardened into the Tomb raider everyone knows and overall it does a great job at starting Lara's Adventures. The combat although simple does a few things to keep things fresh but it mostly stands out when there a lot of enemies attacking you the same time specially during shanty town and the final sequence. Even though the exploration is a lot more limited than the classic games the set sequences keep things fun and interesting. It's overall a great start to Lara's new Trilogy

I'll be honest, the first two times I played this game I ditched it after finishing the intro... and I'm annoyed that I did that because if I had played just a few minutes more then I would have been absolutely hooked.
The story is great and although the campaign is quite short, it really didn't FEEL like it was whilst I was playing it. The puzzles weren't super complicated and intuitive, (at least they were for me) and the mechanics were great for the SteamDeck once I turned the aim sensitivity down a bit.
What I will note, is that if you play with subtitles on the SD it might be a bit hard to read... oh and some things are cut off on the right of the screen. But aside from that, was a good little story driven game for me to blast through.
So, for those looking for an older story game to play on SteamDeck... I recommend picking it up on sale at some point.

Out of the three new tomb raiders I played this one the most over the years. It's not better than Rise or Shadow. It was just more fun.
The multiplayer is dead. If you are an achievement hunter you are going to have a tough time and will have to join the Tomb Raider Multiplayer madness group like I did to 100% Who knows. I might even help you.

Crystal Dynamics built a gorgeous game, with a lot of good ideas and an astonishing artistic direction.
Unfortunately, the game script is poor, and the lack of strong characters and design innovations make the latter part of Tomb Raider a spectacular third person shooter, but one without personality.

It's a good action game to play over the weekend. The game still looks good after 10 years. My main issue is the plot progression. Some pivotal plot points occur off screen and tension among characters will randomly pop up and dissipate. It has a B-Grade movie story, but that's OK because the main focus is the action.