Vacation

Hello everybody, Geek Generation.

Unfortunately, i don’t have time to play Hearthstone’s expansion thingy. Will be away for a week, on vacation.

Till then, Geek Generation out.

Tomb Raider Review

Hello everybody, Geek Generation here.

Tomb Raider (2013) reboot had a discount on Steam some days back. I spent the last weeknights and this weekend to play through the entire game. Just in case there are those who mind, even though the game was released in 2013, the following content is somewhat spoiler-ish.

First of, the game’s immersion is very high. There are no health bars, or anything like that. In fact, beyond the targeting cursor when you aim the weapon, there’s not any much of any other UI on the screen when you play the game. The downside of this is that i can’t tell which mode my shotgun is in. Unlike the rifle with/without silencer, or the bow’s arrows with/without fire, the shotgun does not seem to have any visual cues for its firing mode.

But the high level of immersion is what makes the game good. At certain parts, together with the music, it creeps the hell out of you. Then there’s the fear of heights, my palms literally sweat when i play Tomb Raider. The quality of immersion goes beyond the visuals. When in a cave like environment, the sounds Lara make, like footsteps, produces tiny echoes.

I like how Lara get all grimy with dirt and blood in the game. But when Lara meets up with the rest of Endurance crew for the first time, one can’t help but notice how the other crew members are spotlessly clean. Considering that Sam was also in the burning building, she should atleast have a share of the grimy soot.

At one point, one of the enemies got Lara on the ground and was dishing it out, punching the face and all, no.. not the face.. I kind of was hoping that the bruises on the face would stay. But i guess battered face is one immersion too deep for the developers. Lara must stay pretty even if she falls off a mountain several times in the game.

I’m glad that there was some amount of character development for the other characters. And not all of them are dead. Conrad Roth died. Well.. some of the good guys have to die, to add to the emotional bid. It was kind of sad when he died.

Angus died. The crazy old ones always die. Actually, in some shows, the crazy old one inexplicably lives, despite all odds. So long as he is not directly related to the protagonist, like sensei and stuff. Though atm i can’t remember the names of any show where there’s a crazy old man that always lives.

Sam didn’t die. Though i was hoping she would have some evil glint in the eye at the end. It could become a story arc in a sequel. Alex died. He has to die. He had a diary entry that supposed a love line between him and Lara. That’s the thing that kind of gets you killed. Though i don’t know why romance is such a boo boo. This Lara reboot seemed pretty adult after all.

Dr. Whitman dies. It’s kind of expected. Stories like his always end that way. You know he’s going to die the moment he walked away from Mathias and Sam. But.. i was kind of rooting for him to be alive and be one of the escapees from the island. After, he’s just misguided and greedy, not exactly evil like Mathias and Himiko.

When Roth died, and i saw two pistols on the ground, i thought Lara was going to upgrade to her iconic twin pistols. Was kind of disappointing when she didn’t. Though i’m pretty satisfied when Lara used two pistols to gun down Mathias. And she holstered both pistols. Disregarding the curious fact that she would belt two holsters when she began with only one pistol, this is pretty good indication that Lara would come back with her iconic twin pistols, if there’s a sequel that is.

Overall, i really liked Tomb Raider 2013 alot. If you liked the Tomb Raider series, or you like to know what Tomb Raider is about, this is the one to get.

Geek Generation out.