Some parts of this post is on my final TR:A video but the whole post did not fit in the description box so I am posting it in its entirety here. This is a loose review of the game.. loose because I'm not formally reviewing it but just addressing certain things. It is also a reflection on my experiences with it and why I did some things the way I did.
Enjoyability:
First off I want to clarify my statement that this has been one of the best games I've ever played. I feel like I'm going to get some people saying this or that about it. I say it's one of the best games I've played based on my personal enjoyment of the game. I'm well aware of its faults but I genuinely enjoyed this game so much that it takes a place among my top most enjoyed.
This was my first Tomb Raider game so maybe all TR games have this vibe but I loved the feel of accomplishment in this game. Not only does it make you feel good after solving something but it makes you feel like you're actually DOING something. A lot of the times, I find puzzle games annoying because I just don't get the point of the puzzle (why it's there, why the heck I would do it) or the actions involved in the puzzle are really boring (like pick this up, put it there, run back and pick something else up, put it else where). I really liked the fact that I was solving puzzles so Lara could GET somewhere. Not sure if I'm making myself clear but I really connected with Lara and liked getting her to her destinations.
Inconsistencies with the original TR:
I'm aware that this game isn't an exact replica of the first TR game. I know it left out some things or added this or that. The specifics I do not know but personally it makes no difference to me. Those who have a gripe with it do because they were expecting everything they saw in TR. As a TR newbie I really had no problems with this flaw.
Graphics:
I'm very glad they made TR:A because to be honest, I probably would never have experienced any part of TR 1 otherwise. I'm not exactly a graphics whore (I don't really care for crazy detail or life like textures... I don't drool over the graphics of Crysis 2 or anything) but I don't particularly like old 90's era graphics (Another reason I probably would never have played TR 1, unrelated to graphics, is that I hate old school controls). I really liked TR:A's graphics. They weren't up to today's standards but I liked the feel of it. It was modern enough yet had its own... personality to it. Weird as that sounds.
Combat Controls:
You've heard me say SO many times in this LP that Lara is sometimes hard to control in combat. You're probably tired of hearing it since I bitched about it so much! But I looked around at some reviews of this game and it turns out it's not just my personal inability that made it seem like Lara wasn't doing what I told her to... it's a real problem. Other people have said too that the camera and directional controls were really awkward during combat and I will definitely agree. I mean, it's not fun clicking the mouse to continuously shoot for 30 minutes of a boss fight because that's the only way I can get the camera to cooperate and therefore the only way I will get Lara to go the way I want her to most of the time.
The headshot thing was an interesting idea but it did not execute well. Reason being what I just described above... Lara does not go the direction you think she will unless the camera is just right. So outside of boss battles if the game threw me an enemy with headshot inducing abilities I could not do it because I hadn't readied the camera for it.
Poor introduction of some mechanics:
This game's beginning was nice; it was a little tutorial area with little pop ups telling you how to do things, etc. But later in the game it introduced new elements without actually telling you about it. The perpendicular wall jump off the grapple was crazy hard for me simply because I didn't know HOW to do it... Never mind that, how about the fact that I didn't even know it was possible in the first place? Even after accomplishing it in that room where I first encountered it, I still didn't know how to actually do it. It's only near the end of the game (that room with tons of pillars where I inserted two pieces of the scion) that I finally figured it out. What about the speed jump off of poles? I had no idea I could do that until I discovered it by accident in the Obelisk of Khamoon when I just happened to tap space twice. Even then I didn't know that you had to be pressing the direction she's going until that huge water room much later.
Was it all in Croft Manor? I have no clue. Either way, a player isn't guaranteed to play CM first anyways so mechanic introduction should be in the main game.
Reflections:
Even with these faults though, I really enjoyed the game. Not only was this my first TR game but it was my first puzzle platformer. I understand that a lot of viewers probably got pretty frustrated at me at some points because I just would not a see a simple solution; but my counter to that is a psychology based one. I have never played a game like this before so all these puzzles are new to me. Even if someone plays this game for the first time, if they have experience in other games of the same genre, then they have a "schema" in their mind for what to expect in certain situations. Most puzzles aren't 100% unique but take traditional puzzle elements such as "pull a lever and something, somewhere will happen". Now, that particular schema I obviously had... but other more complex ones I did not.
It was interesting to myself to see my own progress. When I first started this game I found it hard to get into because everything was new to me. I had no previous experiences to relate to; therefore, that meant more brain power; therefore, it was something my brain regards as work. It was only half-way or even 3/4 through the game that I truly started enjoying it as much as I said I did because now I had all these experiences that told me what to look for, what I could expect, what a probable solution might be, etc.
More Tomb Raider?:
The day after finishing TR:A I downloaded TR: Legend (from Steam, silly) because I felt my fun with Tomb Raider was just beginning. TR:A laid down some basics for me and at the end I was really starting to get it. I didn't want it to end there so the adventure continues in TR: Legend (which, btw, I am happy to find is a lot like TR:A). I thought about LPing TR: Legend as well but decided against it. I want to experience a TR game without the recording going on. Believe it or not, it does make a difference. With a recording going I'm less likely to try a variety of things and more likely to miss things in my desire to not waste time. That's actually true of all my LPs. I won't speak definitively for other LPers but that's probably the case for a lot of people.
Not only that but the reason it took me so long to finish TR:A is because of the editing involved in the TR videos. Even though I try to not waste time, it's a puzzle game... I'm obviously going to have to stand around gathering information, trying and failing, etc. I have to go through the videos and try to balance things out so the video isn't TOO boring. I need to leave in parts where I explain my thinking and parts where I try something (and either fail or succeed), cut out needless repetition due to death or jump fails, and make sure that if anything new happens, it's shown in the video. It can take anywhere from 10 - 60 minutes to edit a TR:A video. The finale took me about an hour to edit... which is longer than it took to record it. It'll be nice to just go through a TR game without gaps where I'm editing.
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