Tomb Raider!

Now let us attend to the matter of the new Tomb Raider Demo. Crystal Dynamics, the series' new developer, has taken measures to prevent the game from falling into the same traps (no pun intended) that past entries faced. In doing so, they have assembled an experience that is completely by the numbers. For instance, gone are the massive, confusing rooms with six different ways to go, where you might not even be able to see the platform you need to jump to. Instead the demo provided a very linear sequence of puzzles and jumps. The controls and even the platforming have been ripped straight from the recent Prince of Persia games, and like a good post-Half Life 2 game, there are some physics based puzzles to deal with as well. Combat is much more streamlined (and even a little strategic), and the graphics engine is loaded with plenty of bloom lighting and environmental effects that you have seen plenty of times before.

Furthermore, the game's presentation is very much in sync with the Tomb Raider films. Everything from the logo to Lara's redesign to the cutscenes and dialogue are meant to evoke the "charm" of the movies as well as provide the usual "cinematic" experience. Whether or not this is a good thing is up to you I suppose.

To close, it seems like this new Tomb Raider will fare much better than the last few (I haven't enjoyed any of them since the original). On the other hand, it doesn't look to be much more than the sum of many borrowed ideas from better games. That means that it will be an average experience at the very least, but I didn't see much that points to this being a Tomb Raider 1-esque classic. Guess we'll find out soon enough.