What Games Have You Completed? (2021 Edition)

Tomb Raider Definitive Edition. Completed and platinumed.

I’m starting off the new year with a sure bet by replaying some of my favourite games from the last decade. The first being the Tomb Raider reboot which I recalled fondly in the ‘general gaming discussion’ thread so I decided to platinum the definitive edition and see if it still holds up. I am happy to report it’s just as awesome as it was back in 2013. In fact, I appreciate it even more now because it gets right so many things other AAA games in this genre fail at today. This game was made with a lot of love and the giddy tone of the ‘thank you for playing’ message at the end of the credits shows how invested the developers were in ensuring the player had a good time.

I was unsurprised to learn that it has one of the highest completion rates on the PS4. It moves at such a brisk pace and there is not an inch of fat in it. Not an inch. It knows when to initiate a combat sequence, when to throw in a disaster set piece and when to let you relax and explore. Just perfect pacing.

You can critical path it if you want without exploring but I suspect even those who favour a more linear approach to games will be compelled to seek out all the treasures the mysterious island of Yamatai has to offer. This is largely because exploration never feels overwhelming; you’ll always know when enough is enough due to the availability of tools at your disposal. To elaborate, certain doors are inaccessible until you have the appropriate equipment and there are entire sections in a region that you can see in the distance with no avenue to getting there. However, the story will naturally send you back to these previously inaccessible areas when you have acquired the appropriate tool so there’s never that nagging feeling that you’re going to miss a collectible you technically already found. This builds a sense of trust towards the game as someone who is a bit OCD about that sort of thing.

Every region and story moment that takes place in that region is memorable. You have areas like Shanty Town which is just all out warfare where you have to use the environment to evade and flank waves of enemies while progressing to the next area. Then you have Shipwreck Beach which is a big, wonderful platforming playground. Environments are decorated with your adventurous exploits – the remnants of each disaster set piece is often placed at the centre or start of the region as a sort of landmark. The map also fills in as you uncover it, documenting your discoveries as opposed to behaving like a checklist it expects you to cross off.

When you complete a tomb you are rewarded with a map that reveals the location of collectibles and it outright tells you what collectibles are currently inaccessible. Does that make sense? No. Is it respectful of your time? Hells yes so who cares? Later on you can acquire the ability to reveal items of interest with your survivor instinct (eagle vision/detective mode) so if you miss the tombs you can still ping the environment. All collectibles are meaningful and enrich the world to the point where I can’t imagine playing this game without reading and/or observing them. They also act as shorthand for the character building.

Aaaand that unfortunately brings me to the only negative I have which is the story or, more specifically, all the characters except Lara. The story, to be fair, is actually quite good, it’s definitely the strongest plot of the trilogy but the supporting cast is as cookie cutter as it gets and I feel if the characters had been written better this reboot would have rendered a certain other franchise - which admittedly has it beat in this one aspect - totally obsolete. I really do believe that.

Without spoiling the story, Lara leads an expedition on a mysterious island on the coast of Japan but finds herself quickly at the mercy of a cult that has made the island their personal circle of slaughter. The history of the island is the intriguing part but the people on it… are not. I suspect the reason why they are all so underwritten is because
You’ve got the hotheaded black lady, the scrappy Scottish guy with a heart of gold, the Northern Bastard (Lara literally calls him that as a term of endearment). And then there’s Sam, the sweet Asian BFF who is meek and shy… and also has a rather unfortunate sexual chemistry with the protagonist that the developers later realised and attempted to “rectify” by cutting her out of the sequels and making Jonah her new BFF instead, even though it’s clear that Sam was the one Lara was closest to. It also doesn’t help that Sam is positioned as the ‘princess in the castle’ Lara has to save and that it’s her number one motivation throughout the story, other than her own survival.

I digress. My point is, pretty much every social group has cringe-worthy representation here so if you’re looking to be offended take your pick. There is one character named Alex who is so videogameprotagonistguy I have to believe he was written ironically. I mean literally in another game like this he would be the protagonist. At one point he tells Lara during his big moment, “how often does a guy like me get to be hero?” and in my mind I was thinking, Um, all the time.

Thankfully, the lazy character work does not extend to the Tomb Raider, herself, who is just wonderful here. Lara’s growth from an innocent archaeology graduate to a warrior who will do whatever it takes to survive feels so organic. She starts off vulnerable and then gradually grows confident, outright goading her enemies into taking her on by a certain point and making it clear to them that she is the one they should be afraid of.

There’s a darkness in her that’s self aware and the game is always careful to refer to her as a ‘survivor’ as opposed to a hero. She’s admirable but definitely not honourable. Some of her highlights include expressing her surprise at how easy it was to take a life for the first time. In another telling moment, a man’s plea for her to end his suffering with a merciful death is honoured but only so she can “send him to hell”. When hotheadedblacklady mentions that everyone around Lara ends up dead she casually retorts, “best keep your distance then”.

Even fairly early on in the game her need to survive above anything else is exposed when she yells at one of her crew mates - who is trying to peacefully negotiate with the cult – to kill them and then later scolds him endlessly for wilfully failing to do so. Without spoilers, she is not entirely wrong for this but it just goes to show that the Lara in cut scenes is totally in sync with the one in the gameplay who shoots first and mows down enemies without a hesitative thought. For those who have played Shadow of the Tomb Raider but not this one, imagine the scene where she emerges out of the water pissed and starts killing everyone. Now imagine that energy throughout the entire game except she doesn’t cry when she does it. That’s basically this Lara in a nutshell and I’m here for it.

And despite the fact that Lara is not the most honourable protagonist, her crew mates still respect her, often looking to her for guidance because she has proven that out of all of them she can handle herself. It’s well demonstrated that she is an archaeologist at heart (not just a blood thirsty psycho), and I found her curiosity and excitement when discovering tombs and collectibles endearing. She’s also able to read ancient and foreign languages whereas in the latter games they forgo this character trait for the sake of having her "learn" languages in a gameplay context i.e. more excuse for open world fluff (at the expense of character).

And thankfully, this excellent character progression is mirrored in the player progression. Systems are learned in small doses but the initial restrictions don’t feel throttling. For instance, there are a ton of weapon upgrades but rather than overwhelm you with a laundry list of upgrades from the start you get about 20% of the total upgrades for each weapon to start with. You then have to find the weapon mods to open up new upgrades - and new weapon mods can only be looted via story progression. This way you’re not crippled by indecision and don’t have to worry about grinding your way to max power levels. Also, rather than giving you a thousand useless weapons that you’ll never use you get about four really good ones that you upgrade.

And it always feels so rewarding. Every time Lara acquires a new weapon, tool or upgrade it feels like a milestone. Every time you complete a hidden challenge the music celebrates your success. Every time you loot salvage it feels like you’re getting stuff done. Again, it’s so easy to see why this has such a high completion percentage.

I had also forgotten how polished the controls were especially compared to Shadow of the Tomb Raider. Climbing is responsive and weapons feel precise. There are far less environmental stealth opportunities than in the sequels and yet stealth here feels more viable due to movement and weaponry being so well done.

Honestly, I cannot sing this game’s praises enough. I felt both happy and sad upon beating it for what will probably be the last time because there was so much potential here for Lara to reclaim her throne as the ultimate adventurer… but it’s deliberately undone in Rise of the Tomb Raider, and Shadow of the Tomb Raider does not have the epic finality it needed to validate that change.

In an ending that could not be more perfect if it tried, Lara She is the Tomb Raider now. Why Crystal Dynamics then decided to turn this into an origin story trilogy and not have us play as the duel wielding badass we know her to be is beyond me. I wanted the Lara promised at the end of this game in the sequels. Sadly that was never to be but the failure of Rise and Shadow is no blemish on this one at all.

TLDR: A complete blast from start to finish, Tomb Raider 2013 is a must play for any lover of third person action adventures.


(Oh, there is a multiplayer mode and, um, it’s a thing.)