Truly engaging story and atmosphere, with decent combat and stealth mechanics, and memorable (yet predictable) characters.

I played this entirely on Steam Deck. I completed the main campaign and most of the collectibles and upgrades (for a 95% completion). I was able to play on Ultra settings using Proton experimental.

NOTE: Don't make the same mistake I did and change your proton version without backing up your save first. I lost my first 6 hours doing this due to poor performance on the normal version of proton.

I grew up with the PlayStation 1 classics and have loved this franchise for decades. This reboot gave the franchise new life. It didn't feel like a cash grab, and the people working on it knew what made a good Tomb Raider game. The story had depth, even though it was a bit predictable at times, and the world felt alive. With wildlife running around, lush greenery, rushing water everywhere, and the ancient villages, this felt like a truly lived in world. The mystery surrounding the island and how you uncover it felt well paced. There was never a dull moment.

When you encounter hostile wildlife (only a few wolves), and the other unfortunate inhabitants of the island, the game does a good job of introducing you to combat mechanics. It worked well slow rolling it, because at this stage Lara Croft is not the badass we have known for 25+ years. She is a young girl in it for the discovery. She hadn't been put into dangerous situations like this. As you gear up and learn new skills the combat feels pretty satisfying overall, but gets repetitive. Especially since all the encounters happen at scripted times. It works in this game though with the story driven and cinematic approach they took with the game.

The characters are not bad, but they also are not great. Some are pretty memorable, but very predictable. You also don't really grow attached to any of them other than Lara. Not a bad thing, since she is the heroine in this story and is told from her perspective, but it would have been nice to care more about the other members in your party.

In addition to the campaign there are collectibles in each area, camps which you can fast travel between, and hidden tombs. None of it feels out of place, since she is an archeologist first and foremose, collecting relics and exploring tombs feel natural. Later in the game you can unlock skills to help make collecting item easier as well.

My only real complaints with the game came from the shaky camera during cinematics, and the number of quicktime events. Nothing that detrimental though.

Overall, I really enjoyed this game. More than I thought I would. I was engaged from beginning to end, and it felt like a proper reboot to a beloved franchise.

okay so ive already started a bit of the second game in this series, so a lot of the complaints i had, i already know get better. i went into tomb raider craving what uncharted had. i was pleasantly satisfied that the combat and puzzle solving was just as fun! i honestly think the combat was more fun, but it did not have as much parkour or puzzle solving. the puzzles were more logic based than based in any sort of journal, which i actually kinda prefer. all but the first one were pretty fair in my view, even if some were a bit tricky at first.

now onto my first specific complaint, i dont think this game had a great opening. the first puzzle is genuinely so confusing it drove me away from the game for so long. i had to look it up, and i was like damn theres no way i wouldve ever figured that out. that is kinda ridiculous for so early in the game. i thought all the puzzles would be like this, but nope.
another complaint i had was that the voice acting just isnt great, and very distracting. laras screams and grunts are just too animated and repetitive, that it got annoying. none of the characters really had great voice acting, though. at least in my opinion. the plot being lackluster is kind of expected because the super fun and strategic gameplay make up for it, (although it couldve been sm better!) but i do draw the line at bad dialogue and plot points. i was pretty much anticipating death after death and none of it really fazed me. this couldve been fixed with a slower story, and better, more drawn out dialogue. but yk, i had fun so who cares

other things i didnt enjoy was just how clunky everything felt. picking up some artifact didnt feel smooth at all. it opened a million menus and check lists i had to close out of. in uncharted, he just picked it up and you had the option of expanding the info. tomb raider needs to not assume the player is super interested in all that stuff, bc it just takes me out of the game when i have to hit escape 30 times bc i dont care!! i just wanna jump from things and shoot!

anyways, overall i hope to see more plot in the series and just some better dialogue! otherwise, i had a lot of fun and would replay just for the combat alone. finally a game that has a cool bow