Got it for free on Google Stadia.

Played it, slowly. Decent narrative, qualifies the basic concepts of gameplay.

Wasn't too jazzed about the story. Very barebones and safe. But I get it, its a reboot.

This second reboot of the franchise was my first approach to Tomb Raider. I haven't played any other game in the saga, at least for now.
I must say that I was expecting a plot and a protagonist more focused on archaeology, on the exploration of ancient sites, and instead for 90% of the game you find yourself shooting soldiers. The archeology is there, but it seems to be put there only as a sop and to use the "Tomb Raider" brand without feeling guilty. So yes, I don't know if this is also the spirit of the original saga, but it didn't involve me very much, in fact the plot didn't arouse any emotion in me at all: I found the events uninspired and the characters uninteresting.
Also, i didn't like this Lara Croft, not only because she goes from being a poor scared girl to an absolute monster in a day, but also because (and this is for every character in the main crew) she seemed very dumb, very slow in realizing things: she didn't actually read every document containing a piece of lore that i found during the game, and the result is that in the final missions i had to sit and watch these people realize things and talk about stuff that i learned basically in the first hours. Very frustrating.

However, I had a lot of fun: this Tomb Raider by Crystal Dynamics is a formidable, very fluid and fun action game. The fluidity with which you can move around the environments, do platforming, and at the same time fight enemies in always functional maps is really to be rewarded. Also, there are a lot of cinematic action scenes which are a feast for the eyes, with beautiful choreography and nice gameplay.
So yes, it's 10 hours of wonderful and fun action shooting and platforming, but you can very well skip all the cutscenes and the experience remains unchanged.

I played this mostly around 2020 and finished the last hour of the game in 2021. So technically this should be on the 2020 list but it's not. Doesn't change how I feel about it or anything, just wanted to point that out.

This game is basically Uncharted if it was on a larger scale, had a darker story, and had more of a survival aspect to it. I think the open-world was a really cool aspect of the game. Randomly running into enemies and wildlife that you can kill while exploring did keep the game engaging. I do like how it gatekeeps tools until later on in the story so the traversal always has something fresh to it. This is the only game in the entire trilogy where the combat is enjoyable. It kept things balanced and never made Lara too OP. I also think the story here is pretty serviceable. I didn't really care about half the characters because they get killed off before you get to properly know them, but I did find a couple characters to be pretty cool, especially due to the impact they have on Lara and her story. I really like the fact that this is an origin story for Lara and how this story serves to explain the reason why she continues to go on to do more life-threatening expeditions after this one. I think the villains also deserve a shoutout. Not only did I find them to be well-written, but the supernatural enemies really delivered on giving this game a darker, almost horror-like vibe. I really like this game's aesthetic. The tombs were also fun and well-crafted. There isn't any other side content to do outside of the tombs though. I revisited it recently and it feels like there is nothing to do outside of collectible hunting once all the tombs are completed, which isn't the worst thing in the world, but I just wanted to point that out. All in all, not everything about it was the best, but it was still a thrilling, solid adventure through and through. I'd recommend this one over the sequels.

Um dos meus jogos favoritos de todos os tempos!
Claro que eu posso ser levado pelo fator nostalgia aqui, mas um jogo que me fez zerar ele 7 vezes, não pode ser ruim!

Uma aventura de origem icônica para a maior aventureira dos games (Nathan é fraco perto dela), gameplay excelente, enredo interessante, gunplay divertido, ambientação foda, VIDEOGAME PURO!

Digno do meu primeiro 5/5

I remember playing this back when it released on PC and I'm honestly surprised how well this game holds up. While I do think the lack of sprinting does hold the game back a bit, its very rare I feel like I needed it outside of some exploring parts.

I like how much this game has drawn form more recent survival media for inspiration, offering some interesting intertextuality one of my favourites being The Descent (2005). The overall reliance on horror elements feel right at home in a game like this. While still giving the audience some great action set pieces.

Overall a really great reboot for a modern audience, while I understand fans of the original games may feel alienated by these entries I do think reviving this series into a more cinematic action setting was the right call. Which definitely left me wanting more.

Tomb Raider (2013) was a great reboot for the series and I loved the story of Lara starting as an innocent explorer and ending as a survivor of the terrors of Yamatai. The detailed set pieces and level design made the game feel big and alive.

Combat is varied enough with four weapons and a few ammo types and is simple enough to learn. Running through the combat achievements on Xbox made the combat move by quickly while I spent most of my time exploring the island and looking for the collectables.

The story is great as well as it added a level of mysticism with the stranded island story as Lara has to save her fellow crewmates from a cult trying to restore an ancient goddess queen by sacrificing Sam, Lara's best friend. The story beats the hell out of Lara removing the fear that she has, and making her the Tomb Raider Lara that we know from the older games.

I finished the game on normal difficulty with all but two combat achievements. I skipped the multiplayer as it is mostly dead now and I don't want to grind out achievements for it.

Worth playing especially with today being it's anniversary of 11 years.

Me surpreendi com o game, já havia começado a jogar ele muitos anos atras ainda no xbox 360, abandonei antes da metade do game, mas agora, depois de já ter zerado todos os uncharted, ter jogado muito mais coisas e ter mais interece pela história, eu realmente gostei do game, gameplay bem fuida e gostosa, por mais que tem alguns problemas nas escaladas e por vezes eu ficava em um breve ciclo de erros. História bem legal que mostra o desenvolvimento da personagem, trilha sonora não é muito presente nem marcante, mas cumpre o papel.