Already halfway through my adventure in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth I understood that this game is a true JRPG, a true 100+ hours colossal game, a true Final Fantasy.

The supporting structure is that of an open-map full of collectibles, enemies to defeat and secondary quests.
Although towards the end of the main campaign it starts to feel repetitive, I must say that the exploration was well balanced, and never becomes too heavy. The level design is always good or excellent, without ever becoming frustrating except for a few exceptions (chapter 1 is so messed-up).
There is no point in dwelling on the combat system: perfect, as in the previous game, perhaps my favorite combat system of recent years; all enemies, from common ones to bosses, prevent you from smashing buttons at random: you have to analyze them, understand their weaknesses and make the most of the combat mechanics.
And one of the most wonderful things of all is precisely the quantity of secondary activities, including minigames and quests, which allow, as in a true respectable JRPG, to obtain unique bonuses, weapons and set-ups. Obviously the levels of the past are not reached, but the equipment system is so eclectic that the request for strategy from the player is decidedly satisfying.

The narrative, just like in its predecessor, is the ambiguous point of the title. Starting from the aspects that I didn't like, in my opinion the biggest problem is the authors' need to complicate rather simple underlying concepts more than necessary: I don't criticize the choice to change the plot compared to the original, but I criticize the staging, which i think is too tacky and exaggerated, and builds to a final climax that is not at all engaging. But, as in Remake, these problems only affect the last chapter of the story, which is strange: it's as if the director suddenly changed.
I say this because for 95% of the main campaign the direction, the staging, the dialogues, the animations, the cutscene models are nothing short of excellent. To say that there is high level film direction is an understatement. Each cutscene is beautiful to follow and admire, and obviously this leads to top-notch storytelling.

The final point I would like to talk about is the music: the best soundtrack of recent years. There are hundreds and hundreds of different songs, many different musical genres, many new entries and not just rearrangements: a true masterpiece.

There's a strong possibility we've just witnessed this year's goty.

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.