I just finished this game.
My impression ?
I kind of liked it, but I have some complains.
First of all, the camera sucks badly.
It really moves too much around and most of the time where is not supposed to be.
You can control it with the d-pad, but sometimes it just has a mind of it's own and goes somewhere else.
I really felt my worse enemy in this game was the camera, and to some extant the controls as well, because they feel illogical; sometime the movement is related to the camera point of view ( i.e. hanging from a ledge you tilt the stick right to move toward the right of the screen ) but some other time is related to Lara's position ( hanging from a cliff you have to pull back the stick to jump to the right ) and so on.
The waggling is really kept to a minimum this time around though, so I can't understand people complaining about the few motion sensing moves.
The aiming cursor is nearly useless ! In previous games was used to shift the camera around, now it's fully replaced by the d-pad.
You can still use it to shift the camera by pressing C, but then I would expect it to disappear when C is no longer pressed because it's only bothering me, and this is expecially true because any weapon aiming in the game is totally automatic.
To go around my dislike for it, I had to play by pointing my wii remote away from the screen, then the aiming cursor would vanish.
Also for a game of this caliber, and it's stellar franchise and the high production scope, I would expect it to be generally more polished, like so many little glitches happens here and there ( Lara walking trough objects, or not dying after a long fall in the wrong place getting you stucked in that particular area ), and even the menus are too minimalistic and don't even use the wii pointer capability ( which by the way is put to use to solve some really easy puzzles throughout the game).
Also the game was supposed to sport huge levels.....but I only find it to be very linear.
I was forced to follow a certain path all the time and if I tried to go anywhere else in the game I was gonna terribly die by falling hard down a pit or banging my head against some invisible walls.
And finally the size of the adventure.
It didn't take me more than 6- 8 hours to finish, and I took my sweet time too.
I don't really mind this factor, as nowadays I actually prefer games that are on the short side ( so I can play more games in less time
).
I found the graphics kind of pleasing, although the framerate was a little jerky at times, and I'm not even trying to compare it to the Higher Definition version, but somewhere in the middle of the game I found out that the flash lite I've seen in some xbox360 videos, is present here too but only used 2 or maybe 3 times throughout the whole game and always very briefly and totally unnecessary places., but it's there and it's automatic !
No health packs to speak of ( you regain you health automatically as well ) and no ammunitions either !
I was worried I was wasting too many clips while I encountered the first enemies, but when I found out I had unlimited ammos, I went loose with it, and so did my tension and ammo saving strategy.
So what drove me to finish this game, was actually the somehow interesting story, and the atmosphere of the gorgeous looking levels.
I was curious to see how would it end.
But all in all, I can't say I am particularly impressed with this game, it just feels rushed and somehow incomplete, and even the motorcycle levels seem redundant, as for the actual driving of the vehicle, wasn't very funny either.
My thought is, how can they let those things happen on such a high profile franchise ?
Wasn't Tomb Raider almost dead as such, and despite all the money that has been made on it, and eventually the danger to loose it for good, they go on and publish something that might alienate some older fans and newcomers alike ?
The publishers should really treat it as a work of love and give it all the passion they can and make sure the game is at least perfect from a technical point of view. Then people might like Lara's story or not( just as you like a movie or not ), but at least , they' d treat it with the respect it deserves.
My impression ?
I kind of liked it, but I have some complains.
First of all, the camera sucks badly.
It really moves too much around and most of the time where is not supposed to be.
You can control it with the d-pad, but sometimes it just has a mind of it's own and goes somewhere else.
I really felt my worse enemy in this game was the camera, and to some extant the controls as well, because they feel illogical; sometime the movement is related to the camera point of view ( i.e. hanging from a ledge you tilt the stick right to move toward the right of the screen ) but some other time is related to Lara's position ( hanging from a cliff you have to pull back the stick to jump to the right ) and so on.
The waggling is really kept to a minimum this time around though, so I can't understand people complaining about the few motion sensing moves.
The aiming cursor is nearly useless ! In previous games was used to shift the camera around, now it's fully replaced by the d-pad.
You can still use it to shift the camera by pressing C, but then I would expect it to disappear when C is no longer pressed because it's only bothering me, and this is expecially true because any weapon aiming in the game is totally automatic.
To go around my dislike for it, I had to play by pointing my wii remote away from the screen, then the aiming cursor would vanish.
Also for a game of this caliber, and it's stellar franchise and the high production scope, I would expect it to be generally more polished, like so many little glitches happens here and there ( Lara walking trough objects, or not dying after a long fall in the wrong place getting you stucked in that particular area ), and even the menus are too minimalistic and don't even use the wii pointer capability ( which by the way is put to use to solve some really easy puzzles throughout the game).
Also the game was supposed to sport huge levels.....but I only find it to be very linear.
I was forced to follow a certain path all the time and if I tried to go anywhere else in the game I was gonna terribly die by falling hard down a pit or banging my head against some invisible walls.
And finally the size of the adventure.
It didn't take me more than 6- 8 hours to finish, and I took my sweet time too.
I don't really mind this factor, as nowadays I actually prefer games that are on the short side ( so I can play more games in less time
I found the graphics kind of pleasing, although the framerate was a little jerky at times, and I'm not even trying to compare it to the Higher Definition version, but somewhere in the middle of the game I found out that the flash lite I've seen in some xbox360 videos, is present here too but only used 2 or maybe 3 times throughout the whole game and always very briefly and totally unnecessary places., but it's there and it's automatic !
No health packs to speak of ( you regain you health automatically as well ) and no ammunitions either !
I was worried I was wasting too many clips while I encountered the first enemies, but when I found out I had unlimited ammos, I went loose with it, and so did my tension and ammo saving strategy.
So what drove me to finish this game, was actually the somehow interesting story, and the atmosphere of the gorgeous looking levels.
I was curious to see how would it end.
But all in all, I can't say I am particularly impressed with this game, it just feels rushed and somehow incomplete, and even the motorcycle levels seem redundant, as for the actual driving of the vehicle, wasn't very funny either.
My thought is, how can they let those things happen on such a high profile franchise ?
Wasn't Tomb Raider almost dead as such, and despite all the money that has been made on it, and eventually the danger to loose it for good, they go on and publish something that might alienate some older fans and newcomers alike ?
The publishers should really treat it as a work of love and give it all the passion they can and make sure the game is at least perfect from a technical point of view. Then people might like Lara's story or not( just as you like a movie or not ), but at least , they' d treat it with the respect it deserves.
