ITWire

The new Tomb Raider is a brutal game; there are literally rivers of blood and more gore than even the new God of War: Ascension is throwing at the players.

A young Lara finds herself washed up on a mysterious island following a stormy shipwreck in the Dragons Triangle.  Attempting to reunite with here shipmates, she finds that her entire archaeology group is being hunted by the island’s nonindigenous (as well as some impressive locals) inhabitants.

As can only happen in movies and videogames, it turns out that this island is indeed the one the group had been searching for, the long lost civilisation of Yamati, the location of which provided some argumentative discussion on the ship prior to disastrous the storm.

Developer Crystal Dynamics, under the direction of Square Enix, have crafted a fantastic game here.  The story is fantastical and the bad guys are impossible to believe, but if you can suspend reality at that plane, then you can witness a young resourceful individual who shakes off fear, knuckles down to the task at hand and out does Nathan Drake from Uncharted.  Lara's story here however is tough, this is one girl that has endurance and grit, she will need it as the horrors and dangers of the island are ever present.

This is indeed a cross platform version of Uncharted, but goes beyond that.  The level designers for Tomb Raider deserve applause.  For the most part Lara is clambering around teetering island set pieces, amongst shanty-built constructs, the obligatory ancient temples and snowy vistas.  

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