REVIEW: Tomb Raider - First Impressions

     Tomb Raider for over a decade has been pleasing strange fanboys all over with its well-endowed main character, Lara Croft, who is always dressing for really, really good weather. This time, though, Square Enix has once again assured us that they can handle Eidos titles far better than Eidos ever could. This review, as titled, is only a First Impression: I have yet to finish the story mode and I haven't even touched the multiplayer (a first for a Tomb Raider game) and already I have enough material to write a review.

     Lara Croft's previous adventures have been thrown out the window completely for this franchise reboot; perhaps Christopher Nolan and J.J. Abrams have inspired everyone to stop being original and just REBOOT ALL THE THINGS! Which in today's game industry is often a good call. Lara ceases to be a bustially unproportional piece of eye candy, instead becoming an aspiring archaeologist in her early twenties (or late teens, not sure). Since everything related to the game industry these days involves "the gritty treatment," something is bound to go wrong and make this seemingly basic plotline make an extremely dark turn.
     "How could this be dark?" you may ask. Well in the first five minutes of gameplay you narrowly escape a sinking ship, get kidnapped, wake up surrounded by corpses, and get impaled by some rebar. Fun stuff. Also the island is controlled by cultists. This just screams "Happy Joy Fun Time." I can't reveal much more about the story, so that'll have to do.
     The graphics are on par with any Square Enix title, which means they're awesome. I own the game on Xbox 360, so I haven't experienced the PC-exclusive awesomeness that is Hair Physics. I'm not kidding. The game on PC renders realistically behaving hair. I'd also like to praise the realism of the rendered fire.
     I mean I really can't say much more; I have yet to play the multiplayer since the single-player story is so captivating (that, and I have tons of other games in my collection to work on, see the sidebar if interested). I'm just gonna end this by giving my First Impression: Square Enix has done it again. They've taken an IP that they purchased (at least the third from Eidos) and revived it in a way that's both fresh and really deserving of the pricetag. Now if only they could do that well with Final Fantasy nowadays...