Tomb Raider Game of the Year

This isn't your dad's Lara Croft. This game came out over a decade ago. So it might be your dad's Croft now. Tomb Raider was sort of a dead franchise when this game came out. The blunders of games rushed by executives drizzled out the thunder of the earlier entries. Then came a Lara drought. Then came a reboot. Turns out this game is not really a reboot. It's more like a prequel. Thirteen years later and Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis was announced. All of the events of the Survivor trilogy (2013, Rise, and Shadow) remain canon. It is also re-telling the story of Tomb Raider's original 90's release. That frames this game as the start of the legend. This is Lara's first big girl adventure. One with stakes. And it shows us how Lara becomes the professional killer in her later years. Already with this game she is scrapping to survive. One of the mechanics is literally throwing dirt in your opponent's face. I like how the gameplay characterizes Lara in a very different way than what people were used to for her. I do not think it is better or worse. It's just new. The game is not perfect. If you're like me and you're sort of achievement-crazy, this game has multiplayer achievements. The multiplayer is completely dead. The grind to get one of the achievements is easily a mind-numbing fifteen hours. Do yourself a favor and just download Steam Achievement Manager and check the boxes for the multiplayer achievements instead. I regret not doing this myself. Apart from the multiplayer stuff. A lot of the platforming feels unreliable. There are lots of times I felt I jumped onto a zipline rope and Lara just decided not to slide down it and go careening into the abyss instead. The game overall feels a bit janky. Mostly because this was designed with a controller in mind. I care too much about good aim to swap to my controller to play this one. A lot of the characters in this one are pretty forgettable. Jonah does appear in future installments and overall he probably is the strongest of the bunch. I also hate the shaky cam lol. If you are a fan of Tomb Raider. If you in any way enjoy its legacy and history--from its troubled development in the earlier titles and its resurgence with the survivor trilogy--I think this is definitely a good game to pick up. When it's on sale. And it goes on sale often. It's a fun and short game. It will also make the impact of later entries like Shadow and Legacy of Atlantis hit harder--knowing how Lara started and where she ended up is quite narratively satisfying.