When this game was released in 2006, I bought it just because of the box art. I hadn't had any experience playing Tomb Raider before the purchase. The box and the information on it were simply too appealing to miss, combined with a positive review in the local games magazine. What I discovered after installation blew me away. Amazing locales, greatly variable and adaptive soundtrack (some tracks are among my all-time favourites) and first-class animation that I hadn't seen before in a game. It didn't matter much to me that the level design and puzzles were all too linear and quite easy because I was fully immersed in this first next-gen Lara Croft rendition and didn't realise at that time that I'm playing "just" a fancy acrobatics simulator. But the developers tried hard to capture the feeling of world exploration in a limited level space mainly by the incredible vistas. As for the gameplay, it's puzzle-heavy, with a terrible combat system (and some frustrating motorbike sections), but thankfully that doesn't take up much gameplay time. The boss fights are the most annoying thing about this game and they occur at the end of each level. Stylised collectables are a plus. Gold collectables are particularly difficult to obtain and will require you to tamper a bit with the puzzles. At the time of release, the game wasn't optimised well, especially the surprisingly ugly next-gen mode, that changes the feeling of the game completely, though for the worse turn. I recommend playing with it turned off. The controls and camera are a bit wonky, but you can get used to it. A bonus Croft Manor level is nice but otherwise, the game doesn't come with much replay value.
8/10

When this game was released in 2006, I bought it just because of the box art. I hadn't had any experience playing Tomb Raider before the purchase. The box and the information on it were simply too appealing to miss, combined with a positive review in the local games magazine. What I discovered after installation blew me away. Amazing locales, greatly variable and adaptive soundtrack (some tracks are among my all-time favourites) and first-class animation that I hadn't seen before in a game. It didn't matter much to me that the level design and puzzles were all too linear and quite easy because I was fully immersed in this first next-gen Lara Croft rendition and didn't realise at that time that I'm playing "just" a fancy acrobatics simulator. But the developers tried hard to capture the feeling of world exploration in a limited level space mainly by the incredible vistas. As for the gameplay, it's puzzle-heavy, with a terrible combat system (and some frustrating motorbike sections), but thankfully that doesn't take up much gameplay time. The boss fights are the most annoying thing about this game and they occur at the end of each level. Stylised collectables are a plus. Gold collectables are particularly difficult to obtain and will require you to tamper a bit with the puzzles. At the time of release, the game wasn't optimised well, especially the surprisingly ugly next-gen mode, that changes the feeling of the game completely, though for the worse turn. I recommend playing with it turned off. The controls and camera are a bit wonky, but you can get used to it. A bonus Croft Manor level is nice but otherwise, the game doesn't come with much replay value. 8/10