Comment by Old_School_Gamer on February 27, 2013 at 12:15am

Appears to be the consensus on the game.

Comment by Ry Marinara on February 27, 2013 at 12:24am

I got that same vibe while watching some reviews. This is a case where the gameplay conflicts with the narrative. Lara is supposed to be transformed in this game but all the gameplay footage I've seen shows her as pretty brutal killer. It's like she goes from a naive teenager to a skilled killer in a matter of seconds. I'm sure it'll be fun and I can't give my full opinion on it until I beat the game but so far I feel like this game is sending mixed messages.

Comment by Amrit Randay on February 27, 2013 at 12:26am

I literally saw this consensus from every reviewer and I felt the same way when I saw clips of the game.  Particularly, like you mentioned, with Lara being impaled through the throat with a tree branch if you mess up during the waterfall part.  This is some really violent stuff and it is turning me off from playing the game.  It looks like a lot of fun, but some of the finishing moves were really brutal.  I have no clue why this game in particular is getting under my skin with it's ultra violence, but it seems like the developers are banking on the violence to sell the game.  In a way, it's kind of glorifying it to a ridiculous extent (or at least, from what I have seen of it).  

Comment by Berserkaren on February 27, 2013 at 2:47am

Well many talk about the "ultra"-violence but this is nothing compared to most other games out there now. I mean this is a reboot, so any previous games do not apply so you can not compare them really to the prior games.

As for the violence, well, God of War, Dead Space, Mortal Kombat, Gears of War and even Fear has some over the top violence in it. Some of them has ways for your main character to die brutally too.

So this isn't new, but I guess it is new for Tomb Raider sure but as I mentioned this is a reboot and I do agree that Lara becomes too skilled too quickly, no denying that but the violence is more visceral this time around to give it a 18+ rating, the Tomb Raider franchise never had that before. I'm getting this, was tired of the way the prior games were, this time Lara can really kick some ass insted of backflipping whille shooting bears with her twin guns.

Comment by ICO_hr on February 27, 2013 at 3:23am

You mean the implied ''''rape''''.When first was reading about this i seriously start to think that i live in RetardLand.Some people see things that are not there at all.Or just Square Enix use this little trick to exploit people stupidity to gain +1 press coverage. :)

Btw anyone know who first come with this ridiculous article?

Comment by Player One on February 27, 2013 at 6:59am

I found it particularly dubious that they actively encourage you to kill other humans, instead of opening various paths of play styles, but c'est la vie. But Tomb Raider is just another title in a slew of titles that have made a point of showing how jarring a disconnect there is between what happens when you are playing the game versus the story that is being conveyed via cutscenes, i.e. ludonarrative dissonance. I have several beefs with a lot of their design decisions, but hopefully they improve and try to shorten the wide gap they've opened.

Comment by Lorin Baumgarten on February 27, 2013 at 7:43am

The fact that Lara goes from first kill to seasoned killer so quickly is what I saw most reviewers take umbrage with, not that the game was too violent overall.  They felt that that rapid progression caused narrative dissonance.  And it does looks brutal, that's for sure.  But as to what the relationship is between that brutality and the narrative, it's hard to say without playing it.  It is a dark tale.  No Nathan Drake here.  

I did not read any reviews that said the game was too violent (though I didn't actually read many reviews), and my assumption is that the game was created this way as an attestation of the brutality that is killing and dying (as in the case of the wood through the throat as Lara is careening down a quickly flowing river - that would be a brutal way to die).

All that being said, you may be right Christopher.  I guess we will have to wait until next Tuesday to find out!

Comment by Christopher Brady on February 27, 2013 at 8:13am

Like I said, I have nothing against brutal violence, I'm a huge fan of God of War (all of the games, I even have Ascension on Pre-Order and I'm a decent fighter on the PvP Beta), and I'm OK with a dark story, as seen in the aforementioned GoW series.

My issue with Tomb Raider is twofold.  A) The so far perceived fact that the only way to increase her abilities is to kill.  And that you apparently get more if you do 'executions'.  Now, killing for XP is nothing new, and in fact, I would have no problem with this if she got XP for anything else, like exploring.  But it's only for killing.  In fact, killing everything, whether or not she needs to, will net you XP.  See that bunny?  It's not food, it's a blood filled XP pinata!

B)  The story disconnects between 'story Lara' and 'player Lara'.  Which I've already explained.

Comment by Amrit Randay on February 27, 2013 at 11:21am

I should probably clarify.  When I said that the game feels really violent, that was just my opinion and not one I read in a review.  The overwhelming consensus in the reviews were, however, that Lara becomes a seasoned killer a little too quickly.  I don't know why I feel this one is a bit much when I play games like GoW, Gears, Dead Space etc and see the intense violence there.  Still looks like a lot of fun.

And I feel the same way about it as @Christopher Brady.  You basically get XP by going on a killing rampage, rather than exploring (according to reviews) and I would think Tomb Raider should be focused more on exploring, and puzzles etc.   

Comment by Old_School_Gamer on February 27, 2013 at 11:45am

Worth noting that there has been plenty of Tomb Raider games with high body counts. I think the negative reaction this time around is due to the particular graphic nature of the kills and that many were lead to believe that this would be Lara Croft growing to become a survivalist, an adventurer, a treasure hunter and of course a woman who could handle herself in a fight, not simply Lara Croft the one woman killing machine.

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