Recent reviews by spice_

Greetings, I would like to carefully review this game after approximately 60 hours of gameplay. I think this is a solid open-world shooter with survival elements that remembers its past quite well (yes, I played and completed all of the OG games back in 2010s). Although I think some parts were clearly cut and there are few rough edges here and there. Half of the game was played on version 1.0.0 (release), while the other half was played on later patches up to 1.0.3.

Overall, I think this game is worth the money as it has a lot of good quality content if you enjoy exploration and post-apocalyptic setting.

- Overall presentations, graphics, and cutscenes are really well made.
- Sound and dialogues if you play in UA VOs are quite immersive.
- Weather system.
- Weapons and armour upgrades (they DO matter).
- Story is mostly good.
- Puzzles and exploration are 10\10.

- Mutant HP balance and lack of loot from them.
- Initial prices (patched) and cost of repair (patched).
- Day\night cycle is pretty horrible, you end up playing during night time for quite a bit.
- Some area are too dark even with flashlight.
- Quest pacing and running tedium in the second half of the game.

- Friendly AI is braindead (not helpful), enemy AI is overtuned (i.e. enemies have perfect accuracy and awareness of the player).
- Memory leaks are still there on 1.0.3.
- Some crashes were there (patched).
- Audio breaking off (patched).
- Some quests can bug out (mostly patched I think).
- Game becomes quite linear toward the end.

- AI director or "AI spawn bubble" is obnoxious, it constantly spawns groups of three enemies in your vicinity that spot and fight you regardless of what you are doing.

After the recent balance update this game is great fun. I recommend this game to anybody who loves co-op games (long review forthcoming).

EDIT for nominated for steam awards.

It's an interesting take on RPG genre, has some original game mechanics and lovely world, but I think most players will find it really difficult and clunky to get into. Anyway, below I list some pros and cons of the game:

Pros:
- A lot of content (50+ hours easily)
- Great locations and world building (no spoilers)
- Story and characters
- Good loot and inventory system

Subjective:
- Needs at least 2 additional mods to play: crosshair dot + save anytime enabler (that way you can have unlimited saves and actually hit with bow)
- Combat system takes some time to get used to (it's very unforgiving and hard in the early game)
- Game economy gets completely broken by mid-late game (you are super rich and can afford anything)
- A lot of waiting and vague quest markers (search this area or this thing needs 2 full game days to happen or this happens only at midnight)
- Alchemy is really difficult when starting out

Cons:
- When there are massive fights (20 npcs+), FPS may drop
- Can't really play during night time (too dark, many NPCs won't interact with you, need to carry torch in cities)
- Overall story pacing is hit and miss
- Some game mechanics are not clearly communicated
- Some history bits may be very confusing to non-history savvy players

TLDR: it's really good, literally dozens of hours of silly violence and entertainment.

This modern reboot that took well over 5+ years to come together is a remarkable achievement for stealth action games. An incredible sandbox with stunning locations and great game systems. Now, onto the review.

The good:
- Runs and looks amazing.
- AI behavior and social\ disguise system is really well made.
- Excellent soundtrack and voiceovers.
- Amazing levels (Berlin, Chongqing, Mumbai, Sapienza, Maldives).
- Replayability is endless (base game content is very large, one full (first time) playthrough will take 20 hrs if you just play maps once).

The debatable \ subjective things (nitpicks really):
- Story is alright, not the best, but certainly not the worst, it's there just to connect levels together.
- Some challenges are time limited FOMO (if you want to collect suits).
- Some DLCs offer dubious content additions that do not offer a lot of real content.
- Some levels feels much worse than others (like Dubai vs Sapienza).

I don't know what happened to Crystal Dynamics between the original TR reboot and this, but it looks like some CoD developers were on this game. I would understand if combat was actually enjoyable, but its mostly clunky and boring.

The good:
- Looting and collecting.
- Beginning of the game is amazing (Syria part)

The mediocre:
- Most of tombs are too easy, although there is this one tomb with water physics, that one... still gives me nightmares.
- Lara learning language from reading Soviet propaganda plaques.
- Story more or less makes sense. But old location of ancient (Greek?) ruins in Siberia is... questionable.

The bad:
- DX11 optimization, if you get this game, only use DX12.
- Too much shooting and enemy spam, I am playing Lara, not some fk Soap McTavish who supposed to mow down 1000 mobs in one mission.
- Skill system is again..seem underdeveloped.. you basically don't need most of skills.
- Anything related to combat and enemies.
- Fire particles look like PS1.

TLDR: get Uncharted 4: Legacy of Thieves

Now, the review.

The good:
- Graphics and setting (Mexico and Peru)
- DX12 performance and raytracing
-Underwater exploration

The bad:
- Story is really terrible, the second half is a complete brain ♥♥♥♥ and does not make much sense (I usually don't skip cutscenes, but second half was really cringe)
- Faces, lipsync and animations are all really mediocre
- You can feel that game wasn't playtested a lot toward the end as you get really awkward camera angles that will cost you 4-5 tries to complete jump puzzle
- Placement of "extra" story quests (really no motivation to do some extra chores)

The really bad:
- Upgrade system literally does not make sense, you don't get stronger and your weapons are still peashooters
- Forced "native" dress system for Lara
- Music is absent (nothing memorable)
- Combat is clunky and obnoxious
- Lara's character feels antagonistic and braindead
- Other "characters" are also cringey and not worth listening to
- Final boss is horrible bullet sponge
- Epic Games Services are required to access DLC tombs

There will be some entertainment, but if you skip this game, nothing of value will be lost.

Okay, so I got around playing this game after three years, I think Arkane created an interesting game, but my god it has it's some of the worst balancing and AI ever made, holy moly. Anyway, here are the good things:
- Actually good art style
- Voice acting and animations
- Map design (its really good)
- Some mysteries were actually interesting

Now, what is horrible:
- Runs like a dog
- AI is absolutely horrible, its either braindead or knows exactly where you are (you need to 100% stealth a missions? oh fk you, here is a mini boss that spawns on your head with guns, have fun, oh you restarted? here is it again, my god this is bad)
- Some quests are so tedious and repetitive, you will start pulling hair from your head
- Too many notes, too much text

Now what is debatable:
- Some guns are clearly better than the others (why do I need a big loud sniper rifle that alerts the entire map dawg?)
- Infusion mechanic is there just so you don't feel the grind
- Can't swim (what?)
- Story and its ending (open endings are always terrible imo)

A controversial game indeed, worth your time at -80%.

Simply put one of the best game soundtracks ever made (on par with Doom 2016, Doom Ethernal, Dusk).

Solid blockbuster AAA game with some faults, I will start with the positives:
- graphic fidelity and realism (really top of the game)
- cutscenes (great acting and dialogues)
- sound design (crisp and nice)
- length and pacing (8-9 hours, overall very good story pacing)
- ranged combat is nice

Now onto the debatable stuff that's more or less subjective:
- melee combat (ADADAD), now hit and hit, feels a bit cheap and arcadey
- base story ending and DLC having "true" ending
- mini boss implementation (its the same dude many many times)
- may be too gory for some people with limbs being cut about every minute (18+ game)

Now onto the negatives:
- still runs like a dog in few areas (huge fps spikes from 80 to 50), but overall you will have stable-ish performance
- RTX seems really poorly implemented (bad optimization)
- No DLSS (?)
- Some combat encounters may feel unfair or poorly designed (especially if its many mobs vs you)

Price paid: 5 euros on a -92% discount.
Difficulty beaten: medium.
Overall verdict: good entertainment for a movie ticket.

I still prefer Dishonored 2 over this because of needless enemy spam and some running tedium between locations. Visibility (contrast) in some areas is also quite poor (like investigating station exterior), but exploration and level design are both very good.