What I am reading/watching/playing in September

So, here is what I plan on doing in September.

Reading
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
Touchstone by Melanie Rawn
The Accidental Sorcerer by K.E. Mills
The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisen (for book club)
Marvel Runaways graphic novels (have reaad the first few)
Various Star Wars comics

Playing on my PS4
I am Setsuna
Divinity: Original Sin
Until Dawn
Resident Evil and may Resident Evil 4

At the movie theater
Morgan
The Magnificent Seven
Deepwater Horizon

Renting
Jungle Book
TMNT Out of the Shadows
The Nice Guys
Huntsman: Winter War

Uncharted 4 review (SPOILERS)

I am going to be spoiling the hell out of this game, so be warned. 

Wow, this was a great ending to the Uncharted series. First of all, the game is the best looking game I have ever seen on a console. It is just so gorgeous. I had to stop occasionally to just look around at all of the beauty. Also, with emotions on their faces. Doubt, disbelief, anger, laughter, etc. All were awesome. 

Some people do not like the pacing of this game, but I loved it. There was a lot going on in different timelines of the story, but it made for such an incredible beginning to the game. Slow? Yes, but in the best possible way. 

Whether you enjoy this game may be whether you connect with Nathan and Sam as brothers. They spend a lot of time together and if you don’t like that, the game may not work for you. I loved it. Getting to know how they get together in the game was handled well with a few flashback scenes. Those flashbacks to them when they were children were just so interesting and cool. Along with a few twists along the way, their relationship was handled very well. Yes, there was the expected (at least to me), betrayal, but it was even done with a cool misdirect. 

The downside was that you did not get as much of Sullivan as usual. He was in the game, just not as much and that was a small complaint. 

Then there is Elena, who may be the best character in this series. First the scene where she and Nathan were playing Crash Bandicoot to see who did the dishes was both unexpected and just amazing. Made me tear up as I realize how much I grew to love these two as characters. I enjoyed them in previous games, but it really hit me here. 

I was a little worried playing the game that Elena was not in it enough, and then suddenly she was. Also, the interaction between her and Drake was very sweet, and at times heartbreaking as usual Drake being the bonehead he is, lied to her about the “job”. So, she had no idea what he was doing, that he even had a brothers, and where was. So, that came to a head and she was hurt and angry and you spend time in the game wondering if they lived, if their marriage would last. It was handled so well and even though she did not leave him, for a moment you thought she might. 

Then to the villains. I really liked Rafe and Nadine. He was obviously a bit of a nut job, but the flashbacks did a lot to explain his relationship with the Drake brothers. Nadine was cool too as she spend her limited time in the game just beating the hell out of anything with the last name Drake. The last fight between Nathan and Rafe was pretty awesome as well. 

The voice acting was amazing, all across the board. Just amazing. 

The only real downside to the game was the introduction to vehicles to the game. This was only cuz I sucked at it.  Although driving the crew off a cliff was kind of funny. There was one scene where I was being chased and I kept dying cuz I was not handling the driving well at all. That more on me than the game though. 

The epilogue was amazing. It sets up future games with their daughter Cassie if they so choose. But it was just so damn sweet as she walked around their house and you can see the Nathan and Elena were still out doing the things they loved. I love the symmetry of her coming across the same items that Nathan did early on in the game in the attic. Just a lot of sweet moments and the perfect way to end the game. 

Rating 10 out of 10. One of my favorite games of all time and very slightly under the Last of Us. 

Review of the original Final Fantasy

The first game of the Final Fantasy Challenge to rate all of the games and finally answer the question which is best. 

Final Fantasy

Time played: 32 hours

Everything will be rated on a 1-10 scale (1 being the worst and 10 being the best).

Total Rating 3.4 out of 10

Story-I guess there was a story in there somewhere. Your goal is to just rid the world of evil!  Oooook. It is pretty standard stuff, you are going to fight the fiends that got together and tried to take over the world? Or something? With all the grinding that went into the game, I forgot about the story most of the time…which is ok since it was not that interesting anyways.

The big twist where you find out that Garland (the first sort of boss in the game) is behind it was ok. I mean since you never really knew what was going on in the first place, him coming back was kind of surprising. Also, the game did not give you ANY direction sometimes. That is the problem when there weren’t any notable npc’s to interact with. Yes, you could wander around exploring, but the crappy gameplay made that not enjoyable. I had to go online and look up where to go sometimes because otherwise I would have thrown my ps3 out the damn window.

Rating 2 out of 10

Characters-I believe this is the only game in the series that doesn’t have named characters. It showed as you just chose four different classes and named them. I chose Warrior, monk, red mage, and white mage. At first I had thief and black mage, but the thief in the game is the worst of any game I had ever played. He was USELESS. Yes, he could have eventually become a ninja later on, but he could not hit anything and almost died constantly. Eventually you could upgrade to a better version of your class, but it took so long to happen that it really did not help much in ways of gameplay.

Also it was crazy how much loot there were for the warrior, but not really anyone else. Everyone else barely had any armor and just got their asses handed to them. But the fighter would find new armor, and swords, and shields. Meanwhile, my monk and red mage were barely living in most fights. Thank goodness you could buy potions, cuz you used them often.

There was nothing to connect you to them. They were just four heroes that went around trying to save the world. There were no npc’s in the game worth mentioning as you rarely interacted with anyone.

Rating 2 out of 10

Villains-Nothing too interesting as the story is just telling you go to defeat the fiends. The twist was kind of wasted as you find out that Gordon is behind all of it and you thought you had killed him. Marilith at least looked cool.

Rating 2 out of 10

Setting/theme-Other than the end of the world there was not much of a setting. It could be at this point in rpg’s that it was not that important? Hell I don’t know. But the world was not flushed out at all. There were villages with dwarves and elves, but they added nothing at all to the world.

There was also no real theme to the game, other than just “go destroy evil”. I keep using the same words as there was nothing to really get to connect with the game at all.

Rating 1 out of 10

Battle System-I know this was the first game in the series, but was not enamored with the battle system. Well, that isn’t true, the system itself was ok, but what was NOT ok was how much you had to fight. It was ridiculous. I mean you could take five steps and have five different fights. What made that even worse was the fact that the monsters in the game constantly ambush you. I mean A LOT. There was a time when I got to the Terra Cavern to fight the Vampire there, and I was ambushed 8 straight times. Then I one shot the vampire. Really? He was a boss.

The slots for the magic was also annoying. That doesn’t even get into how expensive it was just to buy the magic. I have always preferred a mp method (like they use in like every other one). At most times you would only have one or two really helpful spells, and when you are stuck in a dungeons fighting every step…it wasn’t good.

Rating 2 out of 10

Difficulty

The game itself was not that hard. The bosses were easy to the point of pathetic in most cases. In defense of the game that is likely do to all of the grinding you had to do. So by the time you came to bosses, you were fairly powerful.

Everything poisons you. I mean it was ridiculous how much I had to back and keep buying antidotes at first. Later on you just bought a bunch.  As I mentioned above, the ambushes made the game hard at times. You would get attacked and before you knew it they had killed both the red mage and white mage. Game over since there were not phoenix downs yet. I died a few times this way.

Also, taking a canoe on the water? WTF. The enemies on water are maybe the hardest in the game for where you are level wise. I mean they were brutal, and you had to take a few paths that could only be taken this way and wow they were hard. Ambush meant death in those fights a lot of times.

Score 7 out of 10

Fun factor-There was not really any point where I enjoyed playing this. Maybe the first time, for a few minutes, before all of the fighting got me frustrated. The biggest thing I could say about this game is that I would not tell anyone to play it. It isn’t worth the 30 hours I put into it.

Rating 1 out of 10

Overall 3.4 out of 10. The game just doesn't hold up. Yes, it was the first in the series and there is something to say about that, but overall it was not a real enjoyable experience. This doesn't take away from how much I love Final Fantasy, but this specific game is one I would not play again. 

I love open world rpgs but I am an idiot

So, I am a dumbass.

There are so many great games out there and lord knows I love good open world rpg’s such as Dragon Age Inquisition and Witcher: Wild Hunt. These games are freaking awesome, but I go about playing them in the dumbest way possible.

Both of these games are awesome, and Witcher could eventually be my favorite RPG of all time. It is that good. But the dumb I do is I keep starting over.

I know, right?

So, I start the game I and love it. But you can tinker around with that kind of player you want to play. With DAO you can try different classes, and with Witcher you get to figure out which of the gameplay types you want. Do you want use magic? Or go all in on fast attack?

So, I do that for a while and then I start over AGAIN. I don’t know what is wrong with me. I do love the beginnings of games and both of these games are great at starting a story.  

So, the end result is that I have played DAO multiple times for over 75 hours. I have played Witcher about the same and recently started over. The problem is that I got burned out on both of them. So I am taking a break from them and playing old school final fantasy.

It is so stupid.

But now freking Fallout 4 is coming out and I really have to make myself just play the damn game and stop obsessing over tinkering around with the kind of character I can be.

One can only hope.

Does anyone else do this?

My thoughts on Star Wars Battlefront

First of all, I am a HUGE Star Wars fan. Saying that I did not get into Battlefront much before, mostly cuz at that point I did not do shooters at that point. But the love is there.

Secondly, the new Star Wars Battlefront game looks fucking amazing. I mean the shots on Hoth? Wow. It is what Star Wars fans have been hoping for years. Finally a game that truly feels like the movies. YES.

Well, if you play multi-player that is.

I don’t even know where to start. No single player campaign at all. This makes me really sad as I just don’t like multi-player games. The odd thing to me is that I keep hearing that they don’t think that many people even play single player. But I have seen hundreds of people on my social networking that all are upset about this. I am not mad, cuz what is the point of that. But that doesn’t mean I don’t wish it would happen.

So is this a mistake? I imagine that game is going to sell very well, but you have to wonder how much money they are missing by excluding people like me. As pretty as the game is, I won’t be playing it. I will probably still be playing Fallout 4 at this point. But how many people are going to miss out on what looks like a phenomenal game. But it really makes me wonder how many people will not buy the game just like me. Will they eventually have a single player campaign in a later game? Maybe, but not now.

Or it could be that I am being stubborn. Well, I already know that is the case, but I really wish I could get over my multiplayer bit, but I like to sit back and relax and play games at my own speed. But I am gonna miss out on kicking ass with a lightsaber or getting behind the “wheel” of an X-wing. Oh man I freaking LOVE X-wings!!!!!!!!!

So, who know what the right answer. I do feel like they are making a mistake in doing what they are doing, but at the same time they are going to sell millions of copies more than likely and may just not care.

I hope that isn’t the case, but I do hope those that play this game love the hell out of it.  

What is wrong with Final Fantasy XV

First of all I am a HUGE Final Fantasy fan. I have been since I played FF 7 and Tactics back when the original Playstation came out in 1997. Ah, there are some damn good memories of me and a few friends just binge playing both of those games.

I have played almost every game in the series. I don’t do online games, so not XI or XIV. I also did not play the last two XII games cuz they looked awful.

But Final Fantasy XV was first announced I believe nine years ago. Really? Are you fucking kidding me? They have been working on this game for so long that a lot of people that are fans of the games no longer give a shit.

That is part of the problem. You honestly wonder if the game is ever going to be finished.

Then a demo came out when you bought Final Fantasy Type-0, and I was really excited for a moment. But the first issue is the fact that there are no women in the party. Oh joy. It just feels odd that you are all guys. Then you finally get to the only woman in the demo, an overly sexualized female mechanic. It was just tacky and it made me sad.

To be fair the demo was fun and I liked some of the game-play elements, so I do have some hope that it could turn out. But you have NO idea when it is going to be done and we are coming up on a decade…and I would be shocked if it came out in the next year or so.

But to me at least, they did an odd thing. They created a patch for the demo that added new things to it. I mean would you just create the damn me instead of patching a freaking demo? I don’t understand the point of this and saw no need in playing it again.

Then the new came out that they are remaking FF7. Which will be a different post at some point.

Then today a new demo came out and people have went nuts talking about it. Talking how emotional it was and how they cried watching it. You can watch it here.

Ok .First of all, I am a pretty emotional guy, so I get that part. But after watching it, I was underwhelmed. It didn’t actually show much of anything. First there is a scene of a small girl being threatened by something and oh a dog! Why are people going so crazy over a dog. Geesh. But the last part where the father is holding the little boy (which I believe is the main character) is sad. But how this is making people cry I don’t get. Emotion requires context and although it was a sweet scene of a father holding his child…that is all got out of it.

Other than that? Nothing. No game play. Nothing telling you what is going on. Just more camoflague by Square is what this feels like.

So, yeah I have serious doubts about this. The lack of diversity in characters as it is just four white dudes running about. The fact that everything year hear makes it sound like it is still not close to done…after ten years! That is just a bit much. 

Makes me wonder if FF7 WILL ever happen at all. If so, it will probably be like at least 5 years. 

EDIT. So, a rumor is circulating that the game will be released before 2017. I will believe that when the game is in my hand. Even then, I may think it is a fever dream or a psychotic break. 

Is the Witcher 3 my favorite rpg of all time?

There are some light spoilers of Witcher 3 here. Be warned.

This is hard to answer, as video role playing games have changed quite a lot in the last 10 years. Think about those games you used to love? For me it was Final Fantasy 7, way back on the PlayStation.  It was the first time got truly lost in a world and it is something I still love to play to this day.

But now? These rpg’s can last over 150 hours if you have no life and just want to find everything.

It started (at least for me) with Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. That was the first game I played for soooooooo many hours. Over 150 easy. Then came Fallout 3, Skyrim, Fallout New Vegas, Dragon Age Inquisition, and lastly, Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt.

So, yeah, things have changed quite a bit, and for the better if you ask me.

But the Witcher may already be my favorite game of all time, and I have just scratched the surface of the game.

Let’s start with the company. CD Projekt Red. They are awesome. The game itself came with: the game, a map, a small compendium, two stickers, the soundtrack from the game, and a thank you note for buying the game. Really? That is so awesome.  In an age where some companies do not seem to give a shit that you buy there game, they stand out Oh, and they have already had like 5 patches to fix things and you also get 16 free DLC from them. What more do you want from a company?

Let’s start with graphics, as it is the most amazing looking I have ever seen on a console (I have a ps4). I love that you can create screen shots of the game and have a few really pretty ones on my computer. Including one that is the background for my pc. There are times I have to stop what I am doing cuz what is on the screen just amazes me. Love it. Yes, some people are annoyed that it doesn’t look as good as the trailer of a few years ago, but the game loos amazing. I have to stop sometimes just to take in the scenery and that is something that doesn’t usually happen.

Gameplay. This was hard at first. I was so used to the sword and shield method in oblivion and skyrim. Attack, block, retreat, attack. But you have two swords and five different types of “magic”. Fire, shield, telekinesis, slowing them down, and confusion. They are handled well, and you can use them in most situations. BUT not all. See, that is one of things I love about the game play.  It did take some getting used to, but once I did I felt like a real badass.

The setting is amazing. The world is in chaos and you can see that everywhere. Villages burnt to the ground, and people that are desperate to find anything they can to survive. You go from place to place only to find people that are starving and bandits trying to take advantage of people. The setting is handled very well in this game and they do an amazing job of making it feel like the world in the books. Love it.

When you get to Novigrad? That size of the city is astounding and i spent like 15 hours there. Crazy how big it was. 

It is really hard sometimes.

I die like ALL the time. Mostly cuz you can come across monsters/bandits that are 15-20 levels higher than you. But even more that, you are always getting hit. Always. Yes, you can dodge, roll, and use your shield, but eventually they hit you. You do NOT have healing magic, but a wide array of potions, and things you can eat/drink to give you health. That was also hard to get used to, but I like it now.

The other thing is they swarm you. One or two drowners (I HATE drowners), sure no problem. Then 4 more show up and things get crazy. Same thing with wolves, bandits, etc. They just keep coming and you can find yourself dead really quickly. You have to plan sometimes and try different tactics depending on what you are fighting. This is even more shown when you fight the monsters in the witcher contracts. 

Some of these creatures are HUGE. Or they cannot be hurt unless they are within small field created by one of our signs. Either way, you have to plan a bit sometimes for them. Luckily there are potions and bombs and such to help you.

The story. I really like it. You are trying to find Ciri, a woman that is like a daughter to you. The story itself is a huge portion of the game, and although I have not finished the game yet, it does a good job of keeping me interested. Which is hard to do considering how much you can just explore the world and do side quests. The characters are interesting, and you don’t really have to read the books or played previous two games. I have read the books and it does help, but nothing that I feel would take away from someone that comes into the game without having done so.

So many side quests. SO many. There are only a few fetch type quests, and the rest are very interesting for the most part. Having you make hard decisions that affect not on the quest, but the world itself. I also like that not all quests are happy ones. You can be searching for a woman’s son, only to have to tell her was hung. This is not a happy world.

 This is also true in the main story line as you have to make very difficult decisions that can have HUGE ramifications in the main story. Wow, I was stunned by some of the things that happened. One decision can cause multiple changes in the world. Hell, the game has like 38 endings or something.

There is also a huge element of crafting both in weapons/armor, but also with herbal and witcher’s potions. Those are potions that help you in some of the harder fights. A lot of awesome here.

The not so good?

A lot of naked women for no real reason sometimes. I don’t care that you can have sex in the game. They aren’t the first to allow that, but occasionally the naked women everywhere was a bit awkward. I don’t go and have sex with a prostitute, cuz I don’t understand why someone would do that in a game. So, I was able to avoid a lot of that nonsense. But the interesting thing is before you think that the world is really sexist, you find out the most powerful people in the world are the sorcerer’s. They wield so much magical power, it is a bit crazy at times. So, it was a mixed bag when it comes to that.

The other thing is a game this big could just be overwhelming for some. I can see that easily. There is so much to do that it can be too much for some people.

Overall, I love this fucking game. It does everything I love right and although there are a few nitpicky things, I think it may be my favorite rpg of all time. Well, until the FF7 remake comes out. J

Why mages are the worst a dungeons and dragons story

So, as I sat here today, I started to play Dragon Age for like the billionth time. I decided this time that I wanted to play as a mage. This is relative, cuz anyone that knows me knows that I NEVER play a mage in anything. Not video games. Not tabletop rpg’s. Nothing.

There is a reason why.

It all goes back to the very first time I played a tabletop role playing game. Way back in 1990. Ya see I worked at a grocery store and some people introduced me to this rpg called Dungeons and Dragons 2^nd Edition.

You may have heard of it.

Now, I knew almost nothing about the game. I had read a bit of fantasy as a kid, but never played any kind of games where I grew up. So, when I started reading the book, I was mesmerized and excited to play.

So, we got together and I decided I would make a mage. Cuz you know, Gandalf. But if you have never played older version of D&D, you may not know it takes FOREVER to make a character. Especially when you have someone that has not played any role playing game at all. I don’t remember how long it took to make my elvish mage Kalvin (yes, I still remember his name), but it was at least 3 hours.

So, here I was with my mage, ready to kick some ass. Galvin had 2 hp to start and what happens? The GM kills me in the very first fight by sending four kobolds after me. He was even smiling why he did it.

Now come to find out, he thought I was sleeping with his girlfriend, which I wasn’t.  He then decided he would kill my character, just to be spiteful. He even admitted all of this when it happened. So, three hours to make a character, less than five minutes to kill him. I walked out of there and the others had to talk me into even coming back and playing (they even switched gm’s). I wonder how different my life would be if I had just walked out? Never playing another rpg again. Instead I came back and we made my thief Gareth, and I have played thieves ever since. 

First of all. The don’t be a dick rule really comes into play here. I have run enough games to know that you tend to want people to play more than once, so killing them off is something I have always avoided. Beat them just to the point of death? Maybe, but not kill.

But even more important to this story, I have hated mages ever since. 2 freaking hp? And no armor? Whatever. Death by kobold should never happen. Since then, I don’t play them, and I usually just don’t care for them in general. No matter what rpg system/video game I have ever played, I usually play a thief and NEVER play a mage. It never is even an option.

Well, until the Dresden Files Rpg came out, but that is all due to Harry Dresden.

My review of The Last of Us

It is never easy to get do a video game rveiew and keep it non-spoiliery. Especially when the game is such a story based game like The Last of Us. There will be a few, but mostly minor ones.

Here I go.

First of all, the game was gorgeous. I mean it really looked great on the ps3. I can only imagine how good it will look on the ps4, but there was so much detail put into it and it just paid off.

The Story I was hooked from the get go. The “prologue” really sent the tone of the game and hit you in the mouth from the get go. It is rare to have a game really surprise me that early on. The writers deserve a lot of credit for how they handled it.

Still the game is about Joel and Ellie. It is a simple as that.

An older Joel is rugged, paranoid, and more than a little jaded. He spent twenty years finding a way to survive in a world that that became increasingly hard to endure. Yet, he made due by being smart and understanding the way the world was. You had to look out for you.

And then he met Ellie.

At first glance she was just a kid that annoyed him. A complication in his life that he did not really ask for, or wanted. But the interaction they had throughout the game was amazing. Little snippets of conversation they had where they go to know each other.

Then much larger things that drew them together. There were so many little moments in this. Just bit of conversation they started to have with each other. You could see them slowly growing into a dynamic and I kept wondering if one or both would die.

It was an amazingly well written story, and one that I kept wanting them to push more and more and more. There is emotion, and shock, and characters die. There is fear and sadness and a lot of other things. It may be one of best written games I have ever seen.

I am not even touching on the ending here. No way.

The gameplay prior to playing this, I beat Uncharted and Uncharted 2, along with Tomb Raider. With those games you are swashbuckling heroes and you spend a majority of the games just killing anyone that gets in your way. There is nothing wrong with this, but this is NOT that kind of game. Even if it took me a moment to realize it.

Don’t get me wrong, you can play this game like that. Guns blazing and all that. But you will die. A LOT. Hell at the beginning if the clicker’s grab you…you are just dead. No fighting, just game over. Joel is NOT Nathan Drake or Lara Croft.  It isn’t that he isn’t capable, but he is more of a survivor, than a fighter. Although he can fight.

So, you sneak, and avoid if possible. And lord do you spend time looking around everywhere for items that you can get to upgrade your character, equipment, and ammo. There is something awesome about wandering around with nothing but a flashlight and trying to sneak past/kill creatures that just want you dead.

I died so many times, but it rarely felt frustrating. I do wish the bow mechanic was better as I did not like the aiming component of it. I spent so much time trying to sneak up on the creatures/soldiers and trying to kill them quietly. This did not always work and I spent a lot of other time running for my life.

So, this happened.

You even played as Ellie for a bit and that part of the game was much different as she is a 14 year old girl versus previously playing as a 40 year old man. It was a nice contrast as she could not do some of the same things physically that Joel could do. But it was damn cool.

Overall. Where does this rate in my favorite games of all time? Damn high. May have even been higher if someone had not ruined the ending for me. I still loved the ending, but it took a bit of the emotional aspect of it as I knew what would happen. Still, it was a beautiful game with fun gameplay and a damn good story with two characters you grow to care about.  A few twists, and a few deaths, make it an emotional journey as well. 

My review of Tomb Raider

So, I recently finished Tomb Raider.

Now, I remember trying to play the older versions of the game and at that time I did not really play that kind of action game. I was way into Rpg’s, and really not much else. Not to mention, the games seem more about the way she looked, rather than the game itself. I had a friend years ago that referred her as boobs croft. Yes, he was an idiot. 

Personally I have never gotten how guys get turned on by video game characters, but whatever.

So, back to now. Tomb Raider, the reboot.

I really, really, loved it.

What worked. First of all, I played it on my ps3 and it was gorgeous. Yes, it looks better on the ps4 and pc, but that doesn't take away from how great it looks. An island setting is a great way to show off graphics as you get to show off beaches, oceans, jungles, etc. It all looked amazing. I can only imagine how great it does look on pc. Yet, it is amazing how great games look now.

Lara herself was a strong, confident, character. It took place before the previous games as is supposed to show just how she became the world class adventurer people know and love. Her determination and strength was on display with all of the cut scenes that deal with her crewmates as she tried to find them and eventually get off the island.

I still don’t get the argument about how games with a female protagonist are hard to create. This game kind of disproves that, but that is a topic for another day.  

Lara did however get her ass handed to her. I mean, wow. Stabbed, shot, crushed, etc. It became hard to see at times, but never went TOO far. She was tough and persevered through it all.  There were so many scenes where she took a beating. Hell, one part of the game you were actually wounded while bandits kept coming and coming. I died SO many times.

Each level got harder and harder, but you kept getting better weapons/tools to help you. You could also upgrade weapons and get skills. It was a nice balance to be able to have some kind of system in place to help you through the game.

What did not work. The tombs were not that challenging. It wasn't a huge thing, but hopefully in the next one there is more exploration, and less fighting.

Also, the ending was too easy. I found this to be the case in the Uncharted games as well. It is an interesting thought as these kind of games are so hard to begin with. It makes me wonder if this is intentional. It did not really take away from it, but the last fight was basically hitting a few buttons and it was over.

Overall. Tomb Raider did a great job of rebooting a series that I never really cared for in the first place. Lara is a great character that really shines and the fun action and great story made for a great experience.