The tone of the game is much darker and the violence is graphic and unsparing. The game is visually stunning and much more 'realistic' in appearence than previous games, but in saying that, it has in some way lost that almost cartoony feel that made the earlier revamped games so cool to look at. The terrain is interactive, and although the central quest is pretty linear, the set Lara is given to play in is pretty wide within that linearity. Some people (much younger and better gamers than me) found the game difficult. I didn't. I found that by using stealth and my head as opposed to brute force and ignorance, I could for the most part progress without difficulty. (nb I was however on the easy setting). Use of the weapons and fighting etc was relatively easy to master and although some of the major set piece fights were hard to get through, I've experienced much harder in earlier games. The game felt smaller than previous ones and certainly I got through it faster. The 'video' sequences were not too frequent and easily skipped even in the first encounter. Saving is frequent and automatic so that, on Lara's death, you are never too far from where you were killed - good if you don't like repetition.
I was dissapointed with the lower level of climbing and puzzles in the game; the climbs when you got them were spectacular and terrifying, but way to few of them. The game is essentially a third person shooter/adventure, in that the tombs/puzzles have been effectively removed and placed as optional matereal to encounter while exploring the island after having completed the main quest. All in all a good few days gaming once you have got over the initial loss of the old style Tomb Raider; how much fun there is to be had exploring the island and 'doing' the tombs after the main quest is over - well that remains to be seen. Watch this space!
