Assignment 2: Criteria 2 & 4

Assignment 2 - C2 & C4

Group review of a review:

Casey White
Paris Roberts
Kyle Mallard
Dane Coleman


The reviewer of IGN that reviewed the game, Tomb Raider goes into a lot of detail about the games maturity levels and the release date of the games on all platforms and the release date for different countries.

The reviewer also granted the viewer a lot of insight onto the gameplay of the game and went into a lot of detail about the character development aspects, the reviewer also mentions that the game revolves around Lara Croft and her adaption to a dangerous environment. She later says that other characters that Lara encounters throughout the game have 2D personalities in comparison but says that this doesn't affect the game as Lara is thoroughly interesting.

One of the criticisms that the reviewer made about the game is that they make Lara seem weak and new to the gruesome world around her and her first kill of the game has this emotional depth to it but she mentions that this is jarring when five minutes later, Lara is picking up weapons and killing lots of NPC's.
"From scared survivor forced to take a life, to head shot happy killer."
This can show that gameplay and story can interrupt each other if not done correctly. A good example of when story and gameplay are synergised is the title Heavy Rain as it acts more as an interactive story than a game. Many other games that try to have a emotional attachment to the player have to make sure that it works around the gameplay. For instance, Tomb Raider could have had Lara avoid and using stealth to avoid enemies rather than blasting them with a shotgun to keep the atmosphere of the game.

The reviewer was very biased when it come down to the multiplayer, she didn't look for any pros in it, she only focused on the few cons simply because she thinks that Tomb Raider shouldn't be a multiplayer game. As a group we discussed that the multiplayer isn't a main element of the game and she used it as a major criticism throughout the review, she also lowered the game's rating because it which shouldn't be done because it's simply been put in the game for a small side project, not only for the player but for the developers of the game to see if players genuinely enjoy it. She does explain the objective of the multipayer however and mentions that the multiplayer may just die off in a couple of months after release.

The reviwerer expresses her opinion of the main gameplay well, she uses a lot of enthusiasim when talking about key points such as, the fighting system, the difficulty and the controls of the game. She states that all aspects of the gameplay are up to date, very smooth and are easy to grasp to jump right in and play the game. She then moves on the say how much she has enjoyed playing the game and why. The reasons why she enjoyed playing the game is because of the graphics used really set the scene for the game, the character Lara Croft's emotions in the game and the way she matures intrests you as a player. She says that not only the story and the charcaters are interesting and that the game its self is fun to play because of its action packed features and she also thinks that the developers have finally nailed the combat system in a Tomb Raider, but crutially there isn't too much of it like in most games of today. She then goes on to explain that the exploration it's self in this game is throughly entertaning because although the character moves naturally and confidantly but it still feels excitingly dangerous. The reviewer states the puzzles used in the game are hidden but when found, they're not too easy nor too difficult, they still give you a feeling of acomplishment.

The reviewer comments on how immersive the world is, saying the detail of the island makes you feel like an explorer. Using these sorts of comparisons allows the player to understand what they are getting into when purchasing the game. She also explains that the world is intelligently design and not as linear as other titles on the market "going far beyond the average action-adventure title".

As a reviewer, I feel she touched on each point very well and gave suitable examples of each point showing gameplay and cutscenes throughout, however, I do feel she was too critical of the multiplayer aspect of the game as it seemed she was being stubborn and unjest.

The Reviewer: 9/10