Just watched this video that was linked in a RockPaperShotgun article. It has not made me want to buy the game.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NjZtEiosgA[/youtube]

I wonder if Crystal Dynamics realize that all the stuff they're proudly doing with this game falls firmly in the "been there, done that, didn't work" category. It's like an Uncharted clone with none of the good stuff. I thought Quick Time Events had finally died off outside of the occasional God of War clone, but here's Crystal Dynamics acting like they're not only still alive, but also clearly king of the interactive cutscene jungle.

They also seem pretty impressed by their "gear acquisition" which made me giggle. Pretty sure "gear acquisition" is a core part of MOST games, even those that don't recognize it as such. That's how games work. You get stuff. You move forward. You get new stuff. You use that new stuff to continue moving forward. Most games don't bother to give it a name.

The "rope arrow" implementation seems silly and archaic, too. I thought we'd moved past the whole "visually eyecatching immersion-breaking interactive stuff" design philosophy. Hasn't anyone at CD played an Assassin's Creed game? Oh, look, some clean white rope on the gritty map. Must be time for my rope arrow! Good thing the game is holding my hand!

The whole game appears to be designed around taking control AWAY from the player. Movement interrupted by cutscenes, cutscenes interrupted by QTEs, combat interrupted by irritating traps. And the interactive environment stuff doesn't even seem that well-implemented. The barrels-down-the-hill thing didn't work AT ALL...with the baddies just walking around them. Didn't knock 'em down, didn't make them run back the way they came...they just stumbled awkwardly around them for a moment. And all the while the narrator is talking about how that stuff works on the enemy AI. How about having the AI REACT to it, then?!

And that river scene, with the slow-mo shotgun debris-killing?! What the @$%# is going on there? That's the saddest bit of pathetically contrived level design I've ever seen. It adds NOTHING of value, looks frustrating as Hell, and just seems silly.

The game's FEEL is at odds with itself, too. One minute it's screaming "I'm gritty and realistic ARGH look at my vulnerable limp!" and the next minute it's "ARGH rapids grab a shotgun and slow-mo shoot-and-destroy random debris piles--oh and while we're at it, I can shoot arrows with ropes attached but only at bundles of rope--and also I have magic pockets! Look! A torch, no a shotgun, no a rope arrow that I can only shoot at bundles of rope!" Which is it?

Also, everyone keeps talking about how good the game looks, but.... I must be looking at a different game than everyone else is seeing because, to me, that video looked like a 6 year old console game. It looked like an early PS3 title. For all the focus they put on the new Lara...I can count the pixels in the texture for her shirt. Sure, her boobs might be high poly (but they're proportionate now, we're politically correct!!!!) but the image fidelity itself is terrible. If you're going to make a character-centric THIRD PERSON game, PLEASE put some effort in making the player character nice to look at (and I DON'T mean nice hips and cleavage).

So...yeah. That video pretty much killed the game for me. The older Tomb Raider titles might be goofy and clunky. But at least they were content and self-aware in their old-fashioned-ness, rather than being self-impressed amalgams of outdated design themes.

I just got an overwhelming feeling of an Uncharted clone. Automatic cover is cool, but I feel like it'd get clunky. Like you're in cover, you're in cover, Lara decides to stand up and alert everyone in a quarter mile radius of you location, you're in cover... You see my point. I prefer an action button for cover/hide.

I'm pretty much with you 100% on your synopsis. I think everyone is banging their heads against the wall over how awesome it is, is because they're comparing it to other Tomb Raider games. It is miles above others. Even Underworld.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6CGx-BulKk[/youtube]

I mean, it looks like it can be fun at times, but most of the time it will just frustrate me with the staring-you-in-the-face "puzzles" and the flashy crap that it's trying to be but is overall distracting from the game. The cutscenes are beautiful, though. I think it would make a great animated movie.

Oh, and that parachute portion. I can't stand when games have stupid physics. #1: Round parachute. No forward. No control. Just fall slower. #2: Even if it were a modern parachute, the backup chute still doesn't have controls. She still wouldn't be able to guide left and right. Crap like that annoys the piss out of me. Kinda like the unlimited missiles you had in BF3 on the aircraft carrier level, and just how plain wrong the entire flight deck op was. Small things like that ruin a game for me. It's like they took the easy route to make something entertaining, and cut massive corners to the point it's blatantly obvious.

Ace, I think the two of us could plot a better game than most designers these days.

Just the idea that Lara isn't doing HAHO insertion with a hi-glide parachute into North Korea, China, Myanmar Pakistan or some other high risk locale while wearing some NVGs and checking a GPS unit with the player in complete control sounds like a missed opportunity.

I'm much more about Lara being a female James Bond (or Sam Fisher since that new game is going to suck without Michael Ironside's voice) than I am about her being a female Indiana Jones.

Imagine the combined platforming and stealth potential of penetrating the security of the Vector facility just outside Novosibirsk to secures a newly developed vaccine. How about a look around the defunct labs (a modern day tomb?) of Stepnagorsk or a little walk around Vozrozhdeniya Island (even though it was done before in BLOPS).

I think it's weird that it's 2013 and we have STILL never seen a decent Indiana Jones game aside from (arguably) Infernal Machine. Despite the popularity and success of the increasingly stale Tomb Raider series. Seems like an obvious moneygrab but also one that could actually work.

If they would put the time and effort into it and not just crank out some more movieware. I'd love an Indiana Jones game.

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