Tomb Raider GOTY

Tomb Raider GOTY is the 2013 reboot of the entire Lara Croft franchise, packaged with every piece of DLC released alongside it. Crystal Dynamics stripped the series back to an origin story: a young, inexperienced Lara stranded on the island of Yamatai, fighting through cultists called the Solarii, scrambling up cliffs with a pickaxe, and slowly building herself into someone dangerous. In third-person perspective, the campaign blends cover-based shooting, traversal, optional challenge tombs with environmental puzzles, and a steady weapon upgrade system that lets you pour salvage into your bow, assault rifle, shotgun, and pistol across multiple upgrade tiers. Three skill trees run alongside the weapons, covering survival instincts, combat, and agility. The pacing is strong, the production value still holds up, and the action-to-exploration ratio is well-calibrated for a roughly 12-15 hour run. From a shooter-feel standpoint, the single-player combat is competent. The cover lean mechanic is responsive, headshots are satisfying, and the bow is genuinely one of the better stealth tools in the genre from this era. Enemy AI is not exactly aggressive, and the weapon variety is limited to four classes, so don't come in expecting tactical depth. Quick-time events are overused, and the game does hold your hand hard in the early hours, sometimes having Lara think out loud at the start of a puzzle before you've had a chance to look at it. Minor frustrations, but they add up across a playthrough. Now, the multiplayer. It needs to be said plainly: it does not work as a selling point in 2025. The mode was outsourced to Eidos Montreal and pits Survivors against the Solarii across four game modes including Team Deathmatch, Free For All, Rescue, and Cry for Help. Loadouts mix a primary firearm or bow with a sidearm, grenades, and the climbing axe, and there is a level-60 progression system with a prestige option. The concept of blending traversal and trap-setting into competitive play is interesting on paper, but the execution was criticized heavily at launch, with balance issues between asymmetric modes and combat that felt too loose to sustain a multiplayer ecosystem. The DLC bundle includes multiple multiplayer map packs (Shanty Town, Caves and Cliffs, 1939, Shipwrecked) plus character skins and Hitman: Absolution crossover weapons. Most of it is dead content now. Matchmaking will be a struggle. What the GOTY edition genuinely adds for single-player fans is the Tomb of the Lost Adventurer, an additional optional challenge tomb in the Coastal Forest, plus a set of single-player outfit packs including the Hunter, Aviatrix, Guerrilla, Demolition, Sure-Shot, and Mountaineer skins. These are cosmetic and minor. There are also instant skill and gear unlock packs bundled in, which is worth noting since they bypass the upgrade loop entirely, something the base game builds its pacing around. Leave those disabled on a first run. Bottom line for the PC player asking whether to buy this version specifically: the single-player campaign is a well-built third-person action game that holds up, with tight traversal, a satisfying upgrade loop, and a strong performance from the lead character. The multiplayer is a historical artifact. You are here for the campaign, the optional tombs, and the start of a trilogy worth finishing. This is the complete package for that purpose.

Fred · Scout Team

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