I had a lot of danged fun with this game, but as one of my most anticipated games of the past few years, it barely warrants the 8 I'm giving up.

I don't mind cinematic storytelling. I don't mind being held by the hand as buildings blow up around me and my blood is pumping through half-scripted action & both subtle / obnoxious QTEs. Tomb Raider gets the style it's going for so good, it pulls off the wannabe Uncharted action effortlessly, the island setting is incredibly satisfying to explore, as is hunting a single deer and then the millions of men that follow it.

Where the action immerses, unfortunately, the story kicks you out, cold, in the hammiest of hammy ways. Uncharted can brilliantly sit side by side with Indiana Jones after a weekend Whedon marathon, TR can't catch the b-movie feel for beans; a bad story that deserves more angry expletives than I've giving it, that smashes you, the player, over the head with condescending plot progression shown in cutscenes and then told to you multiple times in talking, overly-dramatic journal pages. Characters X&Y share a secret relationship, first shown in an early cutscene, then repeatedly the relationship's explained through the rest of the game in collectathon audio journals, making sure you, the player, know why Character X acts the way they do, despite remaining an undeveloped caricature alongside the rest of the undeveloped caricatures failing to serve any purpose to the story. Character Z&Mu let it known they're up to no good outta the gate, then again & again in every following cutscene, & yet here we are, getting paper journals recorded by them talking to themselves about how wonderfully sinister & malicious & 2-dimensional they are.

Rest of the game rocks. ( )