Depth of Character
As mentioned before, another large change to the Tomb Raider formula is in its story. The plot is pretty solid, this time around, ending up a lot more personal than I had expected it to be, with much more revealed about Lara's past, adding a much needed (and somewhat missing) dimension to her character. Instead of appearing to go from one tomb to the next with only a cut scene in between to show the transition, players will get to see the plane crash that started it all and the events that underlie her passion for adventure.

Her sidekicks that she hears through her earpiece add to the general story of the game, following her exploits and trying to lend some of their wisdom to what she is experiencing out in the field. The banter between her and her friends back home is really well done and there were more than a few times that I had gotten a chuckle from Zip's dry wit to Alistair's near hysterics over Lara's less-than-gentle handling of historical relics.

As for the villains, they've also got quite a bit of a flair for the dramatic, but you'll be blowing through faceless hordes of mercenary fighters for the most part which lends a sort of dull edge to the combat as a whole. The key villains, which aren't that many to begin with, are basically given almost bare lip service. Don't expect there to be a great deal of setup with most of those that get into Lara's way, although the main nemesis that Lara will inevitably face does provide the kind of character that the others seem to lack.

While the main game is great and I expected to see it topped off with an ending worthy of the experience to get to it...let's just say that while it set everything up for a sequel and a fresh angle on the entire Tomb Raider franchise, I still felt as though I was left hanging off a cliff. If you've played Halo 2, you'll know what I'm talking about. I was hoping to play through another seven hours of Tomb Raiding, though, so I'll just hope that the inevitable sequel will do a much better job in bringing a close to the story arc.