Recent reviews by Life Is War

From early access, to 1.0, this game has continued to deliver. Just buy it.

One of the best built AAA worlds ever. The just sheer immersion into the story that I experienced is beyond just about any other game I've ever played, maybe apart from Alan Wake 2 and Control.

If you enjoy a good post-apocalyptic sci-fi story, this will be right up your alley

My body is a machine that turns "Eagle Cluster Bombs" into "Reinforce Dead Teammates"

Corporate greed simulator

I know I am years late to the party, but man, there's a reason this game is considered a classic. The storyline is quite good and the attention to detail is staggering, as is the depth of the history of the island. Gameplay is also quite nice, with a good amount of platforming and stealthy combat. In addition to all that, the game is very atmospheric, immersing you into the mysterious island of Yamatai.

For a game made 7 years ago (as of summer 2020), it is really quite good. The main storyline is well thought out and is fairly captivating. There's about 10 hours of story in this game, which I consider to be adequate. However, this game's storytelling has a pretty big flaw, and that is character development, or more specifically, characters are barely introduced and spend little to no time on screen, other than Lara, of course. In the very beginning it isn't even made explicitly clear why are on a bloody ship anyway.

However, I think the depth of the island's history makes up for it. There are so many little stories to find and in the end you can piece together a pretty cohesive story of the history of the island and its inhabitants over the years.

This game is primarily an adventure game, so expect plenty of puzzle-solving and platforming, which is something I personally really enjoy. The tombs aren't ever too complicated to solve, but some of them aren't very obvious either. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this aspect of the game.

The combat in this game wants you to be stealthy, going as far as showing you through your little "Instinct view" which enemies will be seen if they are killed. However, it also gives you the option of going in guns blazing. Unfortunately, the gunplay, although interesting in its own right, isn't anything special, but this is to be expected from a third-person adventure game.

I would not have been able to figure out that this game is 7 years old just by looking at it. For comparison, I recently played a little of Metro 2033 Redux, which is a game that was released a year after Tomb Raider, and looks, frankly, a few years older than it. There are some things that are really not pretty to look at, like the water, and other things you wouldn't be able to tell that you are playing something older than a year or two. All in all, there are very few instances where I felt that my immersion was broken by the poor visuals, and keep in mind, I am a person who is especially sensitive to that for some reason :P.

For the measly $2.99 that I picked up this game for, its an amazing buy. Even for $15 this game is superb. If you have a chance, pick it up on sale, and enjoy your 10-15 hours of entertainment for a third of the cost of a cheap movie ticket. Unfortunately, if you are one of those people that doesn't like gore, I would shy away from this one. For everyone else, buy it, play it. You won't regret it.

This is a long overdue review of this wonderful game. I finished it over a year ago, and after seeing some negative reviews accidentally, I decided it is time for me to give my twenty cents.

If there was ever a game that I would recommend to literally everyone, it would be this. Where do I even start with this game... Beautiful visuals? Extremely in-depth story and information about the planet and all of its creatures? There are freaking big fish down there?

In all seriousness, this is an extremely good game, and you will enjoy it. The story is very good, and at the same time, somehow manages to feel like you are doing everything by choice. Sure there are things that the game almost blatantly tells you to do, but at the same time, I personally felt like those would be the choices that I would make. As an example, say there is a beacon. Not only does it excite your curiosity, as to what is down there, it also progresses the story along when you do end up going to see what that beacon is all about. The game does an amazing job of having you figure out a mystery and in the end, well, you will see.

The atmosphere of the game is simply brilliant. The music is perfect, but not in the comforting way. It plays with your emotions perfectly, and although you are at no real risk, you feel the tension, and your heart races. The sea monsters, as the PDA puts it in one of its descriptions (though it is referring to a biome) "match 7 of 9 preconditions for stimulating terror in humans". Their design is perfect. The AI, while not amazingly smart, is smart enough to scare the living s*** out of you.

However, be warned, if you are allergic to reading, this is not the game for you. There are literally hundreds (I think) of pages describing the lifeforms on the planet, the planet itself, and more. To fully appreciate the game, it is necessary to read these. One of my friends was never one for reading these, and watching him play a few times, he just skimmed over amazing information that makes the game feel real. If your goal in a game is to win, while it is still good, it's not at its best in this way. This one is about the experience that you get when playing through it.

Overall, this is a horror game disguised as a survival title, and while I am not a fan of the horror genre, I am a huge fan of this game. While there still is a lot to surviving on the harsh planet 4546B, this game is about the experience, its depth (no pun intended, but the game is really deep in more ways than one), and its atmosphere. Unfortunately, these things make for an amazing first time, and at least for me, little replayability. But let me tell you, this is still a game that I will never forget, and I will be sure to buy the second one when it comes out.

Great game right now, and lots of potential for the future.
I originally got the game before Venture was fully implemented and have seen this game gain potential throughout. The introduction of the Hawkeye Corporation firmly cemented that belief in my mind.

Pros:

Unending world- awesome to explore and find new enemies, bases, biomes, etc.

Near unlimited building possibilities- even though there is a limit on how big you can build techs (64x64x64 blocks I think), there are still literally millions of different combinations. I have never had two techs that are the same, even though their purpose may be the same.

Immense potential- this game can and hopefully will do great in the future. The game developers have confirmed multiplayer, and that will be huge. They also have at least two more unique corporations in mind. They have also expanded the game so much since the first time I played it, that I can't see why the game would bog down now.

Flying!- Ok, this is more of my personal thing, but flying in the game is really fun. Only thing is I wish is more effective air-to-ground weapons (other than the over powered Hawkeye Seeker Missiles :D ).

Cons:

Still in Early Access- this means the game still has quite a few bugs in it. I myself have experienced everything from corrupted save files to glitches techs. However many of these bugs have been fixed, and are being fixed right now.

Can rush through corporation grades quite quickly- I have nearly always maxed out 3/4 of the corporations in less than a week of playing (about 2 hours of gaming each night). Once you max the corporations out, the game becomes relatively boring since you no longer need to hunt for new blocks; they all unlock automatically.

Limited types of enemies (even with Twitter)- I have encountered all enemies over and over again (some a lot more than others). This is bad when you are trying to find new blocks, especially those just implemented into the game (Hawkeye). Invaders are really the only ways to gain those new blocks, but invaders are quite rare.


All in all I have enjoyed the game, and hope to see it gain more steam (no pun intended) in the future. ;)