The Video Game Critic

Rev wrote:I think making this game an Xbox Exclusive (for a year) was a bad move... It would have sold much better if it had released A ps4 copy...

scotland wrote:Nice review. Does the whole game have lighting as dark as the screenshot you used. Compare that to the bright Battlefront image.

This cinematic adventure blurs the line between video game and film...It seems as if the designers were bending over backwards to earn the a Mature (17+) rating. The language includes plenty of F-bombs and there is an eye-gouging scene I could barely watch. What the hell. There is no good reason a Tomb Raider game should be rated any higher than Teen.

PG-13 movies tend to the biggest Hollywood money makers each year, and with The Force Awakens as PG-13, it probably was in 2015 too. PG-13 allows a lot of violence (murder an entire village, stab a few defenseless old men with laser swords, death of enemy combatants treated as comedy, etc), but restricts profanity, sexual conduct, etc. PG movies often return pretty good bang for the buck too, but generally, if a studio wants a blockbuster movie, it wants a PG-13 rating.

However, R ups the standard ingredients and makes them more graphic. Hollywood makes more R movies than any other rating, even though PG-13 movies, on average, make a whole lot more money. Maybe its about image, or maybe its targeting that demographic that wants to see R. Mobilizing the base instead of enlarging the tent idea. Maybe Square Enix wanted the M rating to send a signal to its demographic, the same way that most horror movies go for R. Maybe it trying to redefine the franchise's image as more 'hardcore'. For your review of the next installment of the franchise, your expectations of a Tomb Raider game will now have be redefined as one including profanity and graphic violence.

Voor wrote:

scotland wrote:Nice review. Does the whole game have lighting as dark as the screenshot you used. Compare that to the bright Battlefront image.

This cinematic adventure blurs the line between video game and film...It seems as if the designers were bending over backwards to earn the a Mature (17+) rating. The language includes plenty of F-bombs and there is an eye-gouging scene I could barely watch. What the hell. There is no good reason a Tomb Raider game should be rated any higher than Teen.

PG-13 movies tend to the biggest Hollywood money makers each year, and with The Force Awakens as PG-13, it probably was in 2015 too. PG-13 allows a lot of violence (murder an entire village, stab a few defenseless old men with laser swords, death of enemy combatants treated as comedy, etc), but restricts profanity, sexual conduct, etc. PG movies often return pretty good bang for the buck too, but generally, if a studio wants a blockbuster movie, it wants a PG-13 rating.

However, R ups the standard ingredients and makes them more graphic. Hollywood makes more R movies than any other rating, even though PG-13 movies, on average, make a whole lot more money. Maybe its about image, or maybe its targeting that demographic that wants to see R. Mobilizing the base instead of enlarging the tent idea. Maybe Square Enix wanted the M rating to send a signal to its demographic, the same way that most horror movies go for R. Maybe it trying to redefine the franchise's image as more 'hardcore'. For your review of the next installment of the franchise, your expectations of a Tomb Raider game will now have be redefined as one including profanity and graphic violence.

I've always heard this as well--that PG13 movies make way more money than R, yet Hollywood keeps forcing them down our throat. I know, personally, I would enjoy modern comedies more if they tamed them down a bit--more clever and less vulgar.

Disappointing to hear that the Tomb Raider franchise went down this path. Its just common sense that you make your target audience so much smaller when you do this. Does the Zelda franchise's lack of sexuality and violence and cursing hurt sales? Nope.

JustLikeHeaven wrote:These new Tomb Raider games look awful. Way to take a fun, pulpy, adventure, franchise and turn it into run-of-the-mill, overly dark, hyper realistic dreck. Games like this are why most modern consoles are a wasteland ALMOST not worth dredging through. I miss the days when it was all pointy, polygon, boobs and a sexy British accent for Ms. Croft.