Full Circle Magazine FR

Few game franchises have been as successful as Tomb Raider. The first Tomb Raider game was released back in 1996 for Microsoft Windows PCs, the original PlayStation, and the Sega Saturn. Ever since then, there have been at least 10 game titles in the main series with additional titles coming from spin-offs and alternate time-lines. In addition, there have been two box-office hit movies released, as well as an animated series, with a third film adaption in the works. The third film in the series will be based on the 2013 Tomb Raider reboot which focuses on Lara Croft's first adventure as a tomb raider. Tomb Raider was developed by Crystal Dynamics, published by Square Enix, and released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in 2013. In 2014, Tomb Raider was released for OS X, and, more recently, in April 2016 it was released for Linux. The Linux game was published by Feral Interactive, and, judging by the first 40 hours I've spent playing it, they've done a marvelous job at bringing it over to Linux. You can buy it direct from the Feral store, from Humble Bundle Store, or from Steam, for around $19.99 at the time of publishing.

Très peu de jeux ont autant de réussite que Tomb Raider. Le premier jeu Tomb Raider est sorti en 1996 pour les PC Windows, le PlayStation d'origine et le Sega Saturn. Depuis, il y a au moins 10 titres dans la série principale avec des titres supplémentaires venus de dérivés et de lignes temporelles alternatives. En outre, deux films à succès sont sortis, ainsi qu'une série d'animation, avec une troisième adaptation cinématographique en cours. Ce troisième film de la série sera basé sur le nouveau Tomb Raider de 2013 qui se concentre sur la première aventure de Lara Croft en tant que voleuse de tombeau.

Tomb Raider fut développé par Crystal Dynamics, publié par Square Enix et sorti pour Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 et Xbox 360 en 2013. En 2014, Tomb Raider fut publié pour OS X et, plus récemment, en avril 2016, il fut sorti pour Linux. Le jeu Linxu fut publié par Feral Interactive et, jugeant par les quarante premières heures pendant lequel j'y ai joué, ils ont fait un excellent travail de portage sous Linux. Vous pouvez l'acheter directement du magasin de Feral, du Humble Bundle Store, ou sur Steam, pour environ 19,99 $ au moment de sa sortie.

The 2013 Tomb Raider reboot takes us back, way back, to Lara's very first expedition, before she was considered a tomb raider. It tell us the story of how Lara matures into the heroine we've always known her to be. The game begins with Lara and other explorers in a ship demolished by a storm near the Dragon's Triangle somewhere near Japan. As the ship is torn apart by the storm, Lara manages to cling to her life by barely making it to the island, but she's immediately captured by some strange man. When Lara awakes, she manages to escape, but not without first watching her captor be killed by the crumbling cave where she was being held captive. From here on, Lara undergoes many transformations on her way to find out the truth about the fictitious Yamatai island, while, in the process, discovering many valuable archaeological artifacts, raiding her fair share of tombs and learning many valuable skills along the way. One of the most memorable moments in the game is when Lara has to kill someone for her first time in order to survive. Having to push the button that pulls the trigger was somewhat of an emotional sequence even for me. This is the kind of game that Tomb Raider is; it sinks its teeth into your psyche while keeping your reflexes sharp, engaging you in some frightful experiences and torturing your brain into solving countless puzzles, all while keeping you at the edge of your seat.

Le Tomb Raider de 2013 nous ramène loin, loin dans le passé, jusqu'à la toute première expédition de Lara, avant qu'on la considère voleuse de tombeau. Il nous raconte comment Lara grandit et devient la héroïne que nous avons toujours connue. Le jeu démarre quand Lara et d'autres explorateurs sont dans un vaisseau démoli par un orage près du Triangle du dragon quelque part près du Japon. Pendant que le vaisseau est déchiré par l'orage, Lara réussit à rester en vie en gagnant l'île très difficilement, mais elle est tout de suite prise par un homme étrange. Lorsque Lara se réveille, elle réussit à s'échapper non sans regardant au préalable la mort de son capteur, tué par la grotte instable dans laquelle elle était emprisonnée. À partir de là, Lara, qui essaie de découvrir la vérité sur l'île fictive de Tamatai, se transforme plusieurs fois, tout en découvrant beaucoup d'artefacts archéologiques de valeur, cambriolant pas mal de tombeaux et gagnant beaucoup de compétences qui lui seront très utiles.

Un des moments les plus mémorables du jeu arrive quand, pour survivre, Lara doit tuer quelqu'un pour la première fois. Devoir appuyez sur le bouton qui tire sur la gâchette était une séquence pleine d'émotions même pour moi. Cela décrit le genre de jeu qu'est Tomb Raider : il enfonce ses dents dans votre subconscient tout en maintenant vos réflexes rapides, vous faisant participer à des événements horrifiques et torturant votre cerveau pourqu'il solutionne des énigmes sans fin. Et pendant tout ce temps-là, il vous tient scotché à votre fauteuil.

Tomb Raider could be considered a third-person, action-adventure, exploration, platformer, puzzle and survival video game, with elements borrowed from other genres as well. So it's basically a well-crafted amalgam of a wide range of genres – all rolled into one engaging & entertaining work of art that seems more like an action movie in which the main character is you, the player. Some sequences go from having Lara climb a mountain to a third-person shootout against the bad guys, then into a cinematic scene that culminates with Lara sliding down a mountain while a crashing airplane is hot on your tail devouring everything that lies on its path, yourself included – unless you manage to dodge it and all of the debris that the plane has dragged along with it on its furious path of destruction. The game can be played with a mouse/keyboard or with a game controller. I tried both and they both work well. My one and only complaint about Tomb Raider is the options menu placement of the default gamepad controller button-mapping layout. After playing the game for a while with a mouse/keyboard combination, I decided to try it out with a game controller and was able to adapt to it instantaneously. Having played some of the earlier franchise titles on the PlayStation family of consoles, it felt more natural for me to play it with a controller than with a mouse/keyboard. However, the problem came when I didn't know how to sprint (turns out you can't), and I had to look up the default gamepad button layout. When you pause the game (by pressing the “Start” button), one of the choices on the menu screen is “Button Mapping,” yet, when you go to it, it refers only to a mouse/keyboard layout. The default gamepad button layout is buried in the “Gameplay Options” under the “Gamepad” tab. It makes absolutely no sense why a game would have a button-mapping section, but include the actual button layout in a completely different section of the options menu. Once I found it, I knew where it was, and, from time to time, when I had to refer to it, I knew where to go. But, even then, it takes two steps too many to get to something that could have been located in the actual “Button Mapping” section along with the mouse/keyboard button layout. Other than this inconvenience, which is rather minor in the big scheme of things, there was nothing else crucial enough for me to give the game a lower grade. The game shines in all other aspects.

As mentioned earlier, an integral part of the game is its seamless blending of intense game-play sequences with cinematic cut-scenes which renders some gorgeous graphics. From the lush scenic environment to the seemingly infinite variations of light, to the immaculate detail in Lara's hair, the graphics are some of the best in any current generation game available on Linux. The sound is superb, especially its one-of-a-kind voice acting – which is on par with some of today's top movies. In fact, special care, research and intense casting was required to find the right girl to play Lara in this game. Camilla Luddington is the actress who got the role for Tomb Raider as well as its sequel Rise of the Tomb Raider. All in all, Tomb Raider is perhaps the best addition to the Linux game ecosystem in the first half of 2016. Feral Interactive has done a great job at making the game feel right at home on Linux boxes. In my opinion, Feral Interactive are among the best Linux publishers since they began publishing games on Linux two years ago – Tomb Raider is proof of that. MINIMUM SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS: OS: Ubuntu 14.04 or Steam OS 2.0 (64-bit) CPU: Intel i3 or AMD FX-6300 Memory: 4GB RAM HDD: 15 GB HD space GPU: Nvidia GeForce 640 with 1GB of Video Memory, AMD R7 260X My gaming box: AMD FX-6100 3.3GHz CPU (over-clocked to 3.5GHz) Gigabyte Windforce GeForce GTX 960 graphics card with Nvidia's 361 driver 16GB of Kingston Hyper X RAM Ubuntu 14.04.4 LTS with Unity desktop