Released: March 2013 | Developer: Crystal Dynamics | Playtime: 12–15 hours Platforms: Xbox Game Pass, Steam, PlayStation
Written after completing all three games in the Survivor Trilogy.
Verdict & Scores
I’ve played through the entire Survivor Trilogy, and the original still hits hardest. This isn’t a game about a hero doing heroic things — it’s about watching someone fall apart and somehow keep going. That tension never really lets up from start to finish.
| Platform | Score |
|---|---|
| Metacritic (Critics) | 86/100 (93% positive) |
| Metacritic (Users) | 7.4/10 |
| Steam | Overwhelmingly Positive |
- Destructoid 8.5/10 — “The best Tomb Raider I’ve ever played”
- Game Revolution 90/100 — “The best reboot game on the market today”
It’s currently available on Xbox Game Pass. If you’ve been sitting on it, now’s a good time to start.
What Kind of Game Is This
Lara Croft’s first expedition. The ship goes down, she washes up on an island, and she has to find a way out alive.
This isn’t the confident, wisecracking adventurer from the classic games. She cries after her first kill, drags herself through injuries, and breaks down when people around her die. The game is about watching that person figure out how to survive anyway.
It feels more like a survival game than an action-adventure, even though it technically is one. Resources are always scarce, enemies outnumber you, and Lara is fragile. That imbalance is exactly what keeps the tension going.
Exploring the Island
The setting is Yamatai — a fictional island off the coast of Japan. The Solarii Brotherhood, a violent cult, has built a shantytown on top of centuries-old ruins. As you explore, you find traces of Portuguese traders, U.S. Marines, Japanese soldiers — layers of history stacked on top of each other. The more you dig, the more the island’s past comes into focus.
Early sections take place in dense forest and mountain terrain — this is where Lara makes her first kill and the game establishes what it’s about. The mid-game centers on Shantytown, a sprawling compound that’s the most intense and combat-heavy part of the experience. From there, the game pushes deeper into ancient ruins, culminating at the Chasm Ziggurat, where every thread of the story finally comes together.
It’s not open world, but the hub structure means you can backtrack to earlier areas as you unlock new gear. There’s a quiet satisfaction to revisiting places you couldn’t fully explore the first time.
Moments That Stuck With Me
The Radio Tower You climb a collapsing radio tower alone, in the middle of a storm, with lightning hitting around you. The whole way up, it genuinely feels like you might not make it. When you finally reach the top and send the distress signal, the relief is real. It’s a simple set piece on paper, but the emotional weight lands.
The Shipwreck Beach Zipline After the relentless pressure of Shantytown, you clear a mission at Shipwreck Beach and ride a zipline down to the coast. The ocean opens up in front of you, the tension breaks, and for a moment the game just lets you breathe. It’s not a dramatic scene — and that’s exactly why it works. Probably the most genuinely relaxing moment in the whole game.
Lara’s First Kill She takes a life, and then falls apart. It’s the moment that most clearly separates this game from its predecessors — and from most action games in general.
The Supernatural Shift — Honestly, It’s Jarring
In the back half of the game, undead samurai warriors called the Stormguard (Oni) start showing up. They’ve been cursed by Queen Himiko to guard the island for centuries, and they’re armored, relentless, and very much not human.
Playing through it, the tonal shift is hard to ignore. The game spends its first half building a grounded, gritty survival atmosphere — and then introduces fantasy enemies that feel like they belong in a different game. A lot of players have noticed the same thing.
That said, the first encounter is genuinely unsettling. Lara strung up above a pile of corpses, a massive shadow moving past the door, the sound of a weapon being dragged across the floor — it’s one of the creepiest moments in the game. The problem is that once the Stormguard become regular enemies to fight, that initial dread disappears pretty quickly.
Why It’s Still Worth Playing
If you go in expecting classic Tomb Raider — globe-trotting puzzles, confident Lara, exotic locations — you’ll probably be disappointed. But if you’re okay with a game that’s genuinely uncomfortable to play in the best way, this is one of the better action-adventures of its generation.
The survival atmosphere is tight throughout. The set pieces land. And out of the three games in the trilogy, this one does the best job of making you feel like you’re actually alongside Lara rather than just directing her.
If you’re on Xbox Game Pass, there’s no reason not to try it.