Looks absolutely stunning.but it still lacks atmosphere to me.
Just make the villains fun to hate and Lara do badass stuff and it should be fine.I am playing around the new Tomb Raider, and Its a breathtaking game. It doesn't need to be deep or that self important. Story should be more focused on Lara going on a big adventure across the world.
When you find secret treasures or equipment you can find them displayed. Lara's Mansion should return and there you can train or explore it. Of course this shouldn't be in every level and instead in a couple of levels to add freshness to each location you visit. Vehicle sections should be back in some levels and more like Uncharted 4's where you explore a large area. Mummies, rabid dogs, dinosaurs, demons, dragons etc etc. Avoid the whole mass murderer stuff by making her kill super natural enemies or animals. She should be able to run and shoot like Max Payne on steroids. Lara gets back her twin pistols and acrobatics. Platforming needs to be back and more interesting than the last trilogy. If you die then you restart at specific spots in the tomb. Take notes from games like Demon's Souls and Bloodborne where each area is hard to get through but has plenty of secrets and multiple ways to tackle them. Tomb should be back and they should have the focus. Take notes from new Lara and give her muscles and clothes that doesn't sexualize her. Give her stylish clothes, braids and the sunglasses back. Design wise I want them to mix the new reboot Lara with classic Lara. She shouldn't follow her parents and instead she should go against what they are saying (remember, in the OG games they basically disowned her and she didn't let that stop her). Being in control and enjoying what she is doing. Here is how I want Tomb Raider to return: it just does nothing for me, and would prefer we go back to an older gameplay style. Like, I wouldn't call new Tomb Raider bad. like, keep or bin New Lara, I almost don't care (slightly prefer dropping the whole daddy/mommy issues plotlines CD has been adding since they got their hands on it). the focused sorta-open-world vibe of the new games, the cover shooting, the changes to platforming (speaking as someone who preferred the Legend trilogy and has zero patience for the older games at this point), stuffing you in one locale when it used to be globe-trotting adventures. Add more interesting enemies, like dinosaurs or mummies or something better than "samurai who use samurai weapons and die when you shoot them".
Bin the stupid "find twelve wolf pelts to upgrade your Kalashnikov" busywork. But almost everything about the reboots, after playing through them is a downgrade. I don't care if they keep old Lara or new Lara, really. To the extent I prefer old Lara to the new one, it's because I associate her with vastly more fun experiences on my part. CD tried to make me care about New Lara, and I don't, not really.
Like, old Lara's a blank, I agree, but like. Maybe it's just the contrived "oh I dropped everything but my bow and arrow" nonsense that started Rise and Shadow, or the fact that I found Jonah to be the least noteworthy character in 2013, but they completely bin all of her other supporting cast from that game. new!Lara has had three games to develop, and honestly, I think I've just kept growing colder, and colder in my opinion of her.