I finished Tomb Raider to 100% yesterday, and as a long time fan who has played every single Tomb Raider game, does this game satisfy my "tomb raiding" needs? No. Is it a great game? Yes.
The environment is the star in this game. The island is very well put together and extremely beautiful. Ship and plane wrecks, storms, howling winds, makeshift towns made from junk, ancient temples and atmosphere are abound. Getting around is fun, with Lara's athletic ability's coming into full force, jumping and climbing and chucking herself all over the place. Lara herself moves very naturally and feels 'right'. They did a great job on the mocap. Combat set pieces are satisfying, and the AI has definately improved. They throw grenades and shoot with great accuracy, making it a good challenge and you definately feel bad ass after a long shoot out. The addition of the bow is very welcome, and using it to take out enemies stealthily is great fun. The RPG elements of gaining xp and ugrading your weapons keep the progression at a good steady pace, so you really feel like you are learning all your skills along the way. The story is good and fits the environment, but you don't really feel any connection to your fellow stranded shipmates other than reading their journals that you find lying around. It had a good ending,
The tombs in this game are small physics based affairs that take 5 minutes to complete and are extremely easy. Gone are the huge tombs that take an hour to figure out how to open one door that we know and love, and instead we get a few pathetic excuses for tombs that very much dissapoint. This game is more about exploring caves, and feeling claustrophobic and that sense of the unkown rather than actual treasure hunting, but I guess as this is more of a survival game and the fact that Lara is just starting out and hasn't hit her stride, it can be somewhat forgiven in the context of a reboot. Hopefully in the next game they will have bigger, harder, longer tombs.
I think Tomb Raider is a fantastic game, I thoroughly enjoyed it, and fans of Lara will love how well they have portrayed her progression into badassery. It is well worth your time and highly recommended.