I'll give it to this iteration of Tomb Raider for making me actually care about Lara Croft. I've never cared about the Tomb Raider franchise or Lara ever before. This game made me feel some empathy for her character and adventure.
This game, while riddled with problems, is pretty fun for the most part. The story plays out like a bad early 90's movie. The side characters are horribly written and annoying as hell. I crossed my fingers for them to all die. The only good characters are the Crofts. It doesn't really make sense to have these annoying characters since they do nothing in the game and Lara is the main focus. There are action moments that are bordering ridiculous and entertaining. I found myself either laughing at or laughing with the game. You'll know what I mean with you encounter them. The game only fails when the game tries to make take these scenes with a straight face instead of humor.
The gameply is a mix of boring boring boring faux-exploration and fun firefights. It's similar to the Zelda or Batman Arkham games. It's a linear game with an open world feeling. You'll open new areas depending on the tools/weapons you're carrying. The puzzles can range from overly simplistic to convolutedly difficult. None of these puzzles are at the very least realistic.
Tomb Raider steals a lot from multiple games yet it does a lot well. The cross bow is maybe the best cross bow action I've ever played. You pretty much start with the cross bow yet later in the game you'll have access to other weapons and guns. But I mostly stuck with just the cross bow because it was so much fun. The game is at its best when you're in peril. Either horror-esque moments, survivalist-danger moments, or firefight-action moments. There are several jaw-dropping gorgeous scenes that combine great art direction and scenery that I really did not expect. It's kinda amazing these scenes made it into this game.
For all the similar game design pitfalls that this game duplicates from other franchises, Tomb Raider builds on the action-adventure platform and makes it its own. Lara is finally cool again. But please make the side characters interesting (or non-existant) and stop with the horrible 90's story-line.