This game is pretty good. Great control and lots to accomplish in varied ways. It stands up well as a single-player game, and I'm glad, since I will probably never get to see the co-op. I got through it once on Normal, and enjoyed most of it. There are a few issues with the fixed perspective, nothing too maddening. My bigger problem is with the fixed length of Lara's jumps. Stick pressure, length of button press and speed before jumping all seem to have no effect on the jump. As a result, some attempts at creative climbing end up in frustrating leaps over walls into bottomless death. Another problem is the lack of weapon slots. There are 4. One has to be for the spear. You need it; it's that simple. And unless I'm missing something, you need the original pistols too, since they don't need or deplete the blue ammo bar. I deplete that in a hurry with all the other shooters. That leaves a grand total of 2 slots for other weapons, and there are a ton of them by game's end. I settled on a grenade launcher and a high-power assault rifle, switching one of these out for something else (like a rocket launcher) when the situation calls for it. I suppose I could fall back on the spear as the only default weapon when ammo runs out, but I find the pistols more useful, particularly with boosts from relics.
I haven't had a chance yet to replay single levels or the whole game, so I'll reserve comment on replay value. That's key to my final assessment of the game for the money, which comes up short if a single playthrough is all it really has to offer me.
