Rise of the Tomb Raider takes the formula established in the 2013 reboot and improves upon it in almost every way. A great experience on Xbox One and something for PC and PS4 owners to anticipate in 2016.
Rise of the Tomb Raider
Developer: Crystal Dynamics
Price: $60
Platforms: Xbox One
The story puts Lara following in the footsteps of her father, a famed explorer who was disgraced for believing in and pursuing a legend about an item that grants immortality. Coming off of the events of the first game, Lara is more open to the idea. The story is an entertaining big action adventure tale in the vein of Indiana Jones or the Uncharted series.
The core narrative can be completed pretty quickly if mainlined. On my first playthrough I balanced my time on story and challenge tombs and was watching the credits roll after about 10 hours. The adventure Crystal Dynamics put together for players to experience Return of the Tomb Raider hooked me quickly from the start; I binge played out of interest in the story. As cliche as the archeological adventure stories can be, the events in RotR are one of the best stories that I can recall from recent years and has a few pivotal moments which are unexpected and exciting.
The open world areas give players lots of different options to improve Lara’s abilities through a variety of activities. These can vary from gathering resources for other characters in the world, to finding all of the hidden targets and shooting them with the bow. By far the best part of these optional areas are the “Challenge Tombs.”
These tombs are self contained experiences. The difficulty of the tombs are inconsistent but still satisfying to complete, and worth the time because Lara learns a new, unique ability from each of these tombs. One example of an easier puzzle had me pushing two, heavy mine carts down tracks to break down a wall, exposing the room with the ability upgrade. Even though this specific puzzle was simple– solvable in under 10 minutes, I still found the mechanics enjoyable. The area also contained well voiced and interesting lore explained through audiolog style collectables. and exciting to discover as the entrances to most of these tombs are a puzzle themselves to find.
Despite the majority of these sections being completely optional, they are still well crafted. The puzzles are unique. The environments are beautiful and complex and even include cinematic set piece moments, albeit on a smaller scale.
The combat scenarios are a mixture of linear corridor shooting and open arenas with multiple paths of entry. The open combat areas feel heavily influenced by the Far Cry series. Players have the ability to play stealthy, and thanks to the survival vision ability can tell when a quiet takedown is seen by other enemies. I had multiple moments within close proximity to several enemies; very satisfying silent takedowns which contently transition to fast paced shooting when things go bad. The feeling of screwing up, getting detected and having to adjust strategy never felt like a failure. Not once did I reach for the reset button after blowing my stealth since the combat is equally as entertaining.
A new crafting mechanic allows Lara to take items she finds scattered around a combat arena and create tools for destruction. Tin cans can be turned into makeshift grenades, jars into smoke bombs and bottles into molotov cocktails. The craftable weapons don’t save into any inventory, requiring players to craft on demand when the scenario allows it. In addition to these weapons, Lara uses resources like sticks, ore and feathers for in-the-moment ammunition and healing item crafting.
Separate from the real time crafting, lumped in with the campfire character progression and fast-travel is the ability to craft new gear for Lara. This system draws even more similarities to games like Far Cry, requiring animal skins and other resources to improve ammunition pouches and the like. While hunting was present in the predecessor, Tomb Raider never gave players any incentive to play with the mechanic. In Rise of the Tomb Raider, I was checking the map frequently searching for different hunting locations, and for legendary animals to skin in order to craft as many upgrades as possible. The hunting system takes what was previously just an additional level of detail and turns it into an interesting, useful character progression mechanic.
One weird inclusion to Rise of the Tomb Raider is a collection of arcade style experiences in “Expedition Mode.” Separated out in the main menu, this is where players will discover that those mysterious credits that were awarded for in-game accomplishments can be used to buy card packs primarily used as modifiers. Expedition mode consists of Score Attack, Remnant Resistance and Chapter Replay. Each of them contains different credit award amounts which are used to buy a variety of blind card packs for more modifiers, permanent and one time use. The whole system is convoluted and poorly explained. Expedition Mode required me to dive in virtually clueless and experiment with the systems and modes on my own, with very little guidance, especially determining which card packs were worth spending my credits on.
I had the most fun doing the Score Attack. The cards act as difficulty modifiers that also impact the score and the reward value. Cards fall into several categories but breakdown to this: Ones that make the game easier for the player reduces the multiplier, cards that make things more challenging adds to the multiplier. Things can get a little goofy and I especially enjoyed it when they did. I played multiple times with big-head mode with a bow that shoots chickens. It’s unfortunate that these modes aren’t given more explanation and tutorial, because they are a creative way to replay content. Upon seeing that card packs can be bought with real-world money I was initially dismissive of the content, but after spending some time with the systems, Expedition Mode can be easily enjoyed without buying into any microtransactions. Additionally I would have liked to see some sort of new game plus mode as another avenue to replay the game on increased difficulties.
The Final Word
Rise of the Tomb Raider is a great improvement on the 2013 design and continues to develop Lara from where the first game left off. The game blends third person shooting with exploration and gives the player a lot of freedom in how the different scenarios can be approached. Rise of the Tomb Raider is one of the strongest, most entertaining, single-player experiences of 2015. Xbox One owners should grab this timed exclusive, and PC/PlayStation 4 owners have a lot to look forward to when it releases in 2016.
– MonsterVine Rating: 4.5 out of 5 – Great
