REVIEW -- Rise of the Tomb Raider

Rise of the Tomb Raider is the 2015 sequel to the 2013 reboot of the Tomb Raider franchise from developer Crystal Dynamics and publisher Square Enix. This will be the eleventh Tomb Raider game. The game released on November 10th 2015.

Microsoft Announced At E3 2015 that Rise of the Tomb Raider will be a timed exclusive release for both the Xbox 360 and Xbox One on November 2015.

Square Enix later revealed the PC, version would arrive Early 2016 via Steam and PS4 would arrive Holiday 2016. There has been no word on a PlayStation 3 version.

Story: 

Set one year after Tomb Raider, Lara Croft's experience of the supernatural on Yamatai has been covered up by an organization known as Trinity, a sinister private enterprise pursuing the supernatural. In order to prove she is not insane, Lara becomes obsessed with finding the truth behind myths around the world. As her obsession threatens to consume her, she discovers herself in the same predicament as her father, discredited by the scientific community after an encounter with Trinity of his own, and she inadvertently leads them to Siberia and the ancient city Kitezh—built by Georgy II, the Grand Prince of Vladimir in the 13th century—which Lara believes holds some truth behind immortality. In a race against time, Lara must survive against humans, animals, and the environment in order to find the truth behind the myths and become who she is destined to be.

The Verdict:

Game Informer had a feature showcasing all of Lara's improved equipment for this new game.

I want to note that I was happy to find a copy of the Xbox 360 port of the game to rent, but I have no idea if the game is the same across the board on both 360 and Xbox One, so bare with me as this review is from entirely from my personal experiences playing the 360 version.

First things first, this is a gorgeous game to behold. From stunning cutscenes, beautiful environments, and heavily detailed character models, you can tell that Square Enix wasted no expense in terms of visuals for this game. It’s definitely up there for one of the most visually stunning titles for last-generation consoles, along with Remember Me and the first two Assassin’s Creed titles. Then there's the small things that Square Enix pay attention to in terms of detail, such as Lara's weapons showing any and all visual upgrades while she's wearing them on her body or while using them in combat or Lara taking the moment to shiver after walking around in the snow for some time and even taking the opportunity to rub her arms to attempt to warm herself up. It's small things like this that really help immerse me into game's world. Square Enix really did some top notch work here.

Lara has plenty of new toys to help her out this time around.

Gameplay is the same is what we’ve come to know from the original game, but Lara can actually melee enemies by default this time around. I thought that was an excellent decision this time around as it annoyed me to no end in the original game where Lara wasn’t as effective close range as she was in mid and long-range combat until you maxed out the skill upgrades. This ability along with an upgraded hatchet can even knock off the armor from heavily armored foes and leave them ripe for execution finishing moves.

I think that someone may have complained about the gruesome death sequences and graphic ordeals that Lara got herself into in her original adventure on the island because those sequences are far and few this time around. There were a few cringe-worthy death sequences and fatalities due to player error, but definitely nowhere as many as there were in the original game. Lara doesn’t sport as many near-fatal injuries either, but I found myself bursting out laughing as she merely rubbed some herbs and leaves onto her possibly broken and bleeding arm to make it good as new. That’s video games for ya, huh?

No matter how you approach combat, Lara ALWAYS comes off like a bad ass.

In terms of equipment, you start off with just a pistol and Lara’s climbing hatchet/axe for melee attacks, but soon enough you’ll be armed with your good friend from the original game - the bow. Square Enix did a great job of making sure this weapon stays just as exciting - if not more so, in this game. I wish that more games would adopt the “sequel approach” that Rocksteady did with Batman: Arkham City - start players off with EVERYTHING they had from the original game and build upon that arsenal. I can understand taking out the more overpowered weapons and items but we shouldn’t have Lara run into “Metroid syndrome” where she trips up and drops all of her items down some pit and has to start from nothing at the beginning of every game. I know, I know. It’s a VERY minor complaint and I’m willing to forgive them for that this time. Even Assassin’s Creed did that when they went from II to Brotherhood. You started the next game off with literally almost everything you had in the previous title.

And boom goes the dynamite...

Over the course of the game, Lara acquires flame arrows, explosive-tipped arrows, poison arrows, armor-piercing arrows, and even arrows bundled with knockout gas (I personally didn’t find this one myself but that’s welcome addition as well). Lara is also able to acquire multiple weapons of the same type but she can only carry one weapon from each weapon type at any given time (bow, pistol/handgun, shotgun, and rifle/machine gun). This gives players freedom to tackle the game’s objectives as they see fit as there’s a multitude of ways to take out the adversaries standing in Lara’s way. There were several occasions throughout the game where I would manually reload a checkpoint just because I wanted to try out different way to tackle a particular obstacle or take out enemies in a different way after exploring the environment.

A great attention to detail in-game sports Lara with her pistol clearly ANY and
ALL visual upgrades to your firearms in her holsters to show
silencers and extended magazines stocked.

Speaking of environments, this is a game that rewards players for exploration and taking the time to explore the locale. Your controller vibrates when Lara’s near hidden resources and supplies that are buried underground. You can dig these resources up and use them for crafting upgrades to your weapons and inventory items. Lara can even craft items on the fly now that adds even more depth to combat. There wasn’t a single time where I felt the combat in the game was unfair as there’s always something laying around that you can pick up, craft something on the fly and help you out in the heat of battle. Players just have to pay attention to their surroundings. Resources for crafting can be found in boxes and crates littered around the environment, by looting enemy corpses, and even by hunting animals as well. At least they didn’t make hunting in this game as annoying and tedious as it is in Assassin’s Creed III and IV…

I will admit seeing bears, wolves, and mountain lions made me think that I was playing those games for a moment though or even Red Dead Redemption with that bear gunning for you like a madman. I’m sure that’s going to give some players nightmares after bumping into that fool the first time.

The tactical knife allows Lara to cut down ropes and ziplines, but also can be used
for stealth kills along with the axe. 

In terms of the narrative, it’s a bit of deja vu with a bit of “been there, done that” by the game’s finale as I honestly felt like Square Enix literally rehashed the ending from the original game in terms of the build-up to the finale - the introduction of some supernatural army of doom, the fool who wants to abuse this power for their own personal gain, and the last Rambo-esque hurrah through what seems like impossible odds versus enemy soldiers and the supernatural. The plot twist near the end is a bit TOO predictable as I saw that coming the second that character was introduced, but I will give Square Enix kudos for the tease at the end of the ending credits. I’m very glad to see that Lara’s adventures in this revival will continue.

One thing that may throw players for a loop this time around is that this game is a bit of an open world. You don’t have to stick to the main story consistently. Instead, you can venture off and explore the 9 optional tombs or partake in various side missions. Each of the optional tombs are a test of wits and applying various uses to Lara’s equipment. If you don’t have the items to necessarily solve that tomb, the game will let you know right off the bat before even entering, so that’s an added plus that the creators of this game thought of a prompt to let players know of that for they won’t feel stupid wasting hours for nothing. The various side missions can be found from the various NPCs you encounter throughout the game. Each of them have a simple task that usually details finding some items, hunting animals, or disposing of enemy forces. Nine times out of ten, the missions take place where you have gone to previously at that point of the story, so if you’re doing the side missions as you’re progressing throughout the story, it’s not that hard to accept these missions between breaks in the narrative. Most of the time, they reward you with upgrades for your weapons, so it’s beneficial to help these people out when you can as most of the time you’re killing two birds with one stone - you’re acquiring resources and parts for upgrading your weapons and inventory as well as getting rewards for helping these NPCs out. The “last” side mission can be done in post-game as one of the NPCs want you to visit and complete EVERY optional tomb in the game. She rewards you with a TON of coins for your trouble, which can be used to buy items at the Supply Shack.

From what reports are saying online, it's beneficial to complete the side missions before you complete the main story as you're unable to finish most of them in post-game after continuing the game after the ending credits.

Like the previous title, Lara gains experience for every action in combat and exploration. These points can be used to purchase Skills to enhance Lara's abilities and expertise in hand-to-hand combat, hunting and salvaging resources, and with her weapon prowess. My personal favorites came from the combat skills that hone her abilities with the bow, unlocking double and triple kills while zoomed in on adversaries. This ability transforms the game into Splinter Cell: Conviction with a bow, or rather Hitman for Square Enix fans. These abilities enhance Lara's abilities and weapons that she acquires throughout the game's narrative as well, such as upgrading flame arrows to napalm arrows, grenade/explosive arrows to cluster bomb arrows, or poison arrows to poison gas cloud arrows. Shotguns could even be upgraded to fire rounds that ignite it's targets into flames, combat mastery with particular firearms can be upgraded to unlock finishing moves with those weapons as well in close quarters combat. Experimenting and toying with the upgrades for each players particular playstyle is worth multiple playthroughs on its own just for joy of toying with all of these combinations. This is yet another thumbs up for Square Enix allowing players to tackle the game as how they see fit.

Unlockable costume for completing
all of the optional tombs. 

I thought the outfit that was unlocked after you complete all of the optional tombs was a pretty sweet bonus. Lara finally looks like she fits in with the rest of her Remnant allies.

Bugs and Glitches

On Xbox 360, I ran into a lot of situations where the framerate would drop to a crawl for a few seconds when there’s a lot going onscreen (explosions, tons going on in the environment, etc.). It’s not bad enough where it ruins the game, but after installing the game to my HDD, this problem happened a lot less than I would expected it would otherwise.

One of the underwater optional tombs is glitched. There’s a segment where you have to attach a rope arrow to a crane that’s underwater after draining the water out of the pool. The puzzle is unsolvable if the rope glitches into the wall and doesn’t attach to the switch. I was only able to solve the puzzle after reloading the checkpoint and returning back to this area. I had a similar situation happen when creating a zipline throughout the course of the story.

Before you acquire the Iron Grip skill/ability from one of the optional tombs, I found it rather glitchy to perform rock/ice climbing with the grappling axe. I would have Lara scale/climb walls only for her to randomly slide off the wall and fall to her death. I don’t know what was the cause of this, but I think it has something to do with some poor collision detection. I’ve had this happen a LOT over the course of the game. Once again, it’s not enough to break the game, but enough to annoy gamers and potentially turn them away from the game.

While wearing particular alternate costumes/outfits, Lara’s items and weapons glitch completely through her body to some hilarious results. For example, the Compound Bow looks like it's sawing her in half at times or coming out of her shoulders and waist. I was using the Commando and Infiltrator outfits for the last portion of the game, so I guess that’s why it was looking so weird…

After acquiring that wire tool that you can use to throw Lara’s grappling axe to help with long jumps, it tends to glitch out and make Lara fall to her death much like with the normal climbing axes. Once again, this doesn’t happen a LOT but it’s just plain annoying.

Rent It, Buy It, or Don’t Bother?

Even though I rented it, I suggest buying it. I’m definitely going to pick up a copy at some point as I would love to replay the game at a higher difficulty with the added challenge of the boost cards and skills, along with the disadvantage handicap cards.

After renting the game for 5 days, I managed to finish the game with 77% completion (100% story completion, ALL optional tombs and side missions completed). The only stuff I didn’t get around to was exploring all of the crypts and acquiring all of the collectibles and various weapons.

If you enjoyed Lara Croft’s debut adventure in this rebooted franchise, then you owe yourself to join Lara once again on this new entry in the series. You can tell that Square Enix has made this game into a labor of love with obvious influences from the Uncharted series as well as the Hitman franchise to make this game even more a joy to play as the original.

With Lara Croft & The Guardian of Light and its sequel, Lara Croft & The Temple of Osiris, Square Enix are well underway restoring the legacy of the Tomb Raider franchise with this new titles in Lara Croft’s traditional tomb raiding form. There’s enough here to keep long time fans happy while enough new paint to intrigue and amaze gamers to draw in new fans to this franchise. With various improvements over the original title and tons of replayability and extra content, Rise of the Tomb Raider is welcome addition new entry in this revival of the Tomb Raider franchise.

I know that there’s plenty of fans mad that it’s currently a Xbox exclusive, but don’t fret - PlayStation 4 and PC owners will get a crack at this game in 2016. I’m sure by then all of the DLC detailed in the Season Pass will be available all at once.