Rise of the Tomb Raider

Played On: XB1

Also Available On: PC, Xbox 360

What It Is

A third-person action-adventure starring everyone’s favorite adventurer, Lara Croft, as she follows her father’s past to find the source of eternal life.

What I Liked

Visuals – To put it bluntly, Rise of the Tomb Raider is beautiful. I played on the Xbox One, and while it likely looks far better on a powerful gaming PC, the console version is no slouch. Many of Lara’s movements are fairly lifelike, allowing you to empathize with the character. This is a protagonist who really feels; Lara gets hurt, and gets cold (she’s very, very cold in this game…), and the player feels these things, in part because of the character’s design and movement. The environments also look great and the lighting pops, and together make Rise of the Tomb Raider one of the best looking Xbox One games I’ve played yet.

The Uncharted Effect – By now, it’s well-known that Uncharted was influenced by the original Tomb Raider games, and the reboot of Tomb Raider has clearly been influenced by the Uncharted series. Rise of the Tomb Raider builds on this formula, taking the action-packed set-pieces that make Naughty Dog’s series so memorable, but situating them in a semi-open-world that allows for more exploration, as well as serene moments of relative peace and quiet. This sort of ‘directed-open-world’ is not often well-done, but Rise of the Tomb Raider balances this well.

 

Raiding Tombs – One of the most popular elements of the original Tomb Raider reboot was the puzzle tombs. Unfortunately, there were very few of them and you could easily play through the game without even noticing their existence. The developers seemingly listened, because Rise of the Tomb Raider features at least 9 challenge tombs scattered around the world. These are essentially environmental puzzles that require you to manipulate objects in the world in order to make your way to a certain point on the map. The tombs are a nice diversion from the shooting and surviving, and provide just enough challenge to make the player feel clever without being exceptionally frustrating.

What I Didn’t Like

Keep on Shooting – Rise of the Tomb Raider falls into the trap that far too many games do. This is a game that is at its best when it opens up and allows the player to  create their own way through the world. This means letting the player explore the environment, discover new locales and treasures, and when in combat, decide whether to go in guns blazing or take a stealthy approach. Unfortunately, there were far too many segments of the game where it forces the player to battle straight through the enemy front-line, rather than having a choice to approach combat creatively. These segments take away from the experience, dragging on and, because the actual shooting mechanics are unspectacular, making segments of the game feel overly restrictive and tiresome.

The Bug – Towards the end of the game – based on a play-through I watched on Youtube, about 1-2 hours before the finale – I ran into a game-breaking bug that halted my progress and did not allow me to finish the campaign. I was at a section where I had to aim a certain weapon, and every time I initiated the action, I was struck by an enemy that didn’t exist. I searched the area, thinking I missed someone, but it was a glitch. I reloaded, played through the battle again, and ran into the same bug. Apparently, this has happened to a number of players at this particular point, but most report that a single reload fixes the issue. Unfortunately for me, this was not the case, and I was unable to finish the campaign after spending more than a dozen hours with the game.

My Recommendation

This is a tough one for me. On the one hand, I love these types of action-adventures. I really enjoyed the first Tomb Raider reboot, and Rise of the Tomb Raider improves upon nearly everything from that game. The world is great, the visuals are gorgeous, the tombs are interesting, and most of the gameplay experience is downright fun. Unfortunately, the developers’ insistence on making the player shoot as much as possible and the game-breaking bug I experienced soured the experience after more than a dozen hours of joy. That said, my case with the bug seems to be a rare one, so assuming you can get through this game without coming to such a screeching halt, I cannot recommend this game enough for fans of third-person action-adventures.

Now, I just can’t wait for April. Your move, Uncharted….