Rise of the Tomb Raider - Review

 The search for the truth.

Console: PlayStation 4 game played on a PlayStation 5.

As I said in the opening of my recent ‘The Future of Tomb Raider’ post I recently finished the 2nd instalment in the most recent set of Tomb Raider titles. 2015’s Rise of the Tomb Raider. The 20 Year Celebration edition to be precise. Whenever I looked up conversations on the ‘Survivor’ trilogy people always pointed towards 'Rise' as the best of the trilogy, the one still made by Crystal Dynamics before Square Enix gave the reins to Eidos Montreal. The one felt like one of the classic Tomb Raider games where ‘2013’ leaned more towards a survival game. The one that was such an improvement over its predecessor.

Now that I’ve played the game myself, I can say that yes, Rise is indeed a good bit better. It has more streamlined gameplay, better graphics and performance and more tombs just to name the big ones. It is, however, still Tomb Raider 2013 (which I also reviewed) at heart. Rise is more of a perfection of what that game was at its core than a ‘next step’. In other words ‘more of the same for both good and ill.

Let’s dive in.

One year after The Enduring shipwrecks on Yamatai, Lara is struggling to explain the supernatural things she has seen on the island and is suffering from PTSD. Looking for answers, Lara digs into her father´s old works about immortality. Piecing his work together she locates the tomb of the ´immortal prophet´ in Syria. She finds his Tomb empty but  and Trinity, an ancient order of knights turned paramilitary organization investigating the supernatural, hot on her heels.

Against Ana, her father´s second love and sort-off mother figure, wishes Lara, together with her friend and fellow Enduring survivor, Jonah head to Siberia to find the lost city of Kitezh and get to the bottom of the legend of the ‘immortal prophet’ and why Trinity’s is pursuing it as well.  

Where the Lara Croft of the 2013 outing is young, inexperienced and doesn’t even know if she wants to be an archaeologist/adventurer, Rise of the Tomb Raider sees a Lara dedicated to this life and with a thirst for both adventure and the truth. A Lara that’s much closer to the Lara Croft of old. I think this change in attitude in Lara is also the perfect way to describe the spirit of Rise. From its narrative to its gameplay.

Said narrative is a good one. It’s still not breaking any new ground but it remains an entertaining, engaging and personal story with improved pacing to boot. Once again, Lara and her growth are at the centre. This time around, instead of finding her own inner strength and building out her skill set, Lara faces some family demons as well as a lesson in truth. I think it´s well done, it gives Lara personal motivation, and I quite liked the insight it gave into her character.

Where its predecessor had a large cast that only popped in now and again, Rise has a smaller cast that we get to see more of. The main villains get some decent screen time and Lara herself interacts much more with others which is a nice change of pace.

A downside to the narrative is its predictability and similarity to its predecessor. It’s not hard to see where the story was heading early and nearly all the twists and turns I called hours before their reveal. The narrative has a lot of similarities to the 2013 outing, both big and small. The last act especially is, if you strip it down its core, is identical to that of the 2013 Tomb Raider. The story differentiates itself more than enough with its characters and setting but it is undeniable similar and when I noticed this, I have to admit, I couldn’t stop ‘seeing’ it.

Gameplay-wise, Rise still has all the survival, heavy combat and heavy action trappings of the 2013 version while putting more of an emphasis on the Tomb Raiding and puzzle solving of old. That the latter elements were lacking was the number 1 piece of feedback people gave Tomb Raider 2013 and Crystal Dynamics took that feedback, alongside a bunch of other points of feedback to heart.

Tombs are a part of the main campaign now and they can be quite impressive.

Rise of the Tomb Raider has over a dozen Tombs, with some as part of the main story and thus unmissable and most as optional side content. In 2013 the Tombs were completely optional, hidden away and weren’t all that tantalizing to tackle reward-wise. Rise improves upon all of these aspects.

Rise does a good job of making it all feel like an integrated part of the experience and makes it worth your while to go take part in these activities. Finishing a Tomb, for example, always gives you a useful new skill for your toolbox. The Tomb themselves are environmental and physics-based puzzles that are often interconnected with excellent atmosphere and design. With their larger size, more intricate design and more rewarding nature they are a big step up from their predecessor and a lot of fun.

The bulk of the gameplay is unchanged. Combat-wise, it’s the standard 3rd-person aiming with a bow and guns with the option to hide behind obstacles, dodge attacks and physically attack enemies, the latter of which has been made more useful. You can go in guns blazing, use environmental elements such as exploding barrels or try to sneak around and take down enemies using stealth techniques. This combat system is fine if shallow. It’s fun, certainly, but it lacks depth. Basic shooting and swinging your pickaxes is enough to take down your enemies 90% of the time and it becomes a bit repetitive and dare I say ‘brain dead’.

Using your survival skills you can find resources for crafting weapons and outfits as well and your survival senses, which highlight interesting markers, are still an unmissable tool. Perhaps a bit too much as I found myself quickly becoming over reliant on it. I think the developers could do with learning a bit more about environmental storytelling and clues.

All of these elements are largely unchanged but are streamlined. Actions like firing a rope take fewer button presses and the crafting takes are made simpler just to name two examples. The game also adds a few elements, such as the stuff you need to translate. It doesn’t actually change much but it does fit very well with the game’s identity.

Rise also puts a larger focus on exploration and gives the player more freedom. We still have the linear and heavy action scripted sequences ala Uncharted but the areas surrounding them are much more open. There are side-quests for you to do, collectables to find etc. and by doubling down on the Metroidvania aspect of gradually opening up the world with each new tool and skill you get, there’s a precedent for you too, when the story leads you back to an older part of the map or not, to explore and see what secrets you can find.

Performance-wise, Rise of the Tomb Raider is very good. It leverages the more powerful PS4 for some stellar visuals, decent loading times and a good framerate. The world is well designed and with the extra power of the hardware and engine, you can achieve a very good level of realism and detail to the Siberia and its surprisingly diverse biosphere. The motion capture helps a lot in making the characters feel more alive and elevates the performances of the actors. Yep, nothing wrong on this side!

Siberia might not have been a place I expected a Tomb Raider game to take place, but it works surprisingly well. 

Closing out, let’s take a look at the extra goodies the 20th-anniversary edition comes with aka the downloadable content. This extra content is neat but a lot of it feel tacked on as a ‘one trick pony’. In the 20th anniversary edition you get it all for ‘free’ but if you get the original version of the game I wouldn’t recommend investing in them outside of Baba Yaga and, if you enjoy the puzzles, Blood Ties.

Baba Yaga: is roughly 4 hours long and the only pack to take place during the main. It sees Lara explore a new area while helping a local find her missing grandpa who has gone out to kill ‘Baba Yaga’, the Witch of the Russian folklore that, allegedly, lives nearby. As it takes place during the campaign, you can tackle it whenever you want and use all the tools and skills available to you with no issue and its completion reward is a very handy tool to have in your arsenal. The story itself isn’t anything spectacular and the presentation is a bit rough around the edges, yet it’s fun and not quite what I expected.

Blood Ties is all about puzzle solving. It takes place between Lara’s trip to Syria and Siberia, while home at Croft Manor, Lara receives a letter from her uncle that he will take control of the manor in two weeks unless Lara proves she’s the heir rightful owner. Exploring Croft Manor is something we’ve seen before and Blood Ties is Rise’s version of it. Croft Manor is one big Tomb essentially with tons of collectables and secrets for you to find while you puzzle your way to the end.

Lara’s Nightmare reuses the manor map but sees her defend it from a horde of zombies. Cold Darkness Awakened is a combat-focused pack. It sees Lara trapped in a Soviet Bunker fighting a bunch of crazed Trinity soldiers. If you like combat, then these are the packs for you but beyond a combat-heavy experience, it doesn’t have anything to offer.

Conclusion

Rise of the Tomb Raider is a very good game. It distils what worked in its predecessor and addresses the feedback gamers gave it while bringing in more traditional Tomb Raider elements. Its story is fun if a bit too similar to what came before, the gameplay is rewarding and much snappier and the game looks and runs excellent. I would go as far as to say that I would recommend this game Tomb Raider 2013. Why? Because it’s a much better ‘Tomb’ Raider game, is more representative of what the series is all about.

It has its flaws and I feel like the community has talked it up beyond what it actually is but that doesn’t change the fact that it is a good game.