Rise of the Tomb Raider Review: Eat Your Heart Out, Indy

Rise of the Tomb Raider review: a sequel that outgrows the relaunch

The 2013 Tomb Raider relaunch set a high bar. Crystal Dynamics and Square Enix took Lara Croft, stripped her down to her essential traits and rebuilt her into a believable, dynamic action hero. A sequel that tops it seemed hard to imagine. Rise of the Tomb Raider tops it in nearly every area other than its story, where it is a step behind. The verdict of this Rise of the Tomb Raider review is simple, and the rest of the Rise of the Tomb Raider review backs it up: it is a confident, generous adventure that does what a sequel should and fixes what was wrong with the first game.

Crystal Dynamics developed the game with support from Eidos-Montréal. It was published by Microsoft Studios and Square Enix, and arrived first on Xbox One and Xbox 360 on November 10, 2015 in North America, before reaching Windows on January 28, 2016 and PlayStation 4 on October 11, 2016 in a 20 Year Celebration edition. The timed Xbox exclusivity drew some criticism from players and the press, but the game itself is the same wherever it runs. Rhianna Pratchett wrote it, Camilla Luddington voiced and performed Lara, and Bobby Tahouri composed the score.

The story begins after a gap in time. Lara has spent months on archaeological trips around the world, and in the back of her mind is the memory of her father and the dream he failed to achieve, which cost him his life. Lord Croft was searching for the Divine Source, a relic said to grant immortality. Lara learns that a deadly paramilitary organization called Trinity wants it too, and with her friend Jonah, a fellow survivor of the Yamatai island ordeal, she sets out to stop them. The trail runs from Syria to Siberia.

Story, setting and pace

The plot is not original. Betrayal, intrigue, flashbacks and a hint of romance are standard issue, and the relic at the center has a familiar shape. Yet it fits the Tomb Raider universe so well that the cliches are easy to forgive. The architecture is stunning, the terrain is open and the mix of old and new technology gives the setting character. The game moves at a breakneck pace from the opening, and it makes a player want to push on to find out the truth about the Divine Source.

The research Lara follows leads to Kitezh, a lost city said to hold the secret of immortality, and along the way she meets the Remnant, a community living in a hidden valley. The Remnant gives the middle of the game a human texture, since the player is no longer only stealing from tombs and shooting at mercenaries. It gives Lara something to protect, and it ties the quest for a relic to people who have a stake in the answer.

Fast does not mean linear. The game has plenty of side quests and optional missions, and a player can collect relics and documents, listen to audio tapes and follow old-fashioned quest lines with non-player characters. The hubs are semi-open, with crafting and survival resources scattered around, and they give the player something to do beyond the main path.

What the sequel fixes

The developers appear to have listened to complaints about the first game. The most welcome change is the removal of quick-time events. Lara's deaths are less gruesome as a result, and killing is secondary in this installment, which suits a character who is supposed to be an explorer. The skill point system is more forgiving, with levels arriving faster, and there are many more skills to choose from across three trees, named Brawler, Hunter and Survivor.

Hunting and scavenging now matter. Animals can be looted for skins, meat and parts, which feed a new crafting system that produces unique ammunition, item upgrades and larger pouches. A completionist could spend hours gathering materials without noticing the clock. The weapon list is richer too: unlockable variants of the bow, pistol, shotgun and assault rifle, each of them upgradable, and ammunition types such as poison gas arrows, grenade arrows and hollow-point rounds. The pickaxes double as a grappling tool, which is both useful and fun.

Tombs, combat and swimming

Tombs are still part of Tomb Raider, but their purpose changes. Instead of rewarding a player with a convenient weapon piece, each tomb teaches a unique skill tied to its theme, such as faster healing. The level design is strong, and while some of the tombs are easy, the real challenge comes from the main story's puzzles and from large battles that use the environment.

The basic mechanics are similar to the relaunch, and anyone who played the 2013 game can pick this one up without trouble. How Lara plays, however, has changed a lot. There is a stronger emphasis on tactics than on running and gunning through a linear arena. The combat borrows from Assassin's Creed and the Batman: Arkham games, with tree branches and bushes to hide in, and an underwater boss fight that is among the highlights. Melee gets more use than it did in the relaunch.

Swimming is new to the series, and it is the one area that frustrates. Without a meter to show Lara's air supply, the player judges by the screen, and early on that leads to deaths. A rebreather late in the game solves the problem, and a meter would not suit the interface, but the design is still a minor irritation.

Rise of the Tomb Raider verdict: the best game in the series for many players

The weaknesses are in the characters. Jonah is likable as a sidekick but feels underused, and a different partner from the comics, such as Joslin Reyes, would have offered a more interesting dynamic. The game also adds more father-like figures to Lara's life, which is a lazy way to deepen a character who has already lost her father and her mentor Roth. The villains, religious fanatics who want to save the world by purging it of sin, feel like a rehash of the first game's Mathias, and a better antagonist would have lifted the story.

Lara has some of the best banter in the series, though. When an enemy shouts that she is here, her answer is that they are damn right she is. The voice work and the animation sell her confidence, and the performance by Luddington is warm and sharp.

Replay value is generous. Instead of a multiplayer mode, the game offers Expeditions, which let players revisit sections under new constraints with cards that modify the rules. The later editions add more. Baba Yaga: The Temple of the Witch and Cold Darkness Awakened were released as downloadable content, and the PlayStation 4 20 Year Celebration edition adds a Tomb Raider III-inspired outfit, a cooperative endurance mode, and two manor-based extras: Blood Ties, an exploration mode without combat, and Lara's Nightmare, a zombie-combat mode. Season pass holders received it free.

Technically the game is in good shape. There are a few quirks with jumping and climbing and the odd sound problem during big fights, but nothing that breaks the experience. It looks gorgeous on the hardware it was built for, and the environments are one of the strongest arguments for owning it.

Critics at the time mostly agreed. The graphics, gameplay, characterization and volume of content drew praise, while the story was called formulaic and the hub areas a little padded. That matches the experience of playing it. If you loved the relaunch, you will love this, and the improvements to hunting, crafting and tomb design make the older game feel slightly dated by comparison. If you are new to Lara, start here or start with the first game, but do not skip either. Numbers matter less than feel here, since this is a game built to be explored at the player's own pace. The best summary borrows a line from another review: it may not be the best game, but it is the best game for a lot of players who want a smart, exciting adventure with a hero worth following.

Sources

• Rise of the Tomb Raider, Wikipedia — developer, release dates and platforms