Playtime: 24h14m (Normal playthrough)

Intro

ROTTR is a third-person action game taking place in a hub-based world (several interconnected maps instead of one big one). You fight, hunt, craft, puzzle and platform your way to a terrible fight with the endboss.

The Good

• The voice memos and artifacts are generally interesting.
• It's a very pretty game.
• I love that you can destroy so many parts of enemies' armor.
• Uses rope arrows really well.
• Some really nice puzzles.
• Lara murders dozens brutally then looks shocked when people get killed in cutscenes.

The Bad

• Two CTDs (Crash To Desktop).
• Terrible, predictable story.
• Challenge objects are the only thing not marked on the map.
• Failing during puzzles is a pain because the game uses checkpoints.
• Pointless inventory size limit is really annoying.
• The game is pretty short.
• Upgrading takes way too many resources.
• Open world is very restricted and only an excuse for resource grinding.
• A couple of puzzles (~3) are counter-intuitive.
• Lara loves falling to her death and will rarely stop at edges. Get help Lara.

The Ugly

• Even with "reduced camera shaking" there is still far too much shaking.
• Lots of backtracking, especially to get hidden items.
• Backtracking often involves tedious platforming.
• There is too much downtime because of all the backtracking you have to do.
• All of the boss battles are awful and overly scripted. I was beating the shit out of the endboss and it did no damage because you're supposed to stealth attack him.
• The game has an overload of bad scripted platforming events where you die because you didn't 100% do what they wanted you to do or because you didn't see something because of the camera. At least GTA V lets you skip shit like that.
• The devs are incredibly lazy and love walling stuff off with invisible walls or wooden stakes, even if you they allow you to get on the "wrong" side of them. Several times i've had to spend a ton of time walking all the way back from where i came because alternative paths were blocked off without being shown on the map.

Conclusion

I love open world games and i love "sneaky murder (wo)man" games but ROTTR is a poor entry in the genre. The small, restrictive "open" world is used as padding. I'm pretty sure at least 4-6 of the 24 hours i played were spent going back to places to dig stuff up and hunt animals (and sometimes getting stuck behind unforeseen barriers).

The game almost never lets go of your hand. Stealth almost never seems viable and means losing out on XP and items. I didn't even mind the linearity of ROTTR but all of the pre-determined stuff really got on my nerves. And this lasts all the way to the very end. I failed to kill the endboss twice because the button prompt was too vague. And once because Lara stupidly fell off a pillar. Stop falling Lara, FFS.

Last week I really had the urge to play through a proper Indiana Jones style adventure so I finally got the next Tomb Raider game I've been meaning to play. Its pretty solid.

I remember the gameplay being exciting and fun in the first game and this one keeps that going. Climbing, dodging, swinging, and sliding around the environment is still great. Collecting resources to make upgrades to your weapons is still satisfying and the gunplay/bowplay is still intense. I didn't really employ many guerrilla and stealth tactics in my playthrough and I'm not really sure if it was just the way I was playing or if they just made the game that way but either way when I did use them it was still great to take down a group of enemies AC style. The main story was interesting at times but definitely nothing all that special, You could guess a ton of what would eventually happen, although I think it was still executed well. Another thing not that stellar were the side quests. They were all basically lame fetch quests and were basically just filler content. What's strange is that the game doesn't even need them, it was good on its own. They were probably just there to stretch the game length or maybe to give you more incentive to explore the more open environments but still, they were totally unnecessary. Although, the optional tomb puzzles you can explore/solve were great and I don't really like puzzles in games very much and even I have to admit that I thought they were kewl and made me feel smart when I solved them. The environment itself was very awe inspiring, I found myself a couple of times just staring at the landscapes and underground ruins for a bit.

Cons: -Dumb and unnecessary side quests -The main plot is mostly predictable but well executed

Pros: -Combat and gameplay is fun and visceral -Tomb puzzles are kewl challenges -The environment is beautiful and worth exploring

Overall Rise of the Tomb Raider is a solid game that has all the potential in a sequel to be something incredible.

Whenever a franchise is getting a reboot there's always a hesitation as to how it will turn out compared to the original. I have to say, so far the new Tomb Raider saga is immensely enjoyable. They've reinvented Lara enough to not be straight rehashing old titles, but still kept enough of the key feelings of the series to make it not seem like a totally different entity.

On to the actual game in question, this was a great sequel to the 2013 game. We see a Lara who is less a hapless shipwreck survivor and more of an aspiring adventurer like the original Lara, but she's still got some work, or "rising", to do. She was actually well-developed for the sequel, learning from her time on Yamati. This game wasn't as focused around the survival angle as 2013 was, instead more of a traditional adventure. The developers cut Lara a break this time too as she didn't get near as banged up or gruesomely injured.

The game does stick with the open world setting, which I'm not sure how long they can keep that up. Adventure games usually involve a little globe-trotting at some point. With this being an adventure game, that did throw me a bit towards the start. Felt as if I was beginning at the ending in Siberia. Usually finding the lost city in a game requires levels visiting various world locales to dig up graves and search temples, but nope they did most all that off screen for you. As I progressed in the game it wasn't as big a deal as there was still plenty of story to unravel in the snowy wilderness.

I love the collectible system in this game. All of them serve to either give you little tidbit facts about history or to create side stories of ancient and modern people that run aside yours. Those documents that create a little storyline that adds to the treasure's mystery and drags you into how it ended for the writer are my favorite. These collectibles aren't just little gold statues you pick up for bonus points, looking at you Uncharted, they actually play into the world.

New combat and traversal skills were good enough. It kept the game from being a clone of 2013, and I liked that some of the gear from that game could be acquired in this game via the supply store, hello rope ascender! At first I wasn't crazy about the wire spool tool as it turned Lara into Tobey Maguire, but I realized that she did have a similar grapple hook in Legends and Underworld.

Time for the story content, put it at the bottom to avoid spoiling the game for anyone, so.... yeah, spoilers ahead. Skip to the "All in all" to avoid them. The mystery was interesting, undying Prophet leads his people to Siberia with a Godly source that grants immortality. On an aside, I like how sorta realistically they handle Lara obsessing over this magical artifact & everyone being hesitantly worried for her, knowing her father ruined his whole family in it's pursuit. So, we learn the story of our mcguffin for this game. You'll easily see the Prophet is heavily based off of Jesus, so much I wondered at first why not just use Jesus, but making up a guy allows them to play fast & loose with the history. Of course, you meet a guy named Jacob who is very saintly acting... so, of course, he's the Prophet still alive. We the players figure it out quick, Lara figures it out to, but it's not at a big impactful time. He uses some magic healing dust to save Jonah. Yeah, Jonah helps you in the start, disappears for most the game, believing he returned to town, only to show up and be kidnapped for the last act. Anyways, that's how Lara discovers Jacob's secret, not when she, I dunno, saw him next to a statue of the Prophet. I also guessed that the villagers were all immortal followers, but that didn't appear so. There was an undead army though, your Oni for this game if you will. Actually the ending did have lots of similarities to 2013's. Lara sneaking through a fortress filled with undead soldiers. I thought Konstatin made a good villain, one of those "I'm the hero of this story, it's my destiny" archetypes.

They sequel bait this game hard time at the end. With allusions to the next adventure being in Mexico and Trinity assassinating Ana while still having plans for Lara. Which I'm fine with more of this series. There are also notes in Croft Manor DLC that mention Lara's mother went missing in Tibet which is a storyline taken from the Legends trilogy. Could we see that revisited here?

All in all, I found this game immensely fun and interesting. I may even prefer it some over Uncharted, & I love that series too. They are kinda different in tone. Lara is dedicated and serious, Nate is a wisecracking smart-ass. While the mystery isn't a brainbuster & there's no big twist it was still a very fun ride to go on. Nowadays with so many adventure plots already done making a good mystery/plot twist is tough. I could still see me replaying this game.

Starts so strong but slides down a deeper and deeper cliff the further it gets. I remember hearing about how this out-Uncharted Uncharted when it came out, and it's difficult for me to see how other than in one and only one area: the open world exploration.

But here's the thing: I don't play these sorts of games for that. I love a good open world game, don't get me wrong, but these sorts of adventures, for me, are best when they -don't- try to thread a certain kind of needle. That needle being, in this case, an Uncharted-esque adventure AND an open world game. Because rather than excelling at one RotTR delivers mediocrity on both ends of the spectrum. The open world exploration is never as satisfying as I would like because, frankly, there are too many collectibles and most of them are entirely superfluous. It's a lot of busy work and no real sense of genuine exploration. Additionally the story (which is the only reason I'm making the Uncharted comparisons—because yes, TR did in many ways popularize this sort of game, but it's clear the developers of this WANT to hit Naughty Dog-style storytelling heights) is predictable and kind of shit. There's damn near no characterization, no depth or growth beyond the most basic and predictable "Lara learns ethical priorities," and the villains are cartoon cutouts that would be more at home in the PS2 era.

The game is pretty, yes, but the soundtrack is lifeless, the levels are not that great to get around (especially the last run of them), and Lara controls terribly, with the increasing arsenal feeling like it's a burden and never giving you the sense of freedom it should (fuck the arrow-climbing, that shit is never not annoying).

I had enough fun with this to see it through to the end, but by the final stretch of events I was feeling veeeerrrrry done. And the actual final bosses—the helicopter and the one-on-one battle with Konstantin—are shit. Like, I have nothing positive to say about them—they are annoying, poor spectacle that does not deliver. Not to mention the entire final sequence feels odd as you hear the chaos of the battle but actually almost never see anything other than some deathless dudes climbing above you.

It's not a bad game, but it's not more than good. If this site allowed half stars, I would give this 2.5 for sure. For this type of adventure game, the modern Tomb Raider entries have so far left me cold by trying to be more story heavy when, in fact, they just don't have the chops for it. Honestly, if these were just games of challenge tombs with exploration linking them, a la BotW and how it used shrines, I would be far more positive. But all the collecting and attempts at a big-budget narrative fail to cohere into anything truly remarkable or even better than just "fine."

I'll get to Shadow at some point, but I'm in no rush given how many have said that this entry is, in fact, the high water mark for this iteration of the franchise. If that's the case, colour me very disappointed.

From our last adventure, Square Enix introduced us to Lara Croft who was an innocent explorer trying to solve an unsolved mystery. But then she soon experiences a devastating situation in which she has to lose part of her humanity in order to save herself and her loved ones. Those experiences were carried over to Rise of the Tomb Raider in which we were able to experience a fierce seasoned but charismatic and passionate new Lara croft as she faces off her new greatest challenge on solving one of the world's most frightening unsolved mysteries.

Pro's

At its core, Rise of the Tomb Raider is a great sequel for the reboot TR franchise. Square Enix was able to expand more on Lara's backstory on why she wanted to pursue after her father's ambitious theories on solving the world's unsolved mysteries.

Square Enix introduced us to a familiar but fresh deep new weapon crafting system that made our journey a lot more entertaining.

Despite this game coming out in 2015 and running on my base PS4, ROTR world designed is beautifully crafted. From the Snowy Mountains, Siberia mountain tombs, and the well-crafted lost city of Kitezh. The in-game cut scenes are extremely detailed and fresh.

ROTR new storyline was a perfect introduction that helped expand the Tomb Raider universe lore. The new enemy faction known as Trinity had a valid and easy-to-understand goal for why they were pursuing a certain artifact. Some of the lore that was introduced to us such as the prophet's journey across the mainlands and constructing up a city to protect his artifact was one of the biggest highlights of the game.

The lost Tombs has finally had a purpose in the game since it will teach Lara Croft new certain abilities to fight against her enemies.

Con's

One of the biggest issues in the first Tomb Raider game is the pacing. Once again, the pacing in this game is a major problem. There are certain moments in which things feel dragged out. This game can easily cut out 2-3 hours. The side quest feels unnecessary, all it does is slow down the pace of the story. Too many unnecessary puzzles, that feel extremely dragged out. Way too many unnecessary battle conflicts, Jonah feels extremely out of place in this story. He literally has no purpose, just nostalgia purposes. Having him there practically dragged 30 mins of unnecessary filler. Lastly way too many collectibles. Some of the collectibles take a bit too long for the audio to be done with. After 80 something collectibles, things just feel tiring and boring.

One of my other issues with the first Tomb Raider game is the ending. And once again Rise of the Tomb Raider had a rushed and unsatisfying ending. After so much build-up, the ending just felt flat and rushed. We didn't get a proper and exciting conclusion, the villains had a really cliche fate. There was a weird transition at the end in which it took us straight to the epilogue, which didn't let us process what was happening at the end. There were too many jump cuts and felt things were out of order. Meaning the credit end scene should have been placed before the epilogue. and Lastly, the epilogue was way too short, it should have been longer.

Conclusion

Even though I had a lot of problems with ROTR, it's still a great sequel. I feel it's a better game than the first one. There were just too many unnecessary editions to the game that held the game back from being a perfect sequel.

Buy or Nah

Buy it! Despite its flaws, it's still one hell of a game. You will love it. You will get your money's worth. Especially if you play the DLC.

Final Verdict

4/5

A few minutes into Rise of the Tomb Raider, I found myself running and jumping across a crumbling mountainside feeling actually excited and scared, and that's when I knew this game would be good.

There were plenty of times in the Uncharted games where I experienced similar tension, but, as far as I can remember, it was largely in combat. Rise of the Tomb Raider, by contrast, makes combat relatively easy, because that's not really what the game's about. All the most memorable moments of the game pitted Lara against the environment, not against human foes. It's a great decision to make it clear that the combat is what's getting in the way of the true heart of the game, which is survival and exploration (relatedly, when combat did get tense was when I was fighting wolves, tigers, bears, further emphasizing the human vs. nature axis over the human vs. human axis). If you've read any of my other reviews you know I have a lot of opinions about open-world games, but if any game should be open-world it's an adventure game, and Uncharted's linearity seems strikingly limited when compared to RotTR's not-too-open-but-just-open-enough world.

It obviously has some weaknesses. The Uncharted series arguably has the advantage in terms of puzzle variety, but there were a solid handful of puzzles in RotTR whose solutions made me go, "Oooooh, that's clever," and while there were individual mechanics that repeated across puzzles, on the whole they never felt cookie-cutter or redundant. The plot was...average, but got by on its heart, with Camilla Luddington (Lara) and Philip Anthony-Rodriguez (Jacob) both turning in engaging, earnest performances, and the villain-behind-the-villain twist was executed well and turned to be more interesting than I'd expected. Also, while there were no really game-breaking glitches, I did notice that after getting the climbing arrows, my triple-shot targeting no longer worked consistently, which was frustrating a couple times in situations that were clearly set up precisely to be solved by that mechanic. But now I could climb walls by sticking arrows in them, so...

All in all, this was a fun game from start to finish. It's obviously tempting to say these new Tomb Raider games are just a mashup of Uncharted and Far Cry, but I don't think that gives them enough credit (and also kind of ignores how much Uncharted owes to the original Tomb Raider games.) This game put me in the world more than Uncharted ever did, but wasn't nearly as exhausting as the one time I tried to play Far Cry 3. The first reboot game was good enough to make me willing to play this one, but this one actually makes me excited to play the next one.

But yeah, Uncharted 4 is pretty damn good.