Lara’s latest ramps up the intrigue
Lara Croft has certainly changed since she was thrust into danger in 2013, seeking out adventure in Rise of the Tomb Raider rather than becoming a victim of it. Thankfully, the elements that made her last outing a winner seem to be holding steady, with danger and intrigue in plentiful supply.
I had the opportunity to play through the game’s first three hours, and the intro makes a bold statement about the focus of this installment. The emphasis on combat from the 2013 reboot isn’t gone, but the opening scene is all about setpiece exploration and establishes a much different tone.
The game opens in Siberia. Lara and Jonah are forced to leave the rest of their expeditionary party behind as conditions become treacherous. The two trudge through the snow, leaving tracks in their wake, which are slowly swept away due to high winds. As the powder gets deeper, the pair must slow and lift their legs to progress (a subtle feature that ends up having a larger impact later). This is all in the first 10 minutes, as Crystal Dynamics showcases more natural animations and the illusion of deeper interaction with the environment.
As the pair make their way up a sheer, icy cliff, you’re likely to experience your first death as you refresh yourself on the controls. The death animations are gentler at first, but later find a balance between the tame and the gratuitous. During my three hours, I failed Lara in numerous ways, with her head bashed against a pillar and her corpse mangled by wildlife (twice). The finality of her demise is never pretty.
“On some level, there’s a nostalgic element,” says creative director Noah Hughes. “In classic Tomb Raider, I would always flinch a little bit when she got hit by spikes. What that did for me was make me not want to fail again. There’s a certain amount of understanding of the lethality of the situation that she’s in. We want players to be on edge and not take that misstep. Having said that, we always try to present that in a non-gratuitous way. It’s there to report the facts of what happened.”
Provided you make it through the blizzard, your adventure continues in Syria. It’s there that I start seeing more combat-oriented gameplay. Players can choose to engage stealthily, go into all-out combat, or sneak by enemies entirely. Because stealth is a choice and not a mandate, it doesn’t have the complexity seen in series like Metal Gear Solid or Hitman. That also means that being seen doesn’t automatically mean you’re at a disadvantage – just that you need to change your tactics.
The first hub features a single camp, which can be used to learn new skills and upgrade weapons (though you can craft ammunition and health items on the move). This camp is also a good place to become familiar with the language system. Players find items that help Lara refresh herself with Greek, Russian, Mongolian, and other tongues. Raising your level by finding enough lets you read monoliths, which in turn mark valuable ancient coins on your map. These can later be traded to a merchant for guns and upgrades. It’s just a standard collectible reskinned, but it feels more flavorful than the average MacGuffin.
As exploration hubs become larger and more open, they have a number of tombs hidden off the beaten path. The first is introduced in obvious fashion to get players accustomed to how their entrances are hidden, though they feel more naturally woven into the landscape. These still aren’t terribly long, but they make for more impressive setpieces than those in the 2013 reboot, and the rewards of unique skills at the end are worthwhile.
Despite some minor changes since the last installment, Rise of the Tomb Raider is unabashedly more of the same (at least in the first few hours). While most of the improvements and polish are what you’d expect from a sequel, the story seems to have been given far more attention. Without spoiling anything, there is an Assassin’s Creed vibe that reminds me of that series’ early days. Whether that holds for the entire game remains to be seen, but after playing the first three hours, I definitely want to see how Lara’s latest story unfolds. Michael Futter