Rise of the Tomb Raider: Absolute Mad Lass

The set pieces of this game can be very easily be encapsulated by the phrase 'Woah, you don't see something like that every day'. I love it.

So I finished Rise of the Tomb Raider, and I must say, it's an improvement on the first entry, though I found myself less impressed than with the first. Essentially a more polished version of the prior game, Rise sees Lara trade in the East Asian island environments for my personal favorite local: frigid and stormy mountains (even more so considering the warm weather in Chicago currently). There's also the bonus of it feeling like an actual sequel, meaning that (aside from acquiring weapons and some perks) pretty much everything you encounter feels at least somewhat fresh and new. It sees welcome improvements but is by no means entirely perfect, so let's get into it shall we?

Sure I can read level two Greek, but how would I know what level two Greek is? What defines the levels of Greek or any other language? Is this referring to conversation, or older written dialects? The questions are endless...

In terms of plot, Rise tells (ironically) a less personal and more cosmic-stakes adventure of Lara's than the first entry. It's a standard progression for the sequel to have higher stakes than the original. Now it's not just a matter of getting off the island or preventing the sacrifice of her friend, Lara also has to stop an entire secret elite Christian zealot army from gaining an artifact to potentially gain the secret to eternal life. It seems sort of out there, but to its credit the conclusion of this game directly leads into the third game. You haven't killed Trinity off in the mountains, only their boots on the ground. I like it. Too often adventure games will either have one-note villains or a hastily-fabricated overarching organization in the third or fourth entry, but here the baddies are given proper time to enter the consciousness. However, though I in particular enjoyed the proper introduction of antagonists in this second entry, Rise's plot misses or missteps in several places where I found the original to be exceptional. First off, Lara's friends for all intents and purposes are nonexistent here, with only Jonah being present and her mentor (the big support/encouragement vector from the first game) is only mentioned. Whatever happened to her friend from the first game that was so important to her? There's no mention of her. It feels rather lonely, and it would have been better if Jonah simply turned back instead of turning up in the last act. However, it also would make sense for Lara to be lacking significant external support because, well, she's already established and cemented her confidence as an adventurer. It wouldn't make any sense for her to narratively or motivationally require her friends' support or presence to press on towards the goal in the second adventure! There's also a good number of emotional beats in Rise's story as well, but I found them altogether less impactful compared to the first's. It's all focused on Lara's deceased father and her relationship with him, and surprisingly most of these discoveries and realizations are internal rather than external. Lara's ultimate realization was not the expected "I can do this!" and more of a "This is for you Dad!", which I found both novel and a good development franchise-wise. Gaining confidence should not be the overarching theme of a series. Heck, Lara as a person seems more resourceful and self-assured throughout the plot. There are moments of doubt and panic, but these are few and entirely understandable, but the downside of this small volume is that it's more difficult to chart her progress as a person throughout the story beyond being more cynical. Those are my large points but I have a few smaller ones (in a bit of an experiment for me):

• Unfortunately there's the same immortal warriors as guardians thing from the first game, and while Byzantine warriors aren't something I've ever seen before, it doesn't change how uninspired it feels.
• There's a real issue with hinting and twists in this game. Either the twist will be held far past the point where there's any mystery (See: The Immortal Prophet), or it's so obvious or with such little build-up that there's no impact from it (See: Jacob, Ana).
• The various collectables are given a lot more character here, with more engaging stories told through the voice-acted letters and more closely-connected artifacts. Seriously, the only way they could really improve these would be by giving the letters an accompanying cinematic. I actually wanted to collect these for the stories they told.
• If there's going to be a sequel, don't be coy about it, introduce it, don't tease it. There actually feels like a reason for a sequel in Rise, and more games should follow suite in this regard if a sequel is to be had.

Jacob being more than what he lets on is probably the most obvious twist I've seen in recent memory. I have no clue why someone thought that the fact that the seemingly normal dude nonchalantly arriving and disappearing would be anything other than a normal Joe Bloe was an inspired story choice, but here we are.

Gameplay-wise Rise is a bit of a step in a different direction from the first. There's still a focus in different parts of the game on action or stealth, but there seems to be a larger focus on action and crafting in the story and gameplay. Combat I found to be a decent amount tougher here, and even though the enemies aren’t really any more difficult, they are often faster on the draw and there’s more of them. Weapons aren't direct upgrades anymore, being split into several categories with each weapon having some unified and some unique upgrades. The downside of this is that you will not be able to fully upgrade each weapon, not by a long shot. You really just have to decide at a point which weapons you'll devote your parts to and ignore the others. Besides this other changes to weapon upgrades are divided into being okay and great. In terms of okay changes, there's no longer one resource to upgrading weapons, there's several. Salvage makes a comeback but it's much more rare, which is a shame. You'd think that in ruined soviet gulags there'd be more rusted metal available? In all seriousness, it makes a good deal of sense and does encourage both hunting and exploration for new caches. It's alright, but it could prove a tad frustrating. In terms of great improvements finding weapon parts is now far more predictable, with metal crates no longer offering salvage but instead weapon parts, so it's a win for consistency. Tombs (as it says on the tin) are above and beyond anything the first game offered, with each being quite varied in appearance and with a story for each, which made me want to do them. They also offer unique perk rewards for completing them, which makes more sense than finding a pistol part in an ancient ruin (not to mention these perks are legitimately good, though some seem a tad redundant). The puzzles for these too are far more advanced than the first game's puzzles. Nothing you'll need pen and paper for, but enough to make you stop and think a bit. The biggest issue where the gameplay falls short in my opinion is the climbing, especially when climbing arrows entered the mix. The idea on paper is very in line with the Tomb Raider aesthetic, but in execution I’ve never encountered a more jerky mess of a traversal mechanic (and it’s only around for the last quarter of the story!). You just have so many different walls that require any number of tools to climb, it’s a real pain in the ass when you pressed the wrong button and then you die, but at least climbing has some tension. Could be better (meaning simpler).

• Exploration is a lot more focused on these large open-world areas as opposed to the smaller zones of the prior game. There's still a focus on accessing new areas with new/updated gear, but these are fewer and more related to story progression than anything.
• There are essentially no new enemies to be see here, unless you count various big cats and about two bears, kind of a let-down to be honest.
• There’s a market, with microtransactions for ‘card packs’ that you use in score or time-based modes that you unlock as you progress through the game’s story. You also get several packs by playing the game and doing a few side quests. Who though this was a good idea?
• Few bugs and no crashes, but for the majority of the final act I ran into several glitches, namely one that turned Lara into a slug-like eldritch horror for much of last area and another that made enemies teleport through the floor when I shot at them (allowing them to dodge my shots and hit me with beefy melee swings). Closing and relaunching the game fixed them but it was pretty egregious.

Somehow the gunfights here are more cinematic and challenging than the first game. Another welcome progression combined with the increased number of tools at your disposal.

Rise of the Tomb Raider is nothing short of a visual feast (though beyond this I’ve little to say besides it looks good), with each area showing a different kind of majestic boreal, glacial, or mountainous setting. All of these are pretty spectacular in appearance, though as a general rule the more ancient ruins and locations look the best. If there weren’t any enemies, Rise would be essentially the best-looking hiking game I know even almost five years after its release. I’ve never seen more gorgeous-looking snow in a game before, there’s a ridiculous amount of interactivity to be seen (in a small detail), with Lara leaving trails through the snow, etc. There’s a lot more cinematics to be seen throughout throughout the game, though to be perfectly honest there’s just a tad too many for my liking. They’re fun to watch and look at, but it’s definitely a volume problem. I really have nothing to say about the music, there wasn’t really anything memorable about it other than the adventuresome musical motifs.

• Lara doesn’t go through quite the same wardrobe transformation as the first game (she changes outfits at your discretion and at a few points in the story), but there’s still a good bit of detail to be seen, such as getting snowy or muddy if she tumbles down a hill.
• There’s not a ton of things to say regarding the lighting in this game, but in a few instances it really shines, such as when Lara breaks out a glow stick or in the prologue. The natural lighting is also pretty dang good-looking too.

The running sequences make a return in Rise of the Tomb Raider, but they are certainly more varied in execution than the prior entry.

At the end of the day I enjoyed playing Rise of the Tomb Raider about the same as the first entry, though to be honest I found it to be largely less memorable. It is genuinely an improvement on several lacking areas of its predecessor such as having fewer QTE’s and better rewards for tomb raiding. However, at the same time these very improvements were often overshadowed by the strange gameplay additions that felt unnecessary at best. This lead to the feeling occasionally that this entry was a step back as opposed to forward for the franchise. Regardless, I’d for sure recommend this entry to the series as a worthy successor to the first Tomb Raider. It’s a fun adventure game that has adventure aplenty, and sometimes you’d like to go on a vacation to the mountains without leaving your home.

Seriously screw whomever deemed this a necessary inclusion to a single-player game. You are god's crowning shame.