Rise of the Tomb Raider

Rise of the Tomb Raider is a great sequel to the Tomb Raider remake, providing decent premise to the backstory of Croft family while not changing too much.

Lara Croft sets out on a journey to finish the research of her father, who was close to discovering the Divine Source in the lost, sunken city of Kitezh, a relic capable of granting eternal life. Her father was obsessed with this discovery to the point of ruinng his reputation as an archaeologist, driving himself to madness and apparently killing himself in his failure. This left a mark on Lara and motivated her to find out what was worth dying for.

Lara catches a Jeep ride to a mountainous and cavernous region that may have clues to finding the Divine Source, but the car is attacked by an armed helicopter, which we later learn belongs to Trinity, an organization/company devoted to finding the Divine Source for their own reasons. Lara barely escapes the attack and and starts a journey of climbing, jumping, swinging, puzzle solving, tomb raiding, stealth killing, surviving and shooting while learning about a Deathless Formerly Byzantine Prophet. Much like the last game, ROTR plays like the Uncharted series, with a stronger focus on the use of Bows, stealth Killing, and crafting special gear like poisonous arrows, explosive arrows, smoke bombs, makeshift explosives, and incendiary shotgun ammo. It's absurd that a studious "Good girl" archaeologist from London, is also an expert survivalist, hunter, weaponsmith, and assassin against a well-armed, modern military group while her kill count that would make an American war veteran blush, but I suppose that line was already crossed in Tomb Raider.

Alot of the same conceits are here, start with a bow, and gradually progress through the world by finding gear to let you access previously inacessible areas much like a Metroidvania style game. Lara's starting ammo and weapons are limited, meaning it's more beneficial to sneak around environments and kill patrolling Trinity soldiers with stealth tactics. However, after getting a few guns, ammo is frequent enough where the game is practically Gears of War or Call of Duty, except Lara can heal herself quickly at will. Upgrading your gear and crafting ammo requires resources found from hunting animals, cutting small trees, foraging plants, discovering caches of supplies. While the crafting doesn't add much to the game, it is a fair way to gradually introduce weapon upgrades. The game world is beautiful, and may challenge weaker PCs due to its detail. It's fun to explore resources and is relatively rewarding to parkour around for items that build the lore and history of Kitezh, it's history, and documents that inform Lara of her past and others that help her find more loot.

Like Tomb Raider (2013), Tombs aren't lengthy grand adventures of peril and puzzle solving while being the focus of the game, and more about a side quest to solve a single environment puzzles to find a useful upgrade or skill - so if you didn't love the reboot, ROTR won't change your mind. Platforming defines much of the game, with axe climbing, rope swinging/riding, wall climbing, shimmy and jumping, often of which may lead to weird deaths when Lara doesn't quite automatically grab a ledge or rope like you need her too, so it's a good thing this game isn't competitive, except for the extra mode that let you replay chapters in a time/score attack fashion, or play a separate area to survive, hunt, and explore in. Croft Manor mode supports VR, and lets you learn more about Lara's family with no combat or play a sort of zombie game in her huge mansion. There's plenty here for it's base price, and thanks to frequent discounts and deals, it more than exceeds price if you wait on a sale or bundle. Some of these modes use cards that can affect their difficulty in various ways, affecting your ammo, skills, gear, damage taken or given, and even a big head mode. This is where MTX rears it's ugly head. Thankfully, you get plenty of cards from playing the game naturally and likely more from completing certain challenges. It's not clear to me if its Pay to Win, but this is already for an optional game mode where you're only competing for score, so it feels harmless.

Rise of the Tomb Raider is a great setpiece action/adventure contained in a beautiful world with plenty of crafting and exploration. Fans of the previous game and the Uncharted series will find plenty of value here.