A Steep Rise in Quality
While many enjoyed the 2013 reboot of Tomb Raider, I was not a big fan of it. I can admit that it was a well-made product, but the different elements of the game just never really came together. Even those who liked the game often admit the narrative that largely focused on 21-year old Lara Croft's transformation into a hardened survivor clashed with gameplay that often felt so close to Uncharted you could palette swap Lara with Nathan Drake. This has often been summarized by a set of sequences where Lara struggles with killing her first deer, then shortly thereafter straight up murders dozens of men as if she were John Rambo. On top of the narrative clashing with the gameplay, the narrative was corny, the almost pornographic revelation in Lara's constant deaths was unsettling, and the product as a whole didn't do enough to distinguish itself from Uncharted. The result was a game that felt like it was designed around focus testing and trying to hit check boxes rather than a unique experience.
Fortunately, Crystal Dynamics listened to criticisms as much as they did praises of that first game, as Rise of the Tomb Raider ranks among the best AAA releases of 2015. The game features numerous smart changes to its structure that better differentiate Lara's adventures from those of Nathan Drake. For starters, Lara's skill tree is far more elaborate than the first game, featuring over twice as many options. Weapon and gear upgrades are also expanded, along with the resource types needed to complete said enhancements. You will not be able to fully upgrade more than several weapons in your first playthrough.
Rise of the Tomb Raider is flat out gorgeous. I would even go so far as to say it is the best looking AAA game on consoles of 2015. Characters look great, and facial animations are able to accurately convey emotion. The game's performance is shockingly good. Load times are quite short. It only takes a few seconds for the game to get you back in action following death. The frame rate was problematic only during a few sections during my time with it. The soundtrack also fits well and is able to really convey the tension of combat.
One unfortunate aspect the game still needs improvement with is the combat. Enemy encounters are not as frequent as one might expect, but far too many of them expose just how bad the game's gunplay can be. Despite having some rather capable and entertaining stealth mechanics, many encounters forcefully turn the game into a cover shooter, which is an odd choice. Lara's dodge mechanic allows her to move behind and between cover, but she doesn't stick to walls the way one might want or expect. Lara also lacks a common feature of cover shooters: blind fire. Lara must instead expose herself to gunfire to fire at enemies peppering her with grenades to try to force her out of cover. Meanwhile, aiming weapons feels slow and clunky, Lara starts off pretty fragile, and enemies can be bullet spongy if you're not scoring headshots. Eventually Lara's arsenal expands to include enough weapons that make combat easier and more enjoyable, but many of those options aren't available until you are 40 to 50% into the game. When the game isn't forcing you to fight groups of enemies Gears of War style, stealth combat can actually be quite fun. Larger combat zones that allow the player to snipe enemies with well-aimed arrows, set booby traps in corpses, and leap from above for quick knife kills are quite fun. Most of my deaths occurred early on and were mostly from the forced cover combat sections.
The nice thing though about Rise of the Tomb Raider though is the game has a good sense of pacing. While the game does have its fair share of climbing and parkour-style run and jump sections similar to Tomb Raider, they are at least require the player to put more effort into them than in Uncharted games. The high-octane action sequences are spaced out by open-world style sections that allow you to hunt and explore the world at your leisure. Most importantly, there are more tombs this time around. While I wish there were even more of them, the ones that are there are quite a bit of fun. It does make me wonder though what Crystal Dynamics could do if it made a fully open-world Tomb Raider game that allowed you to explore larger ruins and completely abandoned any linear gameplay.
The game's narrative is still quite cheesy, but the tone and direction of it finally matches what is actually going on once control is returned to the player's hands. The game seems more self-aware that Lara is "kind of messed up" by her situation. She wears her psychological scars well. Other characters seem to know she is a little unhinged, even as she struggles to maintain her humanity. The villains are not exactly original, but are entertaining nonetheless. The dialogue is quite bad at times, and only passable most of the rest.
With Rise of the Tomb Raider, Lara Croft's adventures finally feel like they've moved out of big brother Nathan Drake's shadow. Much like the character, the series feels more confident in itself as the game comes to an end. Even if you weren't a fan of the 2013 reboot, this is one game you'll want to give a closer look. Xbox One owners who have been waiting for their "killer app" can finally laud this one over PlayStation owners (at least until next Christmas).
