Quick Look: Rise of the Tomb Raider

Holy shit, she fixes her hair when it gets wet and messy.

Next gen has arrived.

Now that this game is out, I realize how much I actually want it. And it's a lot, I want this game a lot.

Brad almost unsells me on a game with his quicklooks. Watching him play any game while talking is infuriating =/

Sorry Brad, but every QL you do, you spend the first 20 minutes running in circles while you talk -.- (among other things)

Ahh a Menu Look: Rise of the Tomb Raider. I get tired of the constant dropping into the menus and disassociated clicking about during the open world type games QL's. I managed about 20 minutes or so but by then I was ready to go out into the wild and find a wolf to put me out of my misery. I had pretty much the same issue with the Fallout 4 QL so I guess it's just a byproduct of trying to show how these types of games work but it seems there is far more menu play than game play. Game look good though and I will get it and see it for myself.

@rvone: Agreed.

I was totally caught off guard by the last Tomb Raider, never liked the series and followed none of the coverage. I played it when it came out as a free gold game and was completely blown away. I cant wait to play this. It would be nice if I could pick up a combo TR definitive ed and Rise of the TR on PS4 when the PC version hits.

Most excellent! I really love the reboot and this looks as good if not better even in early access. Can't wait for this to actually come out. Seems like a good time to replay the original.

I'm probably one of the few people that really liked the combat of the previous Tomb Raider game, so it really didn't bother me that much that there wasn't that much actual tomb raiding in it. I also love the Uncharted games and if it came down to it I would still choose the Tomb Raider combat over Uncharted. Though Uncharted is still the overall better series in my opinion.

But I never get the people that complain about the Tomb Raider (the reboot obviously) shooting being unprecise and floaty. I was constantly able to pull of very precise shots in the middle of intense combat situations. I never really felt frustrated about that aspect of the game. If I wanted to just wound a guy so I could finish him with a close combat kill, I would shoot him in the leg and move in for the kill. If I just wanted go for the headshot I would shoot him in the head. 99 times out of a 100 I would hit. The few times I did miss was because I was being sloppy with the aiming or the enemy managed to avoid it at the last second. It was never the controls' fault. It was player fault in my experience when I didn't hit what I wanted to hit.

I would even go as far as to say that Tomb Raider (2013) has the best third person shooting played with a controller. The all time best third person shooting is still Max Payne 1 and 2 on the PC played with mouse and keyboard. But when it comes to third person shooters played with a controller the Tomb Raider reboot is the king of last generation and I stand by that.

Filthy self promotion coming through. Don't tell me I didn't warn you. My review of Tomb Raider (2013) goes a little further to explain why I love the game so much: Tomb Raider review right here

@hypnotoadbrwowrowrow: Wolf are team players, they hunt in pack. So I don't Think it would be impossible for a well trained human to take a wolf 1v1. ofc dan would not be able to. It all depends on who gets the first blow I Think. If the wolf get it's teath into you it's over but if you land a hard kick in it's head that would do the trick. I'm ofc talking about a human trained in combat here.

This is atleast not as ridicolous as Dans fight a bear scenarios.

Dan if a wolf is actually attacking you then you are already dead. Wolves don't really attack humans unless it's either backed in to a corner with no other choice or it's fucking starving to death and it knows if it doesn't kill you it will die anyway so it would be savage as fuck.

So there's less Uncharted-esque farfetched QTE-laden on-rails action stuff in this game? If so, I could see myself actually liking this game. Everything in the QL looks appealing.

@fnrslvr: those were just a few action sequences, which were all really cool, sprinkled over roughly 15 hours of gameplay.

@a_turtle: If you land a very hard kick to the head of an adult wolf, all you get is a very mad wolf with a headache.

And that's not good for anyone.

This looks fantastic. Another one I'll have to wait for the PC release, though.

Glad the wait time is nothing like the PS4 version. This is supposed to be out early next year. There are already too many other games to play this year anyways

Came to the comments as soon as Dan made those wolf fighting comments.

You guys haven't disappointed.

Most people could not take a wolf, and Dan could probably not take a normal dude. Hell, most people are 100% useless in fights, and wolves are savage, as Brad puts it. One lone wolf could kill most people without much issue.

That hair animation coming out of water gets real annoying when she does it every time.

Dairy Queen's birthday cakes are like the official birthday cakes. They're real good.

I think you'd be better off kicking it in the throat than the head. Skulls are built to take blunt force, and while it might stun the wolf for a moment, it most likely wouldn't stop it. A good kick to the throat might kill it, or certainly gag it in such a way that you'd have the chance to follow up with more attacks or get the fuck out. Maybe even the legs. Their legs seem thin, and if you could hobble it, you take away it's massive speed advantage.

Also this conversation is messed up.

This is exactly what I wanted for a follow up to the 2013 one and I look forward to buying the GOTY edition for the PS4 in a years time, wohoo!

Man, this game looks freaking great.

ACHHH WOLFIE!!!! PUT DOWN THAT HORS DOEUVRES, IT'S TIME FOR THE MAIN COURSE!!! *rips shirt*

(This should have been my first comment)

The thing is, I don't see anyone landing a clean enough kick to do it. Also, the idea that just because they're pack hunters meaning they're not effective by themselves is kind of crazy. They're still wild wolves.

Yeah, criminals all the time seem to fight off the police dogs and those dogs are smaller than wild wolfs. Somebody make Dan vs. wild wolf happen (premium content).

I know that it probably won't happen, but I'd really like to see a video where @danryckert tries to play through some of the original Tomb Raider.

It frustrates me when he says that the old games were bad, because the controls in those games are not bad—they're just specific.

Everything in those games was built on a grid, and your movements are specific to it. For example: a running jump always takes one block of movement. And there's no timing involved—you just hold the jump button while you're running.

Your turning radius is such that you can always navigate hallways smoothly while running at full speed. If you're constantly stopping and turning then yeah, I can see why that might be frustrating.

It's fine if he doesn't like that system—though every time he brings it up, it seems as though he doesn't understand it—but I don't think the system is bad.

Of course it's very different from modern games where you just push the stick in a direction and your character moves that way, you hold down a button and your character will automatically climb over obstacles, and if you try to make a jump—up to a certain distance—they will magnet themselves to the ledge and magically catch it.

But the control scheme in the old Tomb Raider games makes the act of navigating the tombs themselves engaging to the player, while everything being scripted and automatic in modern games just makes it feel tedious to me.

Navigating the levels in the old games was a "puzzle" in itself because you enter a room and you see where you need to go, and the challenge is figuring out how to get there.

Unless there's someone else there who understands how the old games worked there to help him, maybe he still wouldn't get it, but it frustrates me that he thinks the games were bad to control.

Brad done clucked up. It would have been great with fire arrows, chicken arrows and exploding chickens.

@00: Good idea, but if these guys can't handle the original Witcher 3 controls don't expect them to get any decent amount through the PSX Tomb Raider games. Maybe an entertaining Bombastica though.

@00: Tomb Raider was the first 3D game I played, so the controls feel natural to me. But a couple months ago I saw some people try to play Tomb Raider II. People in the industry that played the games before, and it was unfathomable how terrible they played. You know in the beginning when there's a tiger and you need to climb up those rocks? It took them 20 minutes and all they did was badmouth it. Not even gonna link the video because it's so frustrating.

I don't think the system is bad, as it fits the style of those old games and makes perfect sense. But people that aren't as familiar won't catch onto it and probably won't bother to give it a chance.

On a side note, it's fun to hear games media people being so excited about "putting the tombs back in Tomb Raider!" Because when Underworld came out and had some of the biggest, most complex puzzles in the series, it seemed like nobody cared at all.

And I finally got my spiritual successor to QuackShot! "That's what everyone's thinkin'."

@phancypants: A strong kick can break bone. I don't think wolf bone is an exception. Also if you were in say a forest it's not improbable that the human would find a stone or a piece of wood to arm himself with. I stand by my thesis.

I agree with Dan, the combat and action stuff in Tomb Raider felt way better than in Unchartered. Its obviously much more grandiose and block buster in Unchartered but the gameplayfeel isnt there for me. It never was in the Unchartered series.

well this looks quite good. think i'll pick this up today.

Brad is Bradding it up real hard by ignoring the wolves behind him, then getting bitten in the ass and proceeding to shoot the gun a bunch while the reticle is white. Oh Bradley.

Dan could definitely defeat a wolf. It's not just a battle of fists vs teeth - it's *wits* that win the day. Have you seen his Mario Maker levels? Dan wins hands down.

The subtext I took from this QL-

Brad: Even a simple person with an X Box should be able to enjoy this just like a PC person would

Dan: Clamber if you clamber? I clamber to clamber clamber. Also clamber. Wrestling.

Dan could maybe fend off a coyote. Not sure about a wolf, though.

I can't tell if Dan and Brad got the Hot Shots Part Deux reference or not

The game looks interesting, but I'm getting really tired of having crafting, side-quests and open world elements on most AAA games nowadays. I enjoyed the first Tomb Raider but those elements were exactly what I disliked.

I'm kind of bummed that I decided to play Fallout 4 before this.

@crimsonjester:Thank you so much for posting that. Nobody said anything and I started to worry that it was a memory that I invented.

Smash cut to footage of Dan beating a wolf to death with a Music Block

Man, there's a TON of animals around. It's like going hunting in a petting zoo.

Will absolutely get it, but not on Xbox One, so I'll hold out for a release on a different platform.

Does Lara's hair have its own laws of gravity or something?

Cisterns are an enclosed water reservoir, generally underground. In the ancient world they were the main water storage for collecting rainwater in dry places, or at the ends of aqueducts etc.

Why an unknown civilization would build one in Siberia is anyone's guess. Maybe it was magically transported to inner Russia from someplace much warmer and drier? I guess I'll have to play the game to see!

Cuisinart blade traps were of course a standard feature of all ancient cisterns.

The red/yellow coloring that indicates whether you can get away with a stealth kill is not new. The previous Tomb Raider did it.

But I played that game a few months ago as opposed to a few years, so I don't blame you guys for not remembering it.

I played the first one on PC a few years ago and it was an okay game. This one doesn't seem like they did much different at all, the graphics even look the same to me. Thinking of just waiting for a Steam sale.

I'm with you on this. I'm sure if you had one hundred instances of human vs wolf, sometimes the human would win, but overwhelmingly I bet the results favor wolf. Assuming of course we're talking about a healthy, full grown wolf and an unarmed human. I think you give the human so much as a small blade and the odds shift pretty significantly.

Nearly everything Brad says is new in this game was also in the previous game. I feel like maybe he rushed through the previous game due to time constraints and missed a lot of what was great about it.

Ugh no Dan you aren't going to take down a wolf. That is a 110lb hunting machine and looking at your skinny ass it probably ways near as much as you. Not saying I could beat one either, the thing would massacre me in moments. I have a 55lb pit bull puppy and although she is the sweetest dog I have ever owned she would rip me to shreds in moments if she so chose to.

I much prefer linear third person shooters in the style of Alan Wake rather than QTE invulnerable platforming (ala Tomb Raider 2014) but unfortunately Microsoft chose to dump their money on this instead of Alan Wake 2. It looks alright, I guess. Quantum Break can't come soon enough.