LTTP: Rise of the Tomb Raider

[Deleted member 9824]

I've had this in my Steam library for a few months now, but just got around to playing it. I'm not done yet, but I really like the open area gameplay on the second hardest difficulty after turning off and trying to ignore all the Survival Instinct parts of the game. It very slightly reminds me of some older adventure games in these parts of Rise of the Tomb Raider. The combat and stealth's pretty nice too, since I liked the 2013 reboot's combat and stealth improved a little bit. The AI could use some improvement, though.

Tomb exploration is pretty decent. Find them, follow a linear corridor (orvice versa), then do a couple of puzzles. They could encourage a little more exploration, but it's nothing to write home about, in my opinion.

As for the story, it's okay so far with some awkward voice acting and dialogue from the secondary characters. The constant "Lara's in literal danger" theme with "QTEs, but not really," is starting to get annoying. Player agency's something that allows players to get really invested into the game, in my opinion. Lara's redesign is nice, but I feel like they could have kept with the 2013 one instead of almost completely changing it again.

 

[Fredrik]

It's honestly one of my favorite games this generation, I've already finished it 100% on XB1 and almost finished it on PC as well and I intend to replay it again on Xbox One X as soon as possible to get the definitive experience since I can't afford 4K on PC yet. I think it got some harsh reviews and comments mostly from being XB1 exclusive from the start, both PC and PS4 gamers got sour and focused on the negatives. Now that it's everywhere people should give it a chance. It's really something very special imo if you like story driven third party adventures. I like the gameplay much more than Uncharted to be honest, the verticality takes it up a notch and it has less static shoot outs with enemy waves coming in and the bow action makes it awesome, the stealth bits are well-done too.

The only thing I don't like are the few quicktime event-like action scenes where you have to escape something or you die instantly. I specifically remember a scene where you were crossing a stream before a waterfall and had to stand on a raft and shoot arrows with a wire to pull the raft in so it didn't fall down the water fall. Playing that with a controller was very frustrating! I lost count on how many times I died there. The bear fight and escape is annoying as well since you die so easily.

Otherwise I think it's fantastic. The visuals are top-notch. I don't think any other game has made me take as many screenshots. They really nailed some environments and Lara is just modelled to perfection.

 

[Paul]

I hated the story so much that it soured me on this otherwise pretty good game. It looks beautiful, gameplay is ok, but I was facepalming through every cutscene.
Funnily enough, I actually found TR 2013 decent in story department. This one though...not sure what happened there.

 

[Darth Vapor]

The story is a bit over the top and it seems like they are going to keep on this journey of supernatural plot lines.

With that said, the gameplay and environments were superb and I enjoyed all of my time with it that didn't revolve around interacting with some immortal cult leader and all of his followers.

 

[Deleted member 18944]

I loved this game from start to finish. It was really spectacular and I LOVED the art design of it all. I think the only thing I would change would be the QTE because I feel like they could make it a bit harder by requiring the players skills to solve the dramatic parts instead of smashing A and B for 4 minutes.

 

[manustany]

Yeah, the story is incredibly annoying and full of cliches but in general I loved the gameplay, graphics, and other details.
Looking forward to see the next chapter!

 

[shimon]

Gameplay-wise I enjoyed it. Story-wise it was quite weak.

 

[MechanicalWall]

I played this game late last year when I copped it on Black Friday, and tbh I've already forgotten pretty much everything that happens in the plot other than the fact that it's yet another game where the female lead has daddy issues (I played Uncharted TLL and LiS BtS back-to-back and started laughing bitterly when the female duos in both games suddenly started talking about their dads). Don't remember the names of any characters, don't remember why the villains wanted the McGuffin (do remember the guy being weirdly pious tho), had no idea why the game hit the brakes on its own finale just so I could go save the guy from the intro whose existence I'd already forgotten... maybe I have a failing memory, but it was some really forgettable shit.

I did like the more open areas though, and I like that it introduced some mechanics that made the climbing ever-so-slightly more challenging. The gunplay seemed worse than the 2013 game for some reason, it seemed much more stiff, and a lot encounters took place in relatively tight spaces. The hunting and crafting seemed just as ancillary as it did in 2013, as if they were afraid to commit to a straight survival game but kept those mechanics in just to distinguish it from Uncharted. The Baba Yaga fight was easily the best part of the game, and hopefully the next one leans more towards that sort of stuff rather than focusing on miserable people mumbling at each other.

 

[Mediking]

The writing.... :( give her a personality...

But the gameplay and graphics were great.

 

[ClickyCal']

I don't think the story is as awful as people make it out to be. I would say average or mediocre, but not terrible. They started pushing lara having at least a little more personality in this than the first game too. I think if they can learn from stuff, shadow of the tomb raider could be great.

 

[TAJ]

I gave up on the game because the input lag in the campaign was unbearable.
The VR mode was cool but short and very low-res.

 

[Deleted member 11522]

Stopped playing after some hours because the constant conflicting survival vs hollywood action really was grinding my gears.

 

[Creamium]

I hated the story so much that it soured me on this otherwise pretty good game. It looks beautiful, gameplay is ok, but I was facepalming through every cutscene.
Funnily enough, I actually found TR 2013 decent in story department. This one though...not sure what happened there.

Click to shrink...

Yeah it's one of the worst parts of the game, but for me the other aspects weren't that much better. The tombs are where you'll find the best design, but even those aren't consistently great. On normal the game is also incredibly easy and most of the upgrades feel useless. Maybe I should've started on hard. After TR13 I thought the potential was there to make a sequel that improves on certain aspects, but Rise is the exact opposite. Very forgettable game.

 

[Dr. Mario]

I hated the story so much that it soured me on this otherwise pretty good game. It looks beautiful, gameplay is ok, but I was facepalming through every cutscene.
Funnily enough, I actually found TR 2013 decent in story department. This one though...not sure what happened there.

Click to shrink...

Yeah same here. TR2013 storywise wasn't great perhaps, but it did a pretty excellent job of creating mystery and purpose. ROTTR was all around terrible. Stole U2s plot but made it worse and included daddy issues, white savior trope and other groanworthy cliches. Add to that more unnecessary collectathons and less interesting scenery and altogether they took the fantastic and promising setup of TR2013, and made a game that was worse in every way. A waste of time imo.

But good that OP enjoyed it at least :P.

 

[hijukal]

I'm playing this at the moment too. It's OK. It doesn't feel to me like it does anything new, and what it does do seems competent (for AAA) at best. And why does Lara straight up murder hundreds of people? She doesn't seem bothered at all unless a cutscene calls for it.

I'm extremely lukewarm on the whole thing. It feels like design by committee and has no spirit. I'm up to

Spoiler

the Russian base, where the guy asks you to destroy the radio transmitters

, which feels like 1/3 of the way in. Struggling to care.

 

[Deleted member 9486]

I loved it on Xbox 1.

One of my favorite games of the generation so far.

Games like the this, Uncharted, Horizon Zero Dawn etc are my main jam these days.

 

[fourfour44]

I really enjoyed it, I think the gameplay expanded on the previous game, but the story was much weaker. I wanted to run through again and get the platinum trophy but ended up getting pulled away when Final Fantasy XV came out and haven't gotten back to it yet, but I really want to someday.

 

[Strike]

Story was still forgettable, but the environments were a huge step up from the first. A lot less grays and browns.

 

[The_Strokes]

The writing.... :( give her a personality...

But the gameplay and graphics were great.

Click to shrink...

I think Lara is fine, Croft Manor DLC really strengthen the bond between Lara and her father. She's evolved from the first game while still maintaining some sense of vulnerability.

 

[nowhoney]

I just can't get behind any of the characters, and the story seems sub-par. It looked great on my PS4 Pro though, and I thought the semi-open maps with all the tasks were fun.

 

[Deleted member 1484]

The main quest is forgettable. The optional content, though, is amazing! Dozens of tombs and cool puzzles to find. It's a really gorgeous game too.

 

[dark_prinny]

I enjoyed it far more than I initially expected.

 

[klauskorp]

Huh. I haven't really heard these sorts of complaints about the story. Now I'm curious.

I think this might be the game I give a try after finishing Mario and Wolfenstein.

 

[y3k]

The game gave me a Byzantine city in Siberia. It's everything I never knew I needed but desperately did.

 

[freeradical]

Enjoyed this game a lot. Yeah, story is very average.
How did it do sales wise?? Successful??

 

[Morgan J]

I like it, have played like 40% of it and now waiting for the x to restart from the beginning :)

 

[Arklite]

Rise is solid, and mostly a consistent improvement outside of some minor combat quirks. The DLC add a lot in terms of showcasing the game's strengths. Endurance actually makes use of Rise's survival play mechanics, Blood Ties highlights slow narrative discovery, and Cold Darkness offers the most engaging piece of stealth and combat. On their own they're pretty weak, but together they're almost essential to rounding out Rise.

 

[pwnsweet]

I just finished this game for the first time recently. I thought it was excellent. If there's any one thing I'd like to see changed in the next one it's the stealth mechanics. If i killed a guy in stealth and then his body was seen by another guy, it didn't matter how stealthily i moved from one place to another, somehow the enemies always gravitated toward where i was hiding in the ensuing investigation phase. This would happen even if I moved, unseen, to a location far away from the body itself. They would do this until they found me. It was very annoying.

 

[JustinH]

I loved it when it first came out on Xbox One. I can't play it on Xbox anymore after getting it on steam though. I was able to get used to the input lag to the point where I could just ignore it, but after playing it on PC for a while I just couldn't not notice it. Which sucks for me because I bought the season pass on Xbox and I was really looking forward to "Hut of brown, now sit down!"

Really happy that Nixxess worked on the Xbox One X enhancements since they're the ones who seem to care if the game feels good while playing. I'm going to give it a fresh playthough too, and finally get to all the DLC when my Scorpio gets here.

 

[Jombie]

I love the first one, but found Rise really tedious. Combat felt more off for some reason and tired of the puzzles rather quickly.

 

[TheBeardedOne]

Great game. It was easy to get lost in, beautiful and a lot of fun to play. Tons to do with an interesting open world.

It wasn't perfect, but it's a standout game of this generation in my opinion. That said, I still have a real soft spot for the one before it, the reboot which was spectacular and blew me away. I'd tried and tried to get into Tomb Raider since the PSX era (borrowed my friend's PSX, tried it, played it at his house...but it didn't do much for me. Bought the ones from last gen, played a bit, and just couldn't get into them)...and that was the first one I really enjoyed.

 

[Wislizeni]

You did good, picking a higher difficulty. I played on normal, but looking back, I should've bumped it up a bit. Personally, the tombs were my favorite part of the game. Sure, none of the puzzles are particularly clever, but all of them looked gorgeous, especially in motion. Have to agree on AI complaints, too. They were either simplistic, or omniscient. I love the option of stealth in my action games, personally, but I also appreciate some consistency in enemy behavior.

 

[Strangelove_77]

I liked the first one better overall. The game didn't gain anything from being somewhat open. It made it worse since they added a ton of menial and tedious shit to do. The map is a clusterfuck.
The gameplay is fun probably but the PS4 version has really annoying lag, even after they supposedly patched it.
Graphics are fantastic. Love all the costumes you can get.
Story is GODAWFUL. So so bad.

It's an alright game overall. Id recommend it if it was under $20.

 

[BuBu Jenkins]

Great game, felt the story isn't as bad as people say and gets the job done. gameplay-wise its fun and satisfying especially using the bow and headshotting enemies like a boss

 

[medyej]

While I don't think it's a great game I thought it was such a huge improvement over the reboot which I hated. The fact this one has actual tombs helps a lot, even though they aren't super difficult there is a lot of them with some real work put in. Story was terrible but I've come to expect that from modern Crystal D. The game's graphics are absolutely beautiful in the linear areas, up there with the best.

 

[Plumpbiscuit]

It's an improvement over 2013 but that isn't saying much because 2013 is one of the worst video games ever made and I would only recommend RotTR if you're already not a fan of Tomb Raider because it plays and looks nothing like one. As for the game itself, the optional content is pretty cool as well as the card modifiers and how it lets you setup custom rules for different game modes, but the campaign and story are utter garbage. There's an overabundance of Lara moaning, looking for her father and there's just nothing innovative, original or inspiring to take away from it. Plus Lara's new design is really ugly and isn't sexy or appealing at all. It's still a crime to make important gameplay like swimming, tomb exploring and traps so mainstream in this game. Your swimming is limited to only a few areas and even then it's restrictive in what you can do and there is no breath metre. Tomb exploring, well, "exploring" is a joke because of your map that tells you where everything is, and the puzzle inside each one is so easy and it's even more insulting that Lara has to tell the player what to do as well. As for the traps, they use to be deadly and unexpected in the classic games. Here? You're foretold each one, there's this horrible slow mo effect and it's a simple case of reloading a checkpoint 5 seconds away if you happen to die at them.

TR is my favourite franchise but even I can admit the reboots seem to have an SJW theme to them and refuse to make Lara sexy and girl power like in the original concepts of her. It's pretty much an Uncharted game missing all the personality from those games.

 

[Spedfrom]

Wasn't a fan of the old russian settlement setting and the story is the epitome of convoluted and forgettable. How did it end? I don't even remember. TR2013 was a better overall experience, but also can't remember how it ended.

Gameplay wasn't bad, but this series needs a lot more tomb raiding for me to be excited about it again.

 

[Fairy Godmother]

Yeah same here. TR2013 storywise wasn't great perhaps, but it did a pretty excellent job of creating mystery and purpose. ROTTR was all around terrible. Stole U2s plot but made it worse and included daddy issues, white savior trope and other groanworthy cliches. Add to that more unnecessary collectathons and less interesting scenery and altogether they took the fantastic and promising setup of TR2013, and made a game that was worse in every way. A waste of time imo.

But good that OP enjoyed it at least :P.

Click to shrink...

My opinion mirrors yours. I managed to finish 2013 game three times... I had a hard time caring for ROTR and had to force myself to finish it despite it has better gameplay.

 

[Bio]

I really enjoyed Rise of the Tomb Raider, but like most Uncharted games it just doesn't know when to end, and the result is a two hour long climax that ends up being wearisome rather than intense. Outside of that, though, I thought it was fantastic, though I still prefer the 2013 reboot.

 

[Deleted member 9824]

My opinion mirrors yours. I managed to finish 2013 game three times... I had a hard time caring for ROTR and had to force myself to finish it despite it has better gameplay.

Click to shrink...

I've gotten through a couple more hours into the game, and I'm starting to change my view on the game to this. I'm starting to feel disengaged with the game, despite it having much better gameplay. It's hard for me to load it up now, with the collectathon hubs, redesigned and uncanny characters, and the lack of multiple puzzles and pathways in tombs. Hopefully the third game can go be an actual tomb raiding game instead of a slightly-more-open-Uncharted-clone-with-survival-elements-and-bad-writing.

EDIT: The characters in AC: Unity seem much, much less uncanny than in this game, imo. Also, I noticed that Lara looks more like a mother than an early 20-something-year old woman in many scenes.

 

[Y2Kev]

I think it's enjoyable but the hub-based gameplay is there for really no reason. I don't like wandering around and completing meaningless, boring sidequests, colleceting stupid trinkets, or digging for crap. The tombs are improved this time but are still too easy. And they're still treated like side content when they should be THE content! I think the combat is worse than the first game because the tools you get are just so overpowered.

Overall I liked it.

 

[Ponchito]

I don't like the stories on these games but gameplay is really fun. I enjoy the progression and exploring for secrets/collectibles. Definitely would recommend.

 

[Beef Stallmer]

Like the first game, WAY too easy. Story was forgettable, Lara was laughable.
Her character felt completely reset. The Ludo narrative dissonance was pretty high, so I played the game while pretending that after the first game, Lara hit her head while climbing and as a result had memory loss and could not remember anything from the first game.
With that in mind her character became slightly better, but it's still a waste seeing as the gameplay and exploration could be interesting. Completed both on the highest possible difficulties and I took my time. I would rate this title 3/5

 

[sxiebonjour]

Frankly I don't quite understand people' hate on the story. It was nothing stellar of course, but it didn't bother me and seemed to make sense to me.

 

[sxiebonjour]

Like the first game, WAY too easy. Story was forgettable, Lara was laughable.
Her character felt completely reset. The Ludo narrative dissonance was pretty high, so I played the game while pretending that after the first game, Lara hit her head while climbing and as a result had memory loss and could not remember anything from the first game.
With that in mind her character became slightly better, but it's still a waste seeing as the gameplay and exploration could be interesting. Completed both on the highest possible difficulties and I took my time. I would rate this title 3/5

Click to shrink...

With respect to difficulty, you could try the hardest one and score attack mode. They were very challenging and that's why only 0.7% people platinumed the game.

 

[Deleted member 9824]

Frankly I don't quite understand people' hate on the story. It was nothing stellar of course, but it didn't bother me and seemed to make sense to me.

Click to shrink...

For me, at least, it's how the dialogue is written and how it's paced. It's very amateurish and seems like it's trying to be hip and cool compared to the first game. There's not a lot of depth to the characters, and Lara doesn't really get much development, if at all. The story's passable so far, but how it's handled just rubs me the wrong way, especially coming off of TR 2013's writing, which is admittedly still nothing special.

 

[Falchion]

I loved it and will be replaying the PS4 edition at some point soon. I really liked how they expanded the tomb explorations and each area felt great.

 

[Gizmo]

This game is on my "To Play" list, mired in my backlog.

 

[ManaByte]

I actually never finished this. I finished the first one, and loved it. I think I'm about 1/4th through it. I'll complete it when the Xbox X comes out probably.

 

[Leo Sagittarius]

I haven't touched it in a while but from what I recall I enjoyed it, but the snow setting bored me a bit and the croft family drama was mhe.

A pet peeve I had was regarding the title. In my head it alluded to the "rise" of the confident kickass Tomb Raider, but to be honest her demeanor hasn't changed much since the first game, I felt.