By Sam Coles:
Tomb Raider has been an icon in video games for over
two decades alongside characters like Mario, Sonic, Link and Snake. Rise of the
Tomb Raider is the sequel to the 2013 reboot that came out on Xbox 360 and PS3;
however this game for now is an Xbox exclusive which has ruffled some feathers,
but it doesn’t stop it from being a good game.
Rise of the Tomb Raider takes place a few years
after the events of the other game where Lara Croft discovered a Sun cult where
they were crazy and worshipped a sun goddess. Lara is trying to finish what her
father started by finding an artefact that grants the user eternal life, she is
not the only one because an ancient organisation called Trinity are after it as
well. The story goes through twists and turns as Lara finds out how her father
actually died. The acting in this game is great for the most part, but some of
Lara’s lines are delivered awkwardly but the performances are superb most of
the time.
Gameplay is very familiar if you’ve played the
reboot back in 2013, but they have tweaked it in terms of how Lara controls,
combat and the crafting. For once crafting and collecting resources actually has
a purpose rather than it being an optional side quest. The reason why I say it
has a purpose because sometimes there will be areas that are set in open ended forests
where ammo is scarce and you only have tree branches to craft arrows or plants
to tend to your injuries. It gives a real Bear Grylls feeling where you have
little resources and you have to use your wits and use stealth to take down
your enemies, but it does throw this atmosphere out the window in the latter
half of the game. Combat has been given an improvement as you can craft different
arrows on the fly rather than going through a menu, although taking cover does
still seem to be an issue.
The presentation in this game is fantastic the
facial animation is remarkable where you can see each eyebrow rise to the spot
on lip syncing; even Lara’s hair has an insane amount of detail put in to it.
The environments are beautiful and breathe taking with wide open vistas for you
to explore and even destroy as you go through a daring escape. The sound design
can be hit and miss, the dialogue is great and ambience is great too, however
the some of the weapon noises sound a bit lacklustre because the assault rifle
sounds like some attached a playing card to a bicycle and started to pedal.
The only nit-picks I have with this game is that the
climbing controls can be a bit fiddly as sometimes I’m not sure what direction
Lara is going to jump which sometimes end up with me plummeting to my death.
Rise of the Tomb Raider is a great game with good
action, an interesting story and spectacular graphics. If you’re looking for a
good action adventure game to play on your Xbox One then I would highly
recommend getting this game.
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