Rise of the Tomb Raider Review

Rise of the Tomb Raider is the quintessential triple-A single player game. It's gorgeous, it's semi-open world, it has a bombastic plot full of action movie cliches, and it's entertaining but a little forgettable. I played it on X Box Game Pass for PC, from which it is currently about to vanish, and although I found it a fairly enjoyable experience, I think I'll remember it about as well as I remember 2013's Tomb Raider, a game I have almost no recollection of playing.

I played the original Tomb Raider, released way back in 1996. My version crashed frequently, and it was also pretty difficult, especially in the era where guides were purchased in stores rather than found on Youtube. Tomb Raider 3, the next game in the series I played, was fairly similar, but with better graphics, more locations, and generally better design. Laura Croft was a sexy Indiana Jones; or rather, she was a version of the Indiana Jones archetype designed to sell to teenage boys who compromised the main demographic that played video games back in the 1990's. I didn't play any more games in the series until the Tomb Raider Anniversary remake, released in 2007, which more or less kept the formula the same. 2013's Tomb Raider rebooted the series, modernizing the three pillars of its design, while adding a more cinematic approach. Rise of the Tomb Raider builds on the reboot's foundation. The settings is now Siberia, and Laura is trying to redeem the work of her late father, who was searching for a Mcguffin that will grant immortality. Said Mcguffin is protected by some white English speaking dudes who live in a geothermal valley full of giant lynx and other endangered species. One of these English-speaking dudes turns out to be a Byzantine prophet who smuggled the Mcguffin out of the empire ages ago. The bad guys are Trinity, who I guess return from the original game, but are about as memorable as any improbably well-funded paramilitary organization. They are led by Laura's dad's ex-wife, who is dying of cancer, and her brother, who is your run of the mill standard action movie psycho, except he has stigmata. The plot is a load of nonsense, and so incredibly cliche that I think your average freshman English major could've cooked up something much more original. It's not that much of a problem, except for the game takes itself way too seriously. A joke will not be cracked at any time during Rise of the Tomb Raider. The Indiana Jones movies were funny! Tomb Raider is a similarly ridiculous premise. Some humor would've gone a long way. As a character, Laura is fairly likeable; however, there is a contrast between vulnerable, human Laura, who we see suffering from post-tramatic stress disorder in the opening cinematic, and gameplay Laura, who viciously leaps from trees to stab Trinity troopers in the face. Gameplay Laura is John Rambo; she even has his bow, complete with explosive arrows. The new Tomb Raider games are much more action focused than the old ones; old triangle breasted Laura mostly blasted endangered animals and monsters rather than human beings. The combat is fairly interesting, though. Laura can improvise smoke grenades and molotov cocktails. She also has special takedowns that remind me of the Arkham batman games. Platforming is very enjoyable, and such an improvement over the original series, where Laura often felt like she was on roller stakes. You'll climb ice walls with ice picks, swing from ropes, leap from crevice to crevice, and it all looks and feels very tight. The puzzle solving aspect is improved on from 2013's reboot, with plenty of Challenge Tombs which feature a simple puzzle that earns some ability. The leveling system is okay. You can't build a unique Laura like a proper RPG, but all games have to have crafting and leveling up now, for some reason. The visuals, I think, are the main reason for playing this game. Even several years after its release, Rise of the Tomb Raider is a gorgeous game. I often paused to take screenshots, which I'll share below.

As a fifteen hour single player experience, I think Rise of the Tomb Raider is probably worth about twenty bucks. I'd actually compare it to Rise of Skywalker, which is a fairly enjoyable viewing experience for the casual viewer, while being a complete failure as an end to the Skywalker saga. Similarly, Rise of the Tomb Raider is a fun, if derivative game saddled with a cliche ridden story, although it doesn't fail its predecessors to the degree that J.J.'s movie did.