Nobody will read my review so I Will Eat 1 Tablespoon of Mayonnaise For Every Award this gets.

Rise of the Tomb Raider is a “post-post traumatic stress disorder” simulator and action-adventure metroidvania game developed by Crystal Dynamics as the second part of the “Survivor Trilogy” featuring a younger Lara Croft as she navigates mass murder, action adventure and supernatural mysteries. The sequel to the previous game started around two weeks after finishing up the final touches on the previous Tomb Raider game and for the most part it was made in a decent time frame aside from cut plot points (discussed later in plot) along with different changes due to feedback like less quick time events and such. However, I feel what most people remember about this game specifically is the temporary Xbox One exclusivity, which oh boy pissed quite a few people off. At E3 2014, Microsoft announced an exclusivity deal that limited the game’s release to Xbox One and Xbox 360 (worked on by the porting gods Nixxes Software) and as such had pissed everyone off, including the person I was streaming the game for who went on an entire rant about it. However like most of their exclusive deals, this was only temporary as the game would later release less than a year later on PS4 which included all of the DLC plus new costumes and content along with added VR support for PCs. Overall, the game was released with critical acclaim as the best game in the entire “Survivor Trilogy” from fans along with over 1 million sales by the end of 2015.

Rise of the Tomb Raider came for me at a time around Christmas of 2017, one year or so fresh out of high school and into my first job working minimum wage at the local old folks home being a dishwasher. I had previously 100 percent completed the other Tomb Raider reboot game on the Xbox One as it was a Games for Gold for one of the months. I had enjoyed that game and at the time I delved into achievement hunting on the Xbox One, at least to a certain extent even if I was frustrated at the constant backtracking for collectibles and the like. While everyone’s kind of doing their own thing, I’m going to shoutout Realmofwolvesx for the game; while I don’t talk to them much these days due to life stuff, they’re pretty big balling. Initially, I had played this at some point in 2018 and had beaten it all the way through, beating the base game and the collectibles while temporarily giving up on all of the Expedition side content that I had gotten with all of the DLC. However, I had been streaming games for a friend recently around the Thursday of every week and she had been requesting that I delve into the Tomb Raider reboot games in the backlog. Having picked up the first Tomb Raider reboot on Steam for free a while back, I figured I’d replay this game and give it a spin just because of the release chronology but also because I genuinely liked this game more than the previous one. Honestly while Tomb Raider is a solid title, I feel this game is the step up for what you would want in a sequel, even if they don’t change a whole lot of the fundamentals of it.

For the plot synopsis, certain aspects of gameplay and graphic stuff: https://www.backloggd.com/u/gamemast15r/review/1549633/)

The sound design aspects of the game are still pretty solid though I don’t have too much I could really say about them. Guns still sound pretty punchy, melee sounds visceral and violent and the explosions feel good too. The environmental stuff is pretty nice, with the main weather effect being extreme blizzards. The soundtrack is decent too, with an orchestral soundtrack by Bobby Tahouri who would compose a variety of things from movies and TV, though whose only work in video games included this game, a Transformers game, an Evanescence cover of a Fleetwood Mac song for Gears 5 and Marvel’s Avengers of all things. The only piece of music I really remember from this however is the music that plays for a bit when you find a secret because you hear it so much though it never bothered me. I don’t know, truth be told a lot of these orchestral soundtracks I just end up repeating in most of my reviews regardless sound good and do well blending into the background but nothing really stood out to me personally. How about voice acting? The most memorable voice acting jobs of course are Camilla Luddington for Lara who does such a fantastic job playing Lara that any other voice I would probably be okay with but wouldn’t hit me as much and Zach Ward of all people as Konstantin along with Charles Halford? I know Zach as the guy who played the Bully on Christmas Story and the Postal Dude, and I didn’t particularly recognize his voice anywhere to be honest, though I assume Charles did Konstantin’s main voice which honestly sounds like he could be a noir protagonist akin to Max Payne talking about the pain of life and the like. Everyone else does a good job though I think these two were the most recognizable to me personally.

After Rise of the Tomb Raider, I hadn’t really touched any of the Tomb Raider games for a while. Shadow of the Tomb Raider would only come out a couple of months after my expedition into the Siberian Mountains to find the Divine Source and after enjoying my 27 or so hours into my first playthrough I had moved on. Overall, if you were to go in to try all of the content at least once (the main story with the DLCs that would be considered story) I would say you could get at least a good 25 hours or more if that includes getting all of the collectibles and such. The story, while less interesting as an actual treasure adventure, just meshes a lot better with more interesting stakes and a more fleshed out feeling than the first. The gameplay is pretty much improved in every way and if you get all of the DLC then you WILL have your money’s worth playing through the game though I don’t really have much to say about it as it is pretty much basically the same. The sound design still holds up with a decent soundtrack and the graphics mixed with the art design feel a lot more colorful and interesting than the bleak and oppressive island of Yamatai from the previous game. If you liked the previous Tomb Raider or you’re looking for a casual adventure game that has a bit more of an emotional nuance than something like Uncharted then I would highly recommend a pickup. My final thoughts on this game are that it is technically better in every way, but that the first game is a lot more interesting. I guess it’s sort of fitting that after I had platinumed all of the Uncharted games that I would move onto Tomb Raider, and I intend on finishing Shadow next as a blind playthrough. I had already gone into what had happened for the most part with the rest of the history of the first two “Survivor Trilogy” which involved comic tie-ins and such but after this they kind of went straight to work on the sequel for three or so years.

Links:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gpxNrb1XTGo

https://www.ign.com/wikis/rise-of-the-tomb-raider/Soviet_Installation

https://www.svg.com/792202/the-tomb-raider-plot-rhianna-pratchett-regrets-writing/

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/VideoGame/RiseOfTheTombRaider

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D15eRe0cgMw&ab_channel=LaraCroftTombRaiderGamingChannel (Soundtrack)

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3791072/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eq7CWxuzOdc&ab_channel=ThaiGameGuide-Let%27sPlayCo-opGames

Rise of Tomb Raider shares some similarities with the first reboot but adds new features. Battle with zombies in one of the DLCs, optional tombs now look amazing with challenging puzzles, and you can access a variety of weapons and upgrade stats. New mechanics like rope swinging, climbing arrows, tree climbing, and swimming. Stunning visuals and sounds, side missions, wild animals, more outfits (Use mod outfits, iykwim). Plus, you can grab chickens and yeet 'em.

Collect documents and artifacts or examine relics, monoliths, and murals to increase Lara's language skills. There are 3 languages: Greek, Russian, Mongolian. By learning those languages, reveals ancient coins on the map after translating the monolith, which you can trade for items. Discover new materials while exploring, such as hides, special hides, and cloth, etc.

Second reboot were interesting and cinematic than the first. The settings are diverse and expansive. Glad it doesn't feel like a survival game to me because there aren't that many materials and fighting enemies was easy on the 'Survivor' difficulty during my playthrough. Lara's face is strikingly beautiful (probably beautiful Lara I've ever seen). The story kinda similar to first reboot in some aspects and it's predictable 'cause you know, standard adventure story stuff but it was fine. You fought with Samurai in first reboot and now you have to deal with ancient knights.

This time, it's set after the events on Yamatai, as Lara searches for a lost city and a divine source, driven by her late father's stuff. I did care about the ending but didn't come close to crying. Hoping to see what happens next in the third reboot. And if you owned Blood Ties DLC, it gives answers about what happened to Lara's mother. As for the Baba Yaga, it was awesome and got me a jump scare at one point.