Perhaps there’s no better recommendation I can give Rise of The Tomb Raider than to say that despite my initial reluctance to play it, my old stick-in-the-mud attitude about it being another reboot, my aversion to her new face and my revulsion at the early insistence on providing a slick, commercial ‘experience’, it has made me want to stay longer in its world, to the extent that I bought DLC for it, as well laying out for the previous game (TR 2013).

This new one has made me think. It’s made me reflect on the incredible veracity that modern mo-cap technology can bring to games, and how that now genuinely predicates a need for good casting and quality acting (the Big Bad in this one was brilliant). It’s made me cringe and cheer alternately at its plot developments. It’s tired me with its technical brilliance, worn me down with its approachability, and pacified me with its onion layers of choices and systems. Eventually, it made me want to play it when I wasn’t playing it, and not stop when I was. And finally, it took me on a proper ride, away from work and stress and stupid obligations and into a world of adventure, and for that I shall always remember it with a smile.

(Read more at our friendly gaming blog: http://www.xp4t.com/review-rise-of-the-tomb-raider/ :)