![]() ![]() Add the score attack mode and you’ll find a ton of replayability in the campaign side of things alone. The campaign alone takes upwards of 13 hours to complete, but to 100% can take more than 30, with another couple of hours for the Baba Yaga DLC, which gets baked right into the middle of the story naturally. The survival crafting elements and third person gun play are still there, but there are a lot more puzzle filled tombs this time around, however optional they may be. These tombs turn up the nostalgia with puzzles reminiscent of early Tomb Raider gameplay. The contextual storytelling helps to drive the urge to complete everything, and I found myself constantly deviating from the path just to explore one more crypt or raid another secret tomb. Everything feels naturally placed in the environment, making the world feel alive. Graphically Rise of the Tomb Raider puts on quite a presentation, though lacks the same kind of polish found in Uncharted 4. While it doesn’t quite attain those lofty levels (though gets quite close with varied and interesting areas throughout), Tomb Raider does provide a more open gameplay experience, complete with side missions, item upgrades, and a wealth of hidden secrets in each massive area. Blood Ties does stand as a nice addendum to flesh out the story, though I’d recommend playing through it before taking Lara on a pilgrimage after the prophet. I would have much preferred to see this as an opening to the game, or scattered throughout the chapters as flashbacks to help sell why Lara was so hellbent on completing this quest for her father. ![]() It plays out like a Tomb Raider version of Gone Home, learning the Croft family history as Lara works her way through Croft Manor. That spark is hidden within Blood Ties, which actually creates a much more believable motivation for Lara to pursue this treasure. It’s a treasure hunting adventure that’s a lot of fun, but it lacks that certain spark. That’s not to say that it’s a terrible story. I don’t feel that Lara’s character grew much by the end, I didn’t feel a strong emotional attachment to any of the characters, and the couple of moments meant to meet some emotional quota felt forced into the narrative just for the sake of trying to personalize Lara’s journey. Where the first game was about a girl growing into the tomb raider that we’re all familiar with, being brutalized while she tries to save her friends. ![]() While making my way through the massive environments and learning more about the history of the world I was playing in, I found the narratives of the prophet, the people in the valley, the Soviets, and even some of the men in Trinity’s army, to be vastly more interesting than Lara’s place in the story. She’s following up on some of her father’s research, and there’s somewhat of a personal story here, but I felt that it lacked a lot of heart. Rise of the Tomb Raider follows Lara as she seeks the path of an ancient prophet and something called the Divine Source. As Uncharted itself received comparisons to the classic Tomb Raider games when Nathan Drake took the stage, it’s hard to look at Rise of the Tomb Raider without drawing parallels between the two, particularly having just come off of the stunning Uncharted 4earlier this year. Tomb Raider was an awesome game, despite - or possibly because of - the comparisons to Uncharted that it received. Rise of the Tomb Raider: 20 Year Celebration is a game worth playing. PS4 owners really are getting the good end of the deal here, if you can get over the whole timed exclusive bit that has finally come to an end. Sure, as PlayStation owners we’ve had to wait a full year to play this proverbial Game of the Year edition, but looking at it from the perspective of a new PS4 release? There are few other games that have released with such a content offering. The main game, Baba Yaga DLC, endurance mode, Cold Darkness Awakened were part of the season pass that Xbox owners were treated to, but there’s also the Blood Ties and Lara’s Nightmare DLC , as well as a PlayStation VR mode in Croft Manor, each newly releasing with this 20 Year Celebration. First loading up the game gives a great idea of just how much content is packed into this release as notification after notification feeds information about what comes with the 20 Year Celebration. ![]()
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