When Tomb Raider was rebooted in 2013 by developer Crystal Dynamics it proved to be a very divisive game. Many fans liked the more gritty, action oriented approach and more human portrayal of Lara, however just as many critics lamented the lack of actual tomb raiding and puzzle solving elements to the game. Fast forward two years and the developers are trying to marry together what fans loved about the previous game whilst also addressing the issues raised above.

Story wise, the game follows on a couple of years after the events of Yamatai Island set out in the previous game. Lara is on the hunt for a mysterious artefact that her father spent years looking for, and apparently drove him to suicide, in an attempt to clear her fathers name and in turn get some closure for her childhood years spent largely without her dad. One minor criticism that comes from this approach is that whilst Lara is painted to be a fragile character on the verge of breaking down at times, five minutes later she is slaughtering soldiers in their hundreds. This disconnect between Lara in gameplay and in cut-scenes can be quite stark at times. Ultimately though, Lara shines as a protagonist. Whereas her motive in the previous game was simply to survive, here we see her developing an almost unhealthy obsession with seeking the truth and we see her visibly struggle between doing the ‘right thing’ against what she ultimately wants to accomplish.

Unfortunately not every character is as well written and acted as Camilla Luddington’s Lara. There is an attempt to humanise the two chief antagonists in the audio logs and diaries you will find on your travels but ultimately these fall flat and they end up just being stereotypical bad guys. Similarly, the ‘friendly’ NPC’s you encounter are woodenly acted and fighting for a cause that is never sufficiently explained throughout the narrative.

When the action begins, however, Rise of the Tomb Raider revels in glorious set pieces that wouldn’t look out of place in an Indiana Jones film. Seeing Lara escape peril by the skin of her teeth on numerous occasions should get boring but Crystal Dynamics manages to make every scenario burst with tension and excitement in equal measure. The range of vistas you will experience are far more varied than last time out as well. You will venture from the snowy climbs of Siberia to the baking sun of Syria and everything in between. Running through collapsing caves or along crumbling cliff edges hundred of metres above ground whilst trying to scramble for the right bit of equipment to use is exhilarating. Lara is awarded new pieces of gear at regular intervals, such as a wire spool which allows grappling onto otherwise out of reach edges or the rebreather which allows Lara to breathe indefinitely underwater. In a clever nod to the metroidvania style games of old, each bit of gear you receive allows Lara to go back to each of the two large hub areas and access tombs and crypts that were previously inaccessible.

As noted above, the game features two hubs areas where you can relax a bit, take on optional challenges and side missions for NPC’s and track down the overwhelming amount of collectibles on offer. These give the player a nice change of pace from the otherwise largely linear story segments. The side missions in particular are fun diversions that help with the immersion that Lara is fighting for a cause rather than just for the sake of it. The hub areas are where you will also find the majority of the games optional tombs.

Similar to the previous game the majority of the tomb raiding the game offers, despite being in the title, is optional. Other than the games opening sequence, the rest of the tombs the game features are entirely avoidable, if you’re so inclined. To do so would be a shame, however, as each of the tombs are varied, challenging and reward the player with genuinely helpful abilities that can’t be earned elsewhere. It is a shame that Crystal Dynamics did not have more confidence to weave these into the narrative portion of the game. It is almost as if they are worried people would get stuck on the puzzles and leave the game frustrated, never to return. This thought is backed up by the fact that the tombs on offer, whilst enjoyable, focus around one puzzle each that, once solved, complete the segment. In one tomb, for instance, I made my way down into a cave and solved a simple traversal puzzle that I thought was just getting me into the tomb, only to find that I had completed the whole thing. It would have been nice to see multi-stage tombs that take longer than five to ten minutes to complete. Nevertheless, the tombs are some of the most fun you will have with the game and I implore any player to explore each one the game has to offer.

In between the exploring and platforming you will find yourself engaging in serviceable third person combat in a very similar vein to the previous game. The combat feels weighty, particularly when landing a headshot with the bow and arrow, but ultimately it does nothing new that hasn’t been seen before within the genre. As before you start off with a basic set of weapons and gradually upgrade both Lara and her weapons with new abilities and attachments. It is an addictive gameplay loop and many players will find themselves seeking out every last resource to maximise upgrade potential. In essence though it is the same as the last game. The enemies you will face are a variety of shooting game clichés from chargers, to flamethrower soliders with big red explosive tanks on their backs to shielded enemies who can only be shot from behind. You can craft explosives on the fly, stealth kill enemies and Lara will auto-snap to cover where applicable. It is solid, rather than spectacular.

Once you have finished the main campaign which takes about twenty hours give or take depending on how much exploring you do, you can dive into the newly introduced expeditions mode. The underwhelming multiplayer from the last game has thankfully been dropped. Expeditions is essentially a score attack mode which tasks you with replaying key segments of the game and trying to rack up the highest score possible by completing the segment quicker, taking less damage, scoring headshots etc… To spice things up a little bit you can apply a variety of modifiers cards either earned through credits in game or bought with real money via microtransactions (just don’t). Cards which make the game easier, for instance starting with a fully maxed weapon, will lower your modifier and cards that make the game harder, i.e you can only regenerate health by killing people, make the modifiers higher. Numerous cards can be stacked for some truly devilish combos. In a nice touch though, the developers have included a number of ‘silly’ cards that change the game in fun ways such as a card that sets Lara alight and means any melee attacks will ignite foes. Is it enough to expand your playtime drastically? Probably not unless you have a number of friends you can share challenges with but it is certainly better than the dire multiplayer from last time out.

Overall, Rise of the Tomb Raider is another excellent game from Crystal Dynamics. However, it is a game that plays very safe. The tombs are still optional, the combat is pretty much the same and overall it does not really add anything drastically new that you won’t have seen last time out. I hate to use an overworked cliché but if you liked the previous game you will love this one. If you wanted more tombs, puzzles and exploration in general then you will still be left a bit disappointed. Ultimately it comes down to what you, the player, want from your Tomb Raider games. As an action adventure experience though, Rise of the Tomb Raider is hard to beat and it is a very good coup for Microsoft to get timed exclusivity as it will provide a direct rival to Sony’s Uncharted 4, which is due early next year.

Rise of the Tomb Raider is out now for Xbox One and Xbox 360. It will coming to PS4, PS3 and PC sometime in ‘fall 2016’.

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