Rise of the Tomb Raider.

[shinymcshine]

Question please - I've been enjoying Uncharted 4, and really liked the older TR games, but I wasn't keen on the first rebooted TR one (too much shooting, not enough exploration - the tomb bits were the best parts, but way too short).

 

So after that I went back to 360 and played Legend, Underworld & Anniversary again to remind myself what I was missing (I actually like the ponderous nature of working out climbing routes etc).

 

So, does RotTR go back more to its roots, or is it more like U4 (with added crafting)?

 

Or is there something else that might fit the bill better (I tried Horizon ZD, but felt it was a bit too close tho the Ubisoft model - visit & collect the map icons)

[shinymcshine]

Rise is under £10 on the PSN - so Ill probably give it a shot.

[Maryokutai]

Rise feels like a Metroid game to be honest. Which is the best compliment I can give it. It's also the most refined of the Reboot Trilogy in my opinion. The first one is to heavy on the action and Shadow is a bit too slow-paced in my opinion. Rise however finds the perfect balance in between.

 

It's also absolutely nothing like Uncharted unless I missed the Uncharted game that gave you new tools along the way and motivated you to backtrack and discover optional areas and puzzles and upgrades.

[DisturbedSwan]

Shadow of the Tomb Raider is the one most similar to the originals as there’s more emphasis on exploration and significantly less shooting. There is far too much shooting in Rise of the Tomb Raider for me and it is my least favourite of the modern trilogy @shinymcshine, just my two pence.

[shinymcshine]

So here goes, and I've played around 4 hrs, and just made it to the Train Yard base camp.

 

Seemed pretty promising in the early parts, but then they've just thrown in a bunch of Trinity soldiers and an abandoned Cold War base and it suddenly feels a bit less exciting. Still, stealth takedowns with the bow seem more effective than a gunfight, so I'm sure it'll be fine.

 

However, the first 'tomb', the frozen ship, was depressingly small, and lacked challenge - but at least some of the mini caves are interesting.

 

 

 

 

[shinymcshine]

7 minutes ago, Nag said:

You may be disappointed if you're hoping for sprawling multi-level tombs @shinymcshine... 

 

Cheers - actually, expectation management helps, so now I'll just be grateful for what's there.

[Jimboxy]

I never understood why they never did more complex tombs. I like the rebooted TR games a lot, but it seems everyone's main criticism of them is the short tomb raiding.

[shinymcshine]

I'm enjoying it, but it really does suffer from a bit of an identity crisis, as noted in the GamesTM review "as to whether to remain faithful to the TR legacy, follow the path of Naughty Dog (TLoU and Uncharted) or make its own new path".

 

Some parts are great, others not so, and at times it feels very uneven. The exploration parts even feel quite clunky, when Lara can't utilise obvious scenary to traverse an area and hits the invisible wall  (no, you can't simply jump on the car bonnet and over the fence, you have to go around and find the gap). 

 

Question please - as I've got the DLC is it advisable to do it as I find it, or leave until the end (or will I hit a point of no progress if Lara isn't fully skilled up anyway?).

[shinymcshine]

I'm still enjoying this, now in the Geothermal Valley, but the driving storyline is to tool up and prepare for the Trinity invasion, hence I'm trying to do as much free exploration before I'm forced to move on. 

 

Some of the jarring parts are when progress is halted because I'm missing a certain bit of gear, and worse than that is the immersion breaking message that appears on screen to reinforce the point.

So whether you've made you way through a cave entrance, started swimming, or scaled a tower, to then be hit by an on-screen message of "You cannot progress until you get explosives/re-breather/wire coil" certainly is deflating.

[shinymcshine]

Fortunately rather than a whole bunch of Uncharted style gun fights, the combat encounters have been small scale, with the ability, in most cases, to effectively use the bow for stealth takedowns.

 

And I've now got the wire coil too, so back to that previously impassable tomb entrance!

[Maryokutai]

The on-screen messages can seem a bit on the nose (or even considered straight spoilers to be fair) but I'm really glad the game has this approach to progress and level design. There have been a crapton of 2D Metroidvanias these last years but their 3D brethren weren't so lucky.

[shinymcshine]

After the (mostly) delightfully ponderous Geothermal Valley, the Acropolis and Hidden Archive stepped it up with a few crash bang wallop action sequences and cut scenes to drive the story on suddenly at pace.

 

The barrel puzzle in the Archive had me stumped for awhile, until that wonderous moment reminiscent of the older games, that I had to explore for an alternative solution, rather than just using what was right there in front of me:

Spoiler

The part where you use the beam, together with fire barrels to blow up the statue supports. I spent way too long trying different combinations to try to get the barrel around the flow to the far support, before wandering around, and finding the solution was another barrel release adjacent to that side of the statue, albeit with a bit of underwater swimming to get there.

 

 

Within a short space of time I've collected a whole bunch of new gear (wire rope, explosive arrows, axe line, steppable arrows, combat knife and rebreather) so hoping a step down in pace, and opportunity to free explore and utilise tools these in previous areas might come in.

[shinymcshine]

I think I'm probably on the other side of those complaints - I love exploring the hub areas, and am much more indifferent to the on rails, action story scenes (which really drift a bit too far into Uncharted territory, and were the main parts of first TR reboot which I disliked).

[shinymcshine]

My enthusiasm always sinks a little whenever I get new gear, but then the story steps in, and I can't fast travel from campfires back to an earlier section, to explore the new possibilities, until I've moved the story on.

[shinymcshine]

I've been mixing in doing exploring with progressing the story, but now that I've made it to a camp just past The Orrery it's really feeling like endgame territory.

 

So despite the storyline trying to emphasise the criticality of time, with Trinity et al marching towards Kitezh, I've decided to go back and do the Baba Yaga DLC , which initially looks quite promising.

[Jimboxy]

Oh, yeah that DLC was really fun if I'm remembering it correctly.

[shinymcshine]

17 hours ago, Jimbo Xiii said:

Oh, yeah that DLC was really fun if I'm remembering it correctly.

 

A thrilling trippy little adventure, with an end battle reminiscent of the early TR games, a very nice and enjoyable diversion.

[shinymcshine]

Well, that's the credits rolling, and I had an enjoyable time, hopefully can now go back and free explore the rest, and later of course Croft Manor too.

 

After the Baba Yaga DLC boss fight the main game ending with Konstantin was a bit of a let down, but I did enjoy the trebuchet parts on the lead up, and the use of them with the helicopter.

 

So overall there was more of the lower paced exploration that I like, and the gunplay, thankfully, seemed reduced from the first reboot, now looking forward to playing SotTR sometime in the future.

[shinymcshine]

I'm not one for collecting 'trophies' but I do find some of the stats interesting, where for RotTR (on PS4):

 

50% have completed game (on any level) but only 18% completed all 9 challenge tombs.

 

Which perhaps illustrates the balance of the modern series and suggests that many players just don't want to, well, raid tombs anymore?

 

Which given that they're really not that difficult to find, or to solve is quite surprising.

 

 

[Maryokutai]

One can only hope developers don't draw the wrong conclusions when they're going through that data. Particularly now that Gamepass also dilutes it quite heavily.