Rise of the Tomb Raider appeared in the Recently Added section of my XBox Game Pass subscription recently. Goat Simulator appeared as well and as fun as that game, erm, simulation looked I decided to go with Rise of the Tomb Raider. I must however note that I have seen demo’s of Goat Simulator as well as the beginning of a playthrough and though Goat Simulator looks to be a fascinating game, erm, simulation, there’s the reality that I may not return to it. I’m sure I’ll miss out on something but I’m willing to take that chance at this time.
One of things I remembered from previous installations of the Tomb Raider franchise is that it has never been the easiest game in the world. There’s lots of failures and try again moments in the game, but this has ALWAYS been one of the high points of the Tomb Raider series. Slowly learning all the ins and outs of the path forward can sometimes be frustrating, but the reward comes when you have learned the full path ahead and you make a monumental surge forward as you finally and deftly navigate all the traps, holes, crumbling floors, swinging death spikes, and dare I say, various pitfalls (heh) in one go. It’s in those moments you jump up from your seat, give the Joe Montana fist pump, and scare everyone in the house as you yell, “Yes, Yes, Yes! Finally.”
This has been my experience thus far playing Rise of the Tomb Raider. I’ve just started the game and after an hour of utter frustration finally passed the Syria portion of the game and am sitting in my first base camp donning a new white out jacket and starting a fire to battle the elements in a snow storm as I chase the bad guys.
I have not played every game in the Tomb Raider series but I have this to say of what I’ve learned. Rise of the Tomb Raider seems to have mastered marrying a 3rd person perspective adventure to platforming. In fact it’s the platforming in this 3rd person entry that makes that game exciting. In fact Tomb Raider started out as a platformer and became a standard other platformers measured themselves against many many years ago. You really have to understand your controls, use literal split second timing and skill, and an awareness of your environment to move forward. Though I have never been a diehard of the Tomb Raider series, I’m getting a lot of enjoyment out of Rise of the Tomb Raider. The gaming is great, I finally got some FPS (first person shooter, well third person in this case) action, and the story thus far has my interest piqued to carry on.
I’m very much at the beginning stages of the game but it’s par excellence for this triple or quadruple A rated adventure and I can’t wait to get back to it. So if your a fan of the series or are looking for a fun and extremely challenging gaming session, check out Rise of the Tomb Raider.
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As I progress and finally complete the game, I will post updates to this article.
Man what a wonderfully challenging game. The Tomb Raider series has always been a challenging lot of games to get through but again, it’s so satisfying to complete the challenges. Even if you have to spend 30 minutes on one section to figure out the way forward. I just defeated the bear in the cave and am continuing on the Mongol path. I found the Byzantine ship frozen in the icy waterfall and this section alone was also very challenging. There’s a lot of moving and precise keyboard/button work (I use keyboard and mouse to play, though I do have a XBox controller) as well as looking around to find the cues’/clues as to where to move to next. I’ve finally made it to the top of the icy area and Byzantine ship and am currently looting the various treasure and picking up a map. There’s stlll a lot of stuff to collect here so I’m going to take my time and be through. Finally a platforming third person over the shoulder game that really werx!
This reply comes the same day as above but I have been playing for the last couple to few hours on the Russian base section. I am a bit of a completionist so I sought out all the maps including the ones which show relics, murals, secret locations etc etc and am going through those now. I am thoroughly impressed with the size of this particular map. I mean it’s not large by any means but it is in an outside setting with plenty of distractions so it’s takes a little extra back and forth to memorize all the area’s. And just when I was about to go nuts searching for the entrance of the prison which is plainly visible on the map, I think I just finally found an underground passage or tomb which might lead me there. I’m glad I stuck it out again and just did thorough searching because sometimes I get defeatist and look for a playthrough, though doing that is far from satisfying. and in retrospect it’s just anticlimactic.
I know, another Rise of the Tomb Raider entry and it’s only a day after the previous note. Today I entered the Red Mine and after spending thoroughly 30 to 45 minutes trying to figure out the the path forward, I finally had to go to a playthrough for the hint. Maybe if I continued to sputter around and backtrack and look at things from another 360 degree standpoint I might have figured it out, but in this case, I don’t think so. I’m pretty sure I would have needed help to move forward. I’m not mad or feeling down because I actually learned something which will hopefully help me out later on in the game. This is the first time I’ve gone to a playthrough for some help but if you’ve read my previous notes, I wasn’t far from doing the same yesterday, but luckily I was able to figure that one out.
Rise of the Tomb Raider is now my favorite game. Previously it was the Resident Evil series, most notably RE 7, Biohazard. Rise of the Tomb Raider is simply a much harder game but of course there are elements in RE which are far superior to TR they are different games so maybe I should change up and say nothing about favorite games and do like I do with RE and go by series. I know have 2 favorite gaming series and I have been playing Rise of the Tomb Raider non-stop the last few days. I noticed that I on some of the missions though I have completed them I have not 100% percented them and I look forward to going back to the previous maps so the completionist in me can get that glorious satisfaction of 100% complete.
Okay enough of the guffaw, back to the game. I’m at a tough spot right now in the Copper Mill getting ready to fight 3 of the armored and tough bad guys. I’ve already died about 4 times trying to pass this little section but I’m so excited I’m moving ahead and getting more elements of the story. Till next time…
❤️
Just started playing the second game in the series, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, and am in the process of writing an article on that game. Should be out in a day or two from today.