Its the accents.

I keep reminding myself that Rise of the Tomb Raider is

basically Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark but co-starring an
ancient order of evil knights instead of Nazis, so theres obviously a lot of
necessary lets-pretend involved. I mean, I can take out a helicopter with a bow
and arrows. Okay. I can go for a swim in sub-zero temperatures without dying
of hypothermia or even messing up my hair. Whatever. I can cross borders
without too much bureaucratic red tape after murdering about a million people
on some Japanese island. Its just a game, Justin. But I cant get over a bunch
of Siberian muzhiks speaking with English public school accents. Thats my limit,
guys.
Its not that its a bad game its mostly rather good, in fact but its also
definitely a bit silly.
So its been about a year in make-believe time since the events of 2013s Tomb
Raider, and Lara Croft hasnt resolved her daddy issues. This time around, shes
become obsessed with finding the lost city of Kitezh, a real but probably not real
place allegedly, mystically guzzled up by Lake Svetloyar during Batu Khans
invasion of Russia in the 13th century. In the context of the game, the late Lord
Crofts own obsession with finding Kitezh had ultimately discredited his whole
career, but Lara is convinced theres more to it than anybody else is letting on. I
bet thats exactly what Lord Croft thought too, but Lara is already the worlds
worst archaeologist seriously, she breaks everything so I suppose shes not
got much to lose, anyway. Shes also not the only person still obsessed with
finding Kitezh, however, and thats when everything goes wrong.

Much like its most recent predecessor, Rise of the Tomb Raider is an open
world, RPG-ish, mushroom-picking, bunny-hunting, puzzle-solving explore-emup, featuring avalanches and zip lines and religious terrorists. Oh, and the
secret of immortality. I did warn you its kind of silly, but at least the expository
monologues are short. Besides the ongoing narrative, theres also a heap of
other stuff to keep you busy, including NPC side missions, challenge tombs,
resource restocking, and about a million collectibles to excavate. As you
progress through the game, youll unlock new gear and upgrades, plus
additional skills sometimes required to access previously unavailable activities

and areas. To put this in perspective, Id managed only a 60-something game

completion percentage when the credits rolled at about 12 hours or so.
Its also an exceptionally beautiful game that, unlike so many other entries in
the genre catalogue, doesnt waste its space with the same interminable
iterations of the same copy-pasted assets over and over. Instead choosing more
refined, almost linear environment design (rather than going the route of over
5,000 SQUARE MILES OF MOSTLY ABSOLUTELY NOTHING OKAY BUT LOOK AT
THE HIGH-TECH SOIL PHYSICS), Rise of the Tomb Raiders many hub locations
are easy to navigate and move between frequent checkpoints, without ever
becoming a tedious slog. Everything in the game is there for a reason, rather
than to fill in the gaps on some arbitrary memory buffer, and investigating
another dilapidated Soviet bunker is always worth your time.
Game Info
Genre: Action Adventure
Platform/s: XBO
Reviewed on: XBO
Developer: Crystal Dynamics
Publisher: Square Enix
Distributor: Prima Interactive
Website: www.tombraider.com
Pros

So much to do

Gorgeous visuals

Clever puzzles

Cons

Too much combat

Unoriginal story