LTTP Rise of the Tomb Raider, and the fall of an iconic series

[etdp]

finally finished rise of the tomb raider, and I figure I'd share my thoughts

- the first third of the game has some very striking visual themes and some great ideas
- the second third of the game felt directionless, extremely generic and somewhat pointless
- the last third of the game is basically just enemy wave after wave for a few hours until you're done.

i'm not a fan of the game. the puzzles never evolve much beyond the rope arrows, the controls for the climbing are clunky enough that they caused plenty of unintentional deaths for me (especially with mouse and keyboard, which is so frustratingly specific that it made the game more difficult than just using a controller), and any actually interesting mechanics like having to distribute the weight of something properly to finish a puzzle is used a total of one time

the enemies in the game are so boring, too. there's about four types of humanoid enemies you'll fight for 90% of the game. generic soldier, sniper, armoured soldier that takes two headshots, and armoured soldier that takes two headshots with a ballistic shield. the game "evolves" this enemy design by introducing supernatural greek soldiers that... function exactly the same, but take more bullets to kill. that's it. the lack of variety is so mindnumbingly boring that it feels like the entire combat system was designed in a weekend.

the game feels like the amalgamation of all the worst trends in modern AAA titles: semi-open levels railroaded by a
piss poor story, uninspired mechanics, mediocre level design, and a pointless crafting system slapped on top to really sell it.

nothing about this game feels like it was any kind of passion project. it's a paint by numbers AAA title and has completely fanned out any interest
i had in checking out SOTTR any time soon.

rise of the tomb raider is the shasta cola to uncharted's coca cola. hard pass unless you reaaaaally want a game with good graphics to flex on your PC, or are a diehard for anything attached to the franchise.

 

[lashman]

to be fair - i really liked what i played of SotTR so far ... especially the challenge tombs - they're REALLY expansive ... but even the smaller crypts (or whatever they call them) are surprisingly big, like i'd say they might be the same size the actual tombs in RotTR were, and they're just the smaller puzzles, so you can imagine just how much bigger the actual tombs are!

 

[Kurt Russell]

I finished it last week so I could decide whether to buy Shadow of the Tomb Raider or not (bought Rise day one, got bored 20 hours in, forgot to finish it). I fully agree with your opinion, and skipped Shadow because of that. I feel they tried to go "full Uncharted" but at the same time semi-open world (this was before U4 did it as well) and failed miserably.

 

[etdp]

I finished it last week so I could decide whether to buy Shadow of the Tomb Raider or not (bought Rise day one, got bored 20 hours in, forgot to finish it). I fully agree with your opinion, and skipped Shadow because of that. I feel they tried to go "full Uncharted" but at the same time semi-open world (this was before U4 did it as well) and failed miserably.

the entire game feels like it lacks direction. they wanted to do everything everyone else were doing, but they couldn't do it nearly as well and managed to fail to implement their own unique mechanics or game design along the way

it's not often that i enjoy the first game so much, but the second kills my interest in a series

 

[Kurt Russell]

I finished it last week so I could decide whether to buy Shadow of the Tomb Raider or not (bought Rise day one, got bored 20 hours in, forgot to finish it). I fully agree with your opinion, and skipped Shadow because of that. I feel they tried to go "full Uncharted" but at the same time semi-open world (this was before U4 did it as well) and failed miserably.

the entire game feels like it lacks direction. they wanted to do everything everyone else were doing, but they couldn't do it nearly as well and managed to fail to implement their own unique mechanics or game design along the way

it's not often that i enjoy the first game so much, but the second kills my interest in a series

Yup! It's an amazing feat for all the wrong reasons. I guess someone from up higher got in the way and meddled with the development process, because the difference between 2013 and Rise is pretty big.

 

[lashman]

the Baba Yaga DLC is pretty good, though

 

[Kurt Russell]

the Baba Yaga DLC is pretty good, though

It's good until you get to the twist, and the writers play it like it was a super amazing reveal... only you will certainly know what it was if you read the diaries scattered around (there's a specific one that kinda reveals everything) and Lara also acts like she didn't know. To me, that almost ruined the DLC.

 

[etdp]

the Baba Yaga DLC is pretty good, though

i may visit it eventually, since i do own it. but I'm not looking forward to playing any more ROTTR for a long time lol

 

[lashman]

It's good until you get to the twist, and the writers play it like it was a super amazing reveal... only you will certainly know what it was if you read the diaries scattered around (there's a specific one that kinda reveals everything) and Lara also acts like she didn't know. To me, that almost ruined the DLC.

yeah, the "twist" is painfully obvious even if you don't read most of the diaries ... but it's still a cool little story, even if predictable

 

[Robby]

I got to the point where the world really opens up and a bunch of people laying around in the snow started asking me to do shit for them, like go kill some monster in a cave or whatever. Lost interest at that point, which is a shame because I loved the reboot. I think going open world really made it feel aimless and unfocused, which is a killer for me. The world and gameplay have to be exceptional for me to stay invested in open world games, and it had many of the same problems I had with Horizon, namely uninteresting characters and a sterile, but gorgeous setting.

I haven't even read a preview for Shadow yet, because I found Rise so boring. Plus Spider-Man and Forsaken have been eating all of my time up lately.

 

[Nahkapukki]

Open world doesn't always work on games and especially these days the games feel extremely elongated and aimless thanks to a huge world filled with menial labor you are supposed to do in order to get better stuff that you end up discarding.

I liked the Tomb Raider reboot and the sequel but the third one seemed a bit loose in the joints. The trailers, gameplay and all have seemed like the devs were making another Lara Croft game without much real enthusiasm. I'll probably get it tho so I can finish the trilogy.

 

[brau]

I wonder if you would like the new one etdp

The new one focuses more, or at least gives you the opportunity to explore more and discover the world around. Tombs, crypts and hunting is super rewarding and the maps are pretty expansive and full of content, and the sense of discovery is pretty great.

The story is alright. Better than Rise for sure, and the presentation is pretty great. Tho i doubt that you would find the combat encounters better, since i thought Rise did the gunplay better. Shadow does the knife stealth and bow better tho.

Thats about it. I have been enjoying the series direction and i think this last game does a pretty good job at expanding the formula. But all your points seem to hold even if I like the series.