Rise of the Tomb Raider is an action-adventure video game developed by Crystal Dynamics and published by Square Enix. It is the sequel to the 2013 video game Tomb Raider, which was itself, the second reboot to its series. It was released for Xbox One and Xbox 360 in November 2015 and for Microsoft Windows in January 2016. It is set to release for PlayStation 4 in late 2016.
Rise of the Tomb Raider was officially announced in June 2014. The game's storyline follows Lara Croft as she ventures into Siberia in search of the legendary city of Kitezh, whilst battling a paramilitary organization that intends on beating her to the city's promise of immortality. Presented from a third-person perspective, the game primarily focuses on survival and combat, while the player may also explore its landscape and various optional tombs. Camilla Luddington returns to voice and perform her role as Lara.
Upon release, Rise of the Tomb Raider received positive reviews, with critics praising its graphics, gameplay and characterization. It was the best-selling Xbox One game during Christmas week, and had sold over one million copies by the end of 2015. Additional content was also released, including a new campaign, a new mode, as well as new outfits and weapons for Lara.
Gameplay:
Rise of the Tomb Raider is a third-person action-adventure game that features similar gameplay found in 2013's Tomb Raider. Players control Lara Croft through various environments, battling enemies, and completing puzzle platforming sections, while using improvised weapons and gadgets in order to progress through the story.
The game features a crafting system, allowing players to create items like different arrow types (poison, climbable, fire, grenade, rope) by scavenging materials from plants and animals in the game's harsh environment.
The in-game environment includes a weather system that both human and animal characters can react to and a day-night cycle. For example, to create a hardier winter coat Lara must hunt a wolf which only comes out during a specific time of day and specific weather condition. Lara can swim which will add to her mobility and combat tactics.
Combat has been redesigned with more options for stealth and sneak attacks. Lara can confuse enemies using the environment, hide behind bushes or in trees, shooting bows on objects, throwing molotov cocktails and fog bottles or avoid combat altogether by climbing trees or traveling across roof tops. The bow and arrow return from Tomb Raider. The grappling hook, now known as a wire spool comes back for rope swinging after being gone after Tomb Raider: Underworld. Options for multiple bows can be fashioned from specific animals and materials that Lara can hunt and salvage. Other weapons such as her pistol, shotgun, assault rifle and climbing axe make a return, plus an added hunting knife for melee or sneak attacks, a breather, and a lockpick for opening locked crates and doors.
Platforming also makes a return as mechanics like jumping forwards against a vertical wall and shimming and jumping from ledge to ledge as well as swinging on trapeze make a return. Quick time events and dodging also return to avoid deadly traps in the game and perform finishing attacks and counters.
Plot:
One year after the events of Tomb Raider, Lara Croft is struggling to explain her experience of the supernatural on Yamatai. Looking for answers, she turns to her late father's research into the lost city of Kitezh and the promise of immortality. Her father's partner Ana attempts to warn her off as his obsession with Kitezh drove him to ruin and suicide. Lara ignores her and organises an expedition to Syria, hoping to uncover the tomb of the Prophet of Constantinople, a key figure in the legend of Kitezh. Although successful, the tomb is empty, and Lara is interrupted by Trinity—an ancient order of knights that now exists as a paramilitary organization investigating the supernatural—and their leader Konstantin. As she flees, Lara discovers a symbol etched into the tomb that she links to a book on Russian religious history in her father's study. A Trinity assassin steals the book, prompting Lara and her friend Jonah to give chase in Siberia. When the two are separated after an avalanche, Lara is forced to go on alone.
Lara discovers that Trinity has taken over a Soviet-era mining installation as a base of operations in the search for Kitezh. She is caught attempting to retrieve the book and placed in a prison cell with Ana, who is revealed to be Konstantin's sister and a spy for Trinity. The two interrogate her as to the whereabouts of the "Divine Source", an artifact believed to grant immortality. Lara escapes, and in the process aids Jacob, a mysterious stranger who leads her through the mines into the valley beyond.
Jacob is revealed to be the leader of the Remnant, the descendants of the followers of the Prophet of Constantinople. As Lara aids in their resistance against Trinity, she begins to learn more about the Prophet and the lost city of Kitezh. After being branded a heretic and pursued by the Order of Trinity, the Prophet and his followers resettled in Russia, where they built Kitezh. However, spurred on by agents of Trinity, the Mongol Hordes led by Genghis Khan attacked the city, and the Prophet was forced to sacrifice it to protect the Divine Source. The Remnant escaped and settled in the area, vowing to defend the city's secret. Jacob warns her that although the Divine Source exists, it is not what she expects it to be. Konstantin's forces repeatedly attack the Remnant, believing them to be heretics and justifying the slaughter as God's will. However, Lara discovers that Ana is dying and has been manipulating her brother to find the Divine Source and save her.
Jacob and Lara decide that the only way to protect the Divine Source is to retrieve it before Trinity can. In order to do this, Lara recovers the Atlas, an artifact that serves as a map of Kitezh. She is reunited with Jonah, who has been spying on Trinity forces and they locate the path into the city. However, Konstantin has been aware of Jonah's presence and let him go free in the hopes that he would lead Trinity to Lara. Jonah is kidnapped with the Atlas, compelling Lara to rescue him. The attempt ends in disaster when Konstantin stabs him, knowing that Lara will prioritize his rescue and giving Trinity a head start. Lara takes Jonah to Jacob, who reveals himself to be the Prophet when he miraculously heals Jonah.
With Trinity advancing on the glacier that rests over Kitezh, Lara is forced to enter the city through the Path of the Deathless where she encounters the Deathless Ones, the immortal guardians of the city. Following the journals of a Trinity agent embedded in the Mongolian forces, Lara realizes the truth of Jacob's warning: the Divine Source grants immortality, but at the cost of their sense of self. The Deathless Ones are the immortal inhabitants of Kitezh, forced to defend the city for eternity. As Lara enters Kitezh, the Remnant rally to attack the Deathless Ones, giving her time to reach the heart of the city. She is attacked by Konstantin and mortally wounds him; he dies in disbelief that he was not carrying out God's will, but Ana's. Lara is too late to stop Ana from retrieving the Divine Source, but wrests it from her before Ana can use it. Lara destroys the Divine Source, killing the Deathless Ones, but Jacob loses his immortality. However, he is happy that his time has finally come and thanks Lara for bringing his end as he peacefully disintegrates.
In the aftermath, Jacob's daughter Sofia takes over the Remnant. Jonah recovers from his wounds and joins Lara in planning their next expedition, with Lara vowing to investigate more of the world's mysteries as well as thwart Trinity's plans. A post-credits scene shows Lara and Ana leaving Russia, two weeks earlier before Lara arrived at the manor, with Lara questioning her over the death of her father. Ana admits that Lara's father was in fact murdered by Trinity, but she is shot and killed by a sniper working for Trinity before she can reveal anything else. The sniper asks for orders about killing Lara, but his unseen superior tells him, "No, not yet" as the game ends.
Development:
On August 1, 2013, Phil Rogers, Square Enix' Western CEO, confirmed in a blog post on the company's official website that a "next-generation Tomb Raider sequel" is "well into development". On June 9, 2014, Rise of the Tomb Raider was formally announced with a press release, after a first trailer premiered on Microsoft's E3 press conference earlier the same day. That same trailer was later televised during Xbox Live's broadcast of the Miss Teen USA 2014 beauty pageant.
At Microsoft's Gamescom 2014 briefing, it was announced that the game will be released in late 2015 as a timed exclusive for Xbox platforms. Speaking on the exclusivity, Phil Spencer said "...I'm a big fan of Uncharted and I wish we had an action adventure game of that ilk. We've started some, and we've looked at them. But we don't have one today of that quality. This is an opportunity." The exclusivity news was met with widespread negative criticism from consumers and journalists alike. In February 2015, Crystal Dynamics announced that the Xbox 360 version is being developed by Nixxes Software.
On June 15, 2015, at Microsoft E3 2015's press conference, Tomb Raider was confirmed to be released in North America on November 10, 2015 on the Xbox One and Xbox 360. A behind the scene trailer was released during Square Enix's press conference on June 16, 2015. On July 23, 2015, Square Enix announced Rise of the Tomb Raider for Microsoft Windows and PlayStation 4, with respective release dates of early 2016 and late 2016. On August 4, 2015, at Microsoft Gamescom's press conference, it was confirmed that the game would release on November 13 in Europe.
A season pass was announced at October 7, 2015. It adds additional tombs and an Endurance mode, which significantly increases the game's difficulty. In this mode, Lara has to search for food and fuel for survival. The mode is set to be added to the game on December 29, 2015. The season pass also comes with a new downloadable content called Baba Yaga: Temple of the Witch, which adds new tombs, puzzles and a new campaign featuring Baba Yaga to the base game. It was released on January 26, 2016.
Reception:
Rise of the Tomb Raider was well received upon release. GameSpot's Mike Mahardy lauded the believability of the game's characters, as well as the addition of more tombs and the variety of options in combat. He concluded that "Crystal Dynamics has found equilibrium in almost every way." Lucy O'Brien of IGN praised the depiction of Lara and the world design. She claimed that the game is "the most fun I’ve had with a Lara Croft game since 1996", and stated that it "takes its predecessor's winning formula and improves on it in every way". Polygon's Philip Kollar awarded it a score of 8.5 out of 10, saying "This is the inauguration of Tomb Raider as a formula once more, but for now, it's a formula I'm happy revisiting."
Stephanie Bendixsen and Steven O'Donnell of Good Game both gave the game five stars. Bendixsen directed praise in particular to the game's combat, saying that she had "never had more fun with weapons in a game", and O'Donnell said that "Lara has really come into her own now, and it feels genuinely exciting to be going on this journey with her."
Kimberley Wallace of Game Informer awarded the game a 9.5 out of 10, stating "Rise of the Tomb Raider captures the thrill of being an adventurer and leaves you thinking about Lara's next move. You have daredevil sequences, heroic moments, fun exploration, and exciting fights that even Indiana Jones would envy. If Crystal Dynamics keeps raising the bar from here, I can't wait to see what's next for Lara."
Peter Paras of Game Revolution gave it a perfect 5 star rating, saying that "...this is an adventure worth replaying with a hero who’s unforgettable."
The retail version of Rise of the Tomb Raider was the fourth best selling game in its week of release in the UK and Ireland, debuting at No. 4 in the UK retail software sales chart. Brian Horton, the game's director, and Aaron Greenberg, a Microsoft's executive, claimed that both Microsoft Studios and Square Enix were satisfied with the game's sales.
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