Small details inform the centuries of history that have shaped the region, providing a sense of archaeological discovery far better than the explicit storytelling. Moving from snowy mountain ranges to the ruins of Byzantine villages, Lara’s journey is consistently varied and visually stunning. To some extent, this is the result of technology, but largely the game impresses most on the basis of detailed character animations and solid art design. The hardware used for this review is getting a bit long in the tooth, but, even on a mix of “medium” and “high” graphics settings, Rise looks stunning. When the story fades to the background and the player is left only to climb, jump, swim, and shoot through the world, Rise of the Tomb Raider is much stronger. More disappointingly, Lara, still poised to fully become the self-assured adventurer the previous game only partially moved her toward, develops very little as a character, her actions and personality still defined more by her father than herself. Despite many of the actors’ commendable efforts to sell their lines, the story remains too brusque and formulaic to stay compelling beyond the first few hours of set-up.
The writing used to relate all of this is strained, though. The plot moves forward with welcome momentum, mixing quiet scenes of exposition and exploration with fast-paced action sequences. Alternating between the perilous first steps of her journey and flashbacks to the days leading up to her departure, the game immediately demonstrates a far greater understanding of compelling dramatic structure than 2013’s Tomb Raider. Following in her archaeologist father’s footsteps, the younger Croft travels to Siberia to find “the Divine Source,” a legendary artifact said to grant immortality. Though Rise of the Tomb Raider wastes little time in getting Lara into the thick of a brand new adventure, it’s still burdened by much of its predecessor’s baggage. But, despite its success at modernizing many Tomb Raider conventions, the game failed to make much of a character from Lara-and was filled with the collectable glut that plagues modern game design. The reboot attempted to fix these problems by starting again, presenting a new origin story that remade Lara as a more plausible character, fallen into the violent business of supernatural archaeology as the result of a shipwreck.
Its star Lara Croft had become a caricature-a confused mix of videogame sexism and ‘90s grrl power-and the kilometres of narrative baggage it had accumulated over so many games had become an overly convoluted albatross around its neck. By the time Crystal Dynamics released 2013’s Tomb Raider, the long-running series was in desperate need of reinvention.
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