The first reboot of Tomb Raider is quite a such ace game when I've played on my PS3 in three years ago. I've enjoyed the single-player campaign with amazing story presentation, well played combat gameplay, the game's atmospheres, darker tone, well designed graphics and it has great action that the game has to offer for Tomb Raider's fans. While I'm hoping to look forward to sequel, I'm kinda bummed to see Rise of the Tomb Raider being first released for XBONE and X360 in 2015 as timed exclusive which angered to most of the PS4 and PC owners who are hoping to look forward to play this game on their consoles until they finally released the PC version in January 2016 and of course the PS4 version in October 2016 as 20 Year Celebration edition. I've finally picked this game for PS4 from the game market store because it took me awhile to get the game since 3 months ago, so then I've started to play this game for a week and did I like the game? the answer is yes because it's another great sequel that won't be disappointed to all fans of the series. The game retains the same combat gameplay and updated graphics to keep the game refreshing, the story and characters in the game are still pretty remarkable as the previous game and of course the new campaign story Blood Ties are also pretty nice edition too.
So without go further do, lets start the review.
Presentation
The game takes place after the event of Tomb Raider 2013's reboot, it's starts off with a British archaeologist Lara Croft who appears to suffered with stress disorder after she's learned the past of her experience of the supernatural on Yamatai. She still works on her late father's research into lost city of Kitezh and decided to head at Syria to uncover the tomb of the Prophet of Constantinople until she was encountered by groups of Trinity. After shes managed to escape and discovers a symbol, she and her friend Jonah decided to head at Siberia in search of the legendary city of Kitezh.
The story in the game are quite impressive at the start of the game where Lara Croft talks about her horrible experience at Yamatai which gives a great recap from the previous game. The actual story in the game were magnificently surprising that the developer teams did a stunning job with the main storyplot, cinematic design of cutscene and adventurous sequences are very well done that helped increases the experience of Tomb Raider universe. I also wanted to point out to character Lara Croft's character development have started to get better than before since the 2013's reboot and honestly she's still a amazing female protagonist that makes the series so memorable over the decade. I also liked the side characters such as Jonah, Jacob and Sofia are also decent, while I finding the Konstantin are by far the weakest villain in the game except Ana is definitely better antagonist.
Overall, it has terrific storyline, adventurous cinematic design and awesome female protagonist, but lackluster male villain.
Gameplay
You take control of Lara Croft in open-world level where you have to complete the mission throughout the story.
The open-world area has different kinds of single player missions such as main quest, side-quest, and two new campaign such as Baba Yaga and Cold Darkness Awakened. Controlling Lara are pretty simple which she has ability to jump around each platforms, swims under the water, and climb on the obstacles by using the climbing tools such as pick axe which can be sticked on the wall while climbing and she can also climb up the trees and rooftops. She can also traverse between the camps and across the island using footpaths, ziplines and climbable tracks. You can highlight the objects by using the survival instincts which she can able to spot enemies, collectables and objects nearby. In combat gameplay, you will have four selectable weapons to choose such as pistols are balanced and simple to use, the rifles can be shot through far-distance, the shotguns are quite useful for close range combat, and the bows which you can able to craft four sets of arrows such as regular, poison, explosions and fires. You can use the melee attacks on the enemies by using the axe which allows player to instantly perform finishing kills on enemies. During the stealth gameplay, you can throw any of objects such as bottles or cans which can be used for distracting the enemies, but you can also craft these items to create the molotov cocktails and grenades and the player has advantage to hiding in bushes or trees to prevent getting caught by the enemies nearby, but try keeping eye on player's stealth status which tells you if the enemy sees you then it will indicate red symbols. Crafting items may requires the materials items such as cloth, animals skins and leaves which can be found on any level environments. You can also upgrade your weapons, gears and skills through base camps which helps improves Lara's overall abilities and you can also change her outfits too. Base camps are also part of the save points which saves your progress to continue where you left off and you can also travel through the different location by using the fast travel which is quickest way to travel through instead of continue running on the whole area.
The gameplay plays and feels much like the previous game which is still pretty damn playable. Controlling the player is just played perfect especially with those combat mechanics has great shooting range, impressive stealth kills, amazing crafting systems, and useful upgrades. I still find the quick time events is just little bit better than the previous one, but still it wasn't sounds brilliant which are still impossible to hit the correct button. I really enjoyed the single player missions with tons of great epic actions, but it seems to be it's not having enough puzzle elements in the game which they would have nice to added more puzzle elements are the most important things for the franchise. I really liked the cool open-world environment seems to be very large area which are good for exploration such as discovering hidden secrets, collecting relics, hunting down animals, and there's lot of things to do in the game.
This game does have croft manor which has DLC story called Blood Ties which are also pretty fun to explore Lara's homeplace and there are one of the challenge mode to play such as Lara's Nightmare which you have to take down the groups of zombie-like horde and defeating skull-head boss, but it may not be challenge friendly which can also cause many of rage quit, but it's still plays okay.
Overall, it has great combat gameplay, cool open-world levels and epic missions.
Graphics
I honestly got to say that the graphics are pretty looked similar from the previous game, but they managed to update some of the improvements such as visual effects are slightly looked cleaner with great use of lighting and the environments has larger depth of open world area with deeper backgrounds from far-distance and some crispy textures details which they did a fabulous job to keep the game up to date. The animation is still pretty amazing to see how outstanding these characters looked on modern day consoles and it's running on rock-solid performance of 30fps with no shimmering issues and lag inputs that makes the PS4 version feels more superior which they have managed to fixed the problem that was found on Xbox One version, so the actual game looked spectacular when running on PS4 Pro consoles with stunning 4K resolution.
Overall, it has cleaner visuals, larger environments and amazing animations.
Music and Sounds
The original soundtrack is sounds frigging incredible that fits the tone of the game's presentations because it sounds very dark, but amazing at the same time that gives a feeling of the game's atmospheres. The sound effects has spectacular atmospheric backgrounds and intense noise coming from the sound of gun firing and boom explosion. The voice cast did a fantastic job on their character's role is just sounds good as the previous installiment.
Overall, it has incredible soundtrack, spectacular sounds and fantastic voice cast.
Special Features
This game comes with all completed content such as Blood Ties, Lara's Nightmares, new endurance mode co-op and includes all DLC for single player campaign. The PS4 version also comes with nice artbook style with brown video game case has Lara Croft's 20 Year Icon on the front and it also has really impressive artwork page to look at the art style of Lara Croft's fan-made images.
Overall, I loved the artbook cases and it has all completed features on PS4 version.
Advantages
Terrific story
Awesome female pragtonist
Great combat gameplay
Larger open-world area
Epic missions
Amazing graphics
Incredible soundtrack
Well made artbook cases
Disadvantages
Lackluster male villain
Weak QTE
Not enough puzzle elements
Final Verdict
Presentation 9/10 - terrific storyline, adventurous cinematic design and awesome female protagonist, but lackluster male villain.
Gameplay 9/10 - great combat gameplay, cool open-world levels and epic missions.
Graphics 9/10 - cleaner visuals, larger environments and amazing animations.
Music and Sounds 10/10 - incredible soundtrack, spectacular sounds and fantastic voice cast.
Special Features 9/10 - impressive artbook cases and all completed features on PS4 version.
Overall 9/10 - Rise of the Tomb Raider is another great sequel especially with PS4 version are far more superior than the Xbox One has to offer. This game definitely lives up with the fans of the beloved franchises with great combat mechanics, superb missions, larger open-world area to explore, all completed content and of course the incredible story and female protagonist that made the game such legendary which is worth to pick this game up and enjoy the Lara Croft's adventures.
My second opinion is that I still liked this sequel, but I prefer 2013's reboot a lot better.
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