Playing this game for like the third time. Bought the 20 year celebration edition because of my newly acquired PS4PRO and because I wanted to play the DLC as well.
Playing this after running through the Uncharted trilogy, which actually inspired this revisit, I cannot help but notice its flaws next to Naughty Dogs adventure games. I aim to not compare games at all and rather judge them for what they do on their own, but with this I can't make any promises.
Rise of the Tomb Raider's main flaws are basically just two major things: gunplay and story. With the former, it is blatantly obvious that this was meant as a game with an emphasis on stealth. This is by no means negative. It is just apparent in the shootouts or whenever I want to blast my way through a camp. The game clearly has a preference for the player to choose the stealthy route. The aiming is very slow; there is no smooth cover-taking mechanics; and the moving from cover to cover and pick enemies off one by one is anything but intuitive. These are things that really did bother me. I would have much rather liked to have more run-while-everything-around-you-falls-apart sequences in place of those action scenes and have the rest of the missions be stealth missions. Luckily, I know that Shadow of the Tomb Raider, the sequel, did, in fact, place more emphasis on guerilla tactics, in addition to making the gunplay a bit smoother. That game also lets you know that guerilla tactics are the way to go. Not explicitly, but Rise kinda let me believe every camp was a choose-your-method kind of deal, which it actually wasn't. I don't know what it was that made that difference, I just got that feeling.
Then the story. Now I really can't get around it anymore. Rise of the Tomb Raider's story sucks. Lara succumbs to the basic role of any female scientist in any movie ever: she has to be motivated to carry out the work that man she loves, preferably her father, also worked on. She can never be motivated by herself for some reason. The dialogue is terrible and the ending was a major anticlimax. Look, Uncharted's story is not perfect and cliché at best, but at least it was comfortable and including witty dialogue. Rise of the Tomb Raider is just awful up to the point it becomes cringy.
Now, I should give some positive remarks, too. This has long been one of my favourite action adventure games of all time. I wouldn't say that anymore, but it still has a place in my heart. Not in the least because of the fact that this is my third time playing it, making it easier to spot flaws. The first time was WILD. I didn't mind the story being bad; I loved how the gameplay built on what was set up in the previous game; and I found that there were more and bigger tombs to explore, with more satisfying rewards at the end. Rise of the Tomb Raider builds on its predecessor incredibly well.
I will be having some fun with the tombs and DLC in the coming days and I look forward to it. Despite everything.
Playing this after running through the Uncharted trilogy, which actually inspired this revisit, I cannot help but notice its flaws next to Naughty Dogs adventure games. I aim to not compare games at all and rather judge them for what they do on their own, but with this I can't make any promises.
Rise of the Tomb Raider's main flaws are basically just two major things: gunplay and story. With the former, it is blatantly obvious that this was meant as a game with an emphasis on stealth. This is by no means negative. It is just apparent in the shootouts or whenever I want to blast my way through a camp. The game clearly has a preference for the player to choose the stealthy route. The aiming is very slow; there is no smooth cover-taking mechanics; and the moving from cover to cover and pick enemies off one by one is anything but intuitive. These are things that really did bother me. I would have much rather liked to have more run-while-everything-around-you-falls-apart sequences in place of those action scenes and have the rest of the missions be stealth missions. Luckily, I know that Shadow of the Tomb Raider, the sequel, did, in fact, place more emphasis on guerilla tactics, in addition to making the gunplay a bit smoother. That game also lets you know that guerilla tactics are the way to go. Not explicitly, but Rise kinda let me believe every camp was a choose-your-method kind of deal, which it actually wasn't. I don't know what it was that made that difference, I just got that feeling.
Then the story. Now I really can't get around it anymore. Rise of the Tomb Raider's story sucks. Lara succumbs to the basic role of any female scientist in any movie ever: she has to be motivated to carry out the work that man she loves, preferably her father, also worked on. She can never be motivated by herself for some reason. The dialogue is terrible and the ending was a major anticlimax. Look, Uncharted's story is not perfect and cliché at best, but at least it was comfortable and including witty dialogue. Rise of the Tomb Raider is just awful up to the point it becomes cringy.
Now, I should give some positive remarks, too. This has long been one of my favourite action adventure games of all time. I wouldn't say that anymore, but it still has a place in my heart. Not in the least because of the fact that this is my third time playing it, making it easier to spot flaws. The first time was WILD. I didn't mind the story being bad; I loved how the gameplay built on what was set up in the previous game; and I found that there were more and bigger tombs to explore, with more satisfying rewards at the end. Rise of the Tomb Raider builds on its predecessor incredibly well.
I will be having some fun with the tombs and DLC in the coming days and I look forward to it. Despite everything.