The latest adventures of Lara Croft, guides us in the search for the lost city of Kitezh and Divine Source that grants immortality to its owner . Of course there is a secret organization Trinity which is also keen to get their hands on this powerful artifact for their evil cause. I must note at the beginning of this review that the story is pretty black and white and there are no excessive moments that will long remain in my memory. It all boils down to a fight between good and evil with a few soulful Lara’s memorys of her late father who was also searching for this town. Basically, extremely boring emotional experience.

However, the way game acts and represents this piece of the story is superb. Rise of the Tomb Raider on the field of presentation absolutely justifies its AAA status and the full price – with The Order 1886 has perhaps the best facial animation I’ve ever seen inside a game engine. The game generally spinns good on Xbox Full HD, although sometimes you can get a decline in the number of frames during major battles (nothing too bother gameplay too much). Oh, and a convenient visual detail that the developers have set up  are chairs, that are usually found in front of some fine scenery, so you can sit and enjoy the beautiful view, while under you, people are slaughtered for an artifact. Lara Croft and chill …

I’M A SURVIVOR

Rise of the Tomb Raider is a typical sequel, because it takes all the most important things from its reboot and adds some new little things just that it does not seem like an ordinary copy of its predecessor with new maps, which in the end did not turn out bad at all. Still, there is a map where we can see main tasks, the different weapons and their upgrades and promotion system.

Fighting is usually possible to do the stealth mode, slowly killing opponents with the help of bow and arrow or eliminating an opponent from behind. This is also the way that you will be rewarded with the most points, so just for this reason I have spent the vast majority of the fight behind cover with a bow and arrow in hand.

A nice new feature from its predecessor is collecting resources scattered around the map, although I later realized that I had become a slave to scanning areas for the purpose of finding a pair of new branches. With the help of a button that indicates all of the hidden objects and resources, literally each step scan area, you also may have taken part pleasure in exploration. What’s worse, I’m watching streams of this game and I noticed that I’m not the only one with the syndrome OSOS (one step, one scan).

The only important thing that has degenerated over its predecessor are controls that are in some situations behaving very strangely. Before playing the new Rise of the Tomb Raider, I played reboot version (I got it in the package he-he) where I had absolutely no trouble controlling Lara. I was too often found completely shocked with the outcome compared to what button I thought I pressed, which have been especially significant during climbing and jumping, which caused Lara’s cry of pain as she falls into the abyss.

MORE TOMBS TO RAID

Instead multiplayer mode from reboot that did not got gentle words from reviews and players, this time we got a new Expedition mode. The same can be best described as a kind of a competition in going through already seen missions with time limits, the system of points and maps which bring some special conditions in this competition. I did not spent a lot of time in this mode, because I do not have any friends with whom I can compete and joke around with who has a better result.

Most of the time I spent in finding secret graves which abound in various riddles. Although there are more of it than its predecessor, I still feel that numbers of them are too low since the series was created just based on the research of such raw, dark and damp places. It bothered me a lot as well as those are optional puzzles, while during the play of the main story there is only one concrete puzzle and its at the end of the game. I am so angry that I would prefer to write one angry letter to Square Enix…

Is this game fun? No doubt about it – fans of the genre action adventure will enjoy the beautiful visuals and nicely orchestrated action. Sustainability is also satisfactory, Lara will retain the sheer number of hours with the screen, especially if you want to discover all of its secrets and collect every little hidden item. The same can not be said for the story, but hey – at least the characters look super-realistic while recite totally predictable lines of text. Lack of puzzle elements still bothers me, where the rest of the series is based, but at least there are optional graves for the fans of the series to quench some of the thirst for riddles.

If you’ve played the last sequel and loved it then this is a very easy decision for you. For all others, especially fans of the series, it is only necessary to point out that this has become primarily a fun and attractive action-adventure something like a child of Uncharted and Assassin’s Creed. If you come into the game with those expectations without thinking too much about the beginnings of Tomb Raider or ancient bullies, you will certainly have fun.