When we concluding saw Lara Croft, she was growing out of being a victim. A victim of fate, of other people's aggression, of her ain uninspired previous playable incarnations. She'southward yet growing, but she's unlike now.

For most of Rise of the Tomb Raider, the 2d installment of a rebooted Tomb Raider series, Lara Croft doesn't go around existence scared. She notwithstanding faces down overwhelming odds, grapples with doubt, and absorbs a ton of trauma. The newest iteration of the iconic video game heroine displays less fumbly panic than she did in 2022's Tomb Raider. In that location are more than moments of steely conclusion and fewer moments where she pauses to psych herself up. She knows what she'southward capable of—she hasn't forgotten that ane time she wiped out a supernatural army, climbed a mountain, and took down a sun god. Information technology feels like she's grown.

That feeling of growth is a key cistron in this sequel. For Ascension of the Tomb Raider to succeed, information technology needs to convince players that Lara has matured, but that she notwithstanding has more than growing to do. Yet the changes in a new installment can't be too radical, lest this Lara become unrecognizable to quondam and new fans.

Rise of the Tomb Raider tells the story of young Lara Croft, alone in a dangerous place, exploring ruins, solving puzzles, and shooting lots of guys with flaming arrows. Information technology combines hunter/gatherer elements—where you demand to scavenge for the stuff you need to survive or brand weapons—with a mix of melee and ranged combat with pickaxes, guns or a bow and arrow.

Rise opens nonetheless again with Lara searching for proof of a fourth dimension-lost civilization. This time, notwithstanding, her motivations come from a securely personal place. Before he died, Lara's begetter was on a quest to detect the Divine Source—an artifact said to grant eternal life—and the apocryphal Prophet who performed miracles with its power. Lara's continuation of his work is directly linked to her desire to restore respectability to the Croft proper name—her father'due south name. Her travels take her to a snow-swept mountain range in Siberia where she comes into conflict with a mysterious organization named Trinity, whose paramilitary goons are also looking for the Divine Source. How-do-you-do, cannon fodder.

Crystal Dynamics' latest endeavor at a Tomb Raider game benefits from smartly imagining the psychological underpinnings of both its heroes and villains. Just as Lara is trying to argue with her father'southward legacy, the primary bad guy'south thirst for power is too driven by very personal reasons. There are moments that y'all feel like yous're fighting against a screwed-upwards worldview and not just a bunch of artificially-intelligent mannequins.

Rise of the Tomb Raider tweaks the gameplay formula established in its 2022 predecessor. There's a new crafting system that has Lara constantly foraging for resources that she can use to brand ammo, equipment or bandages. In one case she has enough resources, she can craft what she needs on the go. The actor holds downwardly the left bumper and tin craft, mid-action. So, collecting deathcap mushrooms lets her brand poison arrows that release a fatal gas. Similarly, other new craftable items increase the ability to silently skulk through encounters if you desire. If loud, messy combat appointment is your thing, then you lot tin quickly plow bottles and cans into molotovs and mitt grenades.

Lara'southward newly improved abilities are a direct reflection of how much effort yous put into exploring the gameworld. Equally her skills increase, her power to spot resources and read the globe gets more powerful. Lara buffs her mastery of ancient languages by finding murals and improves her arsenal and equipment past amassing exotic animal hides. Other combat upgrades let you pull off feats like multiple headshots at once with the bow. The manner that ROTTR'south mechanics are structured feeds into the overall sense of growing or maturing.

Aside from its opening chapters, Rise of the Tomb Raider is set around the geothermal valley in Siberia where Lara and Trinity accept tracked the Divine Source. Information technology's a gorgeously layered mural that feels more like an open up earth than the terrain of the 2022 game. Whether snowy or lushly light-green, the terrain feels alive, teeming with plant-based resources or animals to stalk (or flee). Aside from scads of posthumous testimonials about the history of its events and fiction, the game too teases players with optional tombs. The entrances to these tombs are secreted away and y'all'll demand to utilize some extra effort to even detect them. Once you find these tombs, you'll exist faced with a single physics-based ecology puzzle—familiar to longtime Tomb Raider fans. But you'll demand to navigate through various section of the tombs to trigger diverse elements necessary to their solution. Every bit a result, they wind up feeling bigger and more significant.

The game'due south likewise got side missions—given to you by bodily in-world quest-givers—that grant you new tools/weapons, like a lock choice and crafting tool. Yous can too use in-game currency to obtain some of these weapons and equipment from the supply shack that opens upward in the first third of the game.

This is an enjoyable sequel and the reason it's very fun is considering it feels upgraded in nearly every way. When I tried for stealthier approaches in the 2022 Tomb Raider, the results felt haphazard. In this game, I was able to plan and execute improve, thanks to a plethora of options that let you blind or poison enemies from afar. The feeling of existence a cunning predator was a welcome change for me, especially subsequently enduring the emotional rawness of the last Tomb Raider. Some other matter I liked about Rising of the Tomb Raider is how it constantly rewards your curiosity. If yous head to a seemingly innocuous cliff or stop and take in your surround with Lara's survival instinct, y'all'll well-nigh always find a resources or collectible waiting for you lot. I leaned hard on Lara'south survival instinct considering Rise of the Tomb Raider is the kind of game where I didn't desire to miss a thing.

I played Ascension of the Tomb Raider much like I did its predecessor: near exclusively with the bow and arrow and as stealthily every bit my patience would allow. This time around, still, I didn't feel like a trembly twentysomething, scared of every shadow. I felt more like a hunter and explorer, systematically taking down enemies and challenges. That said, I didn't like having to unlock the same suite of weapons equally in the last game. Lara knew how to counter enemies and perform quick stealth kills in the last game—why should she have to re-learn it now?

Different the Tomb Raider game from two years ago, Rise doesn't have any competitive multiplayer. Instead, information technology offers another gambit geared to entice players to proceed returning to the game. The Expeditions characteristic lets you play remixed chunks of the story campaign in i of iv modes—Chapter Replay, Chapter Replay Elite, Score Attack or Remnant Resistance.

In Remnant Resistance, you lot can create custom five-function missions by picking specific objectives, loadouts and time of day. Once you cease i of these missions, your friends will exist challenged to do the same.

Completing Expeditions missions earns credits and winnings tin be increased past using collectible cards equally modifiers to increase difficulty, grant buffs and add challenge objectives.

So, a Lobotomy challenge tasks players to notch v headshots with the bow and arrow and using a Big Head card on enemies swells their craniums makes their torsos and limbs more resistant to damage. The credits you lot earn in Expeditions can be used to buy more bill of fare packs for increased variability in the missions you create. I enjoyed the handful of Expeditions missions I took on and the feature feels similar a clever way of re-jiggering the piece of work that's already in the game.

Rise of the Tomb Raider's greatest success is in how it encourages exploration, which in turn makes yous feel more connected to its fictional globe. Every hapless corpse in the frozen Russian wastes is a reminder that Lara's moving through a place that'south killed many others. As I played, she came beyond as increasingly gifted, with plenty spirit and ingenuity to discover ways to see herself through to the other side. This Lara isn't a wide-eyed newcomer, nor is she a flinty veteran. She's somewhere in between. Rise of the Tomb Raider makes me want to follow her where she goes next.

Additional Thoughts on PC Version

Sometimes you lot merely desire to play a really pretty PC game, and in walks the PC port of Rise of the Tomb Raider. I already played through the enjoyably acronymed "ROTTR" on Xbox One last fall, and at the time was struck by how gorgeous the game could be.

It stands to reason that it'd wait even better at a higher resolution and frame-rate, with some extra PC bells and whistles dropped in. Then again, a few messy recent PC ports take demonstrated some of the many ways PC versions can go amiss. How does Ascension of the Tomb Raider's stack up?

I've played five or half-dozen hours, and my verdict: solid port. The porting task was handled by the Dutch studio Nixxes, who normally handle PC porting for most Square Enix-published games (2013's Tomb Raider, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Sleeping Dogs all come up to mind). They do fine piece of work, and from what I've played ROTTR is no exception.

I recently upgraded my PC, which is worth keeping in heed every bit I recount my feel: I'm running an i7-4770k with an overclocked 6GB GTX 980Ti, along with that 144Hz Yard-Sync monitor that I love and so much. With that setup, I'one thousand able to run the game at 2560x1440 (1440p) resolution at loftier or very high settings and, for the virtually function, it stays n of 60fps, occasionally dipping down to the still-playable mid-40s or 50s. I oasis't had much time with the new optimized Nvidia driver that hit today, but I haven't seen a large difference betwixt the game before and after I installed the driver.

ROTTR pushes my PC, but I'1000 actually happy to take a game that pushes my system for the right reasons. Unlike the frustrating PC ports of Just Cause 3, Fallout iv and Batman: Arkham Knight, I take a adept sense of the tradeoffs I'm making and so far haven't felt like the game is running poorly for no discernible reason.

And information technology really is incredible looking, particularly in 1440p. Look at this screenshot:

Raise:

Enhance:

In-engine cutscenes are gorgeous, and I'chiliad regularly impressed by how much this latest version of Lara Croft looks like an bodily homo existence.

I mean, like... enhance:

Jeez.

ROTTR'south PC version offers a multifariousness of graphics settings; y'all tin run into mine here:

I've dropped the Level of Particular setting down from Very High to High and dropped Shadows to Medium, which keeps the game running well aside from some frame-rate drops as I enter some of the bigger open areas and some hitches in the midst of transition animations from ane area to another.

Then at that place's the hair. Rise of the Tomb Raider is actually the first PC game in which I've left the hair tech—called "PureHair" this time around—turned on, rather than turning it off to improve my frame-charge per unit. PureHair does impact performance somewhat, but Lara's pilus looks adept enough that I'm fine taking the hit.

Aside from its graphics, Ascension of the Tomb Raider is another third-person action/adventure game that plays better with a controller than with a mouse and keyboard. Running, sneaking and shooting all work fine with a mouse and keyboard, and as usual I'm much more than accurate when using a mouse. But platforming and puzzle-solving feel odd with a keyboard input. The game has some mechanical interactions—winding winches and breaking down brick walls, etc.—and they feel much more natural on a controller. Similarly, jumping puzzles experience awkward when navigated with a keyboard. Some of that is due to my own comfort level playing this type of game on consoles, then your mileage may vary.