Rise of the Tomb Raider is an upcoming action-adventure video game developed by Crystal Dynamics and published by Microsoft Studios and Square Enix. It is the sequel to the 2013 video game Tomb Raider. The game is scheduled to be released for Xbox 360 and Xbox One in November 2015, Microsoft Windows in early 2016, and for PlayStation 4 in late 2016.
Rise of the Tomb Raider is a third-person action-adventure game that features many elements found in 2013's Tomb Raider. Players control Lara Croft through various environments, battling enemies, and completing puzzle platforming sections, while using improvised weapons and gadgets in order to progress through the story. The game will feature a crafting system, allowing players to create items by scavenging materials from plants and animals in the game's harsh environment. The in-game environment will include a weather system that both human and animal characters can react to and a day-night cycle. For example, to create a hardier winter coat Lara must hunt a wolf which only comes out during a specific time of day and specific weather condition. Lara can swim which will add to Lara's mobility and combat tactics. Combat has been redesigned with more options for stealth and sneak attacks. Lara can confuse enemies using the environment, hide behind bushes or in trees, or avoid combat altogether by climbing trees or traveling across roof tops. The bow and arrow return from Tomb Raider. Options for multiple bows can be fashioned from specific animals and materials that Lara can hunt and salvage. Other weapons such as her pistol and climbing axe make a return, plus an added hunting knife for melee or sneak attacks.
In Rise of the Tomb Raider, we learn why Lara had to endure so much - to prepare her for a more daunting ascent. There’s nobody else tough enough to get the treasure this time. Turning her traumatic coming-of-age into armor, Lara enters Rise of the Tomb Raider with a new ferocity, fit for a game that re-balances its ratio of combat, exploration and - yes - tombs.But there will be animal guardians that you'll need to defeat if you're going to unlock all of the tombs' secrets. Of course, bears and crocodiles are no strangers to Tomb Raider - the first game was full of them. But the fauna of old rarely had a one hit kill move (the T-Rex is a notable exception), whereas modern-day Tomb Raider's animals can simply chew Lara's face off. The hub areas now unlock in a Metroid-like fashion, as you return with better equipment and skills. One of the 'animal guardians' mentioned before - a bear - takes lot of upgrades to take down. but once you do, more areas open up. You also get a rare pelt from it which can be used in further crafting. Graphically, these environments are a clear step forward from the original, although we haven't seen the last-gen version yet. It's strange to think that this game will also be running on them. Whether the content itself will be scaled back for those releases also remains to be seen. Lara had to kill a deer to survive in Tomb Raider, but only because the story demanded it. While food is still out of the equation in Rise of the Tomb Raider, crafting really is a matter of survival. Finding wood and feathers keeps Lara’s quiver full of arrows - those need to go through enemy heads if you want to keep living - and mushrooms can be ground into a noxious missile of debilitating poison. Lara’s crafted instruments of doom are mercifully painless to make during gameplay. In Rise of the Tomb Raider Lara can even assemble weapons on the fly, right during battle, with just enough MacGuyver ingredients in hand. You’ll also need bits and bobs to make medkits and heal yourself, should you really bungle your stealth run.
The action kicks off in Siberia, with Lara and her buddy, Jonah, on the trail of an ancient city hidden somewhere in the mountains. With its heroic leaps, ice-climbing perils and avalanche dodging, it’s a great introduction to Rise’s traversal mechanics and cinematic scale, even if the reboot’s reliance on quick-time events for sudden drama hasn’t gone away. From there the dynamic duo jet off to Syria and to the game’s first honest-to-goodness tomb. It’s the section Sam played in her initial hands-on preview, and I’m happy to confirm that the gameplay is right back in classic Tomb Raider territory. I’m talking spike traps that need to be leapt over and swinging bludgeons that need their weak point blasted before point meets skull.
The water in Rise of the Tomb Raider is much more water-like than before. That may sound like a daft thing to say, but just look at it gushing out over that precipice in the picture up there. It will be used to solve puzzles in tombs, for a start, allowing you to float makeshift rafts on it and open valves to fill up various chambers. But Lara can also now dive under its surface, re-appearing to drag an unsuspecting guard down into its depths and drown them, silently. That's pretty dark but of course it's going to be absolutely gripping. Talking about the gameplay, Stealth is optional in Rise of the Tomb Raider, though its slick and fast-paced nature makes it hard to resist as a route through enemy bases. There’s not too much waiting around, either - the game spins its poor guards like fatal clockwork, quickly assembling them around perfect moments for Lara to strike and create a bit of chaos from behind cover. These little setups exist for you to exploit, like the stealth god intended. You’ll find new enemies but also new potential allies in the Remnant – a wild bunch descended from Byzantine pilgrims who hate Trinity even more than you do. The combat is satisfying, challenging and deadly, with an effective cover system, responsive enemies and slick controls. Outnumbered and outgunned, Lara has to be smart and resourceful to survive.
If you've been following the Tomb Raider comic, then you know that the friends Lara escaped Yamatai with are alive and kicking. Lara's bosom-buddy Sam sticks close to her side, Reyes grumpily pops up whenever she's needed, and though poor nerdy Alex went down with the ship, Lara makes a new friend in his sister Kaz. Then there's the lovable cook Jonah, who shows up in the game's most recent closed-door demo, accompanying Lara up the side of a mountain on their way to distant ruins.
While we await the release of Rise of the Tomb Raider, let us know what you feel about it in the comments below.
No comments:
Post a Comment