Rise of the Tomb Raider review: Lara Croft's best adventure yet

I am a half-Tomb Raider fan. I remember when I was in college almost 20 years ago, there was a Tomb Raider fan in my dorm who loved to play it. I didn't have a computer, so I would sit by and watch or give some tips. It was still made by Core Design at that time, and only the Gold Edition was released. My classmate was a master at modification. Sometimes when he couldn't play anymore, he would just modify Laura's coordinates, which was also a novel way to play.

When Tomb Raider IV: Angel of Dark was released in the PS2 era, I made a guide for it as a game media editor, and then I bought and completed every game as soon as possible. However, this game was also the last Tomb Raider by Core Design. After that, the game was taken over and rebooted by Crystal Dynamics, another studio I like very much, whose abbreviation is also CD. The latest Tomb Raider Rise is the second work of the second reboot of the series after Crystal Dynamics took over, and the publisher also changed from Eidos to Square Enix, which acquired it.

In the previous "Tomb Raider", Lara was already a world-famous adventurer when she debuted. Players played as a master who shuttled through various ancient tombs and ruins to explore various unknown secrets. However, Crystal Dynamics' second reboot focuses the story on Lara's experience before she became an adventurer. In the previous game, the expedition team that Lara participated in was accidentally involved in an accident, and she had to save her partners alone and investigate the truth of the incident. This experience inspired the adventurous spirit in her body, and she decided to follow the trajectory of her father, archaeologist Richard Croft, to investigate the unknown mysteries in the world. As the title "Tomb Raider Rise" says, the story of this game tells the story of Lara's first spontaneous adventure. This time, she is investigating the legend of the immortal prophet and the mysterious city that sank to the bottom of the lake in the Siberian mountains. And blocking her adventure is the mysterious sect "Holy Trinity" that has existed since ancient times.

Compared to the previous game, Rise of the Tomb Raider can be said to be a comprehensive evolution. Most of the shortcomings found after the previous game was restarted and tested have been adjusted and optimized, making the overall feeling of the game even better.

The previous game used a semi-open map, with collection items, challenge tasks and non-mainline tombs scattered in various corners of the map. In this game, not only the area of ​​the main scene map has been "doubled", the types of collection items have also been further enriched, and in addition to the challenge tasks, branch tasks have been added. The number of non-mainline tombs and small tombs has also increased significantly compared to the previous game. In addition, the new manufacturing material collection elements also make the sense of exploration and survival more obvious. Although the overall game process is still a single-line design, the design of the semi-open map makes players more eager to return to the previous scene for exploration. My personal feeling after the first clearance is "It's like playing "Castlevania": As the game process deepens, players can obtain more abilities, thereby opening more secret passages that were previously inaccessible. Behind these secret passages, in addition to the next main plot, there are more additional scenes and rewards. Except for some escape levels, all scenes/levels can be explored repeatedly from beginning to end, and some even have special passages designed specifically for obtaining new abilities.

In general, the game is designed to be relatively balanced in terms of the capacity of climbing, jumping, solving puzzles, and fighting. Although the scene is large and players spend a large part of their time running and jumping, the puzzle design of this game has been improved to a certain extent, the quality is higher, and the number is more than the previous game, so it is more interesting. Although the types of Laura's actions in the old "Tomb Raider" are not as rich as the new version, her operation requires relatively precise operation, and her puzzle design often tests the accuracy of the player's operation. The new "Tomb Raider" after the second reboot tends to make full use of various props in hand in puzzle design (similar to "The Legend of Zelda"), and this game further emphasizes the timing of using props-players in the game will encounter multiple puzzles that require continuous use of one or more different types of auxiliary props. The differences between the new and old works can also be seen in the scene composition. In the new version, there are rarely scenes like the old series that require continuous jumping between platforms or even rebounding and grabbing walls, but there are many more long-distance continuous movements that require auxiliary props such as rope arrows and hook axes.

Because the previous game introduced the TPS combat mode, Lara was once called the "female version of Drake". To be honest, as a non-TPS/FPS enthusiast, I was a little hesitant at the time. I have never been in touch with the "Uncharted" series mainly because I am not interested in the combat mode. Fortunately, the actual combat difficulty of the game is not high, and using bows and arrows to headshot with bullet time is unexpectedly addictive. The combat system of this game has been further improved, further strengthening the combat elements of stealth and assassination. Except for a few forced battles, most of the enemies in the game can be assassinated. In addition to the basic assassination actions in the previous game, this game also adds air assassination and underwater assassination, as well as stealth elements that throw environmental interactive items to divert the enemy's attention. In terms of skill configuration, Lara can learn a lot of abilities related to assassination, such as reducing action sounds, speeding up assassination actions, etc. On the other hand, for head-on conflicts, players can also increase their combat capabilities by strengthening weapons and upgrading skills. This game has cancelled the bullet time and the difficulty of combat has been slightly increased, but players can use items such as empty bottles in the environment to make homemade explosives to kill enemies on a large scale, which is a balance in a sense.

As mentioned earlier, this game has added a large number of new manufacturing materials. Players can obtain various basic materials by collecting or hunting in the scene. These materials are not only used to strengthen weapons, but are also closely related to the combat system of this game. Although players can also obtain weapons and ammunition including bows and arrows during the game process, the most practical way to replenish ammunition is to make it yourself. As long as there are enough materials, players can quickly replenish various arrows, make explosives, or quickly heal while fighting. This makes the game's combat process very smooth, and there are rarely situations like other FPS/TPS where you have to look for bullets all over the field until the magazine is empty.

In terms of plot, this game has made considerable progress. Although the previous game was the first reboot, it overemphasized "innovation" and directly threw Laura onto an isolated island in the Far East to let players experience the feeling of a survival game, but ignored the integrity of the world view. This game explains the entire story through the main line, branch lines, and a large number of collection documents, as well as the new world view of the series that the previous game did not have time to explain. The script itself cannot be considered first-rate, and it uses a lot of action movies or game favorites, but the elements such as foreshadowing and foreshadowing are quite attentive, and the biggest truth in the game is still quite shocking when it is revealed.

It is worth mentioning that this game not only supports subtitles in multiple languages, but also supports dubbing in multiple languages. In addition to the basic English and major European languages, it also includes Japanese, Mandarin and Chinese dubbing. Among them, the Mandarin dubbing invited professional dubbing actors from China, and the overall quality is extremely high. Except for the minor problem of the slightly heavy accent of the dubbed film, it is simply perfect, and domestic players are more likely to immerse themselves in the plot. This is also a manifestation of the increasing attention paid by international manufacturers to the needs of Chinese mainland game players after the opening of the domestic game market. I hope that more such highly localized works will appear in the future.

Since this game is a limited-time exclusive for Xbox One, I cannot compare the graphics with the previous game played on PS3. The PC version of the previous game used the new TressFX technology for Aka, and Laura's hair was distinct and called "Head and Shoulders". If you are interested, you can wait until the PC version of this game is released to verify it yourself, and see if it is more "soft" this time. However, it is certain that after two years, the overall graphics performance of the game has definitely improved. Even on Xbox One, the indentations caused by Laura's various actions in the snow can be shown (although not perfectly).

This kind of adventure puzzle game that emphasizes collection usually lacks the elements that motivate people to play the game again: after all, there is no novelty after all the puzzles are solved, and there is no need to continue after the collection is completed. This game has removed the multiplayer online mode, but added an expedition mode. In this mode, players can choose various conditions to replay various levels in the game and compete with friends for scores. Unlike this article, players can choose various ability cards in the expedition mode. These cards can allow players to obtain various weapons, clothing, BUFF or DEBUFF when passing the level. Although powerful equipment and BUFF can reduce the difficulty, they can also discount the final score; on the contrary, DEBUFF cards will greatly increase the difficulty of the game (such as one-shot death), and at the same time, the score can be greatly improved. Of course, there are extremely rich types of cards. In addition to the above content, there are also fun cards such as big head mode. When passing the level in the expedition mode, the level itself is also set with various challenging tasks, which can also increase a lot of scores if successfully completed.

In general, the overall performance of Tomb Raider is better than the previous game, and it is a good game worth playing. Although the previous game itself is also an excellent work, as an old player of the series, I have always been dissatisfied with the lack of puzzles in the game after completing it. This game obviously realizes this, and the puzzles in both the main and side quests have been strengthened, which makes people regain some of the feeling of the past.

Of course, the game is not perfect. What I care about more is the lack of underwater puzzles in the game. Although there are several branch tombs and main quests that require Lara to move underwater, the puzzle-solving part is almost all done on the water surface. There are no tombs that need to be explored underwater in early works. In fact, in this game, Lara can only move at a certain depth under the water surface and cannot swim freely. This design may be partly related to the game's combat system, and partly to puzzles and level design. After all, the design of underwater mazes is more difficult, and it is necessary to consider the water level (there are related puzzles in this game), breathing time and other physical factors. I hope that after the upgrade of this game, the next "Tomb Raider" will see more diverse scenes and more interesting puzzles.

Currently, Rise of the Tomb Raider is still a limited-time exclusive for Xbox One, and will be released for PC and PS4 next year. If you already own an Xbox One, this game is one of the most worthwhile games to buy in the near future. I gave this advice after playing the game for more than 20 hours and completing it (relatively) perfectly, and it is absolutely correct!

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.