Rise of the Tomb Raider Review (Jacob)
Still have to finish up with some of the collectibles and challenges, but having finished the story at 83% world completion, I think I can talk about it in some bullet points.
- Still looks pretty good even on medium specs. Just don't turn shadows off.
- Good balance between combat and exploration if you take the time to explore. Towards the end they just throw enemies at you, which might be the whole game if you don't explore. Maybe you like that.
- Challenge tombs are a nice change of pace. It's not totally open exploration, but there's no pressure either.
- There are glitches that make it seem like some things aren't working. One challenge tomb I revisited wouldn't recognize a tethered rope. This made it seem like the right solution was actually wrong. I revisited this tomb later, and it again didn't recognize the tethered rope. One time the camera was frozen in place and I had to restart the checkpoint. Not a big deal since this was right after the checkpoint, but still, shouldn't happen.
- Story is take it or leave it. Pretty straightforward.
- The initial introduction of all the collectibles and crafting elements is overwhelming. A lot of it doesn't even really come into play until later in the game anyway. Hard to say how much doing these things affect combat/gameplay in terms of making things easier/harder considering I had probably done 70-80% of all the upgrades by the end game.
- Whatever hair physics are implemented made Lara's hair look like there was a constant gust of wind behind her head in every cutscene. Kinda funny.
- The models for upgraded weapons appear in cutscenes, so it's kinda funny to see Lara whip out her pistol in a cutscene and it's this heavily modified monstrosity compared to the other weapons in the cutscenes. It's a nice touch though that reflects your presence in the game's world.
- On normal difficulty, combat is generally pretty easy. I honestly can't remember dying from combat more than once or twice. There are a couple relative spikes towards the end as enemies are thrown at you due to the barrage you withstand, but having upgraded to certain perks, it really wasn't a problem. Even the annoying "boss" section towards the end where it feels like I can get hit no matter what I do wasn't an issue by just healing and using the post-heal invincibility buff a few times in a row having hoarded crafting items, which are in total abundance.
- Collectibles can be pretty hard to see sometimes without using Lara's supernatural vision. They really blend in.
- Upgrades encourage you to go back to areas you couldn't access before but pretty much only if you're into the collectible aspect. As far as I can remember, there's only one or two side missions where you need some upgrades before being able to complete them.
Overall, I had a pretty good time. It's like a blend of Uncharted and Ubisoft-style open worlds. I know a lot of people don't like those, but if you like to run around picking things up, doing small side challenges or larger side missions, and returning to the action when you're ready, Rise of the Tomb Raider is one of the better options.