izigame.me

Frozen Adventure of Lara Croft

This time Lara will visit the cold, frozen Siberia to find the city of Kitezh. It will be not an easy task. She will have to withstand cold weather, and the paramilitary organization Trinity will complicate her journey as well. The mystery city of Kitezh hides an unrevealed secret about immortality that both Lara and Trinity want to discover. It's up to you to help her succeed. She will not be alone: friendly people will help her to fight Trinity and discover the truth.
You will start in the Siberian mountains, where the game will teach you the basics. One of the main gameplay aspects is climbing on ledges, rocky walls and jumping between ledges. I can say it's good. But at first, you need to learn how to properly jump from one ledge to another. Sometimes it can be frustrating to hit the right place. A short time after, you'll fall into the white, wild Siberian forest. You'll need resources to survive, so grab some wood, start a campfire and your best friend glows. Here you can unlock skills, upgrade equipment or weapons, change clothes and save the game. If you will decide to play on the highest difficulty it will be the only place where you save your progress.
There is not only one map. As the story continues and you discover new regions of Siberia, your map expands, and new hidden tombs await to be explored and many hidden collectable items around you waiting to be collected. All of them are hiding tombs waiting to explore and collectable items. You will meet various friendly characters that will have some jobs for you. I recommend to you complete secondary missions from them because you can obtain better weapons or upgrades. If you choose the higher difficulty you will need them. Siberia is a dangerous place. I enjoyed the story part and secondary activities. Discovering hidden tombs with puzzles was very fun. Another great thing is collectable items. You can find maps or lost backpacks that will discover everything in a region. Also, there are challenges: destroy hidden targets, cut down old soviet flags, burn propaganda posters, catch chickens and throw them back into a hen house and much more.
Animals are important here. If you want to upgrade your equipment, it will be necessary to hunt some. There is a good amount of them. Some are easy to find and peaceful like rabbits, chickens, and squirrels. There are more dangerous animals like wolves or bears. Lynx can surprise you if you pay a visit to its territory. So be careful.
The visual side of Rise of the Tomb Raider is very good. Even though it is from 2015, the game still looks great even by today's standards thanks to the well-chosen colour palette. Tomb Raider from 2013 was greyish, but this one is perfect. I like small details in games and there are some. For example, Lara's hair has actual physics and Lara can make deep footprints in the snow or mud.
The 20 Year Celebration edition includes all DLCs that will keep you in the game a little bit longer. They add two short stories and two levels with a story in the background. You will discover a mystery about Baba Yaga (Baba Yaga: The Temple of the Witch), destroy secret facilities with zombie alike soldiers (Cold Darkness Awakened), learn about Lara's family (Blood Ties) and survive Lara's nightmare (Lara's Nightmare). All of them offer something special. I disliked one thing. In Cold Darkness Awakened and Lara's Nightmare DLC enemies respawn infinitely. That's why I didn't finish the nightmare. Even on the easiest difficulty, it was frustrating for me. DLCs also add some clothes and a new mode, Endurance, that is survival where you must keep an eye on your temperature, find food, fight with animals and Trinity while trying to find relics.
These stories, except Baba Yaga, are available in expeditions. There you can replay the story mission and try to hit a better score as well. There is an option to modify gameplay by cards that you can obtain from completing the story or buying them in-store with your score points, to make the game easier or harder, depending on your choice.
I didn't notice any game-breaking bugs, but the game crashed a few times. It's shame because this is the final edition of Rise of Tomb Raider. Crashes shouldn't be here.
I highly recommend Rise of Tomb Raider. If you like Lara there are no excuses not to play it. Also, for everyone who likes action adventures, it's the right game. Especially this 20 Year Celebration Edition contains a lot of content to enjoy. The main story is very good, and DLCs add new gameplay styles and short stories. If you have someone for a coop, you can enjoy the fun together in Endurance.




Rise of the Tomb Raider 9.5/10






🟢 very good story
🟢 regions and exploring
🟢 very good looking graphics
🟢 tombs with puzzles
🟢 good amount of content
🟢 collectibles that are fun to collect

🔴 a few crashes
🔴 jumping between ledges can be frustrating
🔴 infinite respawn of enemies in two DLCs