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Rise of the Tomb Raider - Review Thread

G

Genio88

Member
Can't wait to play it! i bought it on Singapore digital store, so i guess i should be able to start playing in like 4 hours and a half
 
G

Garrett Hawke

Member
OMG YES ;_;

I'm so happy. Can't wait to play this!

Also saving Anita's review for after I've played it, as if it's negative (which I think it might be based on the fact that Lara is ultra-violent) I'll deal with that better after. I'm really glad she's doing more reviews like the Syndicate one tho :)
Genio88 said:
Can't wait to play it! i bought it on Singapore digital store, so i guess i should be able to start playing in like 4 hours and a half
Click to expand...
Omg how do you do this? Could you explain it to me please?
 
Ascenion

Ascenion

Member
Garrett Hawke said:
OMG YES ;_;

I'm so happy. Can't wait to play this!

Also saving Anita's review for after I've played it, as if it's negative (which I think it might be based on the fact that Lara is ultra-violent) I'll deal with that better after. I'm really glad she's doing more reviews like the Syndicate one tho :)

Omg how do you do this? Could you explain it to me please?
Click to expand...

Hate to burst your bubble here but Anita didn't do the review for this one. It disappointed me that she didn't.

Edit: correction Carolyn Petit reviews it. Had no idea she was working for Femfreq.

Garrett Hawke said:
Aw, damn. That's disappointing. :/
Click to expand...

Without spoiling anything It's still a good review but after Syndicate I really had hoped Anita herself would do it.
 
S

Skux

Member
GamejunkieNZ

http://gamejunkienz.com/2015/11/09/rise-of-the-tomb-raider-laras-all-grown-up/

Rise of the Tomb Raider is a fantastic game that shows what can be achieved when a developer focuses on what works and focuses less on what doesn’t. I know that Fallout 4 is also out this week (what was the publisher thinking?), and will no doubt swamp Rise of the Tomb Raider, but Lara Croft deserves attention in her latest outing. It’s genuinely one of the best gaming experiences I’ve had this year.
Click to expand...
 
A

a.wd

Member
Ascenion said:
I mean he is going through something but I view it more as he's an old hand at this and has just accepted it. Yeah it bothers him but he covers it with jokes. Uncharted 3 kind of touches on the kind of person he really is.
Marlow mentions he gets off on all the devastation not to mention the kid mission where he kills his first person.
The problem is the arc Lara has already occurred before Uncharted 1 as Drake is close to 30 when we first meet him. Lara goes from 0-60 in almost literally 4 seconds. I mean I get the circumstances but the brutality and the ruthless efficiency. No, it just doesn't add up. A real person would be shaky, nervous, afraid. Not Legolas and a weapons expert rolled into one. So if it is the writing I'll concede Uncharted has a fault there too but the dissonance is nowhere near as great. Plus the justification is also a fault of the writing. There didn't even need to be one. Let the suspension of disbelief do its job, don't give people a reason to question it. Uncharted doesn't and for the most part gets away with a lot of it.





As I mentioned above, the arc likely happened for Drake we just didn't see it. Not to mention time scale wise she does this in what feels like 2 - 3 days.

Also let me say I'm not necessarily defending Drake, I just accept what he is as does he. Lara needs to accept what she is as well. A murderer. She put herself in this situation by choice, knowing what it could lead to, at least in relation to ROTR given what we know same as Drake.
Click to expand...

As I said, she actually references the arc of how easy it is for her in game. And she doesn't get to "Rambo motherfuckers" immediately, she has to gain the skills through an RPG like skill tree, initially she is slow and useless and has to hide rather than fight.

She becomes this badass over time (short, yes), Drake arrives on the scene and kills motherfuckers while cracking jokes, I understand that this may seem more natural to you, but for me, being forced into doing something and being good at it > being a murderer slash comedian to take the edge away from all the murdering.

This is OT, so apologies all.
 
A

a.wd

Member
RedRedSuit said:
You ignored his point.

Drake killing goons is Drake killing goons, as Indiana Jones kills nazis. It isn't serious. That is the game's tone, just like Indy killing dozens of people. It's a silly violent ride. Drake is relatable due to his personality with his friends and named enemies, and his ability to eliminate armies of intentionally over-the-top goon-like goons is not an essential part of that personality. It's there to provide action that's fun, same as Indy's ability to kill nazis. Tonally, it makes sense. It follows an established template that simply works. Any attempt to infer dissonance is purely a strained intellectual attempt.

Lara, on the other hand, is treated as a serious character, and her ability to kill is explicitly shown to be a part of her character arc. What the game does clumsily is go through that arc too quickly -- in about 5 minutes. That's his point. She laments her first killing... and then is a pro at it in the next combat sequence.

Yes, the grenade launcher sequence revisits this arc a bit. It's not too bad. But it's not good either. It's clumsy. The dev went for more mature character development and created dissonance in not handling that ambition properly. The reason they failed to handle it is that the game is largely a shooter/stealth violence game, and it's hard to gently ease into killing tons of people in a game like that. They were ambitious and paid for it, a little, with dissonance.

Uncharted side-stepped this problem by lightening the tone and intensity of the violence to PG-13 levels and making it clear that this is Indiana Jones, not Saving Private Ryan. They were not ambitious (in this regard) and thus stayed away from dissonance.
Click to expand...

Sorry I wasn't clear, the radio signal actually came very early in the game, and the grenade launcher sequence was a while later. My point there was to show that there was a very distinct arc in terms of kill/skill. and I don't think that was handled poorly, as there is an understandable journey from killing a deer to murdering legions of one note see you kill you bad guys, who, as it is explained in game are mass murderers of the worst kind.

Whereas equating indiana jones to uncharted doesn't excuse the amount of killing Drake does, it attempts to justify it because their is less narrative arc and therefore when there is any dissonance, you are just left with "fill in the blanks and dont think about it too much".

If they were really unconcerned with the amount of dissonance that occurs within the 1st game they would have not gone back in the 3rd to give him some justifiable back story.

Again OT, apologies.
 
D

dark10x

Digital Foundry pixel pusher
foxbeldin said:
Damn.. the only gaming site i trust with reviews gave 6s to TR and COD...
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Their comment on the AI is interesting.

In my experience, the AI is both great and poor at the same times...but in the end it works.

What I mean is that, while in stealth, enemies tend to ignore the player pretty regularly. You can sneak up behind a guy and kill him while his buddy stands a couple meters away. That seems highly unrealistic and, perhaps, has been taken too far *BUT* it's better than the inverse; overly sensitive AI.

Once you get into combat, however, the enemy is highly aggressive and creates some pretty enjoyable action sequences. They really work to flank you and push you out of your hole. You can't just hunker down and kill things from afar. You really need to actively move around the environment and work to take down foes. It's not super challenging or anything but it's a lot of fun.
 
G

Garrett Hawke

Member
dark10x said:
Their comment on the AI is interesting.

In my experience, the AI is both great and poor at the same times...but in the end it works.

What I mean is that, while in stealth, enemies tend to ignore the player pretty regularly. You can sneak up behind a guy and kill him while his buddy stands a couple meters away. That seems highly unrealistic and, perhaps, has been taken too far *BUT* it's better than the inverse; overly sensitive AI.

Once you get into combat, however, the enemy is highly aggressive and creates some pretty enjoyable action sequences. They really work to flank you and push you out of your hole. You can't just hunker down and kill things from afar. You really need to actively move around the environment and work to take down foes. It's not super challenging or anything but it's a lot of fun.
Click to expand...
When will the DF article be up? :)
 
K

Keyser Soze

Member
Dennis said:
Very strong reviews.

Do I need to play the 2013 reboot before I play this one? Is this a sequel?
Click to expand...

The very first scene of this game has Lara talking to a character she grew to like in the 2013 game, so there is that at last. The 2013 game does not exactly have an amazing story to tell, so it is not 100% necessary in my opinion. The games are connected through. Playing both back to back is probably not a good idea, as if you finish the reboot, Lara will not have access to all the tricks she leant in the previous game - as you have to unlock them all again here. Working through these sets of unlocks so soon after you just did it in the other game seems like it might be off putting.

If you interested, the 2013 game delves into the lore of how Lara became okay about been a mass murder - this game likely evolves on that story.
 
NeoRaider

NeoRaider

Member
Dennis said:
Very strong reviews.

Do I need to play the 2013 reboot before I play this one? Is this a sequel?
Click to expand...

Yes it is and you don't need to but you better play it! lol

BTW. I am so happy to see all these positive reviews, but i expected it.
 
F

Farsi

Member
Dennis said:
Very strong reviews.

Do I need to play the 2013 reboot before I play this one? Is this a sequel?
Click to expand...

I don't think so since the supporting cast in the first game isn't exactly memorable like in Uncharted, but I still highly recommend the reboot mostly because it's fun more than anything.
 
J

jelly

Member
dark10x said:
Their comment on the AI is interesting.

In my experience, the AI is both great and poor at the same times...but in the end it works.

What I mean is that, while in stealth, enemies tend to ignore the player pretty regularly. You can sneak up behind a guy and kill him while his buddy stands a couple meters away. That seems highly unrealistic and, perhaps, has been taken too far *BUT* it's better than the inverse; overly sensitive AI.

Once you get into combat, however, the enemy is highly aggressive and creates some pretty enjoyable action sequences. They really work to flank you and push you out of your hole. You can't just hunker down and kill things from afar. You really need to actively move around the environment and work to take down foes. It's not super challenging or anything but it's a lot of fun.
Click to expand...

Sounds much like the first game. I can understand it allows you to be badass and not feel frustrated being stealthy. They really do go for you in firefights, only complaint I would have in TR2013 is they would line up and funnel towards you like idiots. Over distance, grenades etc. you don't get a second which makes it exciting without feeling like you're going to die, you just have to keep moving, you can do this....
 
K

KimonoNoNo

Member
With all this talk of killing dudes, is it possible to play these games with a touch of restraint?

I like games like Deus Ex and Dishonored where I'm not forced into being a murdering bastard to advance and can pick my targets to take them out surgically.
 
A

Alo0oy

Banned
dark10x said:
Their comment on the AI is interesting.

In my experience, the AI is both great and poor at the same times...but in the end it works.

What I mean is that, while in stealth, enemies tend to ignore the player pretty regularly. You can sneak up behind a guy and kill him while his buddy stands a couple meters away. That seems highly unrealistic and, perhaps, has been taken too far *BUT* it's better than the inverse; overly sensitive AI.

Once you get into combat, however, the enemy is highly aggressive and creates some pretty enjoyable action sequences. They really work to flank you and push you out of your hole. You can't just hunker down and kill things from afar. You really need to actively move around the environment and work to take down foes. It's not super challenging or anything but it's a lot of fun.
Click to expand...

That's why I think hipfire is crucial, if the AI is aggressive and encourages movement, you need to able to fire from the hip.
 
Ascenion

Ascenion

Member
a.wd said:
As I said, she actually references the arc of how easy it is for her in game. And she doesn't get to "Rambo motherfuckers" immediately, she has to gain the skills through an RPG like skill tree, initially she is slow and useless and has to hide rather than fight.

She becomes this badass over time (short, yes), Drake arrives on the scene and kills motherfuckers while cracking jokes, I understand that this may seem more natural to you, but for me, being forced into doing something and being good at it > being a murderer slash comedian to take the edge away from all the murdering.

This is OT, so apologies all.
Click to expand...

It's not that it seems more natural, because it doesn't. In all honest it is very disturbing, but the reason isn't part of the narrative so I don't worry about it. The progression is part of the issue for Lara, it's there but it is paced horribly. It is over time but again at most it was a 5 day period. If they were there for a month I'd understand. She's a hardened killer in 5 days tops. And the things she says seem to indicate she enjoys it. Not I don't want to kill you or don't make me but run you bastards. As of Rise she's no better than Drake, and I'm going to guess she has combat quips too, not to mention the brutality. Some of Drakes victims live Captain America style, but Lara is cold blooded. I can't put one intro as better, since we know Drake had to go through this, but Lara was rushed. Not to mention Uncharted 3 touches on this briefly.
 
D

dex3108

Member
Xav said:
Microsoft spent it all on Halo 5, a game that was popular for a few days before everyone just kind of forgot about it and moved on.
Click to expand...

Farsi said:
Very poor since it was announced. The E3 2015 demo was pretty great though.
Click to expand...

MS made sure that it is exclusive and then left game to die without proper marketing and same release date as Fallout 4. It doesn't make sense at all.
 
Jawmuncher

Jawmuncher

Member
About what I expected so no complaints here. Sounds like the story is a improvement on the last one. Which is good since that was my biggest complaint in the reboot.
 
O

Omnistalgic

Member
JeffZero said:
Ugh, developers, please, stop thinking this is what I want.

It isn't what I want.
Click to expand...
Seriously what is this trend? I don't like it. I don't need a ton of CG cut-scenes, but I don't want to "find" the story either -_-

Great scores though, I don't mind playing later personally, I only buy a few titles new every year. $60 a pop is beginning to be financially irresponsible for me and the fam lol...Glad it seems to be a big improvement over the first.
 
I

In Service

Member
I'm really surprised at the reviews - in a nice way.

With all the anti-hype, on rails, cut scenes criticism out there my hopes were way low for this. I was going to leave it to pick it up on offer but now might try and fit it in before Christmas.
 
G

Genio88

Member
mrklaw said:
how?
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Garrett Hawke said:
OMG YES ;_;

I'm so happy. Can't wait to play this!

Also saving Anita's review for after I've played it, as if it's negative (which I think it might be based on the fact that Lara is ultra-violent) I'll deal with that better after. I'm really glad she's doing more reviews like the Syndicate one tho :)

Omg how do you do this? Could you explain it to me please?
Click to expand...

Simple, first of all via web browser you go to the Microsoft store and select Singapore as your country here, from there you can buy digital gift cards that will be delivered to you via Email, you wanna buy two codes one 50$ and one 20$ for a total of 70 Singapore's dollars, which is the price of standard edition games there, of course you'll save money since American dollar is stronger and you don't pay taxes on Singapore Xbox One store. Now you just go into Xbox One settings and change the location from United States or wherever you have it to Singapore, go in the store, reedem the gift card codes and finally you buy Tomb Raider and start the downaload from there, then you can switch again your Xbox to US and continuing the game download there and you should be able to play it on Singapore release date, at least from what i've been told in other forums, i'll see if is true in a few hours but i guess it'll work
 
I

IzzyF3

Member
Only 2 points higher than Halo 5 on Metacritic, but it really stand out above the other games since it's currently the highest rated Fall season game.

Even if Fallout 4 rates higher, Tomb Raider still rated higher than Halo and CoD, which for a Fall season game, should bring some attention to the game. I really love the current style of Tomb Raider games and was a bit nervous for it being released on the same day as Fallout and in the season of heavy hitters. Hopefully it'll sells well.
 
SpaceHorror

SpaceHorror

Member
Glad to see this is doing well! I enjoyed the reboot quite a bit. It was probably the first really fun game I played on the PS4.

Will pick this up next year when it launches (again) for sure.
 
Fbh

Fbh

Member
Great reviews.

I liked the original and this one seems to improve on it.
I'll be sure to pick it up once it's released on other systems
 
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