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Rise of the Tomb Raider - Review Thread

G

Garrett Hawke

Member
Genio88 said:
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
Click to expand...
I did the VPN trick instead, meant I didn't have to change regions on my XBOX or anything and I already pay monthly for VPN, so it made sense. :)

Details here
 
E

EBreda

Member
Sincerely want expecting all this amazing reviews.

I did dig TR DE aa lot, specially because of pacing and the fact that it was a linear but kinda open experience, with every new area being a contained micro open sand box that directed you to the next one, while allowing you to go back and look for stuff you might have missed.

I hope that template is back.

Damn I was gonna wait for a deal.. Have to resist!
 
R

Romars202129

Member
Ascenion said:
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.
Click to expand...

... Exactly!
She's a killer who kills. Drake is a lovable romcom love interest... that kills.
There's your ludonarrative dissonance.
I swear a lot of you seem to think we're just arguing which game has the better story here...

RedRedSuit said:
Tonally Uncharted is just like IJ in terms of narrative. It's not significantly darker or lighter. So that's untrue. It's part comedy, part drama. Femme fatales, double crossing, ancient treasures, all that stuff. It's the same.
Click to expand...

It's not though. In IJ, dramatic scenes last minutes. Whereas dramatic moments in UC can last up to hours, without a single joke. Yes, it's because its a game. But it's still true.
Since the comedy of UC only really takes place in cutscenes and dialogue, the ratio is the opposite of IJ's, where it's mostly comedy and light moments broken up by serious ones.
It gives a very different feel, imo.

Action-wise, IJ is quite violent, with violence actually a bit more visceral and gorier than Uncharted. In fact Spielberg lingers on blood and death quite a bit more than ND does. Uncharted is arguably more explosive, and of course the body count is higher, because it's a long game compared to a short movie, but there's nothing about it that makes it more blood-thirsty than Indy. The reverse is true in fact. It's pretty obvious Spielberg was getting off on killing nazis; not that I blame him.
Click to expand...

That is very correct. But the point is not that uncharted is more violent. It's that contentwise, there's so much more death happening by the hands of the protagonist.
Compared to Indy, Drake is a nuclear bomb going off in a city, action wise. Personality wise? He's an adorable man child just trying to make some money, and find a little love... and maybe save the world! Whereas Indy is a hardened, gruff, hero dude who has some darkness to him mixed in with his charm. A man who believably has been forced to kill to save himself.
I mean when it really comes down to it, one throwaway scene in Uncharted 3 doesn't make up for the fact Drake is a killing machine who always acts like he's just accidentally washed up in the action.
You can argue its a joke we're not getting... but this is what he is, there's no denying that.
 
T

TheWorthyEdge

Member
Romars202129 said:
That is very correct. But the point is not that uncharted is more violent. It's that contentwise, there's so much more death happening by the hands of the protagonist.
Compared to Indy, Drake is a nuclear bomb going off in a city, action wise. Personality wise? He's an adorable man child just trying to make some money, and find a little love... and maybe save the world! Whereas Indy is a hardened, gruff, hero dude who has some darkness to him mixed in with his charm. A man who believably has been forced to kill to save himself.
I mean when it really comes down to it, one throwaway scene in Uncharted 3 doesn't make up for the fact Drake is a killing machine who always acts like he's just accidentally washed up in the action.
You can argue its a joke we're not getting... but this is what he is, there's no denying that.
Click to expand...

You literally just described Nathan Drake while describing Indy. They are essentially the same.


Also. Getting this game! So excited. Not a huge fan of the OG one because of how dark color wise it was but this one looks good. Is it only in Syria (for a short section) and Siberia? Or is there another locale like Egypt or something?
 
S

Savantcore

Unconfirmed Member
Tricky I Shadow said:
Excellent reviews as expected.

Can't wait to get this next year!
Click to expand...

Yep, pretty much.

Jetzbq3.png
 
D

DEADEVIL

Member
No way in hell was I expecting this reception. BRAVO Laura, We will be spending some very intimate time together on Tuesday.
 
S

Synth

Member
I think we're at the point where anyone posting "Laura" in any thread that has Tomb Raider in the title should trigger an automatic permaban, and the site should then redirect any future requests to GameFAQs.
 
T

Triggerhappytel

Member
Xan Kriegor said:
And what would have happened if they waited a couple of years? Bigger market. Sorry, I promised not to derail.

OT: Will the 360 version be reviewed?
Click to expand...

Of course SFV would have still been made. I'm not advocating that either, you realise? I don't like third party exclusives like this in any instance, as generally I consider it little more than paying to keep a game from a rival system.
 
T

TheSlySoul

Member
Way more 9's than expected. Will pick it up Friday via Target B2G1 deal.

Edit: PS4/PC version will be GOTY edition no doubt.
 
Kacho

Kacho

Member
Surprisingly great reviews. Still have no desire to play it now but I may have to check it out next year.
 
B

barneystuta83

Member
Really solid reviews.

This may go on my Xmas list along with Fallout 4. I am over taken with Halo multiplayer hype still to get knees deep into any kind of campaign right now, although the Games with Gold Tomb Raider offering last month got me super hyped for this too.
 
O

Osahi

Member
Ascenion said:
So would you say the dissonance is still present between the narrative and the gameplay?



That's kind of the point. It hasn't been yet 2013 tried to go for that narratively and it doesn't work.
Click to expand...

No. It is less of an issue. There are no scenes were lara contemplates the act of killing. She is over that and the game has one scene that shows her as a cold, vengefull killer.

But boy can she moan about a lit of stuff. Her voice overs during campfires are cringeworthty
 
H

Haines

Banned
Some reason I always expected it to be really good. I guess I never saw a reason for it not to be.

Own both systems but there's no way I don't wait for the better ps4 version
 
S

SomTervo

Member
a.wd said:
Did you miss the part in TR 2013 when she is radioed by Roth

Lara: "...i had to kill people..."
Roth: "...it must have been scary..."
Lara: "...it's scary how easy it was..."

And then later on she gets a grenade launcher, and after laying waste to all and sundry she comes out with:

"That's right! Run, you bastardss! I'm coming for you all!"

Before collapsing. So yes there was a big deal about her going from "Oh shit, I killed a deer" to "Rambo Motherfuckers, yeah!" Drake has never had that character development arc and so seems less relateable, more entitled and less sympathetic.
Click to expand...

That stuff was definitely great – but they didn't commit to it. In fact, it is never brought up again. The game's story is in shreds throughout - they start with the 'I don't want to kill' and then drop it for 'Killing is easy' within 2 hours of gameplay, and neither are ever mentioned again throughout the rest of the game, in place of generic 'we have to save the world' schtick. They don't use those early ideas to explore the character. In fact, practically nothing in the game is used to explore the character. Everything in TR2013 is superficial, throwaway – story beats just for the sake of story beats without any actual thought or meaningful character writing. The 'killing was surprisingly easy' thing is mentioned in that one line, then never again.

This is an absolute failure of writing. She never needs to come to terms with anything or think about anything.

Also Roth is an insultingly bad one-dimensional character with an awful, awful Scottish accent. (I'm from Scotland and nobody sounds like that.)

The Uncharted origins comparison is also totally irrelevant, because Uncharted has never tried to tell the origin story (except minor plot-related scenes in 3). But more importantly, Uncharted never felt like it had to tell an origin story, because Naughty Dog have a great grasp of what makes a great story - not origins. So they never showed us Nathan Drake's initial forays into murder, theft or crime, because we don't need to know it. The connection built up between the player and Drake is borne from how well written Drake's dialogue is - he's incredulous when something suspicious is going on, he's upbeat and jokey when things are relaxed or a trial is over, he's serious and melancholic when things go badly wrong (eg the whole middle/late Uncharted 2), they've developed a really specific lexicon and speechstyle for him so he sounds and acts like a real person. He is just a 100x better written character.

TL;DR: Naughty Dog know what they're doing, Crystal Dynamics don't.

(I still think Rise of the Tomb Raider will be a good game, just like TR2013. I just have 0 faith in their narrative capabilities. The videos we have seen before release reinforce that, with bad, off-tone dialogue and generic screams in place of solid story beats.)

NeoRaider said:
HUBs are few times bigger here.
Click to expand...

This is great to hear. Best bit of TR2013.

What are the optional tombs like?
 
Ascenion

Ascenion

Member
Osahi said:
No. It is less of an issue. There are no scenes were lara contemplates the act of killing. She is over that and the game has one scene that shows her as a cold, vengefull killer.

But boy can she moan about a lit of stuff. Her voice overs during campfires are cringeworthty
Click to expand...

That's good to know! That was my biggest issue. Hopefully her complaining won't bother me too much, can't be as bad as her worrying about Sam every 5 minutes.
 
M

Man-is-Obsolete

Member
Great reviews, and it needed them. Could have easily been forgotten amongst the avalanche of releases, this should make it harder for that to happen.

Especially when GOTY talk happens, since this seems to be at least a consideration.
 
J

jimboton

Member
That Eurogamer review is quite sobering. Unfortunately it's also the one that feels more honest by half.

"It's an unchallenging pot-pourri of virtually every current mainstream gaming fashion, bearing the clear imprimatur of design by committee. "
 
W

wumster3000

Member
Lernaean said:
Dammit, i have a new rig, and i want to wait for PC version, but all this hype makes me wanna buy X1 version now :(
Click to expand...
I caved and bought it on Xbox One. Just get the PC version on sale. You will not know the difference until it's released on other platforms. Just get it an move on. At least that's what I did. The game is going to be wonderful
 
J

jackdoe

Member
Based on reviews, the story is probably going to be one of the game's lowpoints, with a ridiculous premise that takes itself too seriously (like Spectre) and a very dour protagonist. Basically, it sounds like if you weren't a fan of the reboot's narrative, you won't like this either. Which is too bad as they took all other criticism of the first game to heart. At least I know what to expect when my copy comes tomorrow.
 
M

mrklaw

MrArseFace
Genio88 said:
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
Click to expand...

You can buy Singapore credit using a UK card? Wonder if the same applies for US credit (usually buy from here)

If I'm buying from the US (like I just did with TR), I leave my Xbox alone set to UK so it doesn't mess up live Tv settings. I just change the web Xbox store to US and you can still sign in with your usual details, then buy from there.

Hopefully that will still unlock tomorrow morning for me?
 
C

CHC

Member
Game sounds fucking great. I was hoping that would be the case.

Really into the increased emphasis on good old fashioned puzzlin'
 
J

Jb

Member
Sounds like a really fun follow-up to the 2013 reboot!
I hope it doesn't get buried by Fallout.
 
K

KDC720

Member
Really enjoyed 2013, but I really wasn't expecting much but "more of the same" from this one. Pleasantly surprised this one is an improvement, I guess if you're gonna make a game a year long exclusive, you best bring out the big guns.

Not sure if I wanna grab it just yet though, but man these past few weeks have been stacked in terms big name releases.
 
E

enigmatic_alex44

Whenever a game uses "middleware," I expect mediocrity. Just see how poor TLOU looks.
YIKES, this is gonna end up in the 80s on Metacritic, lower than the last game smh.

Had a feeling this wouldn't live up to Tomb Raider Definitive Edition anyways, that game was amazing and possibly better than Uncharted imo.
 
psychotron

psychotron

Member
enigmatic_alex44 said:
YIKES, this is gonna end up in the 80s on Metacritic, lower than the last game smh.

Had a feeling this wouldn't live up to Tomb Raider Definitive Edition anyways, that game was amazing and possibly better than Uncharted imo.
Click to expand...

Many reviews are saying it improves on the original in every way. How is that not living up to it? I'm pumped as hell that this and Fallout are reviewing well. I'm finally getting use out of both consoles!
 
Bitch Pudding

Bitch Pudding

Member
enigmatic_alex44 said:
YIKES, this is gonna end up in the 80s on Metacritic, lower than the last game smh.
Click to expand...

Come on, it has a metascore of 88. That's still absolutely impressive for a franchise as old as Tomb Raider. It seems to be an awesome game and I am jelaous of XBOX owners who can start playing this game today.
 
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