Lara Croft is back!

[box_alert]Some small story spoilers…[/box_alert]

It’s that time of year again, the months leading up to Christmas where every video game company decides to put out their biggest and best games of the year. With all the “Call of Duty”s, “Fallout 4″s, “Halo 5″s and “Star Wars Battlefront”s out there, some games kinda get lost in the mix. One game I was hoping wouldn’t get overlooked in that sea of awesome is Square Enix and Crystal Dynamics’ “Rise of the Tomb Raider,” the sequel to their 2013 “Tomb Raider” reboot.

I loved that first game. I actually just recently replayed it in excited anticipation for this game. Sure, it took a lot of cues from games like the “Uncharted” series, but I loved those games too. Besides, sorry Nathan Drake, but Lara Croft is the original video game adventurer badass, and it could be argued that “Uncharted” took some cues from “Tomb Raider” in the first place. But enough about other games, let get into this one…

Story:

Lara Croft (once again voiced and motion captured by Camilla Luddington) is an icon in the world of gaming. What I loved about the previous game was it took a sort of “Tomb Raider Begins”-like approach to it, showing us Lara’s first real adventure as she was shipwrecked on a mysterious island full of danger and intrigue. This game makes a natural progression, this time giving us a very personal and emotional story. Set one year after her ordeal on Yamatai, Lara becomes obsessed with proving some of the myths of the world after Trinity, a shady organization that covers up these supernatural kinds of things in order to use them for their own gain, tries to discredit her.

What I really enjoyed about the story this time around is that we also get to learn a bit more about Lara’s father, who died years before her tomb raiding began and was only mentioned in passing in the 2013 game. We learn that he was driven mad with obsession with finding the ancient city Kitezh, which he believed to hold the secrets of immortality. Like Lara, he was discredited by the scientific community, which lead to his eventual apparent suicide. Now, Lara picks up his research where he left off and sets out to Siberia to find the city and clear her father’s name.

Gameplay:

Most of the gameplay is very much the same in the sequel as it was in the last one. For me, that was not a problem as I enjoyed the hell out of the first game, but it would have been cool for them to add a little bit of the new and shiny to the proceedings. The fighting, shooting, climbing and survival mechanics are all pretty much the same as before. There does seem to be a lot more crafting options than the first game, though, with the addition of some tools, expanded ammo/materials pouches and the like, as well as so many more wardrobe options (you know, ’cause on the island she had, like, one).

This game also keeps true to a lot of the action-type sequences from before. There are still those cool running sequences, where you have to keep running while the place is crumbling and crashing down around you, however, from where I’m currently at in the game, I haven’t seen too many of these and the ones I have encountered were a lot shorter than I remember from the first game. Also, we all remember Lara’s horrifyingly graphic death scenes whenever you’d screwed up in the first game and those are still present as well (getting mauled by a bear is pretty gnarly), but I’ve encountered very few of those as well. That’s not me bragging, I’m dying quite a bit, I just think there were a lot of opportunities for these that weren’t jumped on. I don’t know, maybe people just don’t get the kick out of torturing Lara that they used to.

Locations:

Where the overall gameplay mechanics lack in originality, the new locations more than make up for it. Much to my approval, the snowy mountain wilderness of Siberia (as well as a brief stop in Syria) is a complete 180° from the island, and it’s a lot of fun to explore these new types of environments with Lara. Like the first game, the scenery is gorgeous. In real life, you wouldn’t catch me dead in some of the exotic places that Lara Croft ventures to, but I’m more than happy to take the trip in all its high resolution glory from the comfort of my own home.

Graphics:

As I’ve mentioned, the scenery is beautiful, but that certainly would not have been the case if the graphics were not up to snuff. I recently played the Xbox One version of the 2013 game, which also had terrific graphics, and the visuals here are at least on par with that version of the previous game, if not better, just from being developed for the current gen consoles first.

There were still a few hiccups and missteps here and there, though. There was a particular cut scene where Lara was having a conversation with Jacob and her hair was just endlessly cascading over her shoulder as she turned her head, as if there was no end in sight to her luxurious locks. It was a bit distracting, I couldn’t pay attention to what was being said. Another thing that always stuck out to me, and I noticed this in the first game as well, was during the aforementioned death scenes, Lara’s face often looks like a completely different person’s face. I don’t know why this happens this way, but it always bothers me a little.

Game Rating: 8/10

Bottom Line: While I still enjoyed the hell out of this game, overall, I still think I prefer the first one more. The story here was more personal, but it just didn’t hook me as much as the shipwrecked on a magical island stuff from the original. I’m not done with the story mode yet, though, so perhaps I’ll change my mind on that evaluation once I reach the conclusion, whenever I have the time to do so. All said and done, though, I’d say this game was still a lot of fun and a worthy successor to the previous installment.

From what I’ve read, this game didn’t do quite as well as hoped, but it had a lot of competition, especially with it coming out on the same day as “Fallout 4.” Another thing that probably didn’t help was that it is exclusive to Microsoft for right now and is only available for Xbox One and Xbox 360. It will come to Playstation sometime next year. Availability on the other consoles might have helped this game’s profitability.

Have you played “Rise of the Tomb Raider” yet? If so, what are your thoughts? Let us know in the comments section below.

-By Jeff Grantz