The combat, by comparison, is a little less inspired. On their own, each of these tasks is simple enough, but as your abilities become more layered, keeping track of them all becomes a rewarding challenge. Shoot arrows to create zip lines or new platforms to stand on, and, if something flammable is in your way, just burn it down. Jump from a ledge and plant your pickaxe in an ice wall to climb higher. Players need to recognize precisely how to navigate each type of structure and skillfully transition between them. Zombies: Garden Warfare (Xbox One) ReviewĮxploration nicely splits the difference between smooth-looking, automated-feeling movement, like an Assassin's Creed ($45.00 at Amazon) (Opens in a new window) game, and environmental puzzle-solving very similar to that of The Legend of Zelda. (Opens in a new window) Read Our Plants vs. The events unfold in a gorgeously detailed, open-world version of Siberia with large interconnected areas like snowy valleys, Soviet installations, and hidden groves. Gameplay is roughly split between combat and exploration sections occasionally punctuated with big, rollicking moments of cinematic action like evading a helicopter and staying alive in a collapsing chasm. It takes about a dozen hours to reach the Karen O-scored credits, but time flies by because the action is so varied and so well paced. The plot also ends on a huge sequel tease, in case it wasn't pulpy enough.įortunately, Rise of the Tomb Raider borrows more from action movies than just hammy scripts. Trinity is essentially the Knights Templar-meets-Blackwater, and one of Lara's major allies might as well be Jesus Christ. This premise leads the story into goofy The Da Vinci Code territory. Read our editorial mission (Opens in a new window) & see how we test (Opens in a new window). Since 1982, PCMag has tested and rated thousands of products to help you make better buying decisions. But Trinity has its zealous eyes on the prize, too. Obsessed with the idea that her father was discredited and murdered by a shadowy group called Trinity, Lara ventures to Siberia to find a lost city supposedly holding the secret of immortality, a discovery that would vindicate her father's work. However, it also doesn't care about avoiding cheesiness. The recalibrated tone means Rise of the Tomb Raider can tell a good, old-fashioned, supernatural conspiracy yarn without caring too much about realism. And while the action is still violent, it's less jarring and fetishistically brutal than Lara's gruesome, horror-movie deaths in the reboot. But instead of having her do nothing but mope around and dwell on the past, the script wisely lets her grow from the experience into someone closer to the strong, witty Croft of the original games. Rise of the Tomb Raider, once again written by Rhianna Pratchett, acknowledges Lara's psychological trauma. Lara agonized over all the death around her, including the deaths she caused. The Tomb Raider reboot may have ended with Lara exorcizing Japanese weather demons, but its big hook was that it injected some gritty humanity into the series and its protagonist. This Xbox One game is a one-and-done experience, but in our post-Uncharted world, it's great to see Lara Croft remind everyone why she's the real Indiana Jones of gaming. With all that hard work already accomplished, the Xbox One ($200.00 at eBay) (Opens in a new window) exclusive Rise of the Tomb Raider ($59.99) hits the ground running and delivers more of what worked in the reboot while reintroducing classic concepts that had initially been stripped away. Fortunately, 2013's Tomb Raider not only returned the series to AAA gaming heights it hadn't seen in over a decade, but it also managed to turn Lara Croft from a sexy cipher to a well-rounded action heroine. Reboots may be an overdone entertainment trend of the past few years, but Tomb Raider was truly in need of one. Few reasons to return after beating the campaign. How to Set Up Two-Factor Authentication.
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