Rise of the Tomb Raider

I enjoyed this game too - I would give it around 7/10 because gameplay was fun and graphics gorgeous - but I would have enjoyed it a lot more if I didn’t have to facepalm during most of the cutscenes and if the texts written in all those diaries didn’t put me to sleep.

“think of the millions, suffering and dying. We can save them. We can change the world!”

“We aren’t mean to live forever. Death is a part of life!”

jesus

And they couldn’t even resist putting ubercliched scene there after credits right with its own “mysterious voice” bullshit.

Tom nailed it:

“Rise of the Tomb Raider, on the other hand, is the typical ham-handed videogame story, clumsy, cringe-worthy, and aimless.”

Omg Tom should write the next Tomb Raider, this is hilarious

Rise of the Tomb Raider opens with a lot of gobbledygook backstory about a Prophet from the Middle East centuries ago. Whoa, a story about Mohammed? Bold choice! Lara Croft goes to tomb raid the Tomb of the Prophet…in Syria. Boy, is Saudi Arabia — not to mention about a billion Muslims — going to be dismayed when they find out they’ve been bamboozled all these years! But it turns out this Prophet isn’t Mohammed. He’s just some persecuted dude who beat feet out of Syria and ended up founding a Shangri-La in the Himalayas (don’t ask), where he left behind a race of Vikings who speak impeccable American to defend some doodad called the Atlas that leads to an all-powerful doodad called the Divine Source (these people should consider a different marketing firm next time they’re branding an all-powerful doodad). As is their wont, the Soviets occupied this place a long time ago, and they stumbled across the doodad, but before they could Harness Its Unimaginable Power ™, they were driven out by the Vikings who speak impeccable American. Now a pair of villains from a Shadowy Organization ™ is leading a whole mess of disposable henchmen to go back in and get the all-powerful doodad. Lara Croft, who wants the all-powerful doodad to redeem her disgraced flashback dad, throws in her lot with the Vikings who speak impeccable American. Basically, she lends herself out as a mercenary with a Conscience ™ to a Good Cause ™.

First game (2013) was much better, on the whole.

Sadly, I was unable to play it due to the gruesome deaths Lara had to endure all the time. But I’ll take your word for it :-)

Huh ? She only endured gruesome deaths if you fuck up. And it was similar here, I also got disgustingly impaled several times by various traps. I mean, it might be somewhat toned down here, but still. If you liked ROTR, then you should definitely play the first game.

Its not “somewhat” toned down- its massively toned down. I did dislike the few “Crushed on rocks” in this installment, but there is sadly no way I am going to endure the insane amount of such deaths in the first one.

I dunno, getting head impaled by spikes or head eaten by a bear seems pretty gruesome too, but suit yourself.

Dear lord - do we have to argue about how I find the game as well? I already said that it was there, but toned down in comparison to the previous game, which was too much for me.

Unfortunately, this is what happens whenever we engage each other,and I have a feeling there is some grudge that I dont know anything about, so I’ll stay out of your hair from now on.

I did say suit yourself ? No idea why you’re getting your panties in a bunch (I hope using this awesome idiom isn’t too aggressive for you as well). I just pointed there are some pretty terrible death scenes in ROTTR as well. There is no grudge from my side that I know about.

Cold Darkness Awakened, the third DLC in the season pass, brings… Zombies!

I assume there’s a director level position at each AAA developer or publisher that decides when and if to make the zombie DLC.

“The second one!”

“No, the third one!”

$30 for the season pass. You get endurance mode, Baba Yaga’s tomb, and a zombie-themed DLC. You also get some extra expedition cards, cosmetic stuff, and extra weapons. $30.

Nope.

Indeed $30 is way overpriced for what is being offered, now the $9 I spent when GameStop had a price error, that was ok. :)

I just gave Endurance mode a try. I enjoyed it, but it was stressful. I didn’t do so well either. I almost froze to death before I found ruins with a place to build a fire. I went through the ruins and found 5 artifacts, so that was cool. I had to pay so much more attention to the surroundings because they like to sprinkle pressure plate and spear pit traps. One false move and it’s game over. After I found the 5 artifacts I was running out of food and had to go from bush to bush getting a little bit at a time before I managed to kill a rabbit or 2. I never got a comfortable cushion though.

After killing 5 or so humans I ran into 2 more who closed in on my position rather quickly. Injured and killed 1 with my bow while the other shot me to death. No credit for my recovered artifacts because, well, I was dead and didn’t extract. I wish I found a beacon fire to light to get the hell of of there.

It was so easy to lose my bearings and forget which way my fire was. I think a blank map that filled in with landmarks would be kinda nice to help with navigation. Maybe a compass at least.

I recommend trying it. Only 2 people on my friend list had scores on the leaderboard so not a lot of people seem to be giving this a go.

I’ll give it a shot this weekend Rob , I haven’t even finished the main game yet, sadly this one didn’t grip me the same way the first did. I am only at the hot springs area (whatever its called :p).

After watching Tom play endurance mode on Tuesday on his weekday Qt3 feed, I’m very intrigued by it. I blame Tom’s review for blunting my progress in the main story. I was enjoying the gameplay immensely, but I realized that Tom was right about the story being pretty lame. That shouldn’t have mattered really, I still enjoy the gameplay a lot. And watching Tom play the endurance mode kind of confirmed that I should get back to the game sometime and finish it. And then get the Endurance mode DLC. Or maybe the Season Pass, if it goes on sale.

But I’m on Xbox One, so I won’t be on the same leaderboard as you guys. Maybe we can post screenshots of our score at that time though.

Oh I didn’t know Tom’s been playing Tomb Raider. I’ve been meaning to pick this up so would be good to see some firsthand impressions.

Yeah, I wish his streams were better advertised here on the forums, or on the main page. I just happened to remember on Tuesday and Wednesday.

On Monday he did the Zombie DLC for RoTR, and on Tuesday he did the Endurance mode. (Wednesday he switched to Don’t Starve: Shipwrecked, where he tormented us constantly by walking by twigs instead of harvesting them).

I did a little better on Endurance mode and escaped with some artifacts this time. My score was far worse than Tom’s and one other friend on the leaderboard. I had a really crazy moment after I lit the bonfire to signal a pickup so I could escape. Right after I lit the fire, I was looking for a bit of cover to wait because the fire attracts the human baddies. I came around the corner and practically did a chest bump with a grizzly bear and nearly jumped out of my chair. I turned tail and fled as I heard him roaring behind me, only to run into some human baddies that came to investigate the fire. I started running around like my life depended on it, because, well, it did.

I could hear the grizzly roaring and peeked around the corner to see him fighting with the human baddies. That took some of the heat off of me until the helicopter dropped its rope for a pick up. Unfortunately it was right behind the bear. I made a mad dash for it, which seemed to attract the attention of the grizzly. I suppose I should have made myself look big and walked calmly to the copter while keeping my eyes lowered so I wouldn’t aggravate him. He decided to knock my ass to the ground. This was my 3rd game where I was trying to escape while playing Endurance. I was so close with the rope in sight. Well, it was insight while I was still on my feet.

I got back up and spammed healing since the bear seemed to have broken some skin. I grabbed the rope while the bear was trying to chew on my toes. Luckily the rope seemed to be a magical rope that protected me once I grabbed on and I escaped with my treasures.

It was a pretty great moment to have all that chaos while I was trying to escape. That being said, it doesn’t seem like Endurance mode will have a lot of longevity as it doesn’t appear to have a lot of variety game to game. Search for food, firepits, tombs. Fight off the humans and maybe some wildlife and escape. Maybe Tom or someone who made it farther than I did can say whether the game ever has a bit more variety.

It seems like if they could have incorporated some of the Endurance gameplay into the campaign, it would’ve added some challenge and tension instead of it being mostly straight forward without a lot of tension.

That’s about it. However every day that passes the enemies become more powerful, and eventually some sort of high level enemies that must appear in the campaign (i haven’t played that much of the campaign) start popping out and coming after you.

Remember there are all sorts of “cards” you can deploy (or play, or whatever) before you start Endurance mode that will change the difficulty. That’s the game’s monetization strategy, similar to the kits and upgrades of multiplayer Mass Effect 3.

I’d like to see a lot more Endurance mode in more geographic areas. It did take me awhile to sort of get the pace, especially compared to the snail’s pace of survival that is The Long Dark; it’s “arcade survival mode” basically.

I got this game for free with my new GPU and I’m having so much fun completing every level. I’m usually not someone that cares about collecting stuff and getting achievements but I think I’m going to do it this time just to spend more time playing the game. I can’t pinpoint what it is but this feels like the perfect mix between classic Tomb Raider, Red Dead Redemption and Dragon Age.

It is on the easy side though, even on the hardest difficulty so I’ve made it a bit harder by making myself stealth kill everyone using either the bow or melee.

I’m having so much fun I feel guilty for not paying for the game. I feel like I should buy the season pass just to compensate the devs.

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Finally coming for the PS4 on October 11th.