Iconic video game heroine Lara Croft is back in the new, highly anticipated Rise of the Tomb Raider – but is the new game something to shout about, or more of the same?
Rise of the Tomb Raider is the latest instalment in the 20-year-old Tomb Raider franchise, and the second entry since the 2013 Tomb Raider reboot which focused on Lara Croft's origins. It picks up the story with young Lara Croft discredited by the Trinity organisation, which dismisses her experiences of the supernatural on Yamatai as fanciful illusions. Lara becomes obsessed with finding the truth that eluded her father, and travels to Siberia for the ancient city Kitezh, which she believes holds answers about immortality.
The game, developed by Crystal Dynamics, is scheduled for release on Xbox360 and Xbox One in November this year, and on other platforms in 2016.
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Gaming reviewers have had their first sneak peek at the new game – so what do they think?
Alec Kubas-Meyer in the Daily Beast spent three hours with the new game "marveling at the visual spectacle of the whole thing". It's "bigger and bolder than its predecessor", he says, and on the Xbox One, "it's one heck of a looker".
From ice climbing up the sides of a snowy mountain, to coming face to face with a grizzly bear, and escaping from a burning building, "there's a lot to get the blood pumping", says Kubas-Meyer, who predicts that the full game is going to be "awesome" and "huge".
Alexa Ray Corriea on Gamespot was equally impressed. The perilous opening mountain climbing sequence, where players guide Lara up a mountain, avoiding falling chunks of ice and imminent death, is "quite brilliant", says Corriea, because it brings you "right to the edge of your seat" and puts you through your paces immediately in a trial by fire.
But while the physical journey is arduous, "it's the emotional journey Lara is taking that adds power to the narrative", says Corriea. The game shows Croft's character hardened by her experiences and driven to complete her new adventure at all costs, and "we catch a brief glimpse of the classic Lara Croft – bold, strong, and confident in her choices".
It's no dry character piece though, says Daniel Krupa on IGN. "There's tremendous variety and more spectacle than ever before." And while the 2013 reboot famously didn't feature all that many tombs, notes Krupa, Rise of the Tomb Raider addresses this almost immediately with the great Prophet's Tomb section that has "clues to hunt down, puzzles to solve, and gruesome traps to avoid".
Yes, there are more tombs to raid and a whole new environment to explore, says Nathan Ingraham on Engadget, but Rise of the Tomb Raider is "more of the same" – and that's a good thing.
The game doesn't break any new ground after the 2013 reboot "successfully reinvented the game's formula", says Ingraham, but Rise seems like the best kind of sequel: "One that delivers even more of what people loved about the original."
Rise of the Tomb Raider is due out 10 November in the US, and 13 November in the UK.
