Rise of the Tomb Raider appeared in the Recently Added section of my XBox Game Pass subscription recently. Goat Simulator appeared as well and as fun as that game, erm, simulation looked I decided to go with Rise of the Tomb Raider. I must however note that I have seen demo’s of Goat Simulator as well as the beginning of a playthrough and though Goat Simulator looks to be a fascinating game, erm, simulation, there’s the reality that I may not return to it. I’m sure I’ll miss out on something but I’m willing to take that chance at this time.
One of things I remembered from previous installations of the Tomb Raider franchise is that it has never been the easiest game in the world. There’s lots of failures and try again moments in the game, but this has ALWAYS been one of the high points of the Tomb Raider series. Slowly learning all the ins and outs of the path forward can sometimes be frustrating, but the reward comes when you have learned the full path ahead and you make a monumental surge forward as you finally and deftly navigate all the traps, holes, crumbling floors, swinging death spikes, and dare I say, various pitfalls (heh) in one go. It’s in those moments you jump up from your seat, give the Joe Montana fist pump, and scare everyone in the house as you yell, “Yes, Yes, Yes! Finally.”
This has been my experience thus far playing Rise of the Tomb Raider. I’ve just started the game and after an hour of utter frustration finally passed the Syria portion of the game and am sitting in my first base camp donning a new white out jacket and starting a fire to battle the elements in a snow storm as I chase the bad guys.
I have not played every game in the Tomb Raider series but I have this to say of what I’ve learned. Rise of the Tomb Raider seems to have mastered marrying a 3rd person perspective adventure to platforming. In fact it’s the platforming in this 3rd person entry that makes that game exciting. In fact Tomb Raider started out as a platformer and became a standard other platformers measured themselves against many many years ago. You really have to understand your controls, use literal split second timing and skill, and an awareness of your environment to move forward. Though I have never been a diehard of the Tomb Raider series, I’m getting a lot of enjoyment out of Rise of the Tomb Raider. The gaming is great, I finally got some FPS (first person shooter, well third person in this case) action, and the story thus far has my interest piqued to carry on.
I’m very much at the beginning stages of the game but it’s par excellence for this triple or quadruple A rated adventure and I can’t wait to get back to it. So if your a fan of the series or are looking for a fun and extremely challenging gaming session, check out Rise of the Tomb Raider.
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