Tomb Raider vs Rise of the Tomb Raider
Rise of the Tomb Raider: 20 Year Celebration (2016) is a really good game on its own, yet to me it falls short when compared to its predecessor, the excellent Tomb Raider (2013).
Tomb Raider (2013) had a very tight storyline. The mysterious island, the wild tribe, the undead warriors all came together to create a sense of anxiousness as I progressed through the game. Lara’s missing friends when added to this created a concoction of uneasiness, which permeated throughout the first part of the game, up until the moment Lara shouts, “That's right. Run, you bastards. I'm coming for you all!” There couldn’t have been a better heralding of the arrival of a reimagined hero. Lara’s transformation from a vulnerable girl to a strong, resilient woman was a story for all times.
Rise of the Tomb Raider does indeed take the formula from the last game and makes it bigger, develops it further and has rightly been praised for it. But bigger is not necessarily better.
While Lara Croft remains one of the premier female protagonists in a game series, and this game only helps to cement her legacy, there are some discernible chinks. To me, the storyline is too reminiscent of Tomb Raider (2013), complete with an undead army, but it lacks the sense of tension that made the earlier game absolutely superlative. There’s also a distinct lack of a diverse array of characters. Other than Lara, there are only five other characters with any sort of say in the game.
The cast is woefully listless. Lara is too much of a hero, there’s no greyness. In the game, heroes always do the right thing, while villains are evil, and that’s that. Both Lara and the antagonists balance each other on a scale of heroism vs villainy (except probably one moment of deviation).
I went through the game feeling the villains were not villainous enough. There was no Vaas-like creature keeping me psychologically bound to the story.
I really appreciate the Assassin’s Creed franchise for recognising female cannon fodder and that is what I found lacking in this game.
The high point of the game is the tombs. The puzzles are engaging while escaping the drudgery of being repetitive. Solving each of the tombs left me with a sense of accomplishment.
In all, Rise of the Tomb Raider is a good game, with moments of absolute gorgeousness and times when it made me feel smarter because I finally solved a puzzle. But towards the end I was on auto pilot, playing just for the sake of finishing the game. Then again, I might just play the game again, just to take in the vistas this time.
