Platinum review: Rise of the Tomb Raider
I started playing Rise of the Tomb Raider in October 2016. I got the platinum on the first of September 2021. It’s been almost five years. Back in 2016 I wasn’t into trophy hunting. When I started getting platinums I wasn’t too sure on Rise of the Tomb Raider.
To platinum Rise of the Tomb Raider you need to finish the game on survivor. And this I dreaded for the longest time. I normally don’t challenge my self much when playing games. I want to have fun and relax so I usually don’t pick the harder difficulties.
When I was getting into trophy hunting I went back to Rise to get my completion percentage up. After getting the platinum on Uncharted 3 Remastered I decided that the RotTR platinum might also be within my capabilities. At that time I only needed to get gold on all Score Attack levels and finish the game on Survivor.
I decided to start with Score Attack. This I hoped would help me when doing my survivor run later. And I think it did. Most Score Attack levels are very doable. And when they were not:
Video guides helped a lot.
LIKE A LOT.
Make sure to pick the right cards (the ones used in the videos will do). Just brows trough the leaderboard and choose the set you want. By using the leaderboard you don’t have to collect any cards yourself or worry about not having enough.
Unfortunately the one-Life-to-live card is very popular. To get gold this card is usually not needed so that is annoying. Sometimes you can get lucky and find someone on the leaderboard who doesn’t use it. You don’t need scores as high as the videos on YouTube. Keep your combo up for the first part of the level and you’re usually good. The unlimited-toxic-arrows card is also fantastic and makes combat a lot easier.
Like I said Survivor difficulty wasn’t too bad after already playing trough the levels in Score Attack (mind you I already finished the game once in 2016 but hardly remembered a thing). Because of Score Attack I knew when a hard part was coming up and I usually already had an idea on how to tackle it. Sometimes I was even surprised at how well those parts went. Still there are some difficult sections in the game. Just keep patient and try out a different strategy sometimes. Checkpoints are very forgiving so if something isn’t working out you don’t need to worry too much. Make sure to collect stuff (even if you already got the collectible trophies in another playtrough) because the xp will be useful. Invest your skill points wisely.
Also toxic arrows (and grenade arrows) are really good (read: overpowered). There is an outfit that lets Lara carry more special arrows. Wear this outfit and make sure to always have enough supplies and it might save your ass in tough spots.
SPOILERS: the hardest part is probably the helicopter fight at the end. Again checkpoints are a life savour here. I made sure to have enough toxic arrows (and supplies to make more) to deal with the enemies on the ground. If you find it hard to shoot at the fire ball: shooting a couple of grenade arrows at the helicopter also works.
Do I recommend to platinum this game: well I’m a huge Tomb Raider fan. So I would say yes. I think the game itself is great fun. It might be my favourite in the new trilogy.
But there are also cons to the game and mostly the trophy list. To get the platinum you technically have to play trough the game twice. Once on survivor and once by doing all the score attack levels. I’m not really a fan of games that make you play trough a game multiple times to get a platinum. Although I think score attack was entertaining it would have been more fun if there were not as many levels or if you only had to do like 50% to get the trophies.
Also if you’re a completionist all the way: main game is - I believe - not even 50 percent of all the game’s trophies. The rest is dlc. Big pro for the trophy list: no multiplayer trophies for the main game. Although you need to be connected to the internet for two trophies.
Game itself is a 8.5/10 for me. Trophy list is a solid 7/10.
