thatdemoguy

Well folks, we made it to the New Year. We are two weeks in so 2016 is fully upon us. I am extremely happy to know that you all are here, hopefully in good health, and ready for the absolutely monstrous year of gaming ahead of us.  I don't know how we are all supposed to keep up to be honest, starting the latter half of THIS month, it seems like there's a major release or multiple major releases every single month on the calendar. Here's just a partial list of games that are coming in the first couple of months of this year

JANUARY

19th: Resident Evil Origins Collection HD (a PHYSICAL double pack of last year's Resident Evil HD Remaster and the new Resident Evil 0 HD Remaster) WIN/PS4/XB1/PS3/360
22nd: Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam 3DS
26th: LEGO Marvel's Avengers MULTI-PLATFORM

FEBRUARY

9th:  Mighty No. 9 MULTI-PLATFORM
        Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 WIN/PS4/XB1
12th: Deadpool (OK, I know this isn't a game, but its definitely gotta be on your calendar right?)
14th: Valentine's Day (Also not a game....but if you happen to be a gamer with a significant other, this is part of your budget!!)
16th: Street Fighter V PS4
23rd: Far Cry Primal PS4/XB1

MARCH

4th: The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess HD WiiU
8th: Tom Clancy's The Division WIN/PS4/XB1
11th: Hitman WIN/PS4/XB1
24th: Killer Instinct Season 3 XB1

As you can see, its shaping up to be a pretty stacked year, across whatever your chosen platform is. But before we get ahead of ourselves, what about all those great games from 2015? Well let's talk about one game in particular. A game that I personally feel got lost in the end of the year holiday shuffle, even though it was slated as a big time AAA release. And that game is Rise of the Tomb Raider. Releasing on November 10th 2015 (remember this date for later), developed by Crystal Dynamics and published by Square Enix exclusively on Microsoft platforms (XB1/360) is the follow up to 2013's reboot of the Tomb Raider franchise. This reboot completely reimagined the Lara Croft character as much younger and inexperienced. A young woman who has been thrust into dire circumstances, where she has no choice but to adapt and to survive. The title was very well received commercially and critically, being one of 2013's top sellers and even earning a re-release on then next-gen systems as a Definitive Edition. So how does the sequel to the reboot fare?

 

IS BIGGER NECESSARILY BETTER?

One of the most brilliant things about Tomb Raider 2013 was its setting. The entirety of the game took place on the fictional island of Yamatai. One large area, or hub if you will, cut into different sections that you could eventually reach through the use of various equipment upgrades that you obtained in your journey. Everything felt so organic and natural because Lara felt like a character who's arc made sense and the upgrades made sense to her ability to traverse the terrain. Along the way you uncovered treasures that gave you clues and tidbits of information about the setting you were in. You also were given little environmental challenges that you found in GPS caches that were cleverly hidden around the island. This is the first major difference with Rise of the Tomb Raider in that you aren’t locked in one location the entire game, you're officially off the island. The game starts off via a flashback on a snowy mountaintop and then almost immediately you're in sun drenched deserts. Then you’re in claustrophobic and waterlogged caves. Then back to the snow. At first this seems very polarizing because the feeling of accomplishment from memorizing the area and learning how to get around it of the first game SEEMS to be gone. But then you realize that all they did was take the formula of the first game, crank it up a notch, and then hand it back to you. The way they accomplished this is that each of the new locales that you go to is actually its own little hub, littered with its own secrets and collectibles. So it goes without saying that this game is indeed bigger. Which actually works in its favor because there are an increased variety of ways to get around the locales. Also with there being varying types of terrain and environments, the crafting and equipment system has been overhauled. As in if you are in a snowy locale, it makes sense to craft items that make your character perform better in that climate. Wearing the right gear makes it easier to hunt the different types of wildlife....and the enemies. Yes, the combat from the reboot returns, and it has been balanced in such a way that you now have more freedom to build your character your way. Do you prefer to run and gun? Go ahead and increase your ammo capacity and upgrade your firearms so you can go in blasting everything and everyone away. Do you prefer the stealthy route? Then upgrade your less loud, but no less lethal weapons, like your bow and pick axe. There really is no WRONG way to go about this, so please feel free to play to what you feel are your own strengths. Personally I went the stealthy route. Increasing my bow tension strength and hold time. Making myself quiet and invisible. Climbing and waiting in trees for unsuspecting enemies. Maxing out perks that allow me to carry more arrows and retrieve supplies from fallen enemies/animals.  Crafting the insanely enjoyable poison arrows/bombs to take out multiple targets with ease. And at no point in time did I ever feel overpowered, which was a problem I had with the 2013 game. You could only build in very limited directions, so if you simply played with any type of skill, you were always resource rich during your play through.

Graphically, there's honestly nothing bad I can say about this. The game was very obviously built to maximize the potential of the hardware its on (NOTE: I PLAYED THE XB1 VERSION), each type of terrain is beautifully realized and the physics match each very well. As in Lara can't run very fast in ankle deep snow, so on and so forth. The character model itself has also seen quite a few upgrades. Clothing moves realistically and react properly to the environment. If you take a swim, your clothing gets soaked. Walk in snow you and can see it collecting on her. There are also very minute yet effective little touches that make the character seem all the more lifelike. Lara shivers or her teeth chatter when she's cold. She dusts herself off if she gets too dusty. She wipes sweat from her brow and shields her eyes in the extreme heat and sunny conditions. Things like these might not seem very meaningful, but they go a very long way in making the character feel less like just a videogame avatar and more like a character that you want to see live to the end of her journey. Now on the other hand, if you're just curious....or a bit of a sadist, I will gladly tell you that the graphic deaths from the reboot have returned. Fail a crucial event, see a sudden death. And the deaths most definitely come swiftly and without any prejudice. Thus far I haven't found any real penalty for experimenting just to see how many ways you can kill Lara, so please have at it if you will.

Where I do feel the game stumbles is in its narrative. We have already seen the origin of the character and her growth into a very capable survivor. But now the game takes a very by the book approach. It goes a little something like this; mind you this is SPOILER FREE

1.  Character follows footsteps of relative or ancient text to mythical treasure
2.  Character runs afoul of villain that also wants to find mythical treasure
3.  Character gets mythical treasure
4.  Character loses mythical treasure to villain, who can't use it due to some new macguffin
5.  Character has to hunt down new macguffin
6.  Character obtains new macguffin
7.  Character gives villain macguffin to complete treasure but due to their greed and lust for self-gain they are defeated
8.  Character realizes that the treasure is too powerful
9.  Character has crisis of conscience, but ultimately chooses to let treasure be lost to the world....thus saving it
10. Character moves on to next adventure with knowledge gained

If that seems familiar, that's because it’s basically the plot of every major action adventure title or movie that's in the same vein. It's like the treasure hunter flowchart. It's what happened in the Uncharted games, hell it's what happened in each of the Indiana Jones movies. And that's almost beat for beat. Mind you, this is spoiler free, and there's still lots of twists and turns to witness by playing it. But know that there are no real major revelations to be had. It’s a very basic and familiar narrative that while it doesn’t tread new ground, it does entertain.

The other main issue with the narrative is how it’s presented. Between Lara's jet setting to all these new locations, the most of story is told primarily through cut scenes. While these cut scenes are nice and maintain pace, they could have easily been in game playable set pieces and not just exposition. Even given this extremely minor gripe, this doesn't detract from the gameplay, which is extremely rock solid.

 

LAMB TO THE SLAUGHTER

So for a game that's so good, why has it not been getting the commercial acclaim it deserves? There's two major reasons for this and let's just get them right out in the open.

First off, as mentioned the game was released EXCLUSIVELY on Microsoft platforms, which hurt it. This isn't about being any type of fanboy or having allegiance to any one platform over the other, but let's not mince words in that the XB1 is firmly behind the PS4 in terms of sales. Which means that the game automatically had a significantly decreased install base. Going into the holiday 2015 season, and then being on the smaller platform did the game absolutely no favors whatsoever. In a very savvy move, Microsoft did attempt to bolster the game with a small advertising push and by offering a holiday bundle package that included the 1TB system, and digital copies of both the Definitive Edition of 2013's Tomb Raider reboot and Rise of the Tomb Raider. The problem with this is that this particular bundle was in direct competition with other bundles from the same company, which also did it absolutely no favors whatsoever.

Second, and here's the big one is that the game released on November 10th 2015 (did you remember), which means that the game released on the SAME DAY as the massively anticipated Fallout 4. This....was....not....smart....at....all!!!! There's no nice way to put this, but any game that released on the same day as the game that people had been waiting for YEARS for and had already marked their calendars for was just foolish. There was absolutely no way that Rise of the Tomb Raider could compete on the same day, or even through the holiday season, seeing as how Fallout is a game that demands so much of the player's time. For all intents and purposes Rise of the Tomb Raider was basically sent out to die. Oh, and guess what? Fallout 4 was ALSO OFFERED as a system bundle. So I will give you a guess which game was going to sell more NEW systems.

Any guesses? EXACTLY!!!!

Then add that to it also coming out within two weeks of Halo 5 and Call of Duty Black Ops III on either side, and you can easily see the adversity this game faced.

SO WHY ISN'T THIS IN THE BACKLOG?

I admit, I had a hard time deciding where I wanted to put this as far as how I approached it. While it was a game that I hadn't gotten to just yet, it also was a game that was firmly atop my holiday pile, therefore it hadn't reached a point where it was so far out that it had been filed away. Now with that said, I do feel that if you are an XBOX One owner, looking for something that's not the status quo of first person shooters or huge open world epics, then this is definitely a title that you need to go back and play.