Game Discussion of the Week: Rise of the Tomb Raider

Playing through Rise of the Tomb Raider. This game is kind of a mess, isn't it? It's very directionless, in the sense that Crystal Dynamics don't really know what this series is about anymore. See, Tomb Raider now has every bland mechanic from current AAA games:

- Crafting;
- Hunting;
- Character progression (XP levels);
- Quests;
- Collectathons;
- Buy new items (luckily, in-game only);
- Stealth;
- Cover-shooter fights.

That's just too much. I feel like I'm playing any The Last of Us wannabes. The previous game (2013) already had some of those, but they weren't as present as they are now - the stealth is now kind of a focus and I almost feel like I'm playing a bad Metal Gear V clone. The crafting is now much more needlessly expanded, with many more weapons and items to craft; I feel like the character progression was also expanded, and Tomb Raider really is a series that doesn't need character levels or XP points. You killed that enemy stealthly? More XP! Was it a headshot? Even more XP! Man, Lara is really a psycho in this one. And the collectathon aspect is really out of hand, each map has a lot of small useless things to distract you from actually playing the game.

So, about the core of the series, exploration and platforming, how is it? Well, the game is very linear, but at least they've added some "secret tomb" areas that are cool to explore; sometimes, just some very few times, you get to a more open area with a central puzzle to solve, and these ones might remind me of the classic games - but they're very short.

The platforming, on the other hand, is messed up. The jumping is so automatic that it became a problem: there's no difference between a standing jump, a running jump or a sprinting jump; what makes her jump closer or farther is if the game identifies some ledge for her to grab. Consequently, I never know if I can do a jump or not, since there's not a consistent distance covered by her jumps. Sometimes, the game misses to identify a ledge that is right in front of me and in my reach; other times, it will bug itself to reach a ledge that was clearly out of my reach.

So yes, the exploration in not great and the platforming is terrible, but look at all that other bland non-Tomb Raider stuff!

The story is uninteresting, serious-business all the time, and Lara is just not a good character here - she still has that hesitant, fragile aspect from the beginning of the last game, which doesn't make any sense considering how much of a psycho she is in the game itself. I vastly prefer the confident Lara of the other series (both the Eidos one and the previous Crystal Dynamics trilogy).

So, in conclusion: 2013 introduced a lot of unnecessary mechanics that at least were light enough, so it was still a fun action game; this one put more of a focus in those mechanics while adding many more other unnecessary ones.

Do I like it? Well, as a huge fan of the series, I still like it enough to keep playing, but if this wasn't a Tomb Raider game I would probably not be playing it.

This Super Bunnyhop video from 2015 describes perfectly the problem: "Tripwire boobtraps, throwable distraction bottles and the ever present stealth option means that much of The Evil Within is basically The Last of Us." Rise of the Tomb Raider also has every single one of those mechanics and more trendy ones. This is as bland as it gets.

It does feel like homework. Too much bloat, too many pointless collectibles and challenges.