Rise of the Tomb Raider

Lara Croft, always looking for a lost city, hunted by ancient organizations, chasing the ghost of her dead father. Rise of the Tomb Raider builds upon the foundations of its predecessor, with a more carefully written story – that is not at odds with the gameplay anymore – and complex level design. The decision to put the act of raiding tombs as a side-activity in a Tomb Raider game remains head-scratching, but the game succeeds at what it sets out to do: provide exciting set-pieces.

This time, Lara Croft is in search of the lost city of Kitezh. Her father lost his credibility – and life – chasing the so-called Divine Source, which is supposedly hidden in the city and capable of granting a person eternal life: legend tells that the main political figure of Kitezh, called the Prophet, is an immortal man that used his powers to heal his people and acquire immense wealth. When the game begins, Lara is climbing the snow-laden mountains of Syria, trying to get to the Divine Source before Trinity, who intends to use it to create fearsome armies and enforce its control over the world.

The original legend of Kitezh – which is not explored as well it should in the game – tells that the Mongols were going to attack the city, but since its inhabitants were pious individuals – praying instead of arming themselves for the fight – the Mongols failed because the city was suddenly swallowed up by a lake. It’s a fascinating tale because the salvation of the people of Kitezh is left ambiguous: did they drown or managed somehow to live underwater, receiving divine protection?

Rise of the Tomb Raider doesn’t delve into this tale – the city is actually near a mountain and is now linked to a device that grants eternal life – but its narrative chooses to position the pious character as the villain. Konstantin, the big bad mercenary, believes he has the marks of stigmata in his body. In his mind, he’s chosen by God to carry out His will, which makes the character’s acts of brutality – sometimes even against his own people – much tenser, imbuing them with righteous anger. Konstantin’s companion, on other hand, uses religion as a form of control: unlike the mercenary, this character is fully aware of their selfish motivations, twisting the other’s faith to manipulate Konstantin’s actions.

Trinity – a secret organization that intends to control the world – is said to be the main villain of the game, but in practice is just a name that is thrown around. Konstantin and his partner work for them, but just so they can acquire the means to achieve their true goals: while the mercenary only answers to God, the other character seeks personal gain.

Lara Croft, meanwhile, continues to be defined by her relationship with her father. Her motivation revolves around clearing his name and knowing if he was right in his search for the divine source: she wants to know if he sacrificed everything for a myth or for something that really exists, never questioning if the answer to this question makes anything better. Her father is always on her thoughts: it’s his voice that we often hear when she’s resting at a camp, and it’s his absence that she laments when she gets near Kitezh: “If only dad could have seen this,” she says.

Much like its predecessor, Rise of the Tomb Raider takes itself very seriously and it’s interesting how the grim tone of the game reflects on the protagonist’s personality. Lara is no Nathan Drake, rarely making a witty remark about the dangerous situations she gets in. She’s more somber and palpable. This makes the violence in the story – and in the gameplay – rawer and more troublesome. Just like Drake, Lara kills hundreds of people in her journey, but while Uncharted’s carefree tone invites you to ignore this detail, the new Tomb Raider games go in the opposite direction and make you pay attention to it.

Especially when it concerns Lara herself. There are times when she doesn’t escape the traps and dangers of Siberia unscathed, hurting herself badly. We often see her limping, badly scratched, or bleeding. There’s a sadistic side to this violence sometimes, with the camera showing the damage done to her body in its full glory, such as when she falls in a pit of spikes, and they puncture her throat and leg. Her death is framed up-close, so we can get a full view of her expression while blood spurts out of her neck, and the whole thing lingers to show her weight slowly pressing her body down against the spikes. Since Lara magically heals herself each time the wound is not fatal, so she can get right back to parkouring, one is left wondering what’s the point of this focus on violence. This problem is much less prominent here than it was in the first game, but it’s still very much present.

The other major character in the game is the Prophet, a mysterious figure who is said to be an immortal man, capable of miracles and enrapturing people with his speeches, gaining their absolute loyalty. They all prefer to die before spilling any secrets, which frightens Trinity. They want to eliminate the Prophet not only because of his heresies – the villains are a bunch of religious zealots with ties to Rome – but also because they fear the power he has over the people, wanting to claim it for themselves.

The twist about his identity, however, is so obvious that we are left to question why it’s taking so long to come up, as the narrative could have spent more time developing him after the revelation, instead of relegating important information – such as how he handles knowing he’ll outlive even his grandchildren – to some letters found in the levels.

The new Tomb Raider games are also pretty different from Uncharted when it comes to their level design. While Drake’s adventures are pretty linear and take place in various different locales, Rise of the Tomb Raider has a much more focused design: the adventure is set in just one region, which is divided into complex levels, with hidden tombs, crypts, and tons of collectibles to find. This puts the spotlight on exploration: Lara has the freedom to search each level for secrets, even acquiring new items and upgrades that allow her to visit previously barred rooms and caverns. The game is not a full-fledged Metroidvania, however, because the backtracking is limited to optional collectibles and just a few rooms, tombs, and caverns, never giving you access to entirely new levels and areas.

Talking of collectibles, the treasures you find here are made a bit more interesting than the ones in Uncharted because, instead of a cold description, Lara herself talks about each one. She gasps when finding a reliquary box, for example, showing genuine excitement over the object. Her commentary on the treasures may be brief and mostly inconsequential, but it makes her job have a tangible effect on the adventure, besides inviting us to care a bit more about the objects as well – because she does.

But the main reward for exploration is finding the entrance to the game’s various puzzle-centric tombs. Each one has its own theme, and an effort was made to link them all to Kitezh. You can find an ancient cistern that used to provide water to the city, for instance, or a crumbling prison inside a mine, or even an abandoned infirmary. Some letters and documents tie these places to the history of Kitezh and help to develop its people: some tell small but tragic stories – such as the contrast between the diary from the man who designed the cistern and the letters from the people who were using him to do it – while some paint them under a specific light, like the ones in the prison that show their religious fanaticism.

These tombs usually revolve around a single puzzle that requires two or three steps, which evolve or subvert a single idea – much like the shrines in Breath of the Wild, although Rise of the Tomb Raider has just nine of them instead of more than a hundred. In the cistern, for example, you must use a bomb to blow up a passageway to change the water level. Then, you have to do the same thing two more times, but now have to find a way to transport the bombs to the next spot, using a single raft in different ways. The tombs are the best part of Rise of the Tomb Raider, so it’s a shame there’s not more of them.

The focus of the main adventure is not on puzzle-solving, after all, but on set-pieces: buildings will crumble under Lara, helicopters will chase her down, entire armies will try to capture her. There’s nothing too inventive regarding these scenes, but they get the job done.

In regards to action, Rise of the Tomb Raider is just like any other third-person shooter – including, of course, the Uncharted series: you find cover, choose the best weapon for the situation and shoot down the bad guys. Lara Croft has a bow and she can craft grenades and ammo on the fly to spice things up, but the game is still just a regular shooter at the end of the day – and not even one that is challenging at that. In the normal difficulty, for example, you won’t have to think too much on most shootouts: any weapon you pick – be it a bow or a shotgun – will do the job. You can even melee waves of heavily armored soldiers with your simple pickaxe if you feel like it. Lara also starts most combat missions in stealth mode and can clean most of the map without fire a single shot.

Finally, the grittier tone of the game is also reflected in the soundtrack. Instead of having an energic, swooping score, Rise of the Tomb Raider goes for a brooding soundscape. It makes the scenes tenser, but also lessens the “adventurous” feel of, well, the adventure.

Rise of the Tomb Raider is a competent follow-up to the 2013 reboot. However, one could wish it focused more on the adventure aspect of its design – doubling down on the exploration side of things – than on the action itself.

June 17, 2021.