The new version of Tomb Raider that was released in 2013 remains one of my favorite games for Xbox One. The reinvention of Lara Croft was a welcome and excellent take on the classic game. The new Lara is returning in Rise of the Tomb Raider, which is scheduled to be released later this year on Xbox One with a PS4 version to follow later.
At PAX I had a chance to play about 15 minutes of the game, which you can see in the video above. I, of course, made more mistakes and fell to my death a few times. Rise of the Tomb Raider features the same beautiful art style and mostly the same gameplay as the last game. What’s different in this one is that some of the tombs Lara explores are multi-level complicated puzzles that were the hallmark of the old Tomb Raider games.
In the demo, Lara is looking for an artifact in the Prophet’s Tomb based on some information from her father. After surviving a nasty car wreck, she scales cliffs until she finds her way into the tomb. Shortly after this, you see a vast open room. The size of the tomb before me made me remember some of the most fun I had playing Tomb Raider Anniversary. (I never played the original Tomb Raider game, but Anniversary was a remake of that game.)
After using a number of platforms and raising the water level of the tomb, you finally reach the sepulcher where the artifact is supposed to be, but things are never that easy for Lara. The sepulcher is empty and what seems like the antagonist in the game arrives just after Lara looking for the same artifact.
I was thrilled with the gameplay and intrigued by some of the skills that will be involved, like learning Greek. It’s one of the games I’m most looking forward to this year.
