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Rise of the Tomb Raider 20 Yr Anniversary Edition |OT| Hello from the other side

Mediking

Member
I had to look up how to solve the stupid rope platforming puzzle for the Witch at Wicked Vale quest. Boy, that was causing me to scream in frustration.

Starting to actually accumlate EXP! Yeah!
 

TheYanger

Member
I had to look up how to solve the stupid rope platforming puzzle for the Witch at Wicked Vale quest. Boy, that was causing me to scream in frustration.

Starting to actually accumlate EXP! Yeah!

Have you beaten the game yet? The Baba Yaga stuff was DLC, so it's a lot more challenging, the puzzles in that aren't super hard but they're complicated, which is all stuff you'd learn and get accustomed to playing through the rest of the game. If that's the case I'd just hold off on the questline until the end tbh. It's not long, but it was pretty good content, looking up the answers for it you might as well just skip it though ;) not missing anything if you don't like puzzles and a boss fight that is largely a puzzle/platforming section as well.
 

Mediking

Member
Have you beaten the game yet? The Baba Yaga stuff was DLC, so it's a lot more challenging, the puzzles in that aren't super hard but they're complicated, which is all stuff you'd learn and get accustomed to playing through the rest of the game. If that's the case I'd just hold off on the questline until the end tbh. It's not long, but it was pretty good content, looking up the answers for it you might as well just skip it though ;) not missing anything if you don't like puzzles and a boss fight that is largely a puzzle/platforming section as well.

Ohhhhhh!!!! Hahaha thanks for telling me. I'm so early in the game.
 

Gradly

Member
I finally got to finish this game. I like it overall and its better than the first one (TR 2013) but the story and characters are very forgettable. I started the game long time ago and gave up at the
Soviet Installation
area. I think it was the worst area in terms of everything especially graphics, but other than that the game looks gorgeous. Few things reminded me of U3 in particular,
Syria, Hallucination, running over crumbling platforms, fictional lost city, etc

I liked croft manor and that Baba Yaga mission which because of its subject they were able to put a cool boss fight

I played it on PS4 Pro with enriched graphic option
 

dunneh

Neo Member
I'm replaying this game on PS4 at the moment and I honestly think it outshines Uncharted 4 in most ways. Loved U4, mind, and am feeling so very lucky that there were two stellar 3rd person action/adventure/exploration games within a year. But TR just seems to nail the exploration aspect.
 

Mediking

Member
I managed to defeat the Baga Yaga DLC. Lol... Man, that was tough.

The game is really starting to pick up but I'm gonna voice the same complaint that many people have said countless times again..... Lara Croft has too much potential to be a dry character. Give her a freaking personality for the 3rd game!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 

breakfuss

Member
Game keeps freezing and crashing on me. The error is CE-34878-0. This is after deleting my save and restarting. Even deleted the entire game, re-downloaded and re-installed. Wtf. Pretty disappointed right now as this is supposed to be a showcase for the Pro.
 

Pancake Mix

Copied someone else's pancake recipe
Got the game recently and I'm loving it thus far.

That said, I don't like what seems to be an increased focus on finding artefacts and tombs over combat compared to Tomb Raider 2013, regardless of the fact it's truer to the name Tomb Raider. That's a very minor gripe, however.
 

TheYanger

Member
I managed to defeat the Baga Yaga DLC. Lol... Man, that was tough.

The game is really starting to pick up but I'm gonna voice the same complaint that many people have said countless times again..... Lara Croft has too much potential to be a dry character. Give her a freaking personality for the 3rd game!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I like her in 2013 and ROTTR but...don't play crof tmanor if you hate that. she put in the most unenthusiastic performance ever in that.
 

wouwie

Member
Just started playing this (on PS4) and arrived in Syberia.

The developers sure did try to check all the boxes of what a modern game "should" (apparently) look like: inventory, weapons, skills, upgrades, XP (which progresses by doing the simplest of things and it is made sure the player is notified clearly for the extra satisfaction), intrusive and constant messages, tons of collectibles, survival instinct to highlight every path and collectible, constant spamming messages that "you should really push R3 to move forward instead of trying to figure it out yourself", lots of cutscenes, QTE's, setpieces that are trying their hardest to be more impressive than every other game out there, DLC mission unlocks,... On top of that, the characters in Tomb Raider feel so sterile, empty and uninteresting, with cringe worthy dialogue lines and voice acting. Never really understood the appeal of Lara Croft as a game character tbh unless she was more interesting in the older games.

That being said, i think it looks very good visually and there is something in the gameplay that makes me want to continue (probably the more open world approach) and i like the atmosphere, the weather effects and the world. I just hope it opens up a lot more after the initial introduction.
 

GazzaGSi

Member
Got this for Christmas so will make a start soon but I wanted to come in here for a moan, the length of the case is bigger than normal blu ray cases and the fucking thing doesn't fit in my games stand

729072.jpg
 

Pancake Mix

Copied someone else's pancake recipe
Wow, Lara is like 5'0. I swear she's noticeably shorter than everyone else in the game.

For some reason I thought she was around 5'10 in Tomb Raider 2013 and this game but I guess not.
 

hawk2025

Member
Just started playing this (on PS4) and arrived in Syberia.

The developers sure did try to check all the boxes of what a modern game "should" (apparently) look like: inventory, weapons, skills, upgrades, XP (which progresses by doing the simplest of things and it is made sure the player is notified clearly for the extra satisfaction), intrusive and constant messages, tons of collectibles, survival instinct to highlight every path and collectible, constant spamming messages that "you should really push R3 to move forward instead of trying to figure it out yourself", lots of cutscenes, QTE's, setpieces that are trying their hardest to be more impressive than every other game out there, DLC mission unlocks,... On top of that, the characters in Tomb Raider feel so sterile, empty and uninteresting, with cringe worthy dialogue lines and voice acting. Never really understood the appeal of Lara Croft as a game character tbh unless she was more interesting in the older games.

That being said, i think it looks very good visually and there is something in the gameplay that makes me want to continue (probably the more open world approach) and i like the atmosphere, the weather effects and the world. I just hope it opens up a lot more after the initial introduction.

All of this is true and holds throughout the game. I think the best way to enjoy it is to completely ignore all of it and simply play it as a linear adventure. The collectibles and side missions never become compelling, save for the handful of tombs.

Do those, and ignore the rest of the bloat in the game IMO. It's pretty great that way.
 
Got this for Christmas so will make a start soon but I wanted to come in here for a moan, the length of the case is bigger than normal blu ray cases and the fucking thing doesn't fit in my games stand

729072.jpg

Yeah, I held off on buying it because it was a cardboard case of a different size. Walmart, however, received a second shipment for Black Friday and the games were in normal PS4 cases. If you haven't opened it yet, check your local Walmart and see if you can do an even swap.
 

CyberChulo

Member
Game keeps freezing and crashing on me. The error is CE-34878-0. This is after deleting my save and restarting. Even deleted the entire game, re-downloaded and re-installed. Wtf. Pretty disappointed right now as this is supposed to be a showcase for the Pro.

I had that happen to my Pro. Between 5 to 15 minutes it would quit and give me that error. I even formatted a new hard drive and did the same thing after reinstalling. I looked it up and apparently, this has happened to others. One of them said that he had to exchange the system to get it working. I have 2 other Pros and they both worked fine with the game. So I just ordered another one from Amazon and returned the one that doesn't work. Finished the game with no problems! I wouldn't have thought it would be a hardware problem but apparently it is.
 
Got this for Christmas and I'm loving it so far. I find the set pieces in these reboot games are so much more engaging than the Uncharted ones.
 

Brandon F

Well congratulations! You got yourself caught!
Got this for Christmas and I'm loving it so far. I find the set pieces in these reboot games are so much more engaging than the Uncharted ones.

Playing now myself and agreed, though I am not really enjoying it quite as much as I expected. 'Rise of the Soviet Installation Raider' is a bit more apt of a title and kind of disappointing given the pre-release marketing of a 'return to tombs!' that I felt was dominant last year.

Still more of the same TR2013 explosive action and collectible hunting which I did really enjoy despite. Just want more traversal puzzles and deadly traps in massive buried and forgotten tombs is all.
 
Got the game recently and I'm loving it thus far.

That said, I don't like what seems to be an increased focus on finding artefacts and tombs over combat compared to Tomb Raider 2013, regardless of the fact it's truer to the name Tomb Raider. That's a very minor gripe, however.

I can't relate to this. Sounds like an improvement, however minor.
 

Mediking

Member
Literally just beat the game....

Lara X Jonah needs to be a thing.

She needs more of a personality.

Very fun game though.

Some puzzles were maddening.
 

GazzaGSi

Member
Yeah, I held off on buying it because it was a cardboard case of a different size. Walmart, however, received a second shipment for Black Friday and the games were in normal PS4 cases. If you haven't opened it yet, check your local Walmart and see if you can do an even swap.

I'll check the stores in the UK and see if there is any different sizes.

I had a empty silver 20th anniversary case that my PS+ membership came in so I thought I'd use that case so at least the game is on my stand for when I want it. Nope, no disc spindle to click the disc on :(
 

Pancake Mix

Copied someone else's pancake recipe
The launch case's art book it comes with is preferable for collecting and nostalgic purposes.

Not everyone is going to care about that, but it's preferable for a lot of us, we waited an extra year, and it's the 20th anniversary of gaming's most iconic (if not the most iconic) heroines. That's why the first print is an actual art book.
 

pHand

Member
I had the Windows Store version but never got around to it, so by the time the 20th Anniversary edition came out it was just cheaper to get all of the DLC by buying the 20th anniversary edition on sale. The weird thing is the Windows Store version was like 37 GB while the Steam version takes up ~25.

Anyway, I spent the last week or so playing the main game + Baba Yaga and Cold Darkness and enjoyed it. Challenge tombs were an improvement over the first game but still relatively short for the most part. Ancient Cistern was probably the meatiest one. However, I was genuinely surprised that Baba Yaga had an actual timed challenge that was actually, well, challenging. Baba Yaga as a whole was fantastic DLC. Cold Darkness I was a bit more ambivalent towards, but only because I scare easily, lol.

I'll finish up the Manor (always my favorite), and some of the other stuff soon, but I'm not sure how I feel about Score Attack. I did all of the Time Trials in the PS2-era games and found them fun, but Score Attack seems needlessly complicated.
 

Pancake Mix

Copied someone else's pancake recipe
Just beat the main game.

I'd place it just a notch (8.5-9) below Tomb Raider 2013 (9.5). TR2013 was just more action-based (as opposed to puzzles and exploration) and had sprinkles of survival horror. Rise of the Tomb Raider is slightly more grounded, less graphic, and involved more actual Tomb Raiding.

Obviously, which you prefer is up to you. What I'm happy to say, however, is that Rise of the Tomb Raider is a great sequel to TR2013 (one of my favourite games ever) and follows in the same vein. Better than Uncharted for me, especially pre-4, even if the story isn't great.

Looking forward to exploring Croft Manor next.
 

Evolved1

make sure the pudding isn't too soggy but that just ruins everything
How much game is left after
thermal valley
?

I'm having trouble pushing through this section... really boring here.
 
I started playing RotTR last night for a couple hours and here are my first thoughts.

It started off really well. The initial Siberian trek reminded me of the opening FMV for Tomb Raider (1996) and the Tibetan foothills level from Tomb Raider 2. Whether that's intentional by CD I'm unsure, but it got my attention. The following Syrian tomb of the prophet was also a pleasant wee locale to explore and traverse. I was enjoying the views, searching for secrets and solving little puzzles.

Up until now I've been happily surprised, but with the conclusion of the Syria segment the game starts introducing the mercenaries/human enemies and we're now firmly back in predictable territory. If Lara's not racing to beat others to a Tomb, then they promptly arrive 5 minutes after Lara. It's an old and tired process.

It's fine, it is still somewhat enjoyable, but it's sad to see. I lost track of time in the beginning having been absorbed in exploring and a bit of platforming, and now it's just running through the motions.
 

RedAssedApe

Banned
All of this is true and holds throughout the game. I think the best way to enjoy it is to completely ignore all of it and simply play it as a linear adventure. The collectibles and side missions never become compelling, save for the handful of tombs.

Do those, and ignore the rest of the bloat in the game IMO. It's pretty great that way.

bummer to hear this.

I just started this and am in the syberia hub as well. This game feels doesn't feel like its paced well in comparison to TR2013. But its also partially my fault for being preoccupied with all the extra crap littering the map now. It feels like a ubisoft open world game (to a lesser extent) in that respect. Or maybe I ignored the collectables in the previous game? Gotta catch them all!

I think I'm going to take your advice and play the story objectives and leave the collectathon for post-game. Kind of annoyed that some equipment and weapons require in game currency though. Just murder the Trinity guy and take his guns damnit!
 

Brandon F

Well congratulations! You got yourself caught!
I started playing RotTR last night for a couple hours and here are my first thoughts.

It started off really well. The initial Siberian trek reminded me of the opening FMV for Tomb Raider (1996) and the Tibetan foothills level from Tomb Raider 2. Whether that's intentional by CD I'm unsure, but it got my attention. The following Syrian tomb of the prophet was also a pleasant wee locale to explore and traverse. I was enjoying the views, searching for secrets and solving little puzzles.

Up until now I've been happily surprised, but with the conclusion of the Syria segment the game starts introducing the mercenaries/human enemies and we're now firmly back in predictable territory. If Lara's not racing to beat others to a Tomb, then they promptly arrive 5 minutes after Lara. It's an old and tired process.

It's fine, it is still somewhat enjoyable, but it's sad to see. I lost track of time in the beginning having been absorbed in exploring and a bit of platforming, and now it's just running through the motions.

Totally agreed.
Kind of wish they excised the endless army of milita as a threat as I really miss the struggle of contending with environmental dangers over squads of goons ready to ambush you in arena shootouts at measured stages. My motivation really sunk throughout the entire Soviet Installation hub region following the pleasant and lonely Syria and early Siberia tutorial jaunt which had me intrigued. Still have a ways left to go, but I am now headed towards yet another milita base of sorts and I just...well I am not really as engaged despite explosions and chases and setpieces doing their best to wow me.
 
Totally agreed.
Kind of wish they excised the endless army of milita as a threat as I really miss the struggle of contending with environmental dangers over squads of goons ready to ambush you in arena shootouts at measured stages. My motivation really sunk throughout the entire Soviet Installation hub region following the pleasant and lonely Syria and early Siberia tutorial jaunt which had me intrigued. Still have a ways left to go, but I am now headed towards yet another milita base of sorts and I just...well I am not really as engaged despite explosions and chases and setpieces doing their best to wow me.

I'd love to see them excise the goons too but CD have gone too far down that road to turn back or reign it in now. No matter how much they tell us there are more tombs to explore and raid, it will alway be an afterthought built around the generic wave shooting formula. A formula so infuriating in its predictability.
 

Melchiah

Member
I started playing RotTR last night for a couple hours and here are my first thoughts.

It started off really well. The initial Siberian trek reminded me of the opening FMV for Tomb Raider (1996) and the Tibetan foothills level from Tomb Raider 2. Whether that's intentional by CD I'm unsure, but it got my attention. The following Syrian tomb of the prophet was also a pleasant wee locale to explore and traverse. I was enjoying the views, searching for secrets and solving little puzzles.

Up until now I've been happily surprised, but with the conclusion of the Syria segment the game starts introducing the mercenaries/human enemies and we're now firmly back in predictable territory. If Lara's not racing to beat others to a Tomb, then they promptly arrive 5 minutes after Lara. It's an old and tired process.

It's fine, it is still somewhat enjoyable, but it's sad to see. I lost track of time in the beginning having been absorbed in exploring and a bit of platforming, and now it's just running through the motions.

I just finished the game yesterday, and I agree with what you said about human enemies, and the tired formula of facing them every time after reaching a crucial location. Uncharted series does the same, and its predictability bores me there as well. I realize it follows what Indiana Jones and other adventure movies do, but it gets old eventually.

I enjoyed exploring, solving puzzles, and finding a way to get to the seemingly out of reach collectables the most. I hope they'll do something to improve the formula next time, and introduce more non-human enemies as well. I'd love to see something like the dinosaurs, aliens and yetis of the old days, as long as combating against those won't be as annoying as it was in Uncharted 2. It wouldn't hurt to improve on the story, and coming up with a more interesting villain either. The latter goes for Uncharted 4 as well.

The moody Croft Manor DLC was one of the best portions of the game, but the sheer amount of notes started to wear me out after a while. Baba Yaga DLC was also pretty good, and had some refreshing ideas.
 

CrayToes

Member
Playing this right now in 4K on my Pro (looks stunning) and quite enjoying it but fuck me the writing is bad. Most bad vg writing doesn't really bother me but this is on another level. Every time Lara opens her mouth I cringe or shake my head. It's even worse than the first game. It doesn't help that the game takes itself so seriously.
 

Kamina

Golden Boy
How much game is left after
thermal valley
?

I'm having trouble pushing through this section... really boring here.
If you just arrived in
Geothermal Valley
you still have about half the game + a lot of tombs coming up.


Playing this right now in 4K on my Pro (looks stunning) and quite enjoying it but fuck me the writing is bad. Most bad vg writing doesn't really bother me but this is on another level. Every time Lara opens her mouth I cringe or shake my head. It's even worse than the first game. It doesn't help that the game takes itself so seriously.
Can you elaborate please? I found the voice acting and writing quite enjoyable personally.
 

RedAssedApe

Banned
is it just me or do some of the npcs look the same? i swear this jacob guy is just a more detailed version of one of these dudes giving me side missions...and low quality version of his face was on a dead guy...lol
 

GreekWolf

Member
Can you elaborate please? I found the voice acting and writing quite enjoyable personally.

I don't really understand these complaints, either. I mean, the story, dialogue and voice acting seems like anything you'd typically see from a summer blockbuster movie. It's essentially an Indiana Jones flick. I certainly don't remember anything overly cringe-worthy during my playthrough.

I guess it's possible that the heavy handed religious overtones in the game are off-putting to some. If that sort of thing bothered me then I'd probably feel let-down by the story too.
 

CrayToes

Member
If you just arrived in
Geothermal Valley
you still have about half the game + a lot of tombs coming up.



Can you elaborate please? I found the voice acting and writing quite enjoyable personally.

Different tastes and standards I guess. The writing is generally of a very low standard, like sci-fi channel bad. The game is trying to tell a cinematic, mature story but it comes across as completely amateur. It reminds me of an awful daytime soap opera.

I don't really understand these complaints, either. I mean, the story, dialogue and voice acting seems like anything you'd typically see from a summer blockbuster movie. It's essentially an Indiana Jones flick. I certainly don't remember anything overly cringe-worthy during my playthrough.

I guess it's possible that the heavy handed religious overtones in the game are off-putting to some. If that sort of thing bothered me then I'd probably feel let-down by the story too.

I'm glad you enjoyed it more than me but if I saw a film with writing/performances like this in the cinema, I'd likely walk out.
 

Kamina

Golden Boy
Different tastes and standards I guess. The writing is generally of a very low standard, like sci-fi channel bad. The game is trying to tell a cinematic, mature story but it comes across as completely amateur. It reminds me of an awful daytime soap opera.
I'm not really a fan of Soap Operas or anything like amateur movies, and the game never felt like that to me. Could it be that you just expected something else? I think this game is actually one of the better games narrative-wise out there, together with Uncharted. Stuff like Last of Us is clearly another league though.

Edit: whatever, to each their own i guess
 

CrayToes

Member
I'm not really a fan of Soap Operas or anything like amateur movies, and the game never felt like that to me. Could it be that you just expected something else? I think this game is actually one of the better games narrative-wise out there, together with Uncharted. Stuff like Last of Us is clearly another league though.

I played the first game, and loved it, but the writing was the real weak point in that game too so I knew not to expect anything great with this but it just keeps finding ways to piss me off and make me cringe. You would honestly put this alongside Uncharted in terms of narrative? I really don't know what to tell you then.
 

Kamina

Golden Boy
I played the first game, and loved it, but the writing was the real weak point in that game too so I knew not to expect anything great with this but it just keeps finding ways to piss me off and make me cringe. You would honestly put this alongside Uncharted in terms of narrative? I really don't know what to tell you then.
I am still trying to understand where you found these so called cringe worthy moments.
Lara's voice actress is good, the story is fine. Obviously Uncharted has much more dialoge and story sequences. But if Tomb raider was like that, i am sure they would deliver a similar performance. Instead its a game with a story mostly being told through Audiologs and Lara's self-talking.
 

CrayToes

Member
I am still trying to understand where you found these so called cringe worthy moments.
Lara's voice actress is good, the story is fine. Obviously Uncharted has much more dialoge and story sequences. But if Tomb raider was like that, i am sure they would deliver a similar performance. Instead its a game with a story mostly being told through Audiologs and Lara's self-talking.

This is where you lost me. The thing is, she really isn't. She sounds like an American putting on a thick British accent and fails miserably at it. Again, I'll scratch it up to different tastes and standards but it really brings the whole experience down for me. Uncharted isn't more well written and performed because there's more story and narrative elements, it's just straight up better.
 

GreekWolf

Member
This is where you lost me. The thing is, she really isn't. She sounds like an American putting on a thick British accent and fails miserably at it. Again, I'll scratch it up to different tastes and standards but it really brings the whole experience down for me. Uncharted isn't more well written and performed because there's more story and narrative elements, it's just straight up better.

Camilla Luddington sounds like an American putting on a thick British accent? What in the world do you want her to do to sound more authentic, go full-tard cockney?
 

CrayToes

Member
Camilla Luddington sounds like an American putting on a thick British accent? What in the world do you want her to do to sound more authentic, go full-tard cockney?

I've just searched up some videos of her. Low and behold, her real accent sounds American-English. It's painfully obvious in game that she's lived in America for a while. If you've even spent any time at all in the UK then you'll know that British people don't sound like that lol.
 

Montresor

Member
I've just searched up some videos of her. Low and behold, her real accent sounds American-English. It's painfully obvious in game that she's lived in America for a while. If you've even spent any time at all in the UK then you'll know that British people don't sound like that lol.

If it's her actual real accent then what the fuck is the problem? Why would this be attributed to an acting failure instead of just saying "Oh, hmmph, this is a British woman who's lived in America for awhile and now her accent sounds like that. Neat".
 

CrayToes

Member
If it's her actual real accent then what the fuck is the problem? Why would this be attributed to an acting failure instead of just saying "Oh, hmmph, this is a British woman who's lived in America for awhile and now her accent sounds like that. Neat".

She's trying to sound British. She doesn't. That's a failure. Jeez why are you guys so touchy? I think the game is poorly written and performed just like its predecessor. This isn't a controversial opinion in the slightest. Like I said, I'm glad you all enjoy it but the narrative is hurting the game for me, somewhat. I'm still having a lot of fun with it. There's no need to be so upset by one person's opinion.
 
The moody Croft Manor DLC was one of the best portions of the game, but the sheer amount of notes started to wear me out after a while. Baba Yaga DLC was also pretty good, and had some refreshing ideas.

Croft Manor sounds promising then. I don't know in detail what the added extras provide actually, other than the VR Manor and some other zombie trash.
 

Melchiah

Member
Croft Manor sounds promising then. I don't know in detail what the added extras provide actually, other than the VR Manor and some other zombie trash.

Croft Manor: Blood Ties can be played without VR as well. It's solely about exploration and solving puzzles, no combat whatsoever. There's a separate combat mode, which adds zombies to the manor. Tried it once, and it didn't seem that good.
 

Pancake Mix

Copied someone else's pancake recipe
Croft Manor: Blood Ties can be played without VR as well. It's solely about exploration and solving puzzles, no combat whatsoever. There's a separate combat mode, which adds zombies to the manor. Tried it once, and it didn't seem that good.

Yeah, Blood Ties was great, some easy trophies too.

The combat mode was called Lara's Nightmare and I agree, it's not great, which is strange for me to admit because I thought it'd be the mode I preferred. It's just infinite zombies, essentially. The main game's combat is a lot better and more interesting.
 
Played a bit more tonight and it felt like it gave me a bit more exploration and quiet time, which I enjoyed.

I switched it off somewhere within an old soviet base when I was given a side mission from one of the male indigenous locals, asking me to destroy some communications or power relays. At that point, for a moment, it felt like I could have been playing Grand Theft Auto.
 
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