Rise of the Tomb Raider succeeds at successfully blending story driven gameplay with a fun open world. Crystal Dynamics have created a truly fantastic title that shouldn't be missed by anyone it's a shame that the game had to launch alongside Fallout 4 and the PC release is not much favorable launching before a Jam packed February line up. Laura begins her adventure looking for an artifact known as the "Divine Source". Laura meets a man named Jacob desperately trying to protect his people and the Secret of the "Divine Artifact" against an ancient religious cult known as Trinity. This group is powerful United and Calculating this is completely different from The islanders that Served Mathias in the 2013 reboot. Laura is motivated by the mysterious circumstances of her Fathers death and wanted to justify his ambition in searching for the source.

In the game there are more hidden treasures and weapons than ever before I was surprised by the different weapons you could obtain and the skill tree added many unique abilities for her to utilize as the game progressed. there are many ways to tackle the game now adding the option of avoiding combat completely by sneaking past enemies and using enemies as bait by settings traps on their bodies turning items that would usually serve no use other than the occasional distraction as deadly tools of war. In the first tomb raider the game turned Laura from a frightened girl to a war-torn veteran in 5 hours, This is something Crystal Dynamics seem to have noticed themselves as the pacing for the game felt right at all times there was never a situation where laura felt overpowering as a character yet she acted like she was well prepared for any situation thrown at her. The way She interacts with the characters of the world is natural from simply overhearing a conversation or accepting one of the many optional tasks that the natives give you often times great rewards that are well worth the efforts you put in them.

The sounds of tomb raider are stellar, The voice acting for Laura is well delivered by Camilla Luddington who reprises her role from the 2013 title. She makes Laura seem believable and easy to relate to and she passes off as very strong female lead probably one of the best female Protagonist in modern gaming. There is also a great supporting cast as Konstantin, Anna and Jacob often times steal the show the game overall has great writing and pacing the voicing is well executed. The score is very nice, The music always seemed to fit perfectly with the scene at times I felt like I was watching an Indiana Jones movie unfold and that is a very good thing.

The game features a nice crafting system it's not difficult at all at times it almost feels too simple in fact you can make poison arrows, fire arrows, special ammo, grenades, Molotov's Smoke Grenades, ETC all with the material you find in the world this encourages the player to explore and gather materials otherwise you'll be stuck in a gunfight with a knife or in this case an Axe, Speaking of the melee combat I found it incredibly enjoyable at times to run up on enemies and engage in hand to hand combat in this game this seems very improved upon as Laura seems to have become decidedly more brutal in the way she finishes her foes Human or undead it does not matter to her. Throughout the journey, we discover even more about Laura's past painting a better picture of her family as well the organization named "Trinity".

In this game the enemies are Trinity, They are a strong force unified under a man named Konstantin he is strong willed, driven to protect his sister and wants the power of the 'divine source' for his own ambitions. The Main Antagonist, Konstantin, is a cunning man he always knew how to hit Laura where it hurts and it shows throughout most of the game he always manages to stay two steps ahead. This is a refreshing change coming off dealing with the crazed cult leader in Mathia in the previous game whose action seem to be driven by his insanity, To my surprise Konstantin always managed to keep my interest I was invested in his flaws, he was driven by morals he truly believed what he was doing was for the best and at times you can almost sympathize with some of his actions as he's dealing with internal strife. The studio did an excellent job with the portrayal of the of Characters.

This time, Crystal Dynamics opted to not tack on a multiplayer that nobody wanted instead, they opted to focus more on the game's story and it paid off, However they did add a mode separate from the game called Expedition mode while I didn't nearly play as much as I could have Expedition mode is a fun take on the chapters of the main campaign it takes situations from the campaign and adds survival type elements to it and you can even add modifiers to the mode with cards that you obtain with coins or real currency. Coins are easy to come by you obtain them by completing different challenges in the story and in Expedition mode. They can be redeemed at the marketplace for cards that add different modifiers for Expedition mode, This definitely adds a lot of replayability with different challenges posted for the modes and leaderboards I can see people getting lots of use out this.

While Tomb Raider is an a fantastic game, It's not one without flaws. This time, Laura has more guns skills and tools at her disposal than ever before, there are many ways to tackle combat those freedoms and options are also what makes the game too easy I found myself rarely in trouble even in the final sections of the game on the hardest difficulty I only restarted once or twice. This was a bit disappointing as you didn't need any of the extra resources when you can just stick to using your pistol and bow the entire game, still I managed to use the other weapons and techniques for curiosity sake and I had loads of fun. I look forward to seeing Crystal dynamics increases the intelligence of the Enemies. Rise Of The Tomb Raider has a plenty of costumes for Laura to wear some are given to you, some are DLC, and some must simply be crafted, for once I can say honestly all of them are nice and suit Laura just nicely ( I Mean look at her she can pull off anything), That being said the game offers no incentive for trying out one outfit over the other than Aesthetics, in fact, the only bonuses some outfits offer is increased health regeneration that seems like a wasted opportunity. Thankfully, Expedition mode has more benefits for them and while Laura has many skills that are fun to pick and choose from, in the end, you can max them all out ,That's a bit underwhelming to me there is no need to think about skills when you can mindlessly pick and choose and you'll be fine either way. My last complaint is actually about the name of the Game or the main purpose, sure Laura is looking for ancient artifact and there's plenty of exploring to do and while this game has very elaborate puzzles for the challenge tomb's they weren't all that difficult and far too few.

This game looks fantastic and while I am not maxing this game out at 4k 120fps or anything close to it, however, my GTX 970 could output some stunning visuals thanks to the great port that Nixxes has made. Crystal dynamics has created a game where it's beautiful in every situation whether laura is climbing on glaciers, hunting in the woods, traversing through caves, or swimming in water they have a done a great job adding life to a place that is scarcely inhabited by humans. instead, they opted to include animals trees bushes water rocky terrain all of which Laura can interact with. also added to the PC version is "Dynamic Foliage" which is a nice touch for whenever Laura passes by bushes they will shuffle around and get damaged. The visuals are some the best I have seen and even 1080p pushes higher end GPU's more than I've seen in quite some time you are going to need at least 3-4gb card to really enjoy the beauty of this game.