Rise Of The Tomb Raider

Lara Croft returns in this polished sequel

- Phil savage

The opening of Lara Croft’s latest adventure had us worried. It starts with Lara trudging slowly through snow, the only requirement being to hold W as the game plays itself around you. We had flashbacks to the previous game’s interminable, set-piece heavy intro. During a cut scene-laden climbing tutorial, we missed a prompt, fell and died. We managed it on the next try, climbed a bit higher, and had to watch another cutscene where Lara falls but is fine. Here we go again? Actually, no.

The opener is frustrating, but over quickly. Rise then sticks to a mostly consistent level of interactivity. There’s still plenty of set-piece spectacle, but these pace-breaking action segments trust you to read environmental clues and react. This is emblematic of Rise as a whole. It’s not that Tomb Raider’s missteps have been eradicated, but they’ve been dramatically reduced. Slo-mo quick time event sequences, awkward conversations, and by-the numbers miniboss fights take up a lot less of the 15-or-so hour running time.