Entertainment

Games: Rise of the Tomb Raider another full-throttle Lara Croft actioner

Rise celebrates 20 years of the First Lady of Gaming
Rise celebrates 20 years of the First Lady of Gaming Rise celebrates 20 years of the First Lady of Gaming

Rise of the Tomb Raider: 20 Year Celebration (PS4)

By: Square Enix

THOUGH well sated on the derring-do front with Uncharted, PlayStation fans were nonetheless non-plussed on discovering 2015's Tomb Raider effort would be an Xbox exclusive. But given Lara Croft was forged on the original PlayStation (though first released on Sega's ill-fated Saturn), Rise fittingly lands on Sony’s latest to celebrate 20 years of the First Lady of Gaming.

Following on from Square's reboot, which dragged the pneumatic 90s icon into the 21st century, Rise offers even more gritty angst, while the only large chests on show are groaning with treasure.

Croft once again takes out the trash with bows and firearms in another cinematic treat with exotic locales, gorgeous visuals, and even bears out to snaffle her sweet flesh as she hunts for the secret of eternal youth. Women!

The Tomb Raider reboot was basically Uncharted with a girl, which was basically Tomb Raider with a guy, and the sequel offers more of the same. Players get in touch with their feral side as the incomparable Croft runs, shoots and solves environmental puzzles.

The action transitions seamlessly from cinematics to action and, unlike the original reboot, this time around there actual tombs to raid. The game piles on the survivalist stuff as Lara scavenges, crafts tools and takes on myriad side-quests that give the main adventure a lick of open-world freedom.

She can now also MacGyver special ammo and bombs with an on-the-fly crafting system pilfered wholesale from The Last of Us. Like most 90s pin-ups, Lara has had an extensive makeover to keep heads turning in the 21st century and with the PS4 pushing the polygons, Rise has never looked better.

And this anniversary edition includes all the bells and whistles, with the game’s DLC, a host of classic Croft ephemera and new extras.

Blood Ties takes us to Croft mansion for a fan service-loaded dose of exploration and puzzle solving that also makes use the new PlayStation VR. Less successful is Lara’s Nightmare, a fun slice of zombie-busting where our pneumatic adventuress clears her homestead from the undead.

It’s a fun, if throwaway, time-waster. One of the few gaming icons to enjoy the kind of mainstream celebrity afforded to Mario and Sonic, the star of 1996’s Tomb Raider may not be the first major gaming female (that accolade falls to Metroid's Samus, or Ms Pac-Man – though Lara would never take her husband's name), but Ms Croft is still delivering the goods with this full-throttle actioner that celebrates the past while leaving fans hopeful for the next 20 years....