RISE OF THE TOMB RAIDER PC REVIEW IGN FREE

The graphics options are plentiful, with a variety of ways to tweak and customise the experience. Graphics options: Lots, including a range of AA and anisotropic filter settings, as well as customisable texture quality, shadow quality, ambient occlusion, depth of field, tessellation, screen space reflections, dynamic foliage, bloom, motion blur, lens flair, and, most importantly, PureHair.ĭespite arriving months after the Xbox One version, the PC release of Rise of the Tomb Raider is a quality product-Square Enix's ongoing relationship with Nixxes again paying dividends. Scaling giant buildings or huge cliff faces still feels risky, even as the interactions involved are slim. It's a shame there's not more danger, but the presentation does a lot of the heavy lifting. It's a simple, streamlined system, and with the correct taps of space, E and F, you'll seldom run into any problems. Jump, swing, grab, attach-each action requiring a specific button press. Platforming in Rise of the Tomb Raider follows a standard set of interactions, thrown together in a variety of combinations. These are sprawling, intricate environments, and, for the most part, you can leisurely pick through them-the only distractions coming from the occasional wolf, bear or big cat that's taken a disliking to your continued existence. When you're not fighting for your life-be it against soldiers or the crumbling ruins of an action set piece-you're exploring one of a handful of large, open hub areas. The presentation does a lot of the heavy lifting.

It gives combat a welcome feeling of fluidity. As a result, scrabbling between cover while grabbing and arming a can is a frictionless process.

RISE OF THE TOMB RAIDER PC REVIEW IGN FREE

You craft combat tools by holding the middle-mouse button, thus keeping your keyboard hand free to control Lara's movements. Doing so costs resources found out in the world, but I was never so low on them that I was unable to set light to a clustered group of soldiers. A bottle can be turned into a molotov cocktail an empty can an IED. Arrows and special ammo can be created at any point, but you can also make use of things found around enemy camps. New for this outing is Lara's ability to craft combat tools on-the-fly. Aimed correctly, and you can down even heavily armed guards with a single salvo. I especially enjoy the feel of the rapid fire skills, which let you instantly fire off fully charged follow up arrows after your initial shot. Having to draw back and charge shots provides a nice rhythm to the combat, especially in conjunction with some of the skill upgrades available as Lara levels up. Once again, though, the bow is star of the show. Pistols feel lightweight and clinical, while the pump-action shotgun is a chunky and gratifyingly deadly option. Most feel good to fire, the panicked inaccuracy of the automatic rifle being the only real exception. Lara has access to a small selection of weapon types-pistol, rifle and shotgun-with a variety of styles available in each category. While things quickly spiral out of control, particularly after the appearance of militaristic cult Trinity, she's no longer an unwilling participant in events.

There's an important difference in the plots of RotTR and its predecessor. Lara is on the hunt for the Divine Source, an artifact that her father had obsessed over before his death. Lara's latest adventure opens in Siberia, and-aside from an early sojourn in Syria-that's where it stays. They're all still there, but take up significantly less of 15-or-so hour running time. There are fewer slow-mo QTE sequences, fewer awkward conversations, fewer by-the-numbers miniboss fights. It's not that Tomb Raider's missteps have been eradicated, but they've been dramatically reduced. There's a level of artifice to these sequences, but they operate within the framework of established interactions. There's still plenty of set-piece spectacle, but these pace-breaking action segments trust you to read the visual clues of the environment and react using the appropriate controls. From then on, Rise of the Tomb Raider sticks to a mostly consistent level of interactivity. The opener is frustrating, but over quickly.

Rise of the tomb raider pc review ign