Rise of the Tomb Raider wasn’t my first Tomb Raider game, that would be Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation. But it is my favourite Tomb Raider game. Tomb Raider is a series I loved as a kid, but fell out of touch with after Chronicles and Angel of Darkness were so widely panned. Fairly or unfairly isn’t a judgement I’ll make, since to this day I’ve never played them. Now that the remasters are out with more tolerable controls; it’s on a very long to-do list. It’s also a game I’ve bought three times – first on Xbox 360 where I originally played it; then on Steam, and now finally on GoG as I want to support the release of DRM-free AAA games.
It’s a game that’s both incredibly well made, and has notable and painful flaws. Like the other two Survivor games it’s also one that has triggered mass controversy through both it’s in-world and out-of-world decisions. I don’t want to talk about out-of-world things though, when the in-world decisions give so much canvas to explore. If you’re interested in some out-of-world context; then Kelly from Tomb Raider Horizons has an excellent retrospective of her own that you should definitely read. Spoilers, obviously, ahead.
The Amazing
This entire website continues to owe it’s existence to the realism of prop design in the reboot Tomb Raider games, and this is something that’s been true since Tomb Raider: A Survivor is Born. Rise took this design concept and turned it up to 11. The iconic design inserts from Born remain; with the DMM axes, Midland radio and Timberland boots all making return appearances. Instead of just generic accessories though, Lara’s standard pouches now have identifiable sources; a medieval re-enactors coin purse for one, and a Swedish military pouch for another. Part way through the story she also gains a knife; and for this a KGB Spetsnaz knife was chosen – the kind of thing that would be entirely plausible to find in the Soviet setting of the game and something that is relatively rare and poorly known outside of niche collectors. Several of the Relics are also based on existing artefacts in the real world; as was true in Born, and those which were invented for the game (relics, accessories and wider props) are very tastefully done. Leatherworkers like LikeLinda and MaxTRS are still selling replicas of Rise designs to this day.
And cosplay is something that Rise of the Tomb Raider celebrated and supported. A pack of super-high res renders of most of Lara’s outfits was given out with multiple views, along with two detailed sheets that looked at Lara’s equipment, which made it easier for fans to identify many of the ‘real world’ props that were being used in the game. One last note on realism and cosplay, just about every piece of climbing equipment Lara uses in the beginning of the game is an identifiable product from a real company. Whichever climbing nerd was working at Crystal Dynamics, between 2013 and 2015 – please know that I see you.
Rise also expands many of the existing gameplay mechanics in ways that are both fun and creative; introducing bolt-action rifles for ‘sniper’ archetype players, new traverse mechanics and new combat mechanics. Notable is the simple length of the game; being able to inherit much of the game engine, many designs from Born; and the budget increase created by it’s success allowed Rise to be a larger, longer, deeper game. One way it even outshines Shadow is in it’s traversibility. Shadow has more optional tombs, but most of the time attempting to visit them spawns “cancel or allow” pop-ups reminiscent of Windows or MacOS and the transit to them is offscreen. In Rise, the game almost never takes you out of yourself; with even the journey to the optional Baba Yaga DLC being a long and dangerous mountain climb with it’s own spectacular scenery.
This focus on immersion also guides the main combat focus – Born was criticised for Lara’s immortality and body count as the game continuously forced you into head-on combat against bigger and bigger guns and expected you to accept that a rich English archaeologist could somehow kill them all without even serious injury. The sequel isn’t immune to this moments but it uses them more sparingly, instead extrapolating Born‘s “Geothermal Caverns” to a mechanism that can be applied throughout the game – and which much better fits the ‘hunter’ identity established in Born‘s first few levels. Lara even notably runs away at several points in the game! It also significantly reduces the first game’s trope of “three waves and a boss (who must be hit three times to defeat”. Crafting mechanics are also much better thought out than the first game. Salvage becomes only one of a number of different resources that need to be gathered and balanced when manufacturing items – and the conflict between upgrading and basic survival at higher difficulties is to the games credit.
As for the story, credit it where it’s due for not calling the primary antagonists “the Illuminati”. Personal relationships are much better used in this game. In the first, outside of Sam and Roth it was hard to form strong bonds with many of the Endurance crew – Whitman was obviously a traitor from before you entered the sun gate. Alex was implied to be a paedophile. Jonah kept being misused as a “Magical Native American” figure (despite being Polynesian). Reyes kept yelling at you. Plus; by the second death it became very obvious they were mostly going to die. In Rise, Jonah and Jacob substitute for Roth and Sam; but Sofia and Nadia are more engaging than the other background characters and as a whole, while Ana and Konstantin do great service as more interesting foils than Matthias and Himiko. Even DLC villains Atlas and Serafima are excellent foils. The fact that only one of the heroes doesn’t make it is also well chosen; while his sacrifice is well-telegraphed, it’s still more meaningful for it’s rarity value.
Jonah particularly is an excellent companion character, merging some of the best traits of his original characterisation with some of the best of Sam and Roth as well. His concerns and opinions became far more grounded and thought-through than those of his Born character and Earl Baylon put a spectacular job in voicing the character – it’s very clear that Baylon and Lara’s Camilla Luddington have great on-screen in-booth chemistry – and all the voices in game are well done; with the removal of the slightly-racist mock-accents from most of the documents and casts being another significant improvement.
The use of multiple well-defined cultures is also quite striking in the game. Byzantine, Mongolian, Soviet and Trinity (functionally – American) identities are very cleanly separated and very well merged as appropriate. In the third game; those less familiar with Mexica, Inca and Maya cultures will often struggle to identify them purely on sight or sound – not helped by the deliberate and messy blending of them; though modern-Mexican, Peruvian and Trinity are all easier to separate.
And the battle between the colonialist urge to discover and the self-actualisation of the indigenous communities is best explored in this entry into the trilogy. Unlike in Yamatai where no ‘un-zombified’ indigenous people remain; the Remnant are an active surviving Byzantine community. The game also actively explores the damage done to their cultural uniqueness by the sequential Mongolian, Russian, American, and British/New Zealand invasions – as well as shows the conflicting interests in play by having some Byzantine characters urge you to loot while others criticise you for it.
I almost forgot to credit how good the DLC is. Baba Yaga is a full side-adventure as long as any other chapter in the game, which adds unique skills to the main game on completion. It is also the source of Nadia, one of the best side-characters in the game and provides some of the most beautiful atmosphere and best scares (both jump-scares and psychological horror) in the game. Blood Ties is a completely separate story that focuses not on Lara’s father, but her mother; and how that loss broke Lara’s family, her childhood; and significantly impacted her adult self. Where Baba Yaga is scary, Blood Ties is creepy – but also wholesome as it leads you through a damp, damaged mansion bringing light, life and warmth as Lara reaffirms her bonds to her past and processes the trauma of being orphaned.
Finally; the decision to add limited open-world mechanics and missions to the game was well-taken and well-implemented (albeit, still somewhat under-emphasised in this game). Going full open-world would have been a mistake, but Rise and Shadow both do an excellent job of balancing the linear and the unguided sections. And what a world it is. There are two truly striking moments in the first Survivor game – when you exit a cave and first see the coastline full of wrecks; and when you stand on top of the radio tower and look out over the mountains. Rise takes your breath time and time again, starting from the first moment when you stand in the centre of a vast mountain range with nothing but rock and snow around you for hundreds of miles. It’s a truly beautiful game; and no less beautiful than Shadow, albeit less vibrant.
The Questionable
A Survivor is Born is a female-first game. The overarching antagonist, Himiko; the protagonist, Lara; and the ‘love interest’ (though not really), Sam; are all female; as are supporting characters Reyes and Hoshi. By contrast in Rise, Lara is the only main female character; with the other female characters of note (Ana, Sofia) demoted to supporting roles. This is one of the reasons I love the Baba Yaga DLC, where both the ‘villain’, Seraphima; and the sidekick, Nadia; are both primary female roles. There’s obviously nothing wrong with having male main characters, but in a game series widely hailed for it’s feminism the sudden shift is very noticeable.
Rise also cribs heavily from Angelina Jolie’s Lara Croft: Tomb Raider movies. Their greatest crime in the franchise was introducing the “daddy issues” story device. Rise and Shadow both lean heavily into this, but Rise most of all. In Born, Lara is self-motivated – ‘I set out to prove myself’, and later female-motivated – the need to protect Sam, her best friend. But Rise changes this to ‘I set out to prove my father right’ and later the need to avenge him. The game is significantly the worse for it. In a way, the three games could be describes as ‘female-focus’, ‘male focus’ and ‘balanced’ in terms of character roles, motivation and prominence. Opinions on which is best will vary of course.
The story also suffers from being a little too predictable. Every betrayal is seen a mile off; every disaster predictable and Jacob’s and Ana’s deaths are projected onto the clouds like the bat signal almost from the moments you meet them. And criticism where criticism is due – just because you don’t call them the Illuminati… just like the “Fiamma Nera”, just like the “Lux Veritatis”, just like “The Light”… Trinity is another Italian religious cult out to find magical/holy/fantastic artefacts so they can something something dark and nefarious. There are versions of this back as far as Tomb Raider II, but it’s the movies that put them centre-stage and so it’s the movies I blame for the re-use here; given the daddy issues being borrowed as well that doesn’t seem unfair.
If there’s one shared gameplay negative across the Survivor timeline, it’s the “three factions”. There is always Lara-and-slightly-useless-allies, there is always modern-fanatics, and there is always indigenous-zombies. In Born, it’s Endurance Crew, Solarii and Stormguard. In Shadow it’s Paititians (and Abigail!), Trinity and Yaaxil. In Rise, it’s Remnant, Trinity and the creatively named “Deathless Ones”. Rise also uses them in almost the exact same ways as Born does, which means they’re also quite obvious and somewhat less engaging as a result. Rise also has very similar enemy-types as well, such as shield-guy, fire-guy, cannon-fodder…
The Awkward
These sections are getting smaller each time, and that’s accurate to the game. The good definitely outweighs the bad, and the very bad is very small. They are, unfortunately notable and need mentioning.
Sam
The big one is Samantha Nishimura. If Lars Croft had been fighting through Yamatai, Sam is the girl he would have received as his patriarchal reward. At the end of the game, Lara carries her down a mountain and onto a boat home while wearing something easily mistaken for a western wedding gown; after which a rainbow appears permanently in the sky. It surprises no-one that queer players (and some straight) latched on to this hard. Other straight players (and yes, some queer) rejected it with equally intense distaste. The gamemakers’ response to this was to have Sam magically vanish between one game and the next – and no; the comics of any franchise never count; since 99% of players will never read the wiki excerpts much less the whole thing. I can certainly see why it would be difficult to reassign Jonah’s role to the ‘damsel in distress’, but Sam isn’t even mentioned in Rise, and barely in Shadow and the first season of the ‘unified’ sequel.
It’s hard to see this as much else but the bury your gays trope. Given my criticism of the use of daddy croft as a plot motivator in the game, it’s not hard to imagine who I might think would have provided a better off or less-screen plot motivator. Sam was badly harmed in the ending of the first game, and ‘Looking for X to save Sam and make me feel fulfilled’ would have contrasted far better with Konstantin’s ‘Looking for X to save Ana and make me feel fulfilled’ and create a rich landscape for exploring the similarities and differences between them; just as Matthias and Lara were both similar in the first game as ‘willing to do great harm to survive and escape’.
Race and Disability
Rise also has some issues of it’s own in character design and stereotyping. One of several reasons I’ve never bonded with the 007 movies is the repeated use of disability or disfigurement as a sign of evil. One of several reasons I prefer Lara Croft to Indiana Jones is that for Indy, it’s always the Nazi’s; even when it isn’t the Nazi’s. For the Avengers, just replace Nazi with Hydra and you’re basically there. Ana is a blonde-haired blue-eyed villain who constantly coughs up blood. Konstantin is a blonde-haired blue-eyed (ok, so they’re siblings but still) villain who constantly drips blood from artificial ‘stigmata’ on his hands. Blonde, Blue and Bastard is far from the most widely harmful stereotype in the world; but all stereotyping is harmful – and associating disfigured with dastardly is unfortunately rather more widespread in it’s impacts.
There’s also frequent online contention about Jonah; not about character, but design. I’m white; and I grew up in a rural majority-white community. The simple and very awkward truth is that I have not spent a significant amount of time either experiencing or researching the commonalities and variances of physical traits that make up the very widespread range of ethic groups referred to as Polynesian. So; I’m reporting from other people who think Jonah outright changes race either from one Polynesian race to another; or to African-American between Born and Rise; and then again between Rise and Shadow. At the very least, I can say that his eye colour; skin tone and hair type all change significantly between Rise and …every other depiction of the character in any timeline. And this was visually jarring to me when I first played the game. To quote the tactful Tomb Raider Wiki:
His design was changed remarkably between Survivor and Rise, and again between Rise and Shadow: the first change mostly concerned his eyes and skin-color, the second change included the form of his nose and chin. In-universe explanations were not given.
Of course, with that said – the number of characters to reappear after Born is: two. Lara and Jonah are also the only screen-visible characters to reappear in Shadow as well; giving us a relatively small sample size. Had more characters reappeared it’s possible their visual redesigns could have been just as drastic – and Lara’s update from the first game is not minor, either. And in case it’s not clear; I don’t want this to come across as an attack on either the character, or the designers and nor is it an attack on those who see the character design changes as a change in race. For one thing, I’m again, white and for another I’m not a video game character designer. It feels disingenuous to not make note of the change, or my original reaction to the change, when doing a retrospective. But I’m not remotely qualified to attempt to analyse the changes, or to even guess at why they were made.
The Summary
Rise of the Tomb Raider is not the best Tomb Raider game because every aspect of it is superior to every other Tomb Raider game. It has many facets that are objectively better and worse than other games. It also has many facets that are subjectively better or worse. And in addition to the subjective preference for an individual change; the weighting of factors will also vary between different players. If you ask 10 Tomb Raider players which Survivor Timeline game is best, you’ll get 20 answers: also three will be from the Remake Timeline, six will be from the Classic Timeline and one will be an Uncharted game.
For me, Rise of the Tomb Raider is the best in the trilogy, and that’s based on what essentially amounts to a weighted average built from my preferences. It is quite literally the most patriarchal which pushes it below Born in terms of story; but in and of themselves, the characters are better and better-used than that games’ are. It’s graphics and visual style are my favourite of the three games, and it’s controls and gameplay are tied with the last. It’s also the most immersive; though any eventual remaster would be strongly advised to follow Shadow in removing the white-paint-of-obvious-traverse-point. In Baba Yaga and Blood Ties it has both of the best DLC’s in the trilogy, and in the Expeditions it has the best multiplayer.
Will there every be a better Tomb Raider game? Hopefully! I’d love a game with terrain as varied as Rise, with characters as good as Shadow; and with the best immersive elements from all three. I’d love a pair bond as strong as Legend of Lara Croft. I want it to be unapologetically feminist and have be female-led and unabashedly queer like Born started to be; and I want it to be (almost) as hard as Revelation, (almost) as long as the entire Survivor trilogy and definitely cosplayable as anything. But I can wait for that.
Ten years later, I can’t say for certain whether it’s Born or Rise that made me originally fall in love with Tomb Raider again but I can say that it’s Rise that made it a core part of my self. I have replayed all of these games several times – the first two even on Xbox alone, and looking at Steam I have about a hundred hours each in two of them. But in Rise, I have half as much again. If nothing else, that tells me which Tomb Raider I enjoy the most. I don’t doubt I’ll play these games less in the next ten years, as I did in the first ten years. But I know that I’ll still keep playing them. Hopefully another ten years from now, I’ll be sat in a tent half way up a mountain or on an ice sheet or taking a stroll through a jungle – just like Lara would. But if I happen to be home that day I’ll make sure to pull open my laptop and go climb a Siberian snow cliff, looking for an ancient city.
I missed the anniversary of 2023, so I might find a tasteful moment to throw together a similar retrospective that’s less hastily made than this – but if I do or don’t; then you can still expect to see me explore Shadow of the Tomb Raider on September 14, 2018.
The Admin
I’d have loved to put more into this upfront; especially as it’s my favourite game. Unfortunately the cycle of my day job biases workload, problems and knock-on impacts right between September and November every year. As a result, the anniversary snuck up on me, and this pieces has not had anywhere near as much time or work put into it as my usual research pieces (all of which are still unpublished at the time of posting this; so maybe that should be food for thought). As a result, it’s possible I’ve thoughtlessly made a comment that’s inaccurate, or even outrageous – as sensitive as I’ve tried to be particularly in the last section.
If I’ve been wrong; or worse, been a horrible human being – please drop me a DM over on Bluesky and I’ll gratefully review your notes! Of course, that’s not a licence to be a horrible human being back to me so please do remember my fallible humanity when critiquing.
Please also don’t be surprised if this gets a few updates over time even without feedback. I don’t plan to publish a new hot take every year for one, and the barren wall of unillustrated text is not really my favourite writing style either.