Trouble finds Lara Croft, it seems. After cutting her adventuring teeth in 2013’s Tomb Raider franchise reboot we discover a harder, leaner and more determined Lara Croft in Rise of the Tomb Raider, which is officially slated to launch of PC on January 28.
This time she takes up her late father’s unfinished research into the lost city of Kitezh and an artifact that is said to bestow immortality. Her quest takes her to Syria and later Siberia as she attempts to find the artifact all the while under threat from an ancient order of knights called Trinity.
What's new?
Quite a lot as it happens. The basic format of explorable environment, combat, cutscenes and tomb raiding is present, but this time the world that Lara inhabits plays a much larger role in the gameplay. The new crafting system enables Lara to go hunting and scavenging among the ecosystems flora and fauna in order to create resources and upgrade weapons that will help her on her journey.
Combat has also been revamped. There’s now a much greater element of stealth so now, as well as engaging in close quarters combat, Lara can creep up and kill the bad guys using her new hunting knife, or even avoid combat altogether by diving into water or climbing up into trees and across rooftops. She can even create explosives with which to create chaos.
Why is the PC version the definitive experience?
Sure, the console version was pretty good, but if you’re rocking a pretty decent rig with, let’s say, a GeForce GTX 900 series GPU this will be the ultimate Rise of the Tomb Raider experience. The game’s highly-detailed environments (including day and night cycles and realistic weather conditions) look astonishing and Lara and the rest of the in-game characters are brought vividly to life.
How much bang for my buck?
Depending on your emotional and nostalgic commitment to Lara, you have several options open to you.
Standard Edition – If it’s just the base game you’re after, the standard edition will set you back $59.99 although if you pre-purchase it on Steam you also get 2013’s Tomb Raider bundled with it.
Digital Deluxe Edition – This option costs $89.99 and as well as the two games you also get the full season pass which includes: Content that extends the single-player campaign and enables you to play with friends. You’ll get an Endurance Mode that will test you to your limits, a new tomb called Baba Yaga: The Temple of the Witch and Cold Darkness Awakened, a mode in which you have to fight off waves of infected enemies. There’s also outfits, weapons and Expedition Cards that will be made available over the course of four months after release.
Collector’s Edition – The third option gives you everything in the Digital Deluxe Edition listed above along with a 12-inch Lara Croft figure, replicas of Lara’s journal, a jade necklace and a steel case. It’s available from the Square Enix store priced at $149.99.
Time for an upgrade?
Is your gaming rig beginning to wheeze a little when attempting to run the latest blockbusters? If so, now is the perfect time to splash out on that GPU upgrade.
Buy an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970, 980, 980 Ti card or system, or a GTX 970M, 980M or 980 powered notebook and you can grab a copy of Rise of the Tomb Raider absolutely free.
By Andy Dyer
Sponsored by Nvidia
