Rise of the Tomb Raider - Watch Lara's bum in NextGen fidelity

[AwesomeButton]

It's what I guess I'll end up doing. I made one attempt to play Rise, maybe in 2015. I remember I really wanted a game about arctic survival. Understandably, I couldn't bear it for very long then. Now I think I'm in the right mood.

 

[DalekFlay]

I know you hate aliasing aweigh so I'm wondering if you played this. It's got the modern lighting that causes massive shimmering but without TAA of any kind, resulting in a shimmering mess no matter what you do. I can visualize it triggering the fuck out of you.

Game is alright, an exact clone of the first pretty much but the puzzles seem better. I enjoy the puzzles and the stealth combat a good bit. The cinematics and jumping around less so.

 

[aweigh]

I know you hate aliasing aweigh so I'm wondering if you played this. It's got the modern lighting that causes massive shimmering but without TAA of any kind, resulting in a shimmering mess no matter what you do. I can visualize it triggering the fuck out of you.

Game is alright, an exact clone of the first pretty much but the puzzles seem better. I enjoy the puzzles and the stealth combat a good bit. The cinematics and jumping around less so.

Oh, it triggered me enough to stop playing it completely and just uninstall it. To top it off the game's Super Sampling is broken and doesn't actually work; it will halve your frame rate but won't work as intended, anti-aliasing less than the SMAA or the FXAA. Additionally, the SMAA implementation is subpar as well, which means the only working AA in Rise of the TR is the FXAA.

 

[DalekFlay]

Oh, it triggered me enough to stop playing it completely and just uninstall it. To top it off the game's Super Sampling is broken and doesn't actually work; it will halve your frame rate but won't work as intended, anti-aliasing less than the SMAA or the FXAA. Additionally, the SMAA implementation is subpar as well, which means the only working AA in Rise of the TR is the FXAA.

SSAA sucked in the first one too, it added a bunch of blur for no discernable reason. Using DSR I played that one at 4k with no AA at all and it was still gorgeous. This one has that modern shimmer that's tough to kill though, and also I can't run it at 60fps with double the res, so I'm just living with it. I think SMAA works on normal edges, but no the light-touched shimmering edges. FXAA blurs too much. It's just a jaggy fucking game.

 

[Melcar]

Just close your eyes.

 

[DalekFlay]

Finished it. I thought the game was gorgeous for the record, aliasing doesn't bother me as much as some. Really shows diminishing returns because it's 5 years old and doesn't look any worse than today's games.

Not much to say about gameplay as it's exactly the same as the first one. I'm not usually a fan of cinematic action stuff, but this series entertains me for some reason. It's just executed well enough I guess, and I like the puzzles and stealth a lot. Felt like there was less stealth in this one, but could be misremembering. Felt like especially in the second half the game was all about popamole instead. I also remember using the bow 90% of the time in the first, but in this one enemies seemed more aggressive about moving and it wasn't as effective, so I mostly used the rifle and shotgun. Anyway, no one cares, but... same as the first, oddly enjoyable popamole.

 

[ultimanecat]

Somehow I’ve amassed all of the nuRaider games through bundles and whatnot, so I figured I’d finally play through this and the next, following the simple idea that nuLara is generally an uninteresting twat and thus isn’t worth upgrading. I have played 2013 and what I learned then was that this shit will almost play itself if you let it, so I’m cutting through all the extraneous, tacked-on systems and just running from level to level arrowing things or occasionally exploding them. Even on Survivor difficulty this isn’t even remotely challenging, but it does put in stark view how much of the game is designed around cluttered bullshit - if you’re not buying upgrades or crafting pouches out of rabbit ears and bear assholes, then literally 80% of the game becomes meaningless. It’s honestly weird to peak behind the curtain and realize that almost the entirety of both the combat and non-combat gameplay loops are designed towards making the already brain dead combat even less taxing, and then realize that a human being seriously sat down and designed this and thought it engaging.

 

[ultimanecat]

Beat this, Survivor difficulty, no item or skill upgrades outside the mandatory ones at the start (did get a few random ones from challenge tombs) and no healing except at campfires.

Edit: Should also add that I had like 30 skill points at the end, and I gave up even slight exploration or doing tombs roughly halfway through. Get the extra XP skills early and you’re looking at maxing out the skill trees pretty easily. Amazing functional RPG mechanic there, guys.

Challenge did pick up toward the back half - before you get a shotgun you can’t reliably hitstun enemies rushing you short of a headshot, and later on armored enemies ignore pretty much everything anyway. I have a feeling this would have been just as annoying even with upgrades. Once I got to the underground city or whatever I mostly used environmental things to kill since nothing else did so reliably except gas arrows.

Platforming in this is a sad joke. Multiple, multiple, times I died because I reacted too quickly to some “surprise” or jumped before the camera shifted to point out where I should go. Multiple deaths also to general shitty jumping mechanics like Lara jumping in the direction she is animating toward instead of the direction you are pressing.

Story is numbnuts stupid and this Lara remains one of the least interesting protagonists in recent AAA history. I’ll be moving on to more interesting franchises for the time being, but I’ll play Shadow once I upgrade my PC this summer.

 

[A horse of course]

Beat this, Survivor difficulty, no item or skill upgrades outside the mandatory ones at the start (did get a few random ones from challenge tombs) and no healing except at campfires.

Challenge did pick up toward the back half - before you get a shotgun you can’t reliably hitstun enemies rushing you short of a headshot, and later on armored enemies ignore pretty much everything anyway. I have a feeling this would have been just as annoying even with upgrades. Once I got to the underground city or whatever I mostly used environmental things to kill since nothing else did so reliably except gas arrows.

Platforming in this is a sad joke. Multiple, multiple, times I died because I reacted too quickly to some “surprise” or jumped before the camera shifted to point out where I should go. Multiple deaths also to general shitty jumping mechanics like Lara jumping in the direction she is animating toward instead of the direction you are pressing.

Story is numbnuts stupid and this Lara remains one of the least interesting protagonists in recent AAA history. I’ll be moving on to more interesting franchises for the time being, but I’ll play Shadow once I upgrade my PC this summer.

Shadow is worse than Rise.

 

[<3sRichardSimmons]

I enjoyed TR2013 as a dumb guilty pleasure, but even I couldn't stomach Rise for more than a couple hours. Just utter trash.

 

[A horse of course]

I enjoyed TR2013 as a dumb guilty pleasure, but even I couldn't stomach Rise for more than a couple hours. Just utter trash.

Rise is better than TR2013 (except tits in the non-definitive version)

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

Rise is maybe the better game, but TR2013 has the better setting and atmo.

Never bothered about Shadow.

 

[Zombra]

ultimanecat on Rise of the Tomb Raider:

I gave up even slight exploration or doing tombs roughly halfway through.

[sarcasm] Amazing functional RPG mechanic there, guys.

I have a feeling this would have been just as annoying even with upgrades.

I mostly used environmental things to kill since nothing else did so reliably.

Platforming in this is a sad joke.

Multiple deaths also to general shitty jumping mechanics

Story is numbnuts stupid

this Lara remains one of the least interesting protagonists

ultimanecat on Shadow of the Tomb Raider:

I’ll play Shadow once I upgrade my PC this summer.

What are you, a fucking masochist? Play better game series, especially after an upgrade.

 

[<3sRichardSimmons]

I enjoyed TR2013 as a dumb guilty pleasure, but even I couldn't stomach Rise for more than a couple hours. Just utter trash.

Rise is better than TR2013 (except tits in the non-definitive version)

They're both pretty shit as games, but TR2013 is just so utterly bonkers and dissociative about it's identity that I found some enjoyment in it. Watching Lara die over and over in utterly gratuitously violent ways because I failed a QTE was more engaging to me than playing Rise.

But like I said, it was a guilty pleasure kind of enjoyment. I'm not here to defend either as competent.

 

[ultimanecat]

Generally I agree, I should play better games (right now I’m on to Project Wingman). But my total outlay for the trilogy was probably less than $10, the last one I played maybe 5 years ago, and I beat this over the course of three evenings half paying attention while watching TV. It was mostly a palette cleanser after playing denser games.

 

[JDR13]

I love when people take the time to post about how terrible a game is, yet they still played it all the way to the end, and then they mention how they're going to play the next game in the series as well.

Pure retardation.

 

[fork]

I love when people take the time to post about how terrible a game is, yet they still played it all the way to the end, and then they mention how they're going to play the next game in the series as well.

Pure retardation.

A fucking cretin like you taling about retarded, that's rich, imbecile.

 

[Melcar]

TR2013 was shit. Could barely stomach it to the end. Too much boring combat, QTE every 5 steps, lack of puzzles, shit setting. Rise was okay, but still did not captivate me. Never tried Shadow. Lara is also no longer the eye candy she once was.

 

[AwesomeButton]

I finished Rise yesterday after having reached around the halfway point (the Trinity attack on the Valley) and making a few months' hiatus. 86% in 33 hours of gameplay is more time than I spent with TR2013 (about 17.5 hours). Sure it's a mostly linear thing and optional tombs were still too simplistic in Rise, though not as much as in TR2013.

Shadow feels a lot better in terms of everything, though I've only played the first two hours and don't have impressions from the exploration yet. People seem to say it's better though, so I'm impatient to see.

Shouldn't they announce a new TR game this year? The PS5 is out and PS5 Pro expected in 2022.

 

[<3sRichardSimmons]

Maybe. Squeenix famously had insanely coke-addled sales expectations for Shadow that it failed to meet. Despite being quite financially successful, rumors were it was viewed as a disappointment internally. In light of that, they may have tabled the franchise for now, or perhaps they’re doing another re-tool of it.

 

[Grunker]

I finished Rise yesterday after having reached around the halfway point (the Trinity attack on the Valley) and making a few months' hiatus. 86% in 33 hours of gameplay is more time than I spent with TR2013 (about 17.5 hours). Sure it's a mostly linear thing and optional tombs were still too simplistic in Rise, though not as much as in TR2013.

Shadow feels a lot better in terms of everything, though I've only played the first two hours and don't have impressions from the exploration yet. People seem to say it's better though, so I'm impatient to see.

Shouldn't they announce a new TR game this year? The PS5 is out and PS5 Pro expected in 2022.

I play these games basically for the Tombs alone, and while I think Shadow and Rise have the best singular Tombs, I thought the original had more good ones on the whole. Though perhaps I just got too tired of the core gameplay by mid-point in shadow. Didn't help that the story went from semi-OK in the first one to incredibly inane and boring in Shadow and Rise.

 

[JarlFrank]

I enjoyed TR2013 as a dumb guilty pleasure, but even I couldn't stomach Rise for more than a couple hours. Just utter trash.

Rise is better than TR2013 (except tits in the non-definitive version)

They're both pretty shit as games, but TR2013 is just so utterly bonkers and dissociative about it's identity that I found some enjoyment in it. Watching Lara die over and over in utterly gratuitously violent ways because I failed a QTE was more engaging to me than playing Rise.

But like I said, it was a guilty pleasure kind of enjoyment. I'm not here to defend either as competent.

I played through TR2013 recently because like some others, I got it in my Steam library through a bundle and I love the TR series... so I wanted to know how much they butchered it.

It was overall a decent experience, I expected worse. There's a lot of complete decline bullshit in it, but it has some okay areas that are fun to play through.
- too many fucking QTEs, god I hate QTEs so much
- at least half a dozen "run away while everything around you explodes" scenes where all you do is hold down W to run forward, while occasionally pressing space to jump
- combat is some of the molepoppiest popamole I've ever played
- dumb collectathon mechanics of hunting down dozens of identical-looking chests placed at random locations that contain XP items, rather than looking for artifacts in places that make sense
- the optional tombs almost feel like classic TR but are laughably short; one single puzzle that takes you 5 minutes and that's the entire tomb, that's all there is
- those fucking "Lara slowly walks through a dark section of cave before finding the proper tomb entrance" scenes, which were probably intended to mask loading screens; this shit is fucking infuriating because my PC with its fast new SSD could easily load the levels MUCH faster in half the time it takes to play through these loading-screen-masking areas

Despite all that, I enjoyed myself because mole popping is fun, jumping and exploring is fun, and there are maybe two or three areas in the game where those things can be done in a not-too-railroaded way.
Also the storytelling is so fucking ridiculous it makes up for all the bullshit.

Seriously, whoever directed this game has a serious damsel in distress fetish. You can't convince me otherwise. I am good at spotting fetishes, because I got a massive foot fetish and put barefoot female characters in all my works... so I notice when other people do it with their fetishes

Let's see:
- In the intro sequence when the ship crashes, Lara almost drowns before that big Samoan guy rescues her. The cutscene shows you a close-up of the despair in her face for a few seconds, foreshadowing what is to come.
- Lara gets captured by some crazy people who string her up by her feet and hang her from the ceiling. To escape, you gotta swing towards a torch to burn the rope around your feet. Then, Lara falls to the ground and impales her side on a rusty metal rod. This seems to be the only metal rod on the entire floor, and she manages to hit it. You then have to go through a QTE where you have to mash E to pull the metal rod out of your flesh, all the while Lara is grunting and whining in pain.
- The wound in her side stays on her character model for the rest of the game. No matter how many rivers you jump into, the giant bloodstain on her shirt never goes away. Later, she gets hit in the arm by an arrow. That wound also stays for the rest of the game (it does get bandaged halfway through though). Several smaller cuts and bruises accumulate on her body, and her clothes get progressively more ripped. The modelers really put a lot of effort into displaying wounds on Lara's body.
- Soon after the intro dungeon, you are captured by some Russian dude who molests Lara. He touches her face in a very suggestive way and causes her visible discomfort. You then escape, but just before you get out there's another cutscene where the Russian finds you again... and now he goes full-on molester mode, grabbing Lara and sniffing her hair, etc. You get a QTE to defend yourself against the rape attempt.
- Later on, you get a parachute scene where you have to avoid trees (if you crash into them, Lara gets impaled on a branch and you get a very detailed animation of her gasping her last breath while clawing at the tree branch sticking through her chest). At the end of the scene, when you finally land on the ground, Lara for the first time in the game requires medical aid because of an open wound, even though she's had worse wounds before. You have to go to a crashed helicopter and loot its medical compartment. While you go there, Lara's walking animation looks very pained, and she keeps moaning and whining as you walk. Trying to climb makes her scream out, say "It hurts too much" and drop down. When you reach the helicopter, surprise surprise - the medical shelf is empty! But she finds a lighter in the pocket of the dead pilot, so she uses it to heat up one of her arrows, and uses the hot arrow to cauterize her wound. She loudly screams in pain, and then we get several seconds of close-up of Lara's face while she's crying.

Timestamped:


This game really gets off on showing Lara in heavy physical and emotional distress. There is no way this wasn't somebody's fetish. Either the lead director or the entire team at Crystal Dynamics have a damsel in distress fetish.

 

[AwesomeButton]

I am good at spotting fetishes, because I got a massive foot fetish and put barefoot female characters in all my works... so I notice when other people do it with their fetishes

I have something just for you: https://www.nexusmods.com/shadowofthetombraider/mods/108

Barefoot casual Lara with dirty feet

Regarding the rest, Joseph Anderson pretty much says all there is to say about TR2013 and Rise's ridiculous story and dissonance between story and gameplay.

IMO the games are good, unpretentious fun, not harmed by the fact that they are pretty much the same game remade 3 times over in a different setting and with an evolving main character.

 

[Zombra]

Seriously, whoever directed this game has a serious damsel in distress fetish.

You barely even touched on the straight up snuff porn in TR2013. It wasn't just the parachute scene; there are a ton of QTE failures that lead to unnecessarily torturous deaths. I remember one "swept down a river" sequence where if you don't press the button in time, Lara gets caught on a sharpened log that stabs upward through her jaw into her brain as the water keeps trying to drag her downstream. Really fucking horrible, and really gratuitous, and yeah, you know at least one producer saved a high res video collection of all the QTE deaths for his private "enjoyment". Made me sick seeing that, not really sure how they got away with it actually.

 

[<3sRichardSimmons]

Seriously, whoever directed this game has a serious damsel in distress fetish.

You barely even touched on the straight up snuff porn in TR2013. It wasn't just the parachute scene; there are a ton of QTE failures that lead to unnecessarily torturous deaths. I remember one "swept down a river" sequence where if you don't press the button in time, Lara gets caught on a sharpened log that stabs upward through her jaw into her brain as the water keeps trying to drag her downstream. Really fucking horrible, and really gratuitous, and yeah, you know at least one producer saved a high res video collection of all the QTE deaths for his private "enjoyment". Made me sick seeing that, not really sure how they got away with it actually.

It was written by Rhianna Pratchett. Pretty sure she's the one with the fetish.