I journeyed through the mountain and found the geothermal valley, where Jacob’s people live. This was a large area to explore, with some parts barricaded off with obtrusive spiked gates. After running some varied errands, including helping to reinforce guard towers, a big battle occurred with helicopters dropping waves of enemies, none of whom seemed to be able to kill Lara. They killed many others, it seems, but that was a pre-ordained conclusion, and I felt no sense of urgency while pushing through the linear path. Indeed, I knew there’d be no progress in action until I reached the next checkpoint, so with the sounds of gunfire and screams of torture around me I frequently went looking for coins or relics I’d passed, or spend time reading random documents left on the path.

While the game is overall relatively coherent, there is a clear distinction between different gameplay types. There are combat sections, exploration sections, and puzzle sections. The last two of these are slightly combined, with the need sometimes to climb on certain things to progress. The second one has the occasional danger from wildlife, but you can tell when this happens because Lara suddenly crouches and moves stealthily rather than just running as usual, and the music suddenly gets all exciting. Similarly, during the combat sections, once you have killed the last enemy, even if you aren’t aware it’s the last one, Lara will suddenly stand upright and the music will finish. At least this meant I wasn’t swimming under the ice for hours waiting to see if anyone was still there to shoot me.

I am compelled to continue through the story, partially because I am intrigued as to what the Divine Source may be, and partially because it will mean that I’ve unlocked all the equipment and abilities and I won’t, for example, spend ten minutes climbing up a wall and jumping between platforms to get to a cave entrance, only to find I need breathing apparatus to swim along the tunnel.

Speaking of which, guess what I’ve got now. I’d better go back and find that cave again.

Anyway, I have travelled into the cathedral and found the atlas, which isn’t a Collins reference book, but instead is a pentagonal dodecahedron which shines light through and projects a map of the city. That shows you where the Divine Source is, and a secret path to get there. Jacob seems to know already. I’ve also met up with Jonah, who was saved from the storms by Jacob’s people, but who was then captured by Trinity. I’m back off now to rescue him from the gulag.

In my previous post I noted that there had been a limited number of human casualties up to that point, which was more fitting with Lara Croft’s background than the first of the 2010s trilogy. That’s changed quite a bit over the last few game sessions, but it still feels a little more restrained – and Lara certainly seems less bloodthirsty overall. There is a remarkable sense of exploration throughout the game, both in terms of finding new areas (and returning to old ones from unexpected directions) and also discovering centuries-old ruins and excavations. The story helps here; in some areas, you are exploring abandoned Soviet excavations which had uncovered ancient tombs or passages. We are on the trail of the lost city founded by the prophet, and it feels close.

After getting past the bear, I travelled through a railyard to a series of small warehouses, where I found Trinity soldiers generally being quite unpleasant and torturing a few people. There were grisly marks of what had occured before as well. At one warehouse I initially tried a stealthy approach, picking off one soldier at a time, until I got spotted – at which point I blew up a gas leak and killed the rest.

A zip line led down to a logging mill, which turned out to be a large open area with several soldiers and wolves prowling. I spent quite some time exploring this, as well as completing a side mission for the native I met when first landing there. I found a number of caves, some of which contained relics, some wolves. I climbed up high and zipped down lines, I hid in bushes and found secret entrances to tombs. While the optional tombs in this game aren’t huge, they do provide a reasonable puzzle, even if it is quite linear – you may have to fill an area with water to progress, but you don’t have to work out when to drain it at a later point.

As with the Ubisoft template, you can find items that mark collectibles on your map, and you can go back to get these. This is helped with the campfire fast travel scheme, meaning it’s pretty quick to go back and claim items you missed as you played through. However, this doesn’t help with my incentives to continue the story. I am far too tempted to complete every area to 100% before progressing, but this isn’t that realistic when I am lacking in some abilities.

The story is quite compelling in itself, mind. I have found out that my dad’s partner was only with him to find out where the Divine Source was – playing the long game, indeed. She has nefarious plans for it, but also it appears that she is dying and wants to use it to cure herself. I foresee an ending in which a magical artifact creates everliving zombies. I was thrown into jail alongside a native who told me of the village the other side of the mountains – and who helped me to escape several times. I have journeyed into an old copper mine and found an ancient city behind giant doors, which required me to solve some basic puzzles to pull them open (or, rather, destroy them, as all good archaeologists do). I have found a giant statue of the prophet, and then found a way out through a flooded passage into a geothermal valley.

The game is stunning to look at sometimes, and the varied but consistent level design really helps to give it a sense of space. The vast underground caverns – sometimes covered in ice, sometimes an elaborate mine – provide a coherent link between outdoor sections. I have taken many screenshots, some of which I include below.

I feel as if I should be over half way through the game now, in terms of knowledge of the story and the exploration. I hope I am; some games like this can overstay their welcome, and I recall that Tomb Raider (2010s original) didn’t. We shall see.

Ten years ago in 2014 I played and completed the 2013 game called Tomb Raider, which is different from the 1996 game called Tomb Raider which I completed in 1998. I’ve done this joke before. I enjoyed the last game in the series, and picked up the sequel in a sale quite soon after its 2015 launch on Xbox 360. I didn’t play it. I then bought it for the PS4 in a sale a couple of years later, when they announced a free DLC which enabled a limited VR mode. I then also didn’t play that. In 2020 Sony gave the game away on PS Plus, which I claimed, and downloaded, and again didn’t play. I can’t recall if I have it on the Xbox One as well, but that wouldn’t surprise me.

I’ve played some of it now. It’s good.

The beginning of the game is a little clichéd, in that you start in the midst of an action-packed sequence, climbing up a mountain during a blizzard and storm, and then the game resets to a few weeks earlier to explain how you got into that situation. This start acts as an introduction to the movement controls, with ice picks making a welcome return from the first game (where they were introduced half way through to allow new areas to open up). It’s nice enough, but the setting doesn’t really show off the game’s main draws. Those don’t come until a little later, when you realise that – although there is a resemblance to the Uncharted games in terms of story progression, platform puzzles, and general story – this game is a lot less linear and allows for greater exploration.

For a while you are pushed through a linear path, exposing the story of Trinity and the prophet they were chasing. Lara’s dad had tracked this down to Syria, but when you get to the tomb it’s empty. Of course, bad guys arrive at the same time and blow everything up. While fleeing, you find a clue which leads you to Siberia – and back to the opening sequence.

After climbing the icy peak, leaving companions behind, you see hidden settlements in the distance but the weather is worsening, leaving you to find shelter and explore. It is here that the open world really shows itself; you must find supplies, set up a campfire, craft a bow and arrows, and hunt for food. I explored the entire area provided, finding a few soldiers who had been left to protect the area, and quickly dispatched them and the deer that they were sitting among. Got to get some meat.

I remember a complaint about the first game (that is, the first game of the modern set) was the number of people that Lara killed, which was quite at odds to the stories of the original Tomb Raider games. This seems to be a little more restrained so far, although that may be because I have only just reached significant numbers of people Up until now, the main violence has been against animals, and in particular, a bear who was guarding the exit to the area in which I’d been hunting and exploring.

Let’s just say I’m not yet fully used to the controls.

After escaping the bear once, I found some poisonous mushrooms, made up an incapacitating concoction to add to my arrows, and then went back to dispatch him. It still took a couple of attempts. I hope my general competence with the controls improves soon.