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.
