Gaming: Lara Croft – Rise of the Tomb Raider: 20 Year Celebration

I have to admit, this is the first time that I playing something like this. Somehow, Lara Croft – Rise of the Tomb Raider was on sale, and some of the trailers were so well done that I was tempted in getting this game. And to my surprise, it actually works pretty well on Linux, too – yeah!

So I am a first time player in this kind of league, and had a hard time getting used to controlling lovely Lara, but it turned out easier than I thought – although I guess a controller instead of mouse and kbd would be better. One starts out somewhere in the moutains (I probably bought the game because there is so much of mountaineering in the parts I have seen till now 😉 trying to evade breaking crevices, jumping from ledges to ledges, getting washed away by avalanches, full program.

But my favorite till now in the game is that Lara always carries an ice ax. Completely understandable in the mountain trips, where she climbs frozen ice falls, hanging cliffs, everything, like a super-pro. Wow, I would like to be such an ice climber! BUt even in the next mission in Syria, she still has her ice ax with here, very conveniently dangling from her side. How suuuper-cool!

After being washed away by an avalanche we find Lara back on a trip in Syria, followed and nearly killed by the mysterious Trinity organization. During the Syria operation she needs to learn quite a lot of Greek, unfortunately the player doesn’t have to learn with her – I could need some polishing of my Ancient Greek.

The game is a first-of-its-kind for me, with long cinematic parts between the playing actions. The switch between cinematic and play is so well done that I sometimes have the feeling I need to control Lara during these times, too. The graphics are also very stunning to my eyes, impressive.

I never have played and Lara game or seen and Lara movie, but my first association was to the Die Hard movie series – always these dirty clothes, scratches and dirt covered body. Lara is no exception here. Last but not least, the deaths of Lara (one – at least I – often dies in these games) are often quite funny and entertaining: spiked in some tombs, smashed to pieces by a falling stone column, etc. I really have to learn it the hard way.

I only have finished two expeditions, no idea how many of them are there to come. But seems like I will continue. Good thing is that there are lots of restart points and permanent saves, so if one dies, or the computer dies, one doesn’t have to redo the whole bunch. Well done.