Rise of the Tomb Raider: more puzzles, weapon variety, environmental dangers
Rise of the Tomb Raider will be the main feature of the next Game Informer issue, and the cover shows Lara Croft having a confrontation with what appears to be a East Siberian brown bear.
In the game, Lara heads to Siberia to find the lost secrets of immortality, and during her stay in the snowy wilderness, she will need to "hunt and craft new survival gear," solve more puzzle tombs, and confront a "deadly new enemy" which is apparently the shadowy secret society hinted at in the last entry.
With the digital version of the magazine now available, NeoGAF has pulled the following information out of the main feature:
Nixxes Software, which was responsible for Tomb Raider: Definite Edition and Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris is handling the Xbox 360 version, as Crystal Dynamics is focusing on the Xbox One version only.
Lara will traipse across two global locations, and the main antagonist of the game will be the environment more than anything else, partially due to the weather system which causes reactions from both humans and animals. Animals will also react to the time of day, which suggests a day and night cycle.
There will be ways to escape after engaging enemies though, as Lara can climb trees, hide in bushes, swim, etc., but sneaking isn't a goal as Crystal Dynamics wants player to plan combat engagement. Game Informer said combat in Rise of the Tomb Raider reminded them of The Last of Us.
Players will also be able to use various tools to distract enemies and lure them to a particular location.
There will be a variety of bows with various attributes, and more than one of each weapon type.
As mentioned in earlier on in the post, crafting will play a role again, with Lara creating cloth and herbs to heal wounds and puzzles will have a greater emphasis.
This will consist of multi-stage puzzles and "nested puzzles similar to previous game in the franchise, and combat and other challenges will be integrated into the puzzle mechanics, but each will make sense for the setting.
Hub areas will be two to three times larger this time out, and Jonah is back.
As previously announced, the game will launch as a holiday exclusive on Xbox One and Xbox 360 this year.
Remember, though, the exclusivity deal “has a duration”, but there's no word yet on how long the exclusivity period on Xbox consoles will last.
Courtesy of Game Informer, here's a video discussing the magazine's month-long coverage of the game and showing off a few little snippets of gameplay along with developer commentary.
Here's the full cover reveal along with an in-game screenshot posted by Game Informer.
