What little we saw of Rise of the Tomb Raider at Microsoft’s E3 event was, on the whole, quite underwhelming considering the intensity of the action. It was one of those big interactive cut-scene-come-action-set-piece affairs, and didn’t really show off what it’s like to actually play Tomb Raider.
Thankfully Crystal Dynamics have thrown out this 15 minute slice of Rise of the Tomb Raider to show us what actually goes on between cracking cliff face cut-scenes.
On the whole, if you’ve played the last Tomb Raider you know what to expect in this video. There’s not a massive change to the formula, where Lara has a semi-stealth approach to the action, using a bow that can be upgraded by collecting salvage from around the maps.
An interesting addition though is Lara’s ability to climb trees to get the drop on enemies. This swinging from branch to branch will likely remind you of the more platformy elements of the classic Tomb Raider games, and is probably there to show Lara’s evolution from ship-wrecked student to full-on badass.
Towards the end of the demo you can see Lara fight with an angry grizzly bear, and see some poison gas arrows being used. It appears that the game will allow us to craft new arrow types beyond the original’s standard, explosive, and fire.
Rise of the Tomb Raider releases as a timed-exclusive on Xbox One this November. At current, no information has been released on how long that exclusivity period is. C’mon guys: when are we gonna get it on PC?