A few months ago a content creator I follow by the name of Bricky reviewed Control, and for the title of his review he dubbed it “The Worst 8/10 Game Ever Made.” In his review he talked about why Control was possibly one of his favorite titles by Remedy Entertainment, but that there were several glaring issues that prevented him from calling Control an excellent game. A title that can only be recommended to a select few and could lead to the possibility of you bouncing off and not vibing with it. I personally agree with his review all the way down to the score he gave, but I’m a bit more focused on the title he gave his review. “The Worst 8/10 Game Ever Made.” In a lot of places whether that be among game critiques or education, 8/10 is considered an amazing score for many. Game development is hard and trying to make a game passable is even harder. 8/10 is amazing especially if it’s your first time making a game or a big departure from what you had made before. So why is it that Bricky used the phrase “The Worst 8/10 Game Ever Made.” Well it all comes down to how much problems stand out to us.
We as human beings are always prone to emotion, and if left untouched they will find some way to express themselves. Which then leads us to complain whenever given the chance, and oh boy we as humans love to complain. Red Dead Redemption 2 is considered one of the most critically acclaimed games ever made, but you still see people critiquing its mission design and how the realism makes some parts of the game annoying. The Last of Us is also one of the most critically acclaimed games, but people grew to notice how a majority of puzzles come down to pushing an object or helping boost a character to a higher place.You can praise a game all you want and call it a masterpiece, but nothing is immune to criticism. “The Worst 8/10 Game Ever Made” became a standout phrase to me as I too began to wonder what’s the worst great game I’ve ever played. There’s a lot of titles for me to choose from, but eventually it came down to a game I covered around this time last year. The 2013 reboot of Tomb Raider developed by Crystal Dynamics. It’s an opinion that will surely piss some fans off, but Tomb Raider is a good game I forgot I touched. I remember being impressed by it’s gameplay, action set pieces, progression, and pacing. When it comes down to remembering anything I actually did I fail to recall anything, even key moments.
I’m not the only one who shares this opinion. A lot of people consider Tomb Raider a great game that they can’t remember. It’s like a popcorn movie. You go in for a few hours of excitement and when it’s all done you never look back at it besides the momentary joy it brought. Tomb Raider is a popcorn movie sadly, but that doesn’t mean there wasn’t room for improvement. The team at Crystal Dynamics got to work on another Tomb Raider shortly after the success of the last one, and within two years they managed to finish the second entry in the rebooted trilogy. Prepared for next generation consoles at the time was Rise of The Tomb Raider, the well anticipated sequel to the 2013 Tomb Raider. A game that was well received amongst critics, got nominated for a good handful of awards in 2015, and considered a vast improvement from the first. It did its job of being a sequel, but I would say it fell to the same fate as the last game. People forget what it was even about with time, and the impact it had for the franchise. It was yet another popcorn movie with fancier auditions. Not gonna lie, Rise of The Tomb Raider was the first Tomb Raider game I ever played. A lot of people considered it the best, so my dumb boy brain in 2021 thought about hopping into it first. That was a mistake as I quickly dropped the game and forgot about it.
Eventually I played the 2013 reboot in 2022, planned to play the sequel sooner than later, forgot about my plan too, and finally came around to playing Rise of The Tomb Raider this very year. I plowed through the main story within a week, attempted to keep track of any thoughts I had, and am attempting to crank out the review you are reading right now. Rise of The Tomb Raider has now become my second “Worst 8/10 Game Ever Made.” It’s a game that doesn’t necessarily do anything wrong or bad. If you were to show this to a majority of gamers they’ll probably love it for what it is. It fits the criteria of being a good video game, and I do think between this and the 2013 entry Rise of The Tomb Raider is the better of the two. It attempts to be a much grander experience and in a lot of ways it achieves that goal. However, just like the 2013 entry it failed to captivate me in any sort of way besides being a good enough action thriller. It has a lot of the same problems the 2013 game had, contains a story that is as whack if not more than the last, and has made me realize why this franchise started to fall apart with the third and final entry. Again, I do not think this is a bad game. I had a good time and enjoyed it overall, but I wonder where this game will stand with me one year after having finished it. Today we’re gonna be talking about why I thought Rise of The Tomb Raider was good enough and why it may be worth checking out.
Story
It’s been one year since the events of Tomb Raider and Lara Croft is already losing her goddamn mind. Her mind cannot fathom what happened during the events on the island, and she seeks all the answers she can get her hands on. To prove to the public she isn’t crazy, immortality is real, it can be achieved, and monsters have been formed from that immortality. She plans for another daring adventure to uncover these mysteries, but her friends who survived the events of the last game are telling her to let go. To move on from her trauma, retire as an adventurer, and pursue the life of an average individual. Lara refuses to listen and eventually uncovers some notes left behind from her now dead father. Hints leading to the source of immortality, and how all these crazy monsters were formed from the beginning. It lies within the lost city of Kitezh, and Lara manages to recruit her friend Jonas for her all new expedition. They fly out to Syberia, get separated, and Lara is out to fend herself from the wilderness.
Lara does manage to get to safety and encounters a group of tribals who live in the wilderness. She doesn’t know who they are and why they are there, but quickly discovers they are losing a war against a highly equipped faction known as Trinity. A group of religious zealots who wish to find the source of immortality much like Lara. Leading them is Konstantin and alongside him is one of Lara’s former friends. Ana, a woman Lara heavily respected and used to date her father when he was still around. Lara feels absolutely betrayed by one of few parental figures she could have, and now it's a race against the clock to find out where the lost city is and recover the source of immortality. You just gotta brave the wilds and survive the brutal onslaught once again.
Gameplay
Much like the last title, Rise of The Tomb Raider is a mix of third person shooting, platforming, and survival mechanics. Combat isn’t exactly the main focus of the game, but you’ll be thrown into it a lot. Plays like your ordinary third person shooter in that there’s cover, you want to be moving from point to point, learn to get the advantage on your foes, and not tank too many shots. There’s four main weapon types in the game: bows, pistols, rifles, and shotguns. You carry one of each at all times, each have their own ammo types, and you’ll have to switch between them to get the upper hand. Unlike the last Tomb Raider from what I recall you can now swap the four guns you have for different kinds of the same category. Maybe you want a fast firing magnum instead of the slow yet powerful revolver. A long range bolt action rifle instead of a messy yet good for suppression assault rifle. A double barrel for the pump action, a heavy duty bow for the light bow, and so forth. You can upgrade these weapons if you have the right resources, so make sure to look around for what’s needed to get stronger. The bow is probably the most useful tool of them all as overtime you unlock critical upgrades that give you different ways to navigate the world. Shooting climbable ropes from one place to another, explosive arrows to blow up barriers, or an arrow that sticks to surfaces and you can climb on. A great tool for the right occasions.
There’s other tools you’ll unlock to help with platforming. Right from the beginning you get duel climbing anchors to help climb certain surfaces, and a grappling harness to throw on hookable surfaces and swing around like Indiana Jones. You can jump, move around easily, and kick off walls as if it were a double jump. If you get lost then check the map or your senses to see where you have to go next. You should still explore the world though, because there’s a lot of cool little secrets and collectibles lying around. Whether that be resources, caverns containing treasures, or chests containing fragments to forge stronger weapons. The world is a tad bit open now and you can explore at your leisure much like the sandboxes in the new God of War or Jedi Survivor. The more enemies you kill, missions you complete, and secrets you find the more you level up. Each time you level up you get a perk point, and points can be spent on neat character advancements. Stuff like being able to recover faster, craft new deadly ammo types, fire three arrows at once, gather more resources and more. There’s more crafting elements now in that you can craft ammo during battles and quickly heal yourself using herbs. There’s new ammo types and those can be made on the fly as well, but resources are often rare so you want to spend them wisely. System is good and we’ll address this more later. Besides that there’s nothing much else for me to say. Like I’m pretty sure there’s more but I wasn’t motivated enough to see it all. Well the world is a vast place and let’s hope you can survive long enough to uncover the truth.
Thoughts
I’ve already revealed how I feel at the beginning about this game, but I really want to explain why I feel this way. Rise of The Tomb Raider is truly “The Worst 8/10 Game Ever Made” to me, and it’s because despite thinking it’s better than the first game it failed to really elevate to greater heights. It tries to act like a grander adventure, but really falls into the same shortcomings and in some cases creates whole new problems for itself. This is a game I think a ton of casual players will love, but if you’re someone really into game designs and expects more then you’re gonna be a bit disappointed. The combat is still alright. Guns feel great, work as you expect, movement is fluid as a whistle, and the game is not afraid to hound you from every side. As you accumulate more guns you can take on scenarios in different ways and forge the playstyle you want. There’s more options to choose from, the upgrade system is simple, and seeing how certain upgrades will require specific resources it gets you to explore and search the environment. It’s nice, but I would not say it’s great. As satisfying as it is to upgrade your guns I never felt like it was mandatory. I upgraded my guns very few times in this game, and more than halfway through the plot I was still gunning my way through foes. Even the armored foes fall apart quickly if you keep up the pressure on them. Stealth, which is an option I forgot to even mention, is useless because half the time going rambo on your enemies is the better choice. That and instead of waiting for health to refill you now have craftable heals, so spam those when you’re about to die.
The game sometimes dumps you into sandbox areas and they’re full of fun secrets. Side quests can be given to you by NPCs. You can find containers throughout the world. Hidden temples that hide gold coins, and those gold coins can be spent to unlock better equipment at a merchant. It’s a game filled with content, but it suffers the same problem as weapon upgrades in that you can still breeze through this game easily with just the starting equipment. Exploring felt more like a waste of time than anything, and there’s nothing really interesting about the world. When I go to explore an optional area in a game like Dark Souls or God of War it’s not just because it's fun, but also because the world is captivating me and I want to learn more about it. Not here, because the universe and secrets of Tomb Raider are duller than an unpainted wall. I will say though visually the game is better than the last entry. The world and history of Rise of The Tomb Raider is uninteresting, but it is very nice to trek through. As you gaze at gorgeous vistas in the distance, and wonder if you will go there sometime during your adventure. There’s a lot more color too, which is something I felt the last game lacked. Everything was so dull in Tomb Raider 2013, but then you step into Rise of The Tomb Raider and you get snowy mountains. Luscious green forests, a deep deep city glowing blue, etc.
Now the story is a mixed bag for me, but theoretically it may be better than the last game. The antagonists are better, there’s more depth to the characters, Lara Croft is built upon more, and the stakes are higher and more worth carrying about. Lara Croft is not only tormented by the past adventure, but also not being able to say goodbye to her father. Wondering if she is honoring the family name, or bringing more disgrace especially when her father was seen as a crazy man. She endangers everyone around her and genuinely feels bad about it. There’s discussion on whether immortality is truly a blessing. If it’s a gift to be shared even when it removes what makes you human and what makes life so precious. The ideas are there and they work, but ultimately the story fell flat for me. It’s more whack than the last game and I don’t mean it in a good way. The forest tribals feel like they’re kind of there, and the same can be said about the antagonists. It feels like they were there just to have those moments of rising tension, and I feel none of it. The magical wonder stuff near the end is even weirder now, and none of it feels well grounded. I did not like the antagonists at all even when they got you to sympathize with them. Jonas, a character from the last game, feels like he’s kinda there too and that’s really the best way I can describe this story. It’s there for the sake of being there. I know a majority of people play video games for the gameplay, and I can say yeah this is a fun game. At the very least it could have had a decent enough core narrative to tell, and even the writers managed to fumble that a bit.
Rise of The Tomb Raider truly is “The Worst 8/10 Game Ever Made.” Would I recommend it? In some way yes. Again, I don’t hate this game. It’s good old fun packed into a syringe, and it goes for an incredibly cheap price these days. I had more fun with it than the original and there’s a lot of content on offer if you are willing to check it out. There’s a lot of worse games than this and I would not say the core principles of this game aged poorly. The combat is engaging despite it being a bit easy. The exploration is fun and those optional temples are a nice addition for what was a strictly linear game last time. The environments are more varied, and the platforming is more buttery smooth. This is a good video game, but when it comes to the legacy of this game I don’t really see anything that’ll make it stand out. I wouldn’t be surprised if I forgot major key information three months from now, and if players felt like that shortly after beating this game too. In the end I’m gonna give Rise of The Tomb Raider, like I said, an 8/10.
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