Better yet, on Xbox One (opens in new tab), Microsoft often allows you to permanently keep hold of any Achievements you earn in a game’s trial run. That’s free Gamerscore points for playing a free demo, which are often worth playing for the entertainment value in and of themselves! Instead of having to trawl through the Xbox Marketplace looking for the right freebies for you, I’ve selected some of the very best Xbox One demos available and listed them below for your browsing pleasure.

Metro Redux

Curious about that eerie first-person shooter reveal at Microsoft’s 2017 E3 conference this year? The one with the giant rat? It’s the third game in 4A Games’ grounded, melancholic survival series, Metro, and continues the story left off by Metro 2033 (opens in new tab) and Metro: Last Light. Both of those titles were remastered and resold as one package (Metro Redux (opens in new tab)) a few years ago, and you can try the demos right now on Xbox One. 

That’s right, demos, plural. You can download and play trials for either or both of the titles, playing around a third of the campaign for each, which gives you a good deal of flexibility and freedom for your consideration. Luckily, they’re both excellent games, and your progress will carry on if you decide to jump in full time for the Russia-set rambling. 

Titanfall 2

The good news gods must have been smiling upon earth when it was announced that Respawn would be making a third Titanfall game with EA (opens in new tab), but you might not have yet had the chance to play the recently released sequel.

The least you can do to show your support is give the demo a whirl, which contains approximately an hour of gameplay, using a mid-game chapter from Titanfall 2 (opens in new tab)’s stellar campaign. Be warned, though, you’ll be aching to play more by the end of it, especially once you make friends with BT. 

Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus

Bethesda has a pretty good track record when it comes to demos of late. You can download trials for Dishonored 2 (opens in new tab), Prey (opens in new tab), Doom (opens in new tab), The Evil Within 2 (opens in new tab), and now Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus (opens in new tab), which only released in October. 

Machine Games’ FPS sequel is a loud and proud Nazi slaying simulation, but its unforgiving run-and-gun gameplay isn’t for everyone, so this demo is a good excuse to see if your penchant for its bold flavour of gunplay can last to see the story through to its conclusion. The best part, though, is that the demo is the entirety of the game’s first level: the one where you’re killing Nazis from a wheelchair. Excellent. 

Rise of the Tomb Raider 

You’ll have to buy the complete product if you want to witness Lara Croft’s promised ascension in full, but the first two chapters contained within the Rise of the Tomb Raider (opens in new tab)’s demo give you a good sense of how it’s all going to play out. 

There’s shooting, crafting, raiding, upgrading, and exploring to be done, and it can take you anywhere between two to three hours before the demo is up, depending on how you prefer to play. Oh, and it features at least one scene where Lara dies in some horrible, excruciating way. Sorry about that.  

Watch Dogs 2 

If Watch Dogs 2 (opens in new tab) protagonist Marcus Holloway had known that Ubisoft is offering a three hour trial of open-world adventuring in his game for no charge, he’d probably have never hacked the studio’s offices in the first place. 

The demo includes full access to the single player and multiplayer features of the San Francisco-set sandbox, but be warned – you’re on a timer for the entire thing, so spend your minutes wisely before the demo automatically comes to a close. If three hours isn’t enough (and let’s face it; it isn’t), you can continue on seamlessly from your trial’s progress once you decide to cash in on the full game. 

Gears of War 4

As far as value for no money goes, The Coalition has outdone itself with the Gears of War 4 (opens in new tab) free trial. You can enjoy up to ten hours of the game at no cost, which includes the opening Act of the campaign, and as much PvP and Horde multiplayer that you can wring out of the experience. 

You’ll know by the end whether you want to pay up to keep going or not, and even if you don’t, that’s ten hours of high quality gaming for the price of nothing. Go on, pat yourself on the back for being such a frugal gamer.

Forza Motorsport 7 

You might enjoy the odd driving sim every now and again, but never enough to warrant a full blown purchase on the next big racing game. The Forza Motorsport 7 (opens in new tab) demo has you covered, then, offering a small but not insubstantial set of racing experiences that have enough replay value for you to return to whenever you feel the need for speed.

There are three unique tracks, each boasting a different car to test them out in, and the demo even includes a race at at the Nürburgring Grand Prix circuit, which is a nice showcase for Motorsport 7’s breathtaking dynamic weather technology. Better yet, you’ll never have to worry about those pesky and overbearing microtransactions plaguing the full game. 

Halo Wars 2 

The original Halo Wars came out so long ago, that it’s difficult to know if the recently released sequel to the cult hit RTS is something that could hold your interest. It’s exactly the kind of game that can benefit from a demo, and Microsoft isn’t oblivious to this, offering a free trial that introduces players to all the important nuts and bolts of its strategically-minded gameplay.

It uses the campaign’s opening mission, so you won’t have free reign of every gizmo and gadget available in the full game, but it does give you a basic understanding of the kind of Halo experience that Halo Wars 2 (opens in new tab) is. At the very least, it’ll save you from making the horrible mistake of buying the full title thinking that it’s another classic Halo FPS outing. Welp. 

Dead Rising 3 

Sometimes you’re not in the mood for enrapturing narratives, elaborate role-playing, or tough-as-nails PvP. Sometimes, you just want to whack a few zombies round the head with a baseball bat. Dead Rising 3 (opens in new tab) offers exactly that kind of therapy for the low, low price of nil, with a demo that chucks you head-first into its open world, with 20 minutes to do as you please with whatever you can find. 

Tear zombies in half with a cement saw if you want, or head towards a nearby side quest for something more purposeful. Whatever you’re doing, it’s mindless gratification from the get go, and tells you all you need to know about the kind of game that Dead Rising 3 is. 

FIFA 18

There’s a reason that every annual FIFA demo consistently breaks its own records as the most popular demo released on consoles, year after year, without fail. Not only is it the FIFA community’s first chance to test out the new software for themselves, but it always boasts a striking amount (pun intended) of replay value, thanks to the fact that players can enjoy match after match to no end, even if the conditions and choices contextualizing each game are necessarily limited.

If you’re not a massive fan of video game footy, but don’t mind having a quick kickabout whenever a friend is round, this demo is the perfect option, allowing you to easily boot up a game of FIFA 18 (opens in new tab) without ever having to spend dime. 

The post Gears of War 4, Wolfenstein 2, and the best demos you can play for free on the Xbox One right now appeared first on Game News.

Lara is the best, and you should be more like her. 

More importantly, you should train like her. “Training with functional movements, not just to burn fat or build muscle, has benefits that go way beyond looking good in shorts and a tank top,” says personal trainer Jessica Wolny. “As well as building you a more balanced, less injury-prone body, it’ll make you more physically capable, confident, and able to do, say, a Tough Mudder or hit the bouldering wall at a moment’s notice.” It’s also, arguably, more fun than endless, joyless curls. Here’s how to build a Tomb-ready body…without having your own palatial obstacle course (opens in new tab) and live-in butler. 

Push heavy things

Old-school. In the early games, half of Lara’s puzzles involved being able to shove a granite block the size of a family hatchback: implausible, but a good idea. “Pushing or dragging things works basically every muscle you have, and it’s very hard to do ‘wrong’,” says Wolny. “More and more gyms are introducing sleds – or Prowlers – but if that isn’t an option, put a couple of plates on a towel and shove it along the gym floor.” Failing that, you could actually push your car.

Learn rudimentary parkour

It doesn’t have to mean bouncing between rooftops and risking fail-gif infamy (opens in new tab): basic parkour is really just about learning to move through your environment slightly more efficiently. Start with the precision jump: it’ll work your glutes, calves and hamstrings, and all you need is a place to jump around. Make a mark on the floor (or aim for a bench, curb, or something similarly stable) and try to land on it. Next up, move to the basic vaults (speed, dash and kong) and then to the climb-up (AKA the easy way to get from the bottom of a thing to on top of it) and its attendant exercises, the cat hang and the shimmy. At worst, you’ll never be stymied by a locked park gate again. 

Dangle off stuff

Technically, swinging from arm to arm – as seen in Spartan Races, Ninja Warrior and monkey documentaries – is called brachiation, and it’s sorely missing from most workouts. First, you’ll want to make sure your shoulders are in shape: aim to spend 60 seconds in a dead hang from a pull-up bar, doing it in as few sets as possible until you can manage the whole time in one go. With that done, you can graduate to the side-to-side swing, the front-and-back, or – if you’re sure your rotator cuffs won’t explode – the one-arm dangle. It’ll come in handy when you get to…

Go climbing

Climbing, let’s be clear, is the business. Yes, there’s grip and upper-body strength involved, but really, when you get at it seriously, it’s a full-body pursuit, demanding bracing amounts of core strength, coordination and hip mobility (the latter so you can turn side-on to the wall with moves like the high step or drop knee). Best would be to hit your local wall for a spot of bouldering (climbing on low walls, which doesn’t require harnesses, ropes or even friends), but if you’ve got a hankering to train at home, work your static ability with climber-style ‘Frenchie’ pullups, and throw in some planks to get your abs overhang-ready. Oh, and do this quick hip mobility circuit once a day. Honestly, it’ll help.

Swim better

If anything, Lara’s swimming ability has *regressed* during the Raiders – in Underworld she could hold her breath for a reasonably-paltry 27 seconds without taking damage, while in Rise it’s down to a shameful 11. Still, whatever she’s been doing, swimming is still a) Excellent full-body cardio b) Low-impact/injury and c) The best thing you can do in the gym to improve your chances of surviving a yacht crash. Think efficiency, not effort: by lengthening your stroke, splaying your fingers and getting your breathing right, you’ll be able to go further, with less exertion. Total Immersion Swimming has your virtual back. 

Do sprints

There’s nothing wrong with long, slow distance running – it’ll make you more aerobically efficient, and improve your recovery from other sorts of exercise – but to torch fat and build fast-twitch muscle, sprints are the prescription. The rule of thumb: aim to do about a mile (total) and rest lots – do 4 x 400m and you can probably get away with 90 seconds of rest, but for all-out 100-metre sprints you’ll need at least 45 seconds per dash. 

Get better at punching

Obviously. The exact martial art Lara does is unclear – it’s some mixture of kickboxing, gymnastics and horribly brutal knife-fighting – but you’ll never go far wrong by learning to hit things, which is a fine workout for your arms, shoulders, core and (if you do it right) legs. You might as well at least learn to throw them properly, but once that’s sorted (opens in new tab) you’re best placed doing a handful of 2-3 minute rounds, or by finishing another session with 30 seconds of all-out punching, then 30 seconds of rest, repeated 10 times. 

How Lara Croft (probably) actually trains

How the hell do you fit all this training into a weekly schedule? By being an independently-wealthy grave-robber, that’s how. That said, if you’ve got a relatively flexible schedule, there’s no reason you can’t fit it all in. Here’s how. 

(Disclaimer: please do not actually do this if you aren’t absolutely sure about your ability to do the moves involved without horribly injuring yourself.) 

MONDAY – Parkour/Gymnastics

Warmup: 20/10 squat

Do 20 seconds of squatting, rest for 10 seconds. Go for 4 minutes total

3 x 5 Jump Squat

Explode off the ground as high as possible on each rep

Then:

3 x 20m Broad Jump Burpee (opens in new tab)

3 x 20 Plant Plyo (opens in new tab)

3 x 10 Cat hang pullup (opens in new tab)

3 x 5 Climb-up (opens in new tab)

Then, for 10 minutes, alternate every 30 seconds:

5 pullups

5 handstand pressups

TUESDAY – Martial arts

Warm up with footwork, then do 3 x 3 minute rounds of skipping 

Then, on a heavy bag:

4 x 3-minute rounds – skill emphasis

4 x 30-seconds of all-out punching alternating with 30 seconds’ rest

Finish with 1 x 3-minute round

Then:

5 Press-ups every 15 seconds for 5 minutes

WEDNESDAY – Sprints

Warm up, then mark out a 50-metre track. Every minute, on the minute, run along it and back, for a total of 100 metres. Repeat for 10 minutes

THURSDAY – Parkour/Gymnastics

3 x 20m Quadrupedal Movement (opens in new tab)

3 x 20m Quadrupedal Gallop (opens in new tab)

3 x 20m Quadrupedal Side Lunge (opens in new tab)

3 x 20m Ground Kong   (opens in new tab)

3 x 5 forward roll

3 x 5 backward roll

Then do 5 rounds of…

3 pullups followed by a 10 second dead hang

4 pistol squats (opens in new tab) each leg

FRIDAY – Kickboxing

3 x 3 rounds of movement/shadowboxing

5 x 3 minute rounds of kickboxing on the bag, focus on technique

Then:

10 rounds

15 seconds all-out on the bag, 45 seconds footwork

Then: 5 rounds

4 press-ups

6 squats

8 lunges

SATURDAY – Strongman training

Warmup, then:

Tyre flip (opens in new tab) (or power clean): 5 x 3 reps

Farmer’s walk (opens in new tab): 3 x 50m 

Sprint with weighted sled (opens in new tab): 10 x 20m, making the sled heavier each round

SUNDAY – 60-minute recovery jog/swim/hike with rucksack

Want to pack more muscle than Marcus Fenix? Find out how you can get a Gears of War body here (opens in new tab).

The post Swimming, sprinting and *lots* of pullups: how to get a Lara Croft body appeared first on Game News.

As Lara watches the sun set on her bloody, life-changing escapades in the 2013 Tomb Raider reboot, she shrugs off the idea of ever going home. She’s not just being metaphorical about it either: in Rise of the Tomb Raider she’s in the thick of a nation-hopping adventure to find out who exactly Lara Croft is in the wake of all that murder and survival. Based on all the avalanches and flooding Syrian tombs she manages to escape, it seems the new-Lara likes to stay busy.

Rise doesn’t cover half of it, though. If you’ve perused the Tomb Raider comic book series by Gail Simone and game lead writer Rhianna Pratchett, you know just how many strange, often mythical (and completely canon) things Lara’s dealt with between the two games. But say you aren’t a comics fan, or haven’t had the time or funds to venture into Lara’s comic exploits for yourself. You could go into the next game completely blind, or you could read this handy breakdown of everything Lara’s done leading up to Rise.

WARNING: Spoilers for the comic, obviously, with additional spoilers for the first game throughout.

Returns to Yamatai to save Sam from a murderous cult

Apparently what happens on Yamatai doesn’t stay on Yamatai. Before the engines have even cooled following Lara’s return to London after the events of the reboot, she discovers she and her friends are being stalked by a mysterious cult in pursuit of cursed artifacts (like a solid-gold dragon statuette) that they pocketed during their harrowing island vacation.

Of course, Lara’s pretty sure she was too busy stabbing people and fleeing for her life to steal anything, but no time to worry about that – not only is she being pursued by mythical calamities, but the cult kidnaps Lara’s dear friend Sam and takes her to Yamatai as part of their plans. The remaining members of the Endurance crew return to save her, with disaster on their tail.

Barely dodges becoming a blood sacrifice for a resurrection ritual

Of course, that’s exactly what the cult wanted. They’re in fact Solarii-worshippers and are trying to bring their messiah, Mathias (you remember him), back from the dead so they too can be blessed with his magic. To do that, they need to perform a convoluted ritual involving blood sacrifice (which is what set off the calamities, signals from the planet that shit’s going down). Since Lara is the one that killed Mathias in the first place, she is meant to be their unwilling donor, and Sam’s kidnapping was all just a plot to lure her into their grasp. How do a bunch of well-dressed businessmen know about the magic-wielding leader of a bunch of shipwrecked soldiers on an uncharted island? Don’t worry about it.

But, naturally, things don’t go according to their plans – Lara and company escape, most of the cult members are crushed to death as a temple collapses around them, and the last of the calamities takes out a man holding a gun to Lara’s head. Happy ending!

Travels to Pripyat, Ukraine to rescue Alex’s sister from an assassination attempt

During her second trip to Yamatai, Lara sees a hallucination of Alex – one of her friends who didn’t survive the game – speaking to her about protecting someone back home. She chalks it up to inhaling the island’s natural gas. But when the same hallucination pops up during a hike in the Welsh countryside, telling her to protect someone dear to him who’s in trouble, she takes it a bit more seriously.

Getting a clue off of a watch that belonged to Alex’s father (which she got from the hallucination?) Lara goes searching for Alex’s sister Kaz. She recently went missing near Pripyat, Ukraine, a real ghost town in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. Though, missing isn’t quite the right word. When Lara eventually finds Kaz – still safe and sound and armed to the teeth – she discovers that Kaz knows about the killers, because she used to be one of them.

and discovers the nefarious organization Trinity

Specifically, Kaz used to belong to a powerful shadow organization known as Trinity (name-dropped in both the reboot and promotional material for Rise of the Tomb Raider), but left when things got too heavy. She started a new life in America, marrying a woman named Lucya. But apparently Trinity’s the kind of group you only leave in a pine box – they killed Lucya and, having no place to go, Kaz escaped to Pripyat, where Lucya’s family still lives and gets paid to maintain the ruins of Chernobyl.

Unfortunately, a little radiation doesn’t stop Trinity. They send one of their most aggressively sadistic agents to finish the job, and when he and Lara nearly kill each other, she officially earns a spot on Trinity’s shit list. Sparing no expense, they send a military helicopter to take out Lucya’s family home and put a rocket in it, since they prefer to be thorough. However, they’re not prepared to face a Croft: Lara empties a machine gun into the pilot, crashing the helicopter and burning Agent de Sade to death, before offering Kaz a new life in London and a spot in her flat.

Is stalked by a dying member of Trinity who wants to make her his protg

But what kind of evil-corp would Trinity be, if that was the end of it? Though their man in Ukraine miraculously survived with severe burns to his whole body, he’s in no shape to pursue Lara himself. For that, Trinity sends a less obviously fiendish agent (who is facing down his own mortality due to aggressive cancer) to finish Lara and Kaz off.

However, after hearing what she’s capable of and seeing her beat down a pair of muggers in the street, he becomes infatuated with Lara and resolves to take her on as a protg as a way to close out his life. The man from Ukraine takes such exception that he leaves the hospital while barely healed, resolving to deal with both of them himself.

Almost dies on stage, and for real

Not that Lara’s aware of any of that. While all that’s going on, she’s caught up in rehearsals for a production of Pride and Prejudice directed by her friend Jonah, who talked her into a starring role (no, really).

It’s only on opening night that she gets a rude awakening: Trinity’s Ukraine agent tells her, via a ransom note, to meet him in the London underground or Kaz dies. Lara complies, and while she fares well in a fight given her full Georgian dress, she’s only able to finish the job with the help of her admirer/stalker. He offers to make her a full member of Trinity, and when Lara refuses, he has no qualms letting himself get hit by a train. Lara goes back and finishes the play after that – though, obviously, in a different dress.

Finds out a friend she thought was dead has been kidnapped, reveals the Croft estate isn’t in her control, films a fake movie

Because there’s no end to the reminders of what happened on Yamatai for Lara, after her brush with Trinity, she gets a knock on her door from somebody who knew the surly helmsman Grim. Or, rather, they know him and provide a tape of him at their compound in the Mexican jungle, which Lara finds mighty confusing as she saw him die. That doesn’t seem to faze her callers however, who demand a ransom for Grim’s life.

The big-hearted person Lara is, her first thought is to pay the ransom in full. However, it turns out her uncle is the executor of the Croft estate, and given Lara’s dangerous globetrotting escapades, he doesn’t feel she’s of a sound mind to handle her inheritance. With that option off the table, Sam comes up with a brilliant idea: travel to Mexico under the guise of filming a documentary on the Chupacabra. With few better options, Lara, Kaz, Sam, and Jonah venture forth to rescue their not-dead friend.

Finds out Grim isn’t Grim

As things are wont to do when Lara Croft is involved, their simple plan quickly gets complicated – Sam starts having unexplainable blackouts, which leads to a fight when Lara refuses to let her keep going in her condition. Under cover of night, Lara sneaks away to deal with the kidnappers herself.

Once again, her luck doesn’t pan out, and she ends up being captured and thrown in a prison-hole alongside Grim. Or rather, not-Grim. When they come face-to-face, Lara discovers the person in the video is actually Grim’s brother, who was captured by Mexican eco-terrorists while sailing his brother’s boat in international waters, and mistaken for a man the Croft family would pay dearly to protect.

and that his kidnappers know the Crofts all too well

It seems odd that a random terrorist group would know about the Croft coffers, but it isn’t random at all – their leader is an old lover of Lara’s father who he met during an expedition to study Mayan ruins. While she acted as his guide, he told her all about his adventures, revealed the extent of the family fortune, and got to know her in a Biblical fashion before disappearing, never to be seen again. Now with a lot more years under her belt, she’s cynical enough to take advantage of the opportunity when she gets ahold of a Croft family friend, knowing how much wealth comes along with the name.

With no interest in dealing with her father’s old baggage, Lara sets up a diversion and escapes with Grim’s brother in tow. That leaves the terrorists stumped as they watch one of their ships sail, Viking-funeral-style.

Discovers that something is very wrong with Sam

While everyone makes it out of Mexico safe and sound, Lara and Sam’s friendship doesn’t, and Sam remains dismissive and hostile toward Lara weeks later. Given that Lara finally gets some downtime to let the traumas of the last year properly eat away at her, not having her confidante does a number on her emotionally, and she seriously considers disappearing without a word or another globe-trotting expedition to keep the memories at bay.

Of course, those unexplained blackouts were bound to come up sooner or later. Lara eventually gets a phone that Sam has been arrested for an assault that she doesn’t remember committing, and is being held at the local jail. When Lara goes to visit her, however, she discovers that Sam isn’t entirely home – she talks and acts as though she’s possessed by something, and though Lara briefly gets through to her, Sam storms off before Lara can get a grasp on happening to her. That just about wrecks Lara mentally, and she immediately heads home to pack and run away from her problems.

Does NOT go globetrotting in search of mythical artifacts

You’d think that’s where the comic leaves off and Rise picks up, which it does, but not before throwing in one last wrinkle. At the last moment, Lara decides not to leave, because she realizes it won’t actually fix what’s eating away at her. Instead, she decides to write about everything that happened in Yamatai (with an eye for public exposure, even), to both help herself and ensure that her friends won’t be forgotten. And that’s it. From there, it’s on to Rise of the Tomb Raider.

How well Lara’s writing efforts turn out are anyone’s guess until then – though, given that she feels no one would believe what she’s been through when Rise opens, not very well is probably the answer. Plus, something has to prompt Lara to take up that world-circling, myth-hunting adventure she originally decided against. Is writing how Lara finds herself? Does she decide that adventures and musings aren’t mutually exclusive? Is this really how Sam makes her grand exit? Seems Rise has more to answer than anyone realized.

The post Laras been keeping busy between her reboot and Rise of the Tomb Raider appeared first on Game News.

And if you don’t want to watch for fear of spoilers, you could theoretically leave the app running while you do your errands. Earn credits while you drive to the bank, do your laundry, or clean up the bedroom! If only earning actual money was so easy.

Credits are used to purchase card packs, which allow players (opens in new tab) to enable various modifiers such as extra fire damage and big head mode in Expeditions, the game’s new scoring mode suite. Unlike the competitive multiplayer from Tomb Raider 2013 (opens in new tab), Expeditions are asynchronous, as well as score and leaderboard-based, so you won’t be playing against seven other Laras. Modes include Score Attack, Remnant Resistance, and Chapter Replay.

So what’s in it for you, if you’re on the other side of the fence? If you choose to stream on Twitch while playing Expeditions, you can periodically allow viewers to vote between two cards. The card with the most votes will get activated and last for five minutes, giving fans a chance to interact with your game in unpredictable ways. Don’t worry – I’m sure no one will choose the card more likely to screw you over.

Seen something newsworthy? Tell us!

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The lyrics are … a bit on the simple side: “They’ll know my name, after the storms are passing through. They’ll know my name, when they’ve forgotten all about you. (Repeat) They’re calling out, they’re calling out my name. (Repeat) And I shall rise oh well I shall rise, again and again. (Repeat x5).” The song, in case you couldn’t guess, is called “I Shall Rise.”

Unlike our digital heroine who climbs sheer mountain faces with ease, I’m going to guess this song probably won’t climb very high on the Billboard charts. That being said, it fits the solemn and solitary mood of Lara’s adventures, and at least its tone is a better match for the character than “Elevation (opens in new tab)” by U2, from the Tomb Raider movie.

Seen something newsworthy? Tell us!

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Brinker recently told (opens in new tab) Pixel Vulture that the main storyline will take roughly 15-20 hours to complete if players simply run from Dangerous Cliff A to Tomb B. Those with a mindset out to collect each and every artifact and hidden collectible can expect to double that timeframe. “In terms of scale, all our hub spaces, the areas that allow you to explore and choose your own way to play, have been increased by three times the size,” Brinker said. “We have more challenge tombs, crypts, caves, and a bunch of extra things to do like the side missions for the Remnant people, and the tomb guardians.”

Sounds like there’s still plenty to Rise of the Tomb Raider yet to be revealed, and it’ll only be … *counts on fingers* about 1,000 hours (give or take an hour or two, depending on your place on Earth) before we can explore it on November 10.

Seen something newsworthy? Tell us!

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“One thing that was nice is we had Rhianna Pratchett from the beginning,” says Noah Hughes, creative director at Tomb Raider’s longtime custodian, Crystal Dynamics. “It’s always great to have a writer as early as possible.”

Speaking to Comicbook.com (opens in new tab) earlier this year about her work on the Tomb Raider comic series, which leads into the new game, she said, “Lots of fast-paced action in a game doesn’t really allow much time to portray the inner journey of a character, especially since it’s the outer journey that forms the primary challenge for the player. Therefore you need to find quieter moments to have the more emotional and characterful exchanges.” That’s easier to do in comics, but likely impossible to accomplish if the level design doesn’t make room for those story-driven moments.

“I’ve also tried to build on the world and characters we established in the Tomb Raider reboot so that readers can find out more about the lives of those they encountered in the game,” Pratchett said. “Ultimately we didn’t have much time to give the secondary characters too much screen time, but behind the scenes [in comics] they all had a lot of texture and backstory created by the team.”

With Pratchett involved from the start – which is to say, being brought on as writer once only the high-level concepts of the game had been established by Crystal Dynamics – there may be more room for secondary characters to flourish. Rise of the Tomb Raider introduces several new characters to the series, including some that populate the more open areas to converse with Lara and provide her with special objectives, or sidequests.

As with the previous game, Rise of the Tomb Raider is hinged on developing Lara as the pro-level temple smasher she grows into. “We have this premise of the world’s secrets being hidden in the most remote and hostile and dangerous locations,” Hughes says. “In a lot of ways, this game is about taking the survival themes and characterization of Lara that we brought into the last game, but advancing them in a way that shows how those skills she learned on the island were actually the central foundations of character – that would allow her to then go unlock these secrets.”

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In the intervening years, Lara has changed – some argue for the better; I argue for the worse, but then I’m an old fart who holds no truck with all this newfangled ‘exploring her vulnerability’ characterisation and combat-focused claptrap of the latest Raider. That said, gaming has shunted on apace since Anniversary’s 2007 release, so can I expect to be disappointed on a second playthrough? Thankfully not.

Ten minutes into the cavernous Peruvian opening level, I’m reminded just why I love Anniversary above all other Tomb Raiders. The adventure combines the most appealing elements of the janky original – the fiendish level design, daunting architectural scale and an all-pervading sense of solitude – with an acrobatically revitalised Lara whose movement is fluid and natural rather than rigid and confining.

Scaling the ancient architecture with leaps, grabs, shimmies, swings and grapples remains heart-in-mouth stuff, but I soon ease back into what is and isn’t possible and find a good tempo. The original game would often call for mathematical precision when guiding Lara around the many precipitous perils – Anniversary’s triumph is making her so much more flexible, as typified by the ‘recover’ feature if you only just manage to grab a distant ledge. With the first two cogs of the first puzzle in place, I scurry off to find the third. You know what’s coming.

If the original Tomb Raider defined a console generation, then the Lost World level defined the game. Second time round, the iconic T-rex battle is a letdown. For one, it drags the combat front and centre, and gunplay was never ‘old’ Lara’s strongest suit. For all she liked to pose with dual pistols, the actual firing felt like a distraction more intended to heighten the tension than be a serious gameplay component.

The battle itself is pretty dull, built around peppering the beast with lead until it becomes enraged and allows Lara to enter ‘adrenaline’ quick-time targeting. The fight is reduced to a continual emptying of magazines while leaping hither and thither to avoid snapping jaws or lunging claws. The T-rex scrap – as with the battles that follow – is little more than a glorified interactive cutscene, with all the menace of an episode of CBeebies’ Dinopaws. But, hey, who really comes to Tomb Raider for the combat?

With Peru done and dusted it’s off to Greece – and I’d argue the best level in any of Lara’s outings, St Francis’ Folly. It’s a giant chamber hundreds of feet deep containing a plethora of switches, gates, ledges, moveable platforms and four keys to collect, each hidden in its own puzzle chamber, their menaces themed around one of the Greek gods.

I’d forgotten just how epic a task it is to collect those four keys, and my aged brain struggles to keep track of the routes I need to take (and retake) to progress. Yes it’s tough and I have more than a few ‘er, what now or where next?’ moments, but hooray for a serious challenge of mind and agility, and boo-sucks to ‘psst, over here’ hand-holding. That said, the frequent checkpoints are most welcome.

And so onwards through Greece and Egypt, where puzzles continue to tax, the towering environments continue to wow and the combat continues to drag (and remind you of Lara’s PETA-baiting past, as she churns through various endangered species without flinching). In Egypt, one question still bothers me – who the hell left an ammo clip on top of this Sphinx’s head?

When you’re playing the game for a second time, the fun-but-hokey plot carries far less importance; taken out of narrative context the finale in Natla’s Mines is quite a deflating, difficult stage, with death coming all too frequently in the Great Pyramid. Perhaps I’ll leave it alone now. Or maybe just one more go… Anniversary does that to a man.

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