Developer : Crystal Dynamics
Release date : November 10, 2015
Synopsis :
Rise of the Tomb Raider is a 2015 action-adventure video game developed by Crystal Dynamics and published by Microsoft Studios and Square Enix’s European subsidiary. The game is the eleventh main entry in the Tomb Raider series, the sequel to the 2013’s Tomb Raider, and is the second instalment in the Survivor trilogy. Its story follows Lara Croft as she ventures into Siberia in search of the legendary city of Kitezh while battling the paramilitary organization Trinity, which intends to uncover the city’s promise of immortality. Lara must traverse the environment and combat enemies with firearms and stealth as she explores semi-open hubs. In these hubs she can raid challenge tombs to unlock new rewards, complete side missions, and scavenge for resources which can be used to craft useful materials.
Development of Rise of the Tomb Raider closely followed the conclusion of development of the 2013 reboot. Player feedback was considered during development, with the team reducing the number of quick time events and introducing more puzzles and challenge tombs. The team traveled to several locations in Turkey, including Cappadocia, Istanbul and Ephesus, to design Kitezh. Rhianna Pratchett returned as the game’s writer while Bobby Tahouri replaced Jason Graves as the game’s composer. Camilla Luddington returned to provide voice and motion-capture work for Lara. Powered by the Foundation engine, the game was also developed by Eidos-Montréal and Nixxes Software.
Rise of the Tomb Raider was announced at E3 2014 by Microsoft Studios. It was revealed as a timed exclusive for Xbox 360 and Xbox One at Gamescom 2014, which sparked criticism from the gaming press and community. The game received generally positive reviews, with critics praising its graphics, gameplay, characterization, and abundance of content; however, some reviewers felt that the game did not take enough risks. As of November 2021, the game had sold around 11.8 million copies. Several downloadable story and content additions have been released for digital purchase. Square Enix released the game for Microsoft Windows and PlayStation 4 in 2016. A sequel, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, was released in September 2018.
One year after the events of Tomb Raider, archaeologist Lara Croft is struggling to explain her experience of the supernatural on Yamatai and is experiencing posttraumatic stress disorder. Looking for answers, she turns to her late father Lord Croft’s research on the lost city of Kitezh and the promise of immortality. Ana, Lord Croft’s partner, warns Lara that her father’s obsession drove him to ruin and suicide. Lara ignores her and organizes an expedition to the Forgotten Cities in northwestern Syria, hoping to uncover the tomb of the Prophet of Constantinople, a key figure in the Kitezh legend. The tomb is empty, and Lara is interrupted by Trinity—an ancient order of knights turned paramilitary organization investigating the supernatural—and their task force leader, Konstantin. As she flees, Lara discovers a symbol etched into the tomb, which she links to a book on Russian religious history in her father’s study at Croft Manor. She learns of an artifact called the Divine Source, said to be capable of granting immortality. After arguing with her friend Jonah Maiava regarding the artifact’s existence, a Trinity assassin infiltrates the manor and steals the book, prompting the two to go to Siberia.
In Siberia, Lara and Jonah are separated by an avalanche. Continuing alone, Lara discovers that Trinity has made a Soviet-era installation a base of operations in their search for Kitezh. She is caught trying to retrieve the book and is imprisoned with Ana. Konstantin slowly strangles Ana in an attempt to force Lara into revealing what she knows. Upon realizing Lara does not know the whereabouts of the source, Ana reveals herself as a Trinity agent and that Konstantin is her brother. She asks Lara to join Trinity, but she refuses and is taken to the Gulag cells, where she meets a man named Jacob. Together they escape the Gulag with Trinity in pursuit. During the chase, Lara is incapacitated and nearly drowns, but Jacob saves her, and she later agrees to aid him and his people in repelling Trinity.
Upon reaching a valley of hot springs, Lara discovers that Jacob is the leader of its inhabitants, the Remnants, and that they are descendants of the Prophet’s followers. Trinity repeatedly attacks the Remnant, justifying the slaughter as God’s will. However, Lara discovers that Ana suffers a terminal illness and is seeking the Divine Source to cure herself. Jacob warns Lara that the Divine Source is real but not what she expects it to be. Lara remains undeterred and sets out to find the Atlas, an artifact that shows the way to Kitezh. Sofia, Jacob’s daughter, warns Lara of the Deathless Ones, the immortal guardians of Kitezh. Lara finds the Atlas located in the archives beneath the ruins of a Cathedral, and is later reunited with Jonah, who was found by the Remnant and brought to the valley. After Lara discovers the path to Kitezh, Trinity forces return to the valley, take the Atlas and capture Jonah. Lara returns to the Gulag to find Jonah, but Konstantin mortally wounds him. Lara brings Jonah to Jacob, who heals him. Upon witnessing Jonah’s rapid recovery, Lara realizes that Jacob is the Prophet, given immortality by the Divine Source.
With Trinity advancing on the glacier looming over Kitezh, Lara is forced to enter the city on a dangerous path. Reading journals written by a Trinity agent, Lara realizes the truth of Jacob’s warning: the Divine Source bestows immortality at the cost of one’s self. Trinity breaks through the ice and enters the chamber that houses the Divine Source. With aid from Sofia and the Remnant, Lara battles her way through Trinity towards the chamber. Konstantin ambushes Lara, but she mortally wounds him. Before he dies, Konstantin reveals that Lara’s father did not commit suicide but was assassinated by Trinity. Lara enters the chamber but Ana has already retrieved the Divine Source. Jacob and Lara try to reason with Ana to no avail. As the Deathless Ones close in, Ana activates the Divine Source but is overwhelmed by its power, giving Lara a chance to pick it up and smash it to pieces, causing the Deathless Ones to perish. Jacob’s immortality is lost, but he is happy his time has finally come. He assures Lara she has made a difference and peacefully disintegrates.
Two weeks later, at Croft Manor, Lara and Jonah overlook their next expedition. Lara vows to investigate more of the world’s mysteries and thwart Trinity’s plans. In a post-credits scene, two weeks before Lara and Jonah leave Siberia, Lara asks Ana if she killed her father. Ana denies it, admitting that Trinity gave her the order, but she couldn’t kill him because she loved him. Before she can reveal anything else, she is killed by a sniper, who asks his unseen superior about killing Lara and is ordered to stand down for the time being.
If the player reloads their save file after finishing the game, Lara is seen telling Sofia about Jacob’s passing.
Baba Yaga: The Temple of the Witch
In the Baba Yaga downloadable content, Lara investigates a disturbance in the Soviet mine. After fighting off a Trinity patrol, she finds a young girl, Nadia, hiding in a sawmill. Nadia confides in Lara about her search for her grandfather, Ivan. Ivan disappeared while trying to enter the Wicked Vale, a valley reportedly haunted by Baba Yaga, a witch in Slavic folklore. Ivan blames the witch for the death of his wife and wants to kill her. Lara is skeptical about Baba Yaga’s existence but, since Nadia is injured, agrees to enter the Wicked Vale and find Ivan.
In the Vale, Lara is exposed to a rare pollen with potent hallucinogenic properties. After stumbling through a forest where she is tormented by visions of her father’s suicide, she meets Baba Yaga and a pack of demonic wolves. Lara narrowly escapes with her life and finds herself in a small, Soviet-era outpost. She unearths evidence of a secret Soviet biological-weapons project which attempted to harness the pollen, which abruptly ended when the researchers—including Serafima, a biochemist imprisoned in a nearby gulag—succumbed to the hallucinations.
Lara deduces that Serafima weaponized the pollen, developed an antidote, and kept her research secret from the military. With Nadia’s help, Lara synthesizes a necessary antidote from Serafima’s recipe and returns to the Wicked Vale. Resisting the effects of the pollen, Lara finds the injured Ivan at the entrance to Baba Yaga’s lair.
Unable to leave the Wicked Vale while Baba Yaga controls it, Lara battles the witch under the pollen’s influence and destroys its source. Baba Yaga is revealed as Serafima, who was led to believe that her husband, Ivan, and daughter were dead and used the pollen to become Baba Yaga and torment her captors. With Ivan, Serafima, and Nadia reunited, Lara leaves the Wicked Vale.
Cold Darkness Awakened
In the Cold Darkness Awakened content, Lara enters a decommissioned Soviet weapons bunker, which has been breached by a Trinity patrol. Trinity has inadvertently released an unstable pathogen into the air, which causes the people it infects to regress to a zombie-like state. Men are particularly vulnerable since the virus stimulates testosterone and adrenalin production. The pathogen was created to create an army of unstoppable super-soldiers by a Soviet researcher, all of whose experiments failed. He died in the facility after accidentally releasing the pathogen, proud that he had created a weapon to defend his homeland. With Sofia and Nadia providing support from a helicopter, Lara tries to find the source of the pathogen before an enormous cloud is released into the atmosphere and contaminates the Remnant valley.
The women plan to channel the pathogen from three towers into the central tower, detonating it and burning off the toxin. Lara shuts down each tower, collecting equipment, rescuing female prisoners, and eliminating waves of the infected Trinity soldiers before entering the core tower. While fighting off the infected soldiers, she triggers a catastrophic explosion and jumps from the tower to Nadia and Sofia’s helicopter. Nadia and Lara watch the explosion as they fly to safety. Although the resulting fire burns the remaining pathogen, documents found in the facility indicate that the release was no accident; Trinity reactivated the facility to acquire a sample of the pathogen, and an agent of Trinity escaped with it before the bunker was destroyed.
Blood Ties and Lara’s Nightmare
Blood Ties begins with Lara reading a note from her uncle, who says that since her mother disappeared, he is the rightful owner of the Croft estate. With trees working their way into the side of the house and the roof caving in, Lara’s childhood home desperately needs repair. She finds her father’s safe and searches the manor for its combination, hoping to find his will and thus prove her ownership. She finds artifacts from her past, and finally figures out the combination; however, the safe contains no proof of her ownership. Lara finds her mother’s tomb under the main staircase, and with both her parents proven dead, their property passes to her, and she moves back in.
Lara’s Nightmare is similar to Blood Ties, with Lara’s uncle unwilling to give her the manor. She fights off hordes of zombies and skulls before finding the master key. Lara kills a large skull in the main hallway, ending her nightmare.
Source : Wikipedia
