Tweet
Rise of the Tomb Raider arrives on Xbox One this week just one year shy of the series' 20th anniversary. It's a franchise with a tumultuous past, but with the 2013 reboot, Crystal Dynamics managed to bring the franchise back into the spotlight in a big way. However, throughout its long history, nearly every one of Lara Croft's adventures could be found on a PlayStation platform. It was never exclusive, but millions of gamers came to associate Croft and friends with Sony's platforms - so when Microsoft announced timed exclusivity for Rise of the Tomb Raider last year, the reactions weren't entirely positive, to put it lightly.However, from the developer's perspective, focusing on a single platform enables a more concentrated development cycle that should, theoretically, lead to a more polished game. With Crystal focused entirely on Xbox One, Rise of the Tomb Raider suddenly becomes a project competing with other first and second party developers and the need to polish up multiple versions of the game is postponed, for the time being at least. So, the key questions remaining are simple: does Rise of the Tomb Raider deliver the kind of experience typically reserved for first party releases, and has the decision to also release the game on Xbox 360 impacted the end results on Xbox One?
At its core, Rise of the Tomb Raider is built on the in-house Foundation Engine that Crystal Dynamics has been iterating on for years now. The tech has delivered excellent results across multiple generations of consoles and in bringing this engine to Xbox One, we are treated to a whole host of new features. This includes a physically-based materials system, image-based lighting, deformable snow, improved hair simulation and more. It's a beautifully crafted game with a rich level of detail packed into every scene, but it doesn't always come together as tightly as we had hoped.
Read more…
More...