


While things quickly spiral out of control, particularly after the appearance of militaristic cult Trinity, she's no longer an unwilling participant in events. There's an important difference in the plots of RotTR and its predecessor. Lara is on the hunt for the Divine Source, an artifact that her father had obsessed over before his death. Lara's latest adventure opens in Siberia, and-aside from an early sojourn in Syria-that's where it stays.

They're all still there, but take up significantly less of 15-or-so hour running time. There are fewer slow-mo QTE sequences, fewer awkward conversations, fewer by-the-numbers miniboss fights. It's not that Tomb Raider's missteps have been eradicated, but they've been dramatically reduced. There's a level of artifice to these sequences, but they operate within the framework of established interactions. There's still plenty of set-piece spectacle, but these pace-breaking action segments trust you to read the visual clues of the environment and react using the appropriate controls. From then on, Rise of the Tomb Raider sticks to a mostly consistent level of interactivity. The opener is frustrating, but over quickly.
