Rise of the Tomb Raider

Rise of the Tomb Raider is a 2015 action-adventure game developed by Crystal Dynamics and published by Square Enix (with Microsoft Studios handling the initial publishing duties for Xbox). Serving as the direct sequel to the highly successful 2013 reboot, it is the second chapter in the “Survivor Trilogy.” Having established Lara as a hardened survivor, this entry transitions her into a proactive, driven explorer, setting out on her first deliberate archaeological expedition.

Struggling with PTSD after the supernatural events on Yamatai, Lara discovers the research of her late father, Lord Richard Croft. Before his disgraced suicide, he was obsessed with finding the “Divine Source,” an artifact said to grant immortality, hidden within the legendary lost city of Kitezh. Determined to clear her father’s name and prove she isn’t losing her mind, Lara travels to the sun-baked cliffs of Syria and the freezing, treacherous wilderness of Siberia. However, she is racing against Trinity—an ancient, heavily militarized religious organization led by the ruthless Konstantin, who seeks the Divine Source to purge and reshape the world.

Gameplay

Rise of the Tomb Raider took the phenomenal foundation of the 2013 reboot and expanded it in nearly every direction, offering larger environments, vastly improved stealth, and a much heavier emphasis on actual tomb raiding.

Key gameplay mechanics and additions include:

Expanded Crafting System: Lara can no longer just rely on generic “salvage.” The environment is rich with specific resources—wood, feathers, mushrooms, magnesite, and animal hides. Players can craft special ammunition (like poison, explosive, and fire arrows) and healing items on the fly during combat. Hunting specific, dangerous wildlife (like bears and snow leopards) is required to craft larger inventory pouches and heavier winter gear.
Return of the Tombs: Addressing the biggest complaint from the 2013 game, Rise features significantly larger, more complex, and heavily physics-based Challenge Tombs. Completing these optional tombs rewards Lara with ancient codices that grant permanent, unique passive skills.
Language Proficiency: To emphasize Lara’s background as an archaeologist, the game introduces a translation mechanic. By examining murals, scrolls, and relics, Lara slowly increases her proficiency in Greek, Russian, and Mongolian. Higher language levels allow her to translate massive stone monoliths, which reveal the locations of hidden coin caches on the map.
Advanced Stealth: Combat is much more dynamic. Lara can now hide in dense bushes, climb trees to perform aerial takedowns, and drag enemies underwater. She can also use items in the environment, like throwing glass bottles to distract guards or crafting improvised explosives out of tin cans and radios.
Expeditions and Endurance: The mediocre competitive multiplayer from the 2013 game was scrapped entirely. Instead, Rise introduced “Expeditions”—a mode where players can replay levels with specific modifiers (using collectible cards) to compete on leaderboards. It also introduced “Endurance Mode,” a brilliant survival mode where Lara must manage her warmth and hunger while exploring a procedurally generated forest, which was later updated to support two-player co-op.

Development and Legacy

The release of Rise of the Tomb Raider was accompanied by a massive wave of industry controversy. At Gamescom 2014, Microsoft announced that the game would be an exclusive title for the Xbox One and Xbox 360. Because Tomb Raider had a massive, historical fanbase on PlayStation, the backlash was immediate and fierce. It was later clarified to be a “timed exclusive,” meaning PC and PlayStation 4 players had to wait up to a full year to play the game.

Despite the exclusivity controversy, the game was a massive critical success upon its launch in November 2015. Reviewers praised the jaw-dropping graphics (particularly the rendering of the Siberian snow and ice), the beautifully refined combat, and the return to puzzle-solving. Camilla Luddington reprised her role as Lara, delivering another grounded, highly acclaimed motion-capture performance.

In October 2016, to coincide with the franchise’s anniversary, the game arrived on the PS4 as Rise of the Tomb Raider: 20 Year Celebration. This definitive package included all post-launch DLCs, such as the story expansion Baba Yaga: The Temple of the Witch, and introduced Blood Ties—a story-driven exploration of Croft Manor that supported PlayStation VR.

Key Features:

Siberian Survival — Navigate the stunning, freezing wilderness of Siberia, utilizing a deep crafting system to create cold-weather gear and specialized ammunition.
Guerilla Combat — Use the environment to your advantage by hiding in trees, diving under the ice, and utilizing improvised explosives to dismantle heavily armed Trinity patrols.
Language Translation — Put Lara’s archaeological skills to use by studying ancient Greek, Russian, and Mongolian murals to uncover hidden secrets.
Deadly Tombs — Explore massive, awe-inspiring ancient spaces filled with lethal traps and complex, multi-stage physics puzzles.
The 20 Year Celebration — Play the definitive edition of the game, featuring the Baba Yaga expansion, a zombie survival mode (Cold Darkness Awakened), and the narrative-focused Blood Ties Croft Manor DLC.