The opening minutes of Rise of the Tomb Raider had me worried. It starts with Lara trudging slowly through the snow, my only requirement being to hold W as the game plays itself around me. All of sudden, I’m having flashbacks to 2013’s Tomb Raider reboot and its interminable, set-piece heavy introduction. Soon after, during a cutscene-laden climbing tutorial, I miss a prompt, fall and die. Redoing the section, I hit the prompt, climb a few feet higher, and watch another cutscene in which Lara falls but is fine. Here we go again? Actually, no.
In regular play, Lara no longer feels like a victim of her environment The opener is frustrating, but over quickly. From then on, Rise of the Tomb Raider sticks to a mostly consistent level of…
