CALLING ALL STATIONS: The BBS Plays Rise of the Tomb Raider

[codinghorror]

If you actually read the link summaries in your screenshot, there is a rather big – planet sized, really – difference between the Sexy Nuns of Hitman Absolution, the “hey my clothes come off because it’s my magic hair” of Bayonetta as referenced in the above links, and Rise of The Tomb Raider.

Meanwhile, here is what Lara looks like in my game of Rise of The Tomb Raider at the moment

I guess I should be apologizing to you: I’m sorry my male gaze isn’t as sophisticated as yours. I will keep trying. What can you teach me about turning everything you see into sexism?

[anon73629133]

@codinghorror

I guess I should be apologizing to you: I’m sorry my male gaze isn’t as sophisticated as yours. I will keep trying. What can you teach me about turning everything you see into sexism?

You’ve now successfully conflated a difference of kind with a difference of degree!

[codinghorror]

All I can tell you is, that achievement unlocked image is kind of making me horny.

[codinghorror]

This is really an amazing looking game.

Take that, bear!

(Look at how the light highlights Lara’s rear end. More rampant sexism.)

Also, I found a crown! You can inspect objects by rotating them to discover things for additional XP which is a nice touch.

• I do worry a bit about “survivor instinct” being a bit too cheat-y though since I find myself using it to automatically highlight interesting objects and areas on the map and rush toward them, rather than doing natural exploring, which doesn’t seem very … Tomb Raider-y. I guess this is why I saw some article mentioning that hardcode mode was the purer way to play the game? I assume that disables Survivor Instinct, so I can understand the complaint.

• The quicktime events, well, what is to be said about quicktime events? You can only put so much Dragon’s Lair in a game without becoming Dragon’s Lair. Also since like all quicktime events they rely on a certain amount of, uh, let’s say, foreshadowing of what is about to happen, I’ve hilariously failed many of them the first (and second, and third…) time through resulting in a plethora of gruesome deaths. I think any gameplay element where you’d never really want to do it again because it would be the same exact thing over and over is kind of a failed concept of gameplay. Great for movies, though!

• I liked the idea that you re-learn languages as you go and become more adept at deciphering artifacts over time and can go back to find extra areas or reveals.

Overall though seems to be a good mix of “cinematic” events and freeform area exploration with stealth combat elements. Still early on.

(Also, WTF is this card mechanic in the game? I got cards with various bonuses and stuff but I can’t figure out how to use them? Is it just a way to tack on in-game currency?)

[anon73629133]

@codinghorror

quicktime events

What an abused mechanism. Quicktime events make sense in something like Mass Effect or Bioshock Infinite, where your lack of response or laggard response time defaults you to a different story arc.

But “pass or die” quicktime events tacked onto narrative cinematics are just lazy and annoying.

@codinghorror

Dragon’s Lair

At least that game had varied and entertaining death scenes.

@codinghorror

WTF is this card mechanic in the game?

Playing story-mode gives you cards that allow you to customize the challenge modes. To me, a cheap gamification route to increase replayability.

[anon73629133]

@codinghorror

Look at how the light highlights Lara’s rear end. More rampant sexism.

Honest question: When you go in dark caves do you hold your light source in front of you or behind you?

[codinghorror]

When she is not clipping it to her belt, when she is in dark areas actively using it, she holds it in front of her. As you can see in the screenshot above, when outside there is plenty enough light, so it probably doesn’t matter where it is stored on the belt.

After thinking about it a bit more, I do belatedly agree that always showing Lara with makeup is a bit sexist. No more than your average Hollywood blockbuster action film, I suppose. And don’t the dudes wear makeup in those kinds of films, too?

[anon75430791]

15 here. Damn if that hair didn’t get everywhere.

[anon75430791]

Nestor Carbonell needs no guyliner.

[anon73629133]

@codinghorror

I do belatedly agree that always showing Lara with makeup is a bit sexist.

Thanks for seeing that point. Not to say that point is the only right way to see it, but that it’s one valid way that some people will see the game. I wouldn’t necessarily say the makeup itself is sexist, moreso that it does betray a pattern of catering to the male gaze.

Different topic:

It’s annoying as fuck when the physics engine causes the dear you just felled to slide under a tree that the level_map deems inaccessible. Corners were cut on playtesting.

[anon73629133]

@funruly

Calling this now:

Also, the right to bear farms.

[ficuswhisperer]

OMG the pony tail thing drove me crazy after a while. I’m glad it wasn’t just me.

[anon73629133]

On-rails swimming with no underwater fights or scavenging is such a cheap way to time-pad a game.

This could be the best portrayed female protagonist of all time (it’s not), and it would still be a weak game.

[codinghorror]

Ah, the game opens up a fair bit once you make it to the old soviet base! If it felt a bit linear to that point, be patient. There are lots of optional quests, things to find, and good old fashioned Lara open area exploration waiting up ahead.

The treasures! THE TREASURES!

Pistols? Oh hellll no

Gulag treasures. Not so nice, but hey, tomb raiders gonna raid.

This friggin’ guy.

Mysterious soviet era excavations!

The game really is incredible looking at highest detail level and 4k. PC ftw.

[codinghorror]

This aggression will not stand, man

Really quite a few optional tombs to raid, and side missions, which is nice since the game seems so linear at the beginning.

And look I was exploring the Soviet Base…

… and I found Tetris!

Here’s a few shots of the light flares being held in hand, as promised.

oooo scary

Although we all know the real reason the chemical flares are there are because sexism, damn it. Now if you’ll excuse me I have some water in my ponytail I need to attend to.

[miasm]

After some shenanigans with trying to overclock my ageing rig, I’m back at it.

Thought I should just put my first instalment of thoughts into play…

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Here be Spoilers

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First conversation between two women is about Lara’s father. Anna’s husband’s obsession and Lara walking in his footsteps despite the very ill looking Anna’s protestations. Is Anna evil? She looks ill, and whilst similarly skinny and pretty as Lara, her eyes look bloodshot and bleary and mark her, in my book, as a villain.

Her warnings to Lara to not follow her father to ‘you know where’ take a sinister undertone and make me think she had a hand in her husbands death. No explicit mirroring of the characters apart from their body types so far, but they eyes stood out too much to not be some kind of explicit design choice.

[This is so, I did call it, you’ll have to trust me. But this highlights another overused trope. Bad guys (and gals) look bad. Always.]

Driving to the next adventure. Again we are reminded of Lara’s money, even thought the militia pay better(!) The betraying driver couldn’t have just asked her for more of the money he hates her for inheriting? I’d like to see it made more explicit that she earned her cash too, she does steal artefacts from tombs… right?

Dunderheid driver trusted a militia over the rich girl? BIG MISTAKE duder. The guys with guns are not your friends. Duh.

That axe catches the edge of cliffs like I catch colds. Even when it’s almost sentient in its murderous complicity with collapsing ice walls in all other cases, it can’t help but bond like superglue on those edges to precipitous falls. Plot glue, it’s strong stuff.

The visuals are nice, lighting is effective but upon entering the first cave the designers immediately went with the old shaft of light from above to light the cave fudge. Why does no one ever find the entrance to the cave from those light portals? You don’t have to climb down the side of a mountain, anchor your rope and rappel down and you’re golden, you even have an easy way out that’s for sure lasted as long as the cave without being discovered, no chance of rockfall covering such an entrance, but seemingly no way of accessing it from above ground either. Maybe I’m nit picking here, but I’d like to see other lighting design solutions than this holey trope.

Oh, and it does appear that we’re looking for proof of the actual immortal soul from the Christian tradition… not quite sure how I feel about this. Fingers crossed for it to turn out to be an expensive artefact that she can raid. Although stealing the platonic essence of the immortal soul sure would be a feather in anybody’s cap and no mistake.

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Criticism of gameplay to follow.

[codinghorror]

Aw yeah. How does it feel. How does it feel?!

That’s not a knoife! This here’s a knoife! Frickin’ finally. So many ropes to cut, no arbitrary game supplied tool to cut with.

In my spare time, I like to read the classics. Yep I have a compound bow because it’s 2× as awesome as a regular bow. See? Two wheels. One. Two.

There she goes again, not putting the flare next to her butt. Dammit, Lara.

Dudes can hold flares too. I’m just saying. misandry

Behold this mosaic! It’d be better if it was a mosaic of a flare on a butt, but whatever.

Raid tombs, they said. See exotic locations, they said. Bring your mascara, they said.

Uhh, moving on. Nothing to see here.

The locations are quite beautiful.

Outdoors at last!

It is fun to finally find some areas where you can do the classic Lara jump and climb style exploration and experimentation to see what bonus areas or optional crypts / quests you can reach.

[codinghorror]

More tombs!

More treasures!

It’s a damn good thing these ancient people had sense enough to paint all the climbable walls white so you can tell where they are. Thanks ancient people!

This is me showing @funruly my flare. See? It’s my flare. Feast your male gaze upon it.

Have I mentioned this is a strikingly beautiful game? It is.

You can pick up and throw the chickens. There’s a little side quest for catching them but I can’t find the damn chicken pen.

Die, bear!

Catchin’ up on me Greek

There has to be a flamethrower guy in every game. Because flames!

Also @miasm the red eyes on that lady is because she is sick, as will be revealed later. I thought she was just bleary eyed.

It’s interesting how in virtually all previous TR games, Lara is the dual pistols weapon gal, it’s her signature thing. Here dual pistols are hinted at, at the end of the previous game (which was awesome), but halfway through the game and very little sign of dual pistols anywhere. The bow seems to be the signature weapon in both this game and the previous one. Driving on the survival angle, I suppose.

[miasm]

@codinghorror

the red eyes on that lady is because she is sick

Sick with evil?

Nah, lemme find out.

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@codinghorror

The bow

Ah yes, me mighty bow.

Are youse playing with a gamepad or keyboard and mouse? Xbox gamepad is super frustrating, it’s like playing with a 150ms lag… but I’m composing my thoughts on the gameplay, movement etc and will wait until I have it all before throwing a tantrum and ranting.

[anon73629133]

@codinghorror

paint all the climbable walls white so you can tell where they are.

Would it have been better if they only made the climbable wall indicators visible in survival mode, or would that just mean more spamming of survival mode?

@codinghorror

Have I mentioned this is a strikingly beautiful game?

Well, that’s your affluent tech privilege showing. I mean, it is a good looking game, but for me not much moreso than Witcher 3. But I’m not running 8 monitors at 4k. Certainly, I don’t think the level design (vistas, outlooks, etc), is as good as the last TR.

@codinghorror

There’s a little side quest for catching them but I can’t find the damn chicken pen.