![]() We see them as this powerful yet secret underground organization with many resources almost like Cabal from AOD. The stakes are even higher once we get Trinity in the picture, with little information about this organization and its leaders. In Rise I found the story to be coherent and consistent with one main narrative that is wrapped around in mystery concerning prophet and immortality. This finally makes the case for the story, and to be perfectly honest, I could spend all day writing down how the plot of Shadow is just bad on so many levels it makes the game unbearable to play in satisfy way. Not to mention that the whole setting and mystery surrounding the Prophet was great! Finally, Prophets Tomb is something that will go down in history as the best thing we got from Reboot era and it was such a satisfying way to start the game. Flooded Archives or Kitezh are just drop dead gorgeous areas. Turning to Rise, despite being set in the cold area, it has so many amazing locations which left me in awe. Other than that, nothing felt that amazing. Path of the Cross is the only part that gets an honorable mention. ![]() While Peru and jungle make the case of great setting, locations were not at all memorable in Shadow. But then again, this is mostly due to the location given that Shadow takes place in hot and wet South America, while Rise takes place in cold and greyish Russia. One thing that Shadow does better is the colors that dominate the game. I also feel like Rise was always consistent with the level of detail and the overall look of the areas, unlike Shadow that had moments in the second half where it felt unpolished when compared to the mesmerizing jungle setting at the start of the game. Shadow Lara looks way too much cartoonish most of the time as if she was made with Sims 3 engine. Personally, Rise Lara is beyond gorgeous and the level of detail on her face is mesmerizing. One thing that is unarguably noticeable is the difference in the Lara model. In the graphics department, both games look great. The fact that Paititi is literally next to civilization made no feel of uniqueness or isolation that Valley had. The so-called "largest TR hub area ever" was always in your face, forcing you to spend time with locals doing really pointless side-quests, changing obligatory robes and forcing you to use bow and arrow, all of which were extremely underwhelming. It never felt like this important area that you have to keep coming back to and do all these pointless tasks which was the case with Paititi. Sure, parallels can be drawn with Geothermal Valley, but the Valley really felt undisturbed in the middle of Syberia with all the ice snowy mountains surrounding it. Since I mentioned Paititi, I would like to stress how this hub is one of the worst things that Reboot era has given us, along-side terrible Shadow story (which I will adress down below). After that, everything felt out of the pace and just didn't send the right signals. But, Shadow excelled in exploration up until Patiti. If I had to choose, I would say that Shadow did good in the exploration department, while Rise was significantly better in combat. Cinematic gameplay is a new element every AAA gaming title has, and personally, I think both Rise and Shadow were very well made in that department. ![]() So for me personally, combat, as well as exploration, is an essential part of TR games, and Rise manage to combine that very well. That argument is kinda weird considering that, starting with the original TR, we've always had a significant number of enemies on our way that needed to be killed. I saw a lot of people stating how combat is not essentially part of TR franchase, that it is an exploration that should be the focus of TR games which is why many people adore Shadow. You don't get too much combat with zero exploration, or too much exploration with no combat. The reason why gameplay works well in Rise is that exploration/combat/cinematic elements of the game are well distributed. ![]() In fact, the only (huge) minus that Rise has in my book, is the Xbox exclusive deal which luckily ended when it did. Gameplay, graphics, locations, and story - all on point and executed rather well compared to both TR2013 and Shadow which had significant flaws in gameplay pace (2013) and story (Shadow). Let me start by saying how one of the main advantages Rise has is in its overall package. Please note that I belong to the first group that is much more in favor of Rise than Shadow. Let us address this phenomenon by engaging in a discussion now that the hype around Shadow has cooled down, and everyone (I hope) formed a more objective opinion on the game. It appears that there are two clashing and polarising opinions within the fanbase when it comes to reboot trilogy - (1) love Rise hate Shadow or (2) hate Rise love Shadow. The discussion was started in sales data. ![]()
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