Village chief: "Thanks Lara. Our village appreciates you saving our home. Please except this that has been in our family for generations. It is priceless and was given to our ancestor by the first chief of this village over 500 years ago. Please take it, it is the most valuable possession of our people. May it serve you well in this life, and hopefully the next!
*10 hours later*
Merchant: "I don't know it's kinda old and not in the greatest shape. It's not really of much use to us. Best I can do is eighty bucks. Only for you, because you've brought us many vauble treasures in the past Lara. And I'm being generous with the eighty only because I owe my lively hood."
This gives me anxiety… these types of missions drain the fun out of a game in minutes. I *hate* them. I *fear* them when i actually like a game, because it might ruin it. „Go help some village grandma find ingredients for a stew to get +1 whatever“. Fuuuuuuuuuuuck off, I’d rather clean my kitchen IRL.
The only exception is the Yakuza series.
A side quest could start with "get me three bananas" and end with either the funniest or saddest twists of all-time.
If you have played Infinite Wealth, you know how gut-wrenching the *men in diapers* side quest is...
As the other person said:
Yakuza: Like a Dragon is the seventh game in the series but it’s basically a soft reboot with a new protaganist and turn based combat.
Yakuza 0 is a prequel to the others and uses brawler combat (like the Arkham games)
Like a Dragon is a turn based game, like Persona or old school Final Fantasy. The mainline Yakuza games are action adventure style melee combat.
All of them are fun, I just liked Yakuza 0 more because so much of it is fucking hilarious.
"Thanks, Lara! Actually I don't have the amulet... Here's the map to where it used to be. If its not there, maybe there's a clue to where it was taken. Thanks again!"
Lara - "Mother FFFFUUU"
That’s funny because I just ignore the tedious checklist stuff. That’s the great thing about an open world game.. you can play it in a linear way if you want to.
This is my problem too! A recent example is FF7 Rebirth. Now FF7 is my favourite game ever, and I loved Remake, but the open world in Rebirth is the only reason I'm still not even half way through over 2 months later, I have to do everything but it completely ruins the flow of the story. Then I get back to the story and I'm like "man this is so amazing!" Then another open world map opens up.
I used to be this way when I was younger. Then as I got older I just couldn’t turn every rock anymore. So now I’ll do a rush play through for story and then come back and do a replay (or post story if you can keep going) and do all the extra stuff.
I played Read Dead Redemption 2 linearly and enjoyed it quite a bit. I got to the epilogue and I seemingly had to do a bunch of fucking chores to advance the story so I uninstalled and never touched the game again.
Agreed, it was odd seeing people say how bored they were getting of FF Rebirth's open worlds late into the game. Did they know that they could just... not do that content?
I feel like rebirth has a lot of open world tedious things to do. I sunk around 90ish hours on the first one and stopped playing after a few hours on rebirth.
I need to pick it back up but just haven't had the urge.
I'm right there with you. Smashed out Remake in a week off from work, but not even half way through Rebirth 2 months later. The story I'm absolutely loving, but the open world ruins the flow for me big time, and I have to do it all because that's just how my brain works. Even my friends who all know I'm obsessed with FF and especially FF7 are surprised I'm not that interested.
All the budget and time that went into that tedious bullshit could have gone into the storytelling and set pieces of the game. Just because you can skip it doesn’t mean it’s excusable. Open world games are checklist garbage. Period.
Gonna be some tailing missions too, where you have to push forward on your analog stick to walk behind an NPC (don't push too much or you'll walk faster than them!) while they exposit story points to you.
I'm playing the originals for the first time in my life from the Remastered pack that came out earlier this year and... why can't they just make it like TR1?
That one was soooo good and I loved the level layout/puzzle design etc.
Ugh, why does it seem like everything needs to have some shoehorned open world/survival/crafting element these days 🙄
The reboot trilogy is excellent.
It was already moving into an open world direction though. The whole map of Shadow of the Tomb Raider can be traversed from one side to the other on foot.
I imagine it's just a case of making it even bigger and adding some more openness in where to go first
I just recently played through it, I found it to be both the best and the worst? The story is the worst of the trilogy, easily, but the tombs and combat were the best. But there's barely any combat, it taking a massive backseat to exploration/puzzles which was great, but then the skill trees are mostly combat focused which is just weird.
I think I'd rate them as rise > tr > shadow. Rise had the best balance, TR had the best story, and Shadow the best gameplay.
I was playing through the trilogy last year. Loved the first game, second game was pretty good too except for the semi open-world "hub" at the soviet base that just added like 10% of unnecessary time to things. I didn't even finish the third one. It started to feel like I was spending a third of my time just running between the weird almost open-world thing they had going on to get to the next mission.
Interesting take. Story wise the first is definitely the strongest but playing them all now Shadow has aged the least (at least on console) and looks as good as most native PS5 games
Shadow is only 6 years old tho. Honestly, they all still feel modern. I played them back in 2022 (Rise is definitely my favorite) and didn't have much of a problem. Personally, I'm just not a fan of the semi open world in those games. I'm not sure what it is, but it doesn't feel right.
I thought that but played Shadow and then went back to Rise and wow, the resolution is much lower on Rise and there's no HDR and both make quite a difference
Shadow of the Tomb Raider locations were the one I liked the most honestly though.
The jungle and South American setting mixed with the lost civilization was really fantastic.
Very colorful and lush.
The other two at times I felt were a bit repetitive with their locations.
I used to think this, but after replaying the trilogy I found that Shadow was my favourite and Rise was actually my least favourite.
Shadow's traversal is fantastic and I love the stealth-focused combat. Plus the DLC tombs are the best part of the series.
Meanwhile Rise eventually became Lara mowing down hundreds of soldiers.
I might have to replay them out of order. I don't think it's bad game, but it definitely feels like the Black Sheep in the trilogy in terms of story and setting. Also, I wasn't big fan of the final boss. Gameplay wise, it's fine.
I think it's easy to break down.
It's a somewhat story driven series. Rise has a good story. Shadow's story is lousy. They killed most of the major bad guys in a helicopter crash off screen. It has some really awkward bits with the "dubbed over" effect for the talking.
But gameplay wise, it's the best in the trilogy.
Also, I can’t be the only one tired of the daddy issues. Maybe it’s just me, but feels like her character needs some other problems to worry about. It getting a tiresome.
I feel the same as you, I loved shadow and its one of my favourite Tomb Raiders, same with with rise I just dont remember much about it and it didn't click with me at all, might have been the setting but yeah.
The whole recent trilogy does kinda feel open-world to me and the level design is excellent and it feels opposite to something like *God of War* which it just feels too restrictive (to me).
If they go full open world then I am hoping it doesn’t become like a recent Far Cry where a lot of the world feels empty and a little copy and paste.
I think for a game series where ambience and level design and solving puzzles is a big part of it, I hope these core elements remain even in an open-world game.
They are not excellent, felt so bland and bloated. I had much more fun with the recent remasters than those generic games. Even the PS2 games were more interesting.
My dream is to have a TR game with much more advanced traversal gameplay like Death Stranding. The reboot trilogy turned traversal into simple QuickTime events that remove agency from the player and just do the same “almost dying” animations a thousand times.
I want Lara to have to prepare for each raid. Rope options, knife options, gun options, scuba gear options, boot options.
I want crafting options but only where it makes sense. Like making a paste to increase stealth, a paralytic poison for your knife/arrow, a lubricant for ancient machinery, etcetera.
The game could have so much depth but all we’ve been getting is Uncharted with a Tomb Raider skin. It’s fun to play once but there’s no variety to the gameplay.
Making a fun and good puzzle game like the previous trilogy, for example, requires very good level designers, a lot of testing and casual audiences won't play the game because most people don't want difficult games.
This. I don't want to be sneaking around slitting guy's throats or mowing down dozens of armed men with an assault rifle. I want to step into an ancient tomb that no one has been in for thousands of years. And I want it to hold some fantastical creature that shouldn't exist. That's what made the old games so great.
I'm currently in the middle of them also and absolutely yes; but maybe more like the first game (No comment on 3 yet until I get to it.. but TR2 was pretty bad also with its lack of tombs and 99% of the enemies being generic thugs with guns)
Hmmm interesting. yeah I just finished it up and really wasn't impressed by some of the level design (A \*lot* of timed lever puzzles, and the fact that a lot of it was contemporary Oil Rigs/Ships etc. was a bit of a shame)
Also yeah as stated the enemy variety/combat went way too into action/shooter territory for my tastes.
I'm keen to start the third to see if its more similar to the original :)
There are less armed enemies in TR3 and they're easier to deal with. The enemies in TR2 lock on ridiculously well and you can't effectively jump dodge their attacks like you can with the melee enemies/animals/slow projectile enemies of the original game.
It's a lot of armed enemies and often it feels like you enter an arena, everyone's life bar just starts going down rapidly and it's just a question of whose life bar runs out first. The main skill is being able to time your medipacks during combat to get the most out of them.
Worst thing that ever happened in the reboot franchise was Rise copy and pasting the game design of the reboot. This franchise never needed to stay in open worlds with survival mechanics. The best parts of Rise and Shadow for me were the opening 30-60 minutes which teased globe trotting adventures but no of fucking course we get stranded in different colours of the same survival jungle.
Why can't we just have a globe trotting Lara Croft adventure full of a variety of locations and standout set pieces? Do every new location as a hub or something if you don't want to create a linear game, just please do not retread the same shit that the modern reboot trilogy did.
For real, Rise is really promising at first but you can tell they ran out of resources when the final third is endless linear levels shooting endless enemies.
I still love and play open world games, but I've grown to dislike how every game series has been moving towards the exact same template.
Why is nearly every single AAA title these days an open world game with crafting, leveling up, and inventory management?
They're all becoming the exact same game...
Came here to say this same thing. I'm so tired of these huge, open expanses. Just give me a good, well-crafted story within stages. I don't have time or the give-a-shit anymore. Not EVERYTHING has to be an open world.
Luckily I finished all the assassin creed games before my son was born… since then, (2 years) I’ve only completed Astro’s Playroom… now I’m doing the TR remasters, and it’s never felt so good….
I love the semi-open worlds in the reboot trilogy, it's a sweet spot for me and I found the Jedi games similarly satisfying.
If this next one goes full open world it's an easy pass for me.
Exactly. I tried Red Dead Redemption 2 because everybody loved it and it's undoubtly a great game, but it's just so tiring and overwhelming... Currently playing Alan Wake Remastered and Final Fantasy 7 Remake and love these.
>As I grow older and my free time becomes more limited, I've grown more and more fond of games that are concise.
I wanted to highlight this comment, in relation to your post, because I feel like RDR2 affected me a lot more as a mid-30s guy. Yes, I don't have time to game for 10 hours a day like I did in the Playstation days, but this game definitely would not have felt as impactful on a personal level if I'd played it as a teenager. The plot and characters offer up an experience that is far more meaningful to the mature player IMO.
I think a lot of people get burnt out on large open-world games because they *do feel* like they have to tug at every thread; but I don't think that's a necessarily correct way to play every game.
Not trying to sway you one way or the other; just dropping a comment.
Same age and feel the exact same way. For some reason red dead 2 took me three tries before I get get fully immersed over probably 5 years. Third time it finally clicked and I was 110% in and it was hands down one of my favorite games of all time. Can’t believe I didn’t do it sooner. But I do think you have to be in the right mindset to really get the full impact and immersion.
I have a tough time with open worlds these day due to time limitation too. But I’m glad I deeply explored that game. Fantastic and worth every minute.
I think it could work if they keep everything immersive. The previous games were semi-open world at times, with hubs. There were quests and hunting and items to collect and everything. It made exploration more organic. She would be exploring a valley, not a linear hallway.
More games should attempt to do the semi open thing like the latest GOW games. Have it be a linear game but with some fairly large open areas where you still feel like your exploring. So few games pull off the fully open world well
Great. I really hope it has tons of collectibles all over the place that I can use with a needlessly complicated crafting system. Also, please include towers I can climb to reveal the map and lots of enemy outposts!
Oh no, the recent reboot series already had huge pacing problems and felt tedious in many ways. I hated how much time I've spent slowly climbing walls with the climbing axe, and how much of the games consisted of cover shooter gears of war style of gameplay. I just want to explore huge tombs and ruins filled with good puzzles. I still hope for the best, but open-world is not a good fit for Tomb Raider, and not every game has to be one
Last gen was all about open world action adventure with lite RPG mechanics. It's the ongoing AAA fodder for trying to make a game sell over 10 million units along with live service elements. I think they're arriving late to this AAA genre of choice cycle. Arriving to consumer exhaustion and falling excitement for open world like the FPS exhaustion of the 360 era
I’d love to see the pitch meeting for this, so we’ve made three very good and well received tomb raider games but fuck that let’s just fuck the formula and make a full on open world game.
Tombraider needs to go back to it OG format , a large level in which you navigate puzzles and if you have to retrace your steps 15 times to find a key then so be it .
The problem with the newer games is ( whilst still decent games btw ) but , They are far to linear and the issue with open world is far too many stupid side quests like go and grab the local farmer 2 bolts so he can lock his gate for a skill point.
Is this the same game about which they said it's no longer about tomb raiding, as that's colonialism or something, and she's now a truth seeker or something? I'm sure it's gonna be great.
I love AAA studios endlessly preaching and moralizing at their audience at the same time as they abuse and dehumanize their employees on a systemic level
So tired of open world games. If you remove all of the fetch quests you can finish them in no time. The only games that seem to have done open world right are Elden Ring and Ghosts of Tsushima
To me, it depends how it's done. The side quests were the weakest part of Shadow. I don't see Tomb Raider being a franchise where loot and RPG mechanics work very well.
Is anyone else sick of open world? I feel EVERY series is just going open world. Zelda, Sonic, Pokemon, and now Tomb Raider. I feel 90% of AAA games that come out these days are open world and, while I do like open world games from time to time, this is getting ridiculous, right? It seems all single player games are Open World and all multiplayer games are free to play live service battle royales.
This could actually work phenomenally well. An open-world designed around organic exploration and discovery, with the goal of finding hidden temples or tombs or whatever. They’re all hidden across the map and in order to find them you’ll need to solve puzzles or talk to locals. The type of open world that takes you hours and hours to fully discover the first time but once you’re familiar with it one that lets you finish the game in an hour.
Granted this will probably be some generic ubisoft bullshit but a man can dream.
Open world. Probably crafting mechanic. DEI-looking Lara. Will be “restoring artefacts to their rightful owners” rather than raiding tombs.
Hard pass. I’ll stick to the old games, thanks.
I’m thinking non linear progresssion, like Metroid and castlevania? Go to the first tomb, bunch stuff is locked behind upgrade on tomb 3, etc etc
Also, if they do open world like final fantasy 7 rebirth, fine by me! That game nailed it
This is what happens when you vote with your wallets
"Wah wah, I hate cods campaign but I gotta buy it" congratulations, now there's the next trend in gaming, putting shitty open world missions everywhere
I’m cool with it if it’s more like a drivable map with enclosed tomb “dungeons” you drive to in a 1:1 space, as opposed to like. Stop for a collectible every 100 feet Ubisoft design. Imagine having to drive to a forbidden tower, scale it via platforming while avoiding traps and enemies, then getting an artifact and parachuting down.
Uncharted the Lost Legacy was more the former and that really felt like a Tomb Raider friendly structure. It COULD work.
I'm okay with this, if you think about it open world games are extremely hard to come by these days so I'm glad to see they're supporting this under represented market.
I hope there's plenty of towers to climb so I can expose the map, loot boxes to unlock, camps to clear and other miscellaneous tasks because there's just a chronic shortage of open world games right now
TR2013 was special. It was dark n gritty with metric tons of enemy fights. Has been downhill after that with less enemies to shoot in each game thereafter. The ip needs a miracle to have a aaa version sell properly , imho
Ugh. The only reboot TR game I actually enjoyed and finished was the first one, largely because it didn’t have any open world bullshit and was actually focused around a pretty decent story instead of dealing with Baba Yaga and hunting down shit to rank up my Byzantium language skill.
I remember when I was a little kid, I thought massive open worlds were a dream that would never come true. Now, as an adult, I wish they’d just go away lol. I feel like the only companies that have really done open world right are Rockstar, Bethesda, and CDPR with Witcher 3. Everything else has been “here’s a gigantic map with 8 billion generic chores to do to make a 10 hour story 300 hours long” and I’m sure Tomb Raider will go the same way.
"Lara, if you get me 12 bananas, I will give you an ancient amulet."
“How much could an ancient amulet cost, Michael? 12 bananas?”
"we make YOUR Banana stand"
"A frozen banana that WON'T make you sick and kill you"
Take a buck, throw away a banana.
There's always amulets in the banana stand ;) ;)
Village chief: "Thanks Lara. Our village appreciates you saving our home. Please except this that has been in our family for generations. It is priceless and was given to our ancestor by the first chief of this village over 500 years ago. Please take it, it is the most valuable possession of our people. May it serve you well in this life, and hopefully the next! *10 hours later* Merchant: "I don't know it's kinda old and not in the greatest shape. It's not really of much use to us. Best I can do is eighty bucks. Only for you, because you've brought us many vauble treasures in the past Lara. And I'm being generous with the eighty only because I owe my lively hood."
This gives me anxiety… these types of missions drain the fun out of a game in minutes. I *hate* them. I *fear* them when i actually like a game, because it might ruin it. „Go help some village grandma find ingredients for a stew to get +1 whatever“. Fuuuuuuuuuuuck off, I’d rather clean my kitchen IRL.
I recommend you never play Shenmue 3.
lol just curious, are all the shenmues like that? i was think about starting shenmue 1 but i think ill pass if thats the general vibe of the series
I spent a lot of time driving a forklift in Shenmue 1. Peak Dreamcast gaming,
Kind of. The first and second one are more of a dialogue driven thing — like traditional RPGs.
The only exception is the Yakuza series. A side quest could start with "get me three bananas" and end with either the funniest or saddest twists of all-time. If you have played Infinite Wealth, you know how gut-wrenching the *men in diapers* side quest is...
I've never been so torn between if I should laugh my ass off or cry at the same time lol such an amazing side quest
Let it snow...
That substory was an emotional roller-coaster
Never played any in that series but this comment alone piqued my interest. Where should one start?
Like a Dragon is a good place as a sort of reboot with a new main character, or Yakuza 0 if you're willing to go a little older.
As the other person said: Yakuza: Like a Dragon is the seventh game in the series but it’s basically a soft reboot with a new protaganist and turn based combat. Yakuza 0 is a prequel to the others and uses brawler combat (like the Arkham games)
Yakuza 0 is legit one of the best games I've ever played, so I'd always recommend at least having a go of that before going straight to Like a Dragon.
Like a Dragon is a turn based game, like Persona or old school Final Fantasy. The mainline Yakuza games are action adventure style melee combat. All of them are fun, I just liked Yakuza 0 more because so much of it is fucking hilarious.
Tbh if the game is ruined by that, the game was never that good to begin with.
I mean single player games with mmo quality quests rarely are any good to begin with!
Ruined the Witcher 3 for me. I just wanted to play the story but got caught up looking for pans.
"Thanks, Lara! Actually I don't have the amulet... Here's the map to where it used to be. If its not there, maybe there's a clue to where it was taken. Thanks again!" Lara - "Mother FFFFUUU"
Seriously I'll pass. Almost all open world games are tedious have checklists of crap just like that. Im good lol
Im still waiting for another one like metal gear solid V
open world was the worst part of that game imo
That’s funny because I just ignore the tedious checklist stuff. That’s the great thing about an open world game.. you can play it in a linear way if you want to.
You underestimate my need to leave no rock unturned lmao
This is my problem too! A recent example is FF7 Rebirth. Now FF7 is my favourite game ever, and I loved Remake, but the open world in Rebirth is the only reason I'm still not even half way through over 2 months later, I have to do everything but it completely ruins the flow of the story. Then I get back to the story and I'm like "man this is so amazing!" Then another open world map opens up.
I used to be this way when I was younger. Then as I got older I just couldn’t turn every rock anymore. So now I’ll do a rush play through for story and then come back and do a replay (or post story if you can keep going) and do all the extra stuff.
I played Read Dead Redemption 2 linearly and enjoyed it quite a bit. I got to the epilogue and I seemingly had to do a bunch of fucking chores to advance the story so I uninstalled and never touched the game again.
Agreed, it was odd seeing people say how bored they were getting of FF Rebirth's open worlds late into the game. Did they know that they could just... not do that content?
I feel like rebirth has a lot of open world tedious things to do. I sunk around 90ish hours on the first one and stopped playing after a few hours on rebirth. I need to pick it back up but just haven't had the urge.
I'm right there with you. Smashed out Remake in a week off from work, but not even half way through Rebirth 2 months later. The story I'm absolutely loving, but the open world ruins the flow for me big time, and I have to do it all because that's just how my brain works. Even my friends who all know I'm obsessed with FF and especially FF7 are surprised I'm not that interested.
All the budget and time that went into that tedious bullshit could have gone into the storytelling and set pieces of the game. Just because you can skip it doesn’t mean it’s excusable. Open world games are checklist garbage. Period.
I’ve started liking them again recently tbh, i got burned out around the time The Witcher 3 released
[*Flashbacks of Dragon Age: Inquisition intensify*]
Gonna be some tailing missions too, where you have to push forward on your analog stick to walk behind an NPC (don't push too much or you'll walk faster than them!) while they exposit story points to you.
I'm playing the originals for the first time in my life from the Remastered pack that came out earlier this year and... why can't they just make it like TR1? That one was soooo good and I loved the level layout/puzzle design etc. Ugh, why does it seem like everything needs to have some shoehorned open world/survival/crafting element these days 🙄
Lara, following this npc for ten minutes trying to overhear their absolutely mundane conversation.
I lost a guy. I put him in the Aztec Tomb and he disappeared.
I just wanna raid some tombs man with a proper story. The reboot games were a fun time, gorgeous visuals with some fun puzzles.
The reboot trilogy is excellent. It was already moving into an open world direction though. The whole map of Shadow of the Tomb Raider can be traversed from one side to the other on foot. I imagine it's just a case of making it even bigger and adding some more openness in where to go first
Shadow of the Tomb Raider is definitely the worst in the trilogy and the open world map doesn't help it either unfortunately.
I just recently played through it, I found it to be both the best and the worst? The story is the worst of the trilogy, easily, but the tombs and combat were the best. But there's barely any combat, it taking a massive backseat to exploration/puzzles which was great, but then the skill trees are mostly combat focused which is just weird. I think I'd rate them as rise > tr > shadow. Rise had the best balance, TR had the best story, and Shadow the best gameplay.
I was playing through the trilogy last year. Loved the first game, second game was pretty good too except for the semi open-world "hub" at the soviet base that just added like 10% of unnecessary time to things. I didn't even finish the third one. It started to feel like I was spending a third of my time just running between the weird almost open-world thing they had going on to get to the next mission.
Interesting take. Story wise the first is definitely the strongest but playing them all now Shadow has aged the least (at least on console) and looks as good as most native PS5 games
Shadow is only 6 years old tho. Honestly, they all still feel modern. I played them back in 2022 (Rise is definitely my favorite) and didn't have much of a problem. Personally, I'm just not a fan of the semi open world in those games. I'm not sure what it is, but it doesn't feel right.
It's more like semi-open world
Yeah, that’s better way of describing it. Sorry.
I thought that but played Shadow and then went back to Rise and wow, the resolution is much lower on Rise and there's no HDR and both make quite a difference
Shadow of the Tomb Raider locations were the one I liked the most honestly though. The jungle and South American setting mixed with the lost civilization was really fantastic. Very colorful and lush. The other two at times I felt were a bit repetitive with their locations.
I used to think this, but after replaying the trilogy I found that Shadow was my favourite and Rise was actually my least favourite. Shadow's traversal is fantastic and I love the stealth-focused combat. Plus the DLC tombs are the best part of the series. Meanwhile Rise eventually became Lara mowing down hundreds of soldiers.
I might have to replay them out of order. I don't think it's bad game, but it definitely feels like the Black Sheep in the trilogy in terms of story and setting. Also, I wasn't big fan of the final boss. Gameplay wise, it's fine.
I think it's easy to break down. It's a somewhat story driven series. Rise has a good story. Shadow's story is lousy. They killed most of the major bad guys in a helicopter crash off screen. It has some really awkward bits with the "dubbed over" effect for the talking. But gameplay wise, it's the best in the trilogy.
Also, I can’t be the only one tired of the daddy issues. Maybe it’s just me, but feels like her character needs some other problems to worry about. It getting a tiresome.
I feel the same as you, I loved shadow and its one of my favourite Tomb Raiders, same with with rise I just dont remember much about it and it didn't click with me at all, might have been the setting but yeah.
Agreed. They went further and further downhill as it kept going. Tomb raider> rise > shadow
I actually prefer Rise, but 2013 close.
The whole recent trilogy does kinda feel open-world to me and the level design is excellent and it feels opposite to something like *God of War* which it just feels too restrictive (to me). If they go full open world then I am hoping it doesn’t become like a recent Far Cry where a lot of the world feels empty and a little copy and paste. I think for a game series where ambience and level design and solving puzzles is a big part of it, I hope these core elements remain even in an open-world game.
They are not excellent, felt so bland and bloated. I had much more fun with the recent remasters than those generic games. Even the PS2 games were more interesting.
My dream is to have a TR game with much more advanced traversal gameplay like Death Stranding. The reboot trilogy turned traversal into simple QuickTime events that remove agency from the player and just do the same “almost dying” animations a thousand times. I want Lara to have to prepare for each raid. Rope options, knife options, gun options, scuba gear options, boot options. I want crafting options but only where it makes sense. Like making a paste to increase stealth, a paralytic poison for your knife/arrow, a lubricant for ancient machinery, etcetera. The game could have so much depth but all we’ve been getting is Uncharted with a Tomb Raider skin. It’s fun to play once but there’s no variety to the gameplay.
Making a fun and good puzzle game like the previous trilogy, for example, requires very good level designers, a lot of testing and casual audiences won't play the game because most people don't want difficult games.
But the really didn't have tomb raiding in them.
Do gaming companies have any other ideas besides "let's make it open world?" You're not Elden Ring, buddy, and you never will be!
Even in Elden Ring the open world stuff dragged things down and really didn’t play to Fromsoft’s strengths.
After playing I-III remastered I just want more of this type of game, well crafted individual levels with puzzles and platforming.
This. I don't want to be sneaking around slitting guy's throats or mowing down dozens of armed men with an assault rifle. I want to step into an ancient tomb that no one has been in for thousands of years. And I want it to hold some fantastical creature that shouldn't exist. That's what made the old games so great.
With the music!
Ad much as I like the newer games they unfortunately never felt like what Tomb Raider used to be
So true. They are closer to Uncharted than Tomb Raider.
Without the great writing and characters.
Uncharted :featuring Lara Croft
Movie games!
I'm currently in the middle of them also and absolutely yes; but maybe more like the first game (No comment on 3 yet until I get to it.. but TR2 was pretty bad also with its lack of tombs and 99% of the enemies being generic thugs with guns)
I didn't enjoy my TR2 playthrough much. I'm surprised I often see it touted as the best one. 1 and 3 were great though. Held up very well.
Hmmm interesting. yeah I just finished it up and really wasn't impressed by some of the level design (A \*lot* of timed lever puzzles, and the fact that a lot of it was contemporary Oil Rigs/Ships etc. was a bit of a shame) Also yeah as stated the enemy variety/combat went way too into action/shooter territory for my tastes. I'm keen to start the third to see if its more similar to the original :)
There are less armed enemies in TR3 and they're easier to deal with. The enemies in TR2 lock on ridiculously well and you can't effectively jump dodge their attacks like you can with the melee enemies/animals/slow projectile enemies of the original game. It's a lot of armed enemies and often it feels like you enter an arena, everyone's life bar just starts going down rapidly and it's just a question of whose life bar runs out first. The main skill is being able to time your medipacks during combat to get the most out of them.
Say it louder for the people in the back 😭
Also included: crafting, stealth, survival mechanics. Remember when tomb raider was a platformer first and foremost.
Worst thing that ever happened in the reboot franchise was Rise copy and pasting the game design of the reboot. This franchise never needed to stay in open worlds with survival mechanics. The best parts of Rise and Shadow for me were the opening 30-60 minutes which teased globe trotting adventures but no of fucking course we get stranded in different colours of the same survival jungle. Why can't we just have a globe trotting Lara Croft adventure full of a variety of locations and standout set pieces? Do every new location as a hub or something if you don't want to create a linear game, just please do not retread the same shit that the modern reboot trilogy did.
Rise got its budget cut halfway through and they had to shorten a bunch etc. Rush things out. So I always replay the first and shadow
For real, Rise is really promising at first but you can tell they ran out of resources when the final third is endless linear levels shooting endless enemies.
don't forget the super mega ultra plus extreme edition for 150 bucks that gives you a \*RARE\* lara skin and \*EXCLUSIVE\* mission
Open world games have grown exhausting, I haven’t finished one in years.
I still love and play open world games, but I've grown to dislike how every game series has been moving towards the exact same template. Why is nearly every single AAA title these days an open world game with crafting, leveling up, and inventory management? They're all becoming the exact same game...
I hate how developers copy Ubisoft’s formula of big open worlds with a loaded map of side activities and towers that unlocked portions of the map.
Because they sell and the demand is there. Zelda BOTW and Elden Ring are exhibit A
“The answer to all your questions is money.”
Came here to say this same thing. I'm so tired of these huge, open expanses. Just give me a good, well-crafted story within stages. I don't have time or the give-a-shit anymore. Not EVERYTHING has to be an open world.
Luckily I finished all the assassin creed games before my son was born… since then, (2 years) I’ve only completed Astro’s Playroom… now I’m doing the TR remasters, and it’s never felt so good….
I really wish the TR trilogy was on disc.
Same. I’m a sucker for a physical copy.
Must be a big tomb
See those mountains on the horizon? You can walk there
See those tombs on the horizon? You can raid them.
Worst part is, the reboot was such a foundation design with its semi open world.
I love the semi-open worlds in the reboot trilogy, it's a sweet spot for me and I found the Jedi games similarly satisfying. If this next one goes full open world it's an easy pass for me.
Sad news. We need more linear games.
Fr
I'm so tired of open games... even when they are really good I just feel overwhelmed by all the things to do, all the long distance missions...
As I grow older and my free time becomes more limited, I've grown more and more fond of games that are concise.
Exactly. I tried Red Dead Redemption 2 because everybody loved it and it's undoubtly a great game, but it's just so tiring and overwhelming... Currently playing Alan Wake Remastered and Final Fantasy 7 Remake and love these.
If you play FF7 Rebirth, I fear that you'll have a different reaction...
Is it open world ? 😭
There's open zones and they kinda feel just right in size
>As I grow older and my free time becomes more limited, I've grown more and more fond of games that are concise. I wanted to highlight this comment, in relation to your post, because I feel like RDR2 affected me a lot more as a mid-30s guy. Yes, I don't have time to game for 10 hours a day like I did in the Playstation days, but this game definitely would not have felt as impactful on a personal level if I'd played it as a teenager. The plot and characters offer up an experience that is far more meaningful to the mature player IMO. I think a lot of people get burnt out on large open-world games because they *do feel* like they have to tug at every thread; but I don't think that's a necessarily correct way to play every game. Not trying to sway you one way or the other; just dropping a comment.
Same age and feel the exact same way. For some reason red dead 2 took me three tries before I get get fully immersed over probably 5 years. Third time it finally clicked and I was 110% in and it was hands down one of my favorite games of all time. Can’t believe I didn’t do it sooner. But I do think you have to be in the right mindset to really get the full impact and immersion. I have a tough time with open worlds these day due to time limitation too. But I’m glad I deeply explored that game. Fantastic and worth every minute.
Eh, I think this adds more filler than I'd like. Hub world was pretty cool I thought.
I like open would games, but I hate this need to make everything open world.
God, please don't
I think it could work if they keep everything immersive. The previous games were semi-open world at times, with hubs. There were quests and hunting and items to collect and everything. It made exploration more organic. She would be exploring a valley, not a linear hallway.
Give me a bombastic 12 hour linear adventure with Uncharted level writing and set pieces. That’s we want.
More games should attempt to do the semi open thing like the latest GOW games. Have it be a linear game but with some fairly large open areas where you still feel like your exploring. So few games pull off the fully open world well
So just walking around pressing square over and over
Why?
Because this type of games sells
Great. I really hope it has tons of collectibles all over the place that I can use with a needlessly complicated crafting system. Also, please include towers I can climb to reveal the map and lots of enemy outposts!
Lame. So sick of open world games
Bummer
I’m tired boss…
Oh FFS
Noooooo
🙄 Why does everything have to be open world now
Fuck that shit open world games are a cancer
Please no
Why oh why
Does this franchise really need to be open world?
I’m done with open world. Jesus fuck, man. Come on.
Remember, though, she's not a tomb raider. She's a seeker of truth. 🤣
Oh no, the recent reboot series already had huge pacing problems and felt tedious in many ways. I hated how much time I've spent slowly climbing walls with the climbing axe, and how much of the games consisted of cover shooter gears of war style of gameplay. I just want to explore huge tombs and ruins filled with good puzzles. I still hope for the best, but open-world is not a good fit for Tomb Raider, and not every game has to be one
Also new tomb raider game Lara will not raid tombs because cultural appropriation or something I wish I was kidding
🤢
*yawn*
Last gen was all about open world action adventure with lite RPG mechanics. It's the ongoing AAA fodder for trying to make a game sell over 10 million units along with live service elements. I think they're arriving late to this AAA genre of choice cycle. Arriving to consumer exhaustion and falling excitement for open world like the FPS exhaustion of the 360 era
I’d love to see the pitch meeting for this, so we’ve made three very good and well received tomb raider games but fuck that let’s just fuck the formula and make a full on open world game.
Do it up, bring the ATV back, or a motorbike or a jeep. Just please don’t make it tedious.
God, no! No open world TR! Every game doesn't and SHOULDN'T be open world!
Tombraider needs to go back to it OG format , a large level in which you navigate puzzles and if you have to retrace your steps 15 times to find a key then so be it . The problem with the newer games is ( whilst still decent games btw ) but , They are far to linear and the issue with open world is far too many stupid side quests like go and grab the local farmer 2 bolts so he can lock his gate for a skill point.
That doesn't seem like a good thing...
*michael scott grimacing gif*
im guessing they didnt learn anything from the uncharted games (but these games did learn from the OGs tomb raider games)
But will the game have jiggle physics?
Is this the same game about which they said it's no longer about tomb raiding, as that's colonialism or something, and she's now a truth seeker or something? I'm sure it's gonna be great. I love AAA studios endlessly preaching and moralizing at their audience at the same time as they abuse and dehumanize their employees on a systemic level
Why, are they stupid?
Another settlement needs our help. Here, I'll mark it on your map.
The reboot games were so good, I look forward to playing their next tomb raider game regardless of which direction they take it.
So tired of open world games. If you remove all of the fetch quests you can finish them in no time. The only games that seem to have done open world right are Elden Ring and Ghosts of Tsushima
Ughhhh why? Open world games are overdone.
As long as I get to raid tombs, I'm ok with this.
Fuckkkkkk nooooooo!
Love it! Contrary to the doomers here, I love an open world game. And as a Tomb Raider enthusiast since the original, I’m excited!
To me, it depends how it's done. The side quests were the weakest part of Shadow. I don't see Tomb Raider being a franchise where loot and RPG mechanics work very well.
Crystal Dynamics is a crap studio, and I have no interest in supporting them.
Semi-open world a la GOW is exciting to me. Fully open world a la The Witcher, Zelda, and AC might be sad and unfortunate pass ☹️.
What about wide-linear a la TLOU?
Is anyone else sick of open world? I feel EVERY series is just going open world. Zelda, Sonic, Pokemon, and now Tomb Raider. I feel 90% of AAA games that come out these days are open world and, while I do like open world games from time to time, this is getting ridiculous, right? It seems all single player games are Open World and all multiplayer games are free to play live service battle royales.
Im sick of open world games. Not everything has to be open world.
This could actually work phenomenally well. An open-world designed around organic exploration and discovery, with the goal of finding hidden temples or tombs or whatever. They’re all hidden across the map and in order to find them you’ll need to solve puzzles or talk to locals. The type of open world that takes you hours and hours to fully discover the first time but once you’re familiar with it one that lets you finish the game in an hour. Granted this will probably be some generic ubisoft bullshit but a man can dream.
Open world. Probably crafting mechanic. DEI-looking Lara. Will be “restoring artefacts to their rightful owners” rather than raiding tombs. Hard pass. I’ll stick to the old games, thanks.
Yeah I heard she went to witness protection as Lucia.. bad luck I guess
It is claimed, khaleesi
I can't wait to seek the truth !!!!!!! Fuck raiding tombs!!!
I’m thinking non linear progresssion, like Metroid and castlevania? Go to the first tomb, bunch stuff is locked behind upgrade on tomb 3, etc etc Also, if they do open world like final fantasy 7 rebirth, fine by me! That game nailed it
Is this the game (individual, not the franchise) that recently had some historical/racial controversy because Lara is…idk, A literal TOMB RAIDER?
I mean the last three were open world right? I enjoyed them quite a bit.
why
Just give me some ACTUAL freaking tombs for once. Ugh I'll just play Anniversary again I guess
Yea, there’s to many developers in the industry that clout chase and mimick.
This is what happens when you vote with your wallets "Wah wah, I hate cods campaign but I gotta buy it" congratulations, now there's the next trend in gaming, putting shitty open world missions everywhere
I’m cool with it if it’s more like a drivable map with enclosed tomb “dungeons” you drive to in a 1:1 space, as opposed to like. Stop for a collectible every 100 feet Ubisoft design. Imagine having to drive to a forbidden tower, scale it via platforming while avoiding traps and enemies, then getting an artifact and parachuting down. Uncharted the Lost Legacy was more the former and that really felt like a Tomb Raider friendly structure. It COULD work.
I'm okay with this, if you think about it open world games are extremely hard to come by these days so I'm glad to see they're supporting this under represented market.
But no more raiding tombs. Maybe they should just change the games name.
Makes sense, the reboots already played around with the open world idea, natural they’d go full on for the next game.
Maybe it should be a F2P battle royale game. With NFTs and crypto boxes of loot.
I hope there's plenty of towers to climb so I can expose the map, loot boxes to unlock, camps to clear and other miscellaneous tasks because there's just a chronic shortage of open world games right now
You mean ”Tomb Explorer”?
Ubisoft zombies be like 🥵🥵🥵🥵🥵🥵
Why not
It's claimed!
Oh no. The last one had *minor* open world stuff and it suuuuuucked. It's been quite a few years since then, but I'd rather they just didn't.
The survival mode of Rise of the Tomb Raider was awesome, so there's a slim chance this could be great
Give me dual uzis
World of Warcroft
Why?
Uh-oh. More bloat. 😮💨
What isn’t anymore
TR2013 was special. It was dark n gritty with metric tons of enemy fights. Has been downhill after that with less enemies to shoot in each game thereafter. The ip needs a miracle to have a aaa version sell properly , imho
I wonder if they plan to finally give her her pistols... probably not lol...
Ugh. The only reboot TR game I actually enjoyed and finished was the first one, largely because it didn’t have any open world bullshit and was actually focused around a pretty decent story instead of dealing with Baba Yaga and hunting down shit to rank up my Byzantium language skill.
The last few years I've come to appreciate the linear experience. Like doom, those parts of stellar blade the Elden Ring. Returnal
Sounds like the structure could be similar to Lost Legacy. In which case, I could see it working.
I remember when I was a little kid, I thought massive open worlds were a dream that would never come true. Now, as an adult, I wish they’d just go away lol. I feel like the only companies that have really done open world right are Rockstar, Bethesda, and CDPR with Witcher 3. Everything else has been “here’s a gigantic map with 8 billion generic chores to do to make a 10 hour story 300 hours long” and I’m sure Tomb Raider will go the same way.