@Balta666 Unfortunately, no one really focuses on the audio in games. And it wasn't necessarily broadly advertised that Rise of the Tomb Raider utilizes Dolby Atmos. I stumbled across it because I was looking at what games use Dolby Atmos from the official Dolby Atmos for Games page.
Gears 4 & 5 uses it but there isn't much height going on except for a few small areas.
Cyberpunk 2077 uses it, but it feels like a missed opportunity as I never felt like the verticality of the game is ever accentuate properly in Atmos.
Ori & the Will of the Wisps uses it, but when enemies are above Ori, their sound seems very faint compared to when something is to the left or right of the player.
I think the reason that Rise & Shadow have a great implementation is probably because they highlight the height channels of Dolby Atmos - it plays into the "gimmick".
Most of the other games use the height channels in a more subtle fashion to expand the soundstage (or as Dolby would put it, immerse you in the scene) rather than really use it to accentuate things above you.
But in Tomb Raider you have helicopters flying overhead, conversations of enemies about you, wind, rocks, bats, etc. all properly highlighted overhead when applicable. It's as if the sound engineers "understood the assignment" when it comes to Dolby Atmos for Games.
It really is a spectacle within itself and really brought a whole other dimension to the game.
@Balta666 Got it! If I do get the games, I’ll have to make space on my Xbox.
EDIT: Actually, I realized that the games are on Game Pass, so I might re-subscribe to Game Pass for this month and play the game! So excited to try something new.
I let my GP sub expire a while back so haven't taken part for ages. This is the first time a game has been picked that I actually have in the backlog, so I might join in this month. Good timing too, as I finished the first season of Telltale Walking Dead last week and haven't really started another game on Xbox yet.
Game finished (with 90% collectables) including Baga Yaga and Blood Lines. I am a huge fan of this series specially the first two (OG) and these also first two reboots.
I was a bit worried to play it for the first time on a controller as I tend to struggle with slow movement shooting, like with the bow, without mouse accuracy (horizon zero down I remember you...) but it was a seamless transition and was doing headshots left and right 👍. Although I still prefer the more linearity of the first this is a 10/10 game that everyone should play (now I think I will finish the prior entry for the 5th time ir so )
I just started the game today since it took too long to download and I was super busy yesterday.
I haven’t gotten far, but I’m liking it already! I’m a little bad at it as a result of not playing enough triple-A games, but I think I’ll get better at playing it as I go on. I’ll probably start the previous game once I finish Rise of the Tomb Raider for this month. I don’t plan on going the completionist route so I can complete the game faster
It's been a good few years since I played the reboot and my memory is a bit hazy about details of the game, so in a sense I'm almost going into this sequel blind. I remember liking the reboot and it being a bit like Uncharted...and that's about it. Oh, and bow and arrows - as someone that does archery in real life, I do like a game with bows and arrows!
Played a couple of hours last night and I'm really liking it. So far the opening section has consisted of a bit of backstory & plot building in the form of cutscenes, a short prologue, and a 'flashback' stage which acts as a tutorial for general controls/climbing around the terrain and some of the puzzle elements. Nothing too taxing and everything seems pretty instinctive with regards to the controls.
The map on the first 'proper' stage is a bit more open that I was expecting - it's no Red Dead Redemption or anything like that and I haven't come across any side quests etc (yet?), but I was expecting a fairly narrow, linear experience traversing terrain to get to caves etc.
There's a bit of crafting for upgrading gear - weapons and clothing - and also a skill tree for upgrading your abilities which I think might've both been in the first game, but haven't really delved to deep into those given my short play time thus far.
As well as your bow & arrows for ranged attacks, you can use melee weapons and do stealth takedowns on enemies too. I've pretty much played the first stage combat sections like an Assassins Creed game!
One thing I wasn't so keen on was the 'Survival Instinct' view which reminded me a bit of Arkham Asylum Detective Vision. I don't mind the actual option to use the ability (you can turn it off in the options I think) to highlight certain interactive object, waypoints etc, but I think the way it's been implemented is very obtrusive in that it darkens the whole screen and highlights objects in bright yellow. It kind of makes sense in Arkham games as you'd expect it to be some kind of tech that Batman has developed like night/heat vision but here it doesn't really make sense to me that Lara has a similar ability. Fair enough that her 'instincts' may lead her to important stuff, but I'd have made it a bit more subtle an not look like she had some weird tech implant or superhero ability. I don't remember if this was in the previous game, but obviously it didn't bother me as much if it was.
@dmcc0 cool deep thoughts mate 😉.
Regarding the survival instinct mode it is pretty much the same on the reboot and I actually love it lol. In general I am not someone that cares about "immersion" (for instance games without fast travel royally pisses me off) so in a way I would like for all games to have that option hehe. For example in tomb raider I tend to use it a lot when under heavy fire to make it easier to land headshots.
@Balta666 Yeah, I don't mind the actual ability but it just looks a bit jarring the way they've done it in the context of the game. I think the ability to see enemies with it must be a skill upgrade because I could only see the accessible tree branches and some item pickups etc on that first stage - don't remember seeing the enemies or animals etc - although I maybe didn't use the ability much around the enemies as they were pretty easy to spot as they were all wandering around carrying torches!
Now that you mention it, I do vaguely remember using a similar ability for head shots - could've been the reboot but equally, a similar technique is used in quite a lot of games now so could've been something else completely 😅 Sniping/headshots and stealth seems to be my preferred way of playing most games that give you the option. Arkham Asylum probably took me 3x longer than it needed to as I spent a ridiculous amount of time just watching the enemy patterns so I could take them out stealthily rather than get into a fight - despite the combat in AA being really good.
It is not easy to stay positive atm around this platform... but let's keep on for now.
As I was feeling the TR feel rushing trough my veins I immediately started Tomb Raider 2013 (in a top100 list I made a couple of years ago this game landed on No 14 spot). I know this game almost by heart as I have finished it many times and went for a 100% campaign.
It was a bit strange to play the game in the wrong order and because of that it was the first time I realized they drop quick time events for the sequel (I remembered very well that this game had them but never thought about it when playing Rise) and that Lara does not run in the game.
However I will always love the journey from prey to hunter and as the game states in the end "A survivor is born"
I won't move straight away to Shadow not because I hate it but to be able to give if a fair chance of wowing me as I felt when playing the 3 games in sequence that I was getting fatigued by the end.
@Balta666 I've had Shadow on the wishlist for so long now, but in order to stop the backlog expanding (even more) out of control I've forced myself not to buy a game from a series if I've already got one in the backlog - so Shadow has to wait until I'm done with Rise.
Back to Rise.
Up to about 5hrs play time now. It has definitely been more linear since that first fairly open stage, but there is still the occasional 'open' section which focuses on exploring the map, picking up collectibles and finding tombs. You can kind of ignore these and just follow the main campaign waypoints too though if you prefer. I've gone kind of down the middle in this regard - not rushing through to get to the next bit of the campaign, but not trying to clear every item on the map either.
There's also a bit of a 'Metroidvania' element to some sections where it's said I can't progress into a certain area of the map without upgrading gear. The various campsites dotted around the maps as you progress usually allow you to fast travel to previous camps so you can go back and clear the maps of all collectibles once you've upgraded weapons/gear. I'm hoping I can go back and do these sections post game as well as maybe do some more of the exploration stuff too.
Despite my issues with 'Survival Instincts' mode in my previous post, I've pretty much been spamming it constantly and it doesn't bother me nearly as much as it did at the start!
Overall I'm still really enjoying it, even though it's more like Assassins Creed: Lara Croft than the classic Tomb Raider games - I guess the '13 reboot was the same even though I don't really remember that much about it. Hopefully get a bit more playtime over the weekend.
@dmcc0 it is fairly different from the OGs where was more about the puzzles than the fights (at least in the early game) and here the puzzles are pretty much optional. I believe is closer to Uncharted in style, although I never played one in that series so not really sure.
Regarding going back you can definitely do after credits however there is an achievement on Xbox for solving every optional tomb puzzle prior to credits (which is fairly easy to do, as long as you explore the areas a bit before you move on)
@Balta666 The climbing and puzzle elements in Uncharted are very similar (at least the one's I've played) but Uncharted is definitely more linear and the combat is more like a cover shooter than here where stealth seems to be encouraged for the most part.
Good to know regarding being able to go back after the credits. I'm not really too bothered with Achievements or Trophies these days, so I'll probably leave it until after the credits if I do go back to explore the map. I tend to get sidetracked and I might end up losing track of what's going on in the actual story. I always find it amusing in games where the story has some time-critical element to it - like getting to the bad guy before he blows up the world or something and your character can just mooch about the map picking up crap that's just there to eek a few more hours out of the game.
@dmcc0 I totally get the feeling but I do not really play games for the immersion, I actually very much prefer when a game is full unrealistic like double jumps, carrying the world on you back, no stamina, etc.
Because of that games where you cannot do everything due to time constraints get under my skin I am afraid as I need to keep the destruction of the world waiting
For example in Mass Effect 2 (and massive spoilers for the ending) you really get pushed to go for it or face the consequences but I just ignored it and nothing happened (literally), because as I have not rushed for it nobody died and I loved that hehe
@Balta666 Yeah, I don't like actual timed stages in most games but side quests that have nothing to do with the main story don't bother me.
About 12 hours in to Rise now. On my way to try and rescue Jonah after we were reunited and then he was almost immediately kidnapped
Its definitely getting more difficult to keep to the stealthy approach at this point with some sections you just can't avoid having to shoot your way out, but there's still a good balance between the styles in my opinion and it's still so satisfying clearing out an enemy camp without being spotted. Bow and arrow head shots never get old!
I've come across a few technical glitches too - I'm playing on Series X. Had a hard crash where I've had to power off the console, and a couple of times where the game's shut down and gone back to the home screen. Latest glitch was where a cutscene paused and wouldn't continue. Pausing/resuming restarted the cutscene for a second or so and then it froze again. I did this until the end of the short cutscene then continued again briefly before the game went to another cutscene which ran smoothly this time, but with no audio. This might be an issue related to Quick Resume though, as I've never been convinced that it works very well for some games.
@dmcc0 strange regarding crashes/glitches (I had none and used quick resume everytime), not sure if the game is saved in the internal memory/expansion or in a external drive. I always try to not play games off the external to try to avoid longer load times/glitches.
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