If you have the ability to play Rise of the Tomb Raider in Dolby Atmos (either through a home theater or via Dolby Atmos for Headphones) then DO SO! This game was practically designed around it. Best Dolby Atmos - or 3D Audio for that matter - in any video game I have ever played.
@ralphdibny hahaha you're right as minesweeper is eternal!! From the trilogy my favourite is easily the 2013 reboot (in my top 20) and Shadow is the only game I played just once and it felt a bit too bloated imo. I prefer the more linear approach.
@Pastellioli if you have never played the reboot trilogy it is fairly easy to get for cheap on PC, Xbox or playstation nowadays and are fantastic games.
@GamingFan4Lyf interesting š§. I have played this game quite a few times and never heard about it (also I don't have a home theatre setting). I will give it a go on the headset!
@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, Iāll 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 š. 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 havenāt gotten far, but Iām liking it already! Iām a little bad at it as a result of not playing enough triple-A games, but I think Iāll get better at playing it as I go on. Iāll probably start the previous game once I finish Rise of the Tomb Raider for this month. I donāt 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 š.
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 š 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.
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Topic: Pure Xbox Game Club - Rise of the Tomb Raider (May)
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