20 Years Celebration Spotlight: Rise of the Tomb Raider

As announced a while ago, ROTTR Web will celebrate the 20th anniversary of Lara Croft and Tomb Raider by (among other things) walking down the Tomb Raider memory lane with you! In the spotlight today: Rise of the Tomb Raider!

Introduction:
Rise of the Tomb Raider is the eleventh action-adventure game in the Tomb Raider series, developed by Crystal Dynamics and published by Square Enix exclusively for Xbox 360 and Xbox One in November 2015. It is the sequel to the rebooted Tomb Raider from 2013. In January 2016, the game was released for Microsoft Windows too, and in October 2016 for PlayStation 4 as a special edition of the game called ‘20 Year Celebration‘, including all previously released DLC and new story content.
The game focuses on survival and combat similar to TR 2013, but there’s also a strong focus on exploring the beautiful environments Lara crosses when she travels to Siberia in search of the legendary city of Kitezh. Contrary to TR 2013, a stronger focus is set on Tombs again, as the player can find an increased number of Tombs, which are also made larger and more puzzling.
Furthermore, three new story chapter DLC’s were added throughout the year: Baba Yaga: The Temple of the Witch, Cold Darkness Awakened and, with the release of the 20 Year Celebration edition, Blood Ties & Lara’s Nightmare.
ROTTR was well received by critics and fans and it was the best-selling Xbox One game during Christmas week, and had sold over one million copies by the end of 2015. The game won several awards.

Music:
The soundtrack for Rise of the Tomb Raider was composed by Bobby Tahouri. Crystal Dynamics have put the full soundtrack for free download on SoundCloud!

Also worth mentioning is the song “I Shall Rise“, produced in collaboration with Yeah Yeah Yeahs frontwoman and Academy Award-nominated musician Karen O, written and recorded explicitly for Rise of the Tomb Raider, exploring Lara Croft’s relentless journey as she tests the limits of the human spirit.

Did you know..? Trivia Facts:
– Fun Fact: This official Tomb Raider fansite was founded inspired by Rise of the Tomb Raider. The author and webmaster wasn’t really happy with the rebooted Tomb Raider in 2013, as she grew up with the classic games and the classic version of Lara Croft. With the release and awesomeness of ROTTR, she ‘found peace’ with the rebooted games and so she came up with this fansite, that became official in January this year.
– Camilla Luddington again provided motion capture and voice for Lara Croft.
– At the title screen of the game, among all the articles of newspaper clippings, there is one with the main article in bold saying “University Shooting Leaves 8 Dead, 10 Wounded.” This is a reference to the novel “Tomb Raider: The Ten Thousand Immortals” written by Dan Abnett & Nik Vincent. The novel is about the journey that Lara goes through between the first game and second game where she helps save her friend Sam Nishimura from the ordeal on the island of Yamatai.
– Charles Halford who voices Konstantin in the game, portrays Constantine’s loyal friend Chas in the recent TV show Constantine, which ran for 13 episodes.
– Initially there weren’t any plans to bring Rise of the Tomb Raider to previous generation consoles, but after Nixxes Software was able to get the game running smoothly on Xbox 360 hardware with some assets they attained, it was decided a previous generation port was feasible.
– This game was originally an X-Box One exclusive, release on November 10, 2015. A Windows version was released on January 28, 2016. For the Playstation 4 release, a special version was made to celebrate the franchises’ 20th Anniversary. This version included all downloadable content for the game, including special “skins” which enabled the player to have Lara appear as her earlier versions. Also included was a new mission, Blood Ties, that used the Playstation VR.
– It was accidentally revealed at the 2015 Gamescon that a third game in the rebooted franchise is in development.
– In the Croft Manor chapter “Blood Ties”, among the many letters you can find in the manor, some of them are written by Winston, the butler of the Croft family. In one of his letters, he describes an incident where Lara, as a young girl, lured and locked him into the refrigerator room. This is a reference to Tomb Raider II, where it is possible to lock Winston in such a room. In that game, you can freely roam the Croft Manor and explore things or climb obstacles, while Winston constantly follows the player slowly with a tray. However, players of the game became frequently annoyed by the butler and the sound his tray was making. As a result, players locked him in the refrigerator so they can walk through the manor without any distractions.

HD Conceptual Artworks: