Occasionally the screen would even show dots of rain as if I was watching it through a camera lens. I heard birds chirping around me as I walked through the Siberian wilderness, voices of enemies in the distance to alert me of their presence and gusts of wind mixed with sounds of dripping water as I entered caves. The cinematic soundtrack brought me back to the earlier Tomb Raider games with its use of drums, and the sound effects complement it. In particular, when you shoot a series of arrows into a wooden wall and jump between them, her movements really do reflect the awkward positioning of the arrows and how difficult it would be to climb. With so many different ways to traverse terrain, it does a great job at making her movements appear fluid and intentional. Also, a huge variety of weaponry (with dozens of upgrades) is reflected on her person as she changes her equipment. Lara herself has many appearances that change depending on the outfit that you select. There's a painstaking amount of detail in the elaborate underground tombs, damp forests, snowy mountains, neglected soviet gulags and small villages that you wander through. I don't often find myself standing still and just looking at scenery in a game, but I couldn't help it this time. Visually, Rise of the Tomb Raider is stunning. Without giving away too much, a small disappointment is that parts of the ending seemed to be a carbon copy of the previous Tomb Raider game. What gave an interesting energy to the plot was an atmosphere of impending war and a large group of people who were fighting for the same cause as Lara. Overall, I found the story more interesting than previous installments and thankfully less gruesome (there's no wading through pools of blood surrounded by skulls in this one). She makes a friend in a derelict Siberian prison camp and goes on to assist his people that happen to have the same enemy as her. Joined with her good friend Jonah (also from 2013's Tomb Raider), Lara is chased by a group known as Trinity and their leader Konstantin.

She is on the hunt for an artifact called the Divine Source which is said to bring eternal life.

Rise of the Tomb Raider takes our heroin Lara Croft through a short stint in Syria and then on to the bulk of the adventure in the snowy mountains of Siberia.

Now that she's exploring tombs again, it's time to grab my dual pistols, slip into my cargo shorts and let the raiding begin! If there's one thing Lara loves, it's fiddling with ancient contraptions I was smitten with Lara's adventures ever since I played Tomb Raider III and I've anticipated every sequel since. Rise of the Tomb Raider is also available for PS4 / PSVR and Xbox 360 Reviewed by Mary Billington playing an Xbox One on January 17, 2016

Rise of the tomb raider review