The game was praised, with critics liking its graphics, gameplay, and characterization however, some reviewers felt that it did not take enough risks. It was revealed as a timed exclusive for Xbox 360 and Xbox One at Gamescom 2014, which sparked player outrage and criticism from the gaming press and community. Rise of the Tomb Raider was announced at E3 2014 by Microsoft Studios. Powered by the Foundation engine, the game was also developed by Eidos Montreal and Nixxes Software. Camilla Luddington returned to provide voice and motion-capture work for Lara. Rhianna Pratchett returned as the game's writer while Bobby Tahouri replaced Jason Graves as the game's composer. The team traveled to several locations in Turkey, including Cappadocia, Istanbul and Ephesus, to design Kitezh. Player feedback was considered during development, with the team reducing the number of quick time events and introducing more puzzles and challenge tombs. In these hubs she can raid challenge tombs to unlock new rewards, complete side missions, and scavenge for resources which can be used to craft useful materials.ĭevelopment of Rise of the Tomb Raider closely followed the conclusion of development of the 2013 reboot. Lara must traverse the environment and combat enemies with firearms and stealth as she explores semi- open hubs. Its story follows Lara Croft as she ventures into Siberia in search of the legendary city of Kitezh while battling the paramilitary organization Trinity, which intends to uncover the city's promise of immortality. It is the sequel to the 2013 video game Tomb Raider and the eleventh entry in the Tomb Raider series. We recommend checking out the Ambient Occlusion comparisons ( here, here and here) which might depict best case scenarios for Nvidia's HBAO+ usage but it's an impressive showing on a really great game nonetheless.Rise of the Tomb Raider is a 2015 action-adventure video game developed by Crystal Dynamics and published by Microsoft Studios and Square Enix's European subsidiary. The textures and lighting effects on the ground are greatly reduced and the city in the distance looks much more realistic with graphics maxed out.įor a more complete showcase of what each setting will do visually, Nvidia's GeForce portal has published a detailed image comparison. Granted the Medium quality is still very nice, but if you have an eye for detail then it would be hard to reduce the settings. In this instance the difference between Very High and Medium is significant. Here we see very subtle differences between High and Very High, but overall I feel Very High does look much better. The lack of ambient occlusion and texture quality can also be seen on the much darker side of the image as well. There is a significant difference between the presets and this is very noticeable when playing the game.
In the above screenshot, which compares Very High to Medium, take note at the quality of the rock ledge to the right of the screen. Lowest looks very poor and should be avoided (dropping resolution would be a better trade-off). The difference between the Low and Lowest quality preset is like night and day. The game still manages to look quite good overall. The depth of field effect is virtually gone and textures are noticeably lower now. Going from Medium to Low there are noticeable differences when playing the game though you wouldn’t think so when looking at this screenshot. In my opinion HBAO+ delivers a more realistic looking image and in the top left side of the above images you can notice a tree and a snowy rock face, this is where the difference can be easily seen.įrom High to Medium there doesn't seem to be a huge difference to the world but textures are certainly more detailed in High. The most noticeable difference in the above screenshots is the difference between Nvidia’s HBAO+ (Horizon Based Ambient Occlusion) and the developers' in-house SSAO technique dubbed ‘Broad Temporal Ambient Obscurance’ (BTAO). Moreover, even the highest quality YouTube footage just doesn't come close to what you will experience firsthand.
Keep in mind that comparing the various quality presets in still imagery doesn't the game justice and many of the visuals aren't fully realized. For the most part, Medium graphics quality doesn't look bad compared to High and Very High, with the biggest difference seen in the textures that look a bit ghastly in some comparisons.