Lara Croft really didn’t have to worry about eating or staying warm in the main portion of Rise of the Tomb Raider. Oh, she got cold sometimes but you knew it wasn’t going to kill her. But, in the new Endurance add-on for her latest game, Lara Croft can freeze to death or die if she hasn’t eaten for a while. Like she doesn’t have enough to worry about.
Debuting today as a $13.45 extra, Endurance Mode doubles down on the scavenging aspect that is one of Rise of the Tomb Raider‘s main mechanical pillars. The new mode drops players in the game’s harshest environments with scant resources and forces them to keep Lara fed and warm while also trying to hunt down as many artefacts as she can. Wolves, bears and armed human enemies are still in the mix, too, all of which means that Endurance is the game’s toughest challenge so far.
You can see the basics of the mode in the tutorial above. Essentially, food and warmth act as separate timed resources that need to be periodically replenished. If either one of them runs all the way down, then Lara croaks. You still need to harvest the resources for weapon ammunition as well, making the whole affair feel a lot more tense than usual. As with the other missions available in the Expeditions menu, you can use cards that change up specific variables to make things different each time you play.
I definitely found myself playing it too safe in my first Endurance expedition. Instead forging out bravely in search of crypts, artefacts and enemies to take out, I kept on looping back to the shelter I found to light a fire and keep Lara warm. I knew that there were other campsites and structures that would help keep her alive but wasn’t sure I’d keep her viable enough to make it to one of those. I had fun with my first quick taste of Endurance Mode today and wasn’t even nauseated at the idea of one of gaming’s most iconic characters chomping down raw squirrel meat. Go, Lara.
Comments
10 responses to “Lara Croft Can Starve To Death In Rise Of The Tomb Raider’s Newest Mode”
Isnt this a feature that could of sold more on launch day if it was in the game in the first place?
I’d love to play a proper survival game built on this engine. None of the plot or bad guys, just a big map full of places to explore while attempting to call/wait for rescue. Sort of like the first Dead Rising.
The Long Dark Tomb Raider?
Um… “Ride” of the Tomb Raider? No one? 😛
Options are DLC now? $13 DLC?
They are if enough people pay for them – companies are constantly trying to get the most money for the least effort from us.
Sure, but that’s not their fault. It’s ours as gamers. If people keep on buying DLC like this, it’ll become the norm.
This sounds like a fun mode. A little unreasonable to charge for it via DLC though. Perhaps a better price point at least would be better.
Man, this sounds awesome — like the sort of thing I’d want to see in a new Turok game, but I can definitely see the fit here as well.
I disliked the TR reboot because it was an Uncharted-esque quicktimey hold-forward-while-everything-around-you-collapses affair — not to mention a whole lot of tiresome, out-of-place dude-killing — but for some reason I always *wanted* Crystal Dynamics to find success with rebooted Lara, and it seems like Rise is really playing up the aspects that I’m interested in. I’ll have to get this soon.
fuck off paying for what should have been a game mode from launch.