Rise of the Tomb Raider: 20 Year Celebration is coming to PlayStation 4 this fall and will celebrate the 20th anniversary of the franchise, Square Enix announced today.
Launching October 11th, Rise of the Tomb Raider: 20 Year Celebration will finally be released for Sony’s console. In their press release, Square detailed out all that this version entails. This includes “the award-winning Rise of the Tomb Raider game, a completely new story chapter entitled “Blood Ties”, new co-op Endurance gameplay, PlayStation VR support for “Blood Ties”, all of the previously released DLC, more outfits, weapons, and Expedition Cards. The Limited Edition of the game will also feature a limited edition art book.”
Not to fear, however, as Xbox One and PC will also be able to get this extra content as well, minus VR support. It’s all included in the Season Pass so if you’ve already purchased said pass, you will get all the extras for free. Square Enix did specify that “moving forward the existing Season Pass will be updated to include the new content”.
That being said, the PlayStation 4 version of Rise of the Tomb Raider: 20 Year Celebration will not have a season pass. This is because all the content in the game will be already be included.
The new single-player story chapter, “Blood Ties” opens up Croft Manor to gamers once again. Lara’s uncle contests ownership of the manor and she must find proof of inheritance through the expansive estate or lose everything. Also included here is “Lara’s Nightmare”, a replayable mode where you explore a haunted Croft Manor. You must overcome different challenges and, of course, fight zombies! Both of these modes support PlayStation VR and will allow players to play in first-person for the first time in the franchise’s history.
Another new addition to the franchise coming with Rise of the Tomb Raider: 20 Year Celebration is a co-op expansion to Endurance mode. “Two players must team up to survive the harsh elements by day, as well as lethal threats from enemies by night. Fire takes fuel, food restores health, and every resource must be hunted, collected, or crafted. Battle to the top of the leaderboards, as others try to beat your longest survival run.”
Along with these major content updates, Rise of the Tomb Raider: 20 Year Celebration is going to host a number of extras. These include outfits, skins and difficulty settings. Outfits will include a totally remade winter outfit from Tomb Raider III. Also available is the returning ability to play as classic, blocky Lara. That's not all, though! Instead of just one version, four other classic models from the other classic Tomb Raider titles will be playable.
Square Enix also granted another fan request and added the Extreme Survivor difficulty setting. This increases the difficulty further and even removes all checkpoints. The only way to save is to forage enough materials to build a campfire and all saves are manual.
In addition, Rise of the Tomb Raider: 20 Year Celebration will be receiving all the DLC released prior. This includes “the three hour story addition Baba Yaga: The Temple of the Witch, Cold Darkness Awakened in which players must combat waves of infected predators, 12 DLC outfits, 7 DLC weapons, over 35 Expedition Cards, and more.”
Finally, Square Enix is hosting its own scavenger hunt for all you tomb raiders out there! Touting such prices as an ATV, Tomb Raider-skinned PS4s and even a grand prize of an Arctic adventure, this scavenger hunt means business! You can visit the Scavenger Hunt homepage, which offers trivia, photos and social challenges weekly. These do two things: they give you expedition cards for Rise of the Tomb Raider and they also earn you sweepstakes entries. Check it out! With all that said, Rise of the Tomb Raider: 20 Year Celebration will launch on Playstation 4 on October 11, 2016 for $60. You can preorder the game now from Gamestop and from Square Enix's online store. Happy anniversary, Lady Croft!
Quick Take
The wording of "updating season pass" makes it seem like the price might rise soon. As TechRaptor previously reported, this has happened before with popular games such as Fallout 4. If you’re interested, it may be a good idea to buy the pass now.
