During my summer break after completing my spring classes I decided to try to do a few activities: learning Russian, dog training, housesitting, and finally finishing Rise of the Tomb Raider. This game is the second of the survivor trilogy and it left an odd taste in my mouth.
The first of this trilogy, just called Tomb Raider, came out in 2013 and it as the first Tomb Raider game I had ever played, although I knew of the series already from the movies and just the games existing. I played it religiously on my Xbox and was practically in love with this version of Lara Croft. I was a young teen back then, and now that I am an adult I finally have my own resources to buy the rest of the survivor trilogy: Rise of the Tomb Raider and Shadow of the Tomb Raider. The reason why I am writing a post about Rise is because of its setting, plot, and tropes.
When I was sifting through the DLC I noticed an outfit called “Siberian Ranger,” this got me thinking that maybe the game would be set somewhere in Russia, obviously in Siberia. I was right. Immediately I was cautious and even a bit worried but I played through trying to keep a realistic amount of optimism that hopefully the game wouldn’t succumb to Russophobia, or god forbid any anti-Soviet sentiment if there was anything related to the USSR. Well imagine my surprise when a good chunk of the game is spent exploring and raiding old Soviet installations and even a small Gulag. I was extremely hesitant but pushed forward and once again hoped that the game would be at the very least neutral towards the Soviets. At first I thought I was right.
When I first came across the Soviet installations, a logging camp and mine, things were fairly okay. There were crests everywhere to read, increasing Russian language proficiency, and when she would read them Lara would make a comment like “Soviet propaganda,” or “more propaganda,” in which she would then read it out loud. Her tone was neutral or intrigued, but most of the crests would talk about working through nights and hunger, some even gave hope of freedom through work (sound familiar?). The only one that was fine was a crest saying “Lenin Lived, Lenin Lives, Lenin will live forever.” If you want to see what all the crests said in detail then just search up “Rise of the Tomb Raider soviet crests” and there will be a fandom wiki where it lists all of them including Lara’s comments.
With these crests and as you proceed through the Soviet areas things get worse pretty quickly. The Soviets are depicted as having been brutal invaders who treated their prisoners incredibly poorly. They would enslave innocent Natives, including women and children, entire families, for the purpose of building their railway, digging in the mines, and competing with the West. As you explore the logging camp there are sleeping areas for the prisoners in which every bed is caged in. I do not mean prison cells, I mean every bunk had caged walls, so prisoners would be essentially entombed in their bed until released to work their lives away. Again, the Natives are described as innocent, they committed no real crimes yet the Soviets imprisoned them anyway.
Not all prisoners were Natives and this is talked about in documents left by the Soviets and Natives. It builds a narrative of a growing resistance movement to overthrow the oppressive Reds, and this rebellion was successful as proven by the corpses of soviet soldiers strewn around, all skeletons in uniforms. When you enter the area with train cars and a large building you have to scale, fighting a million enemies as it burns to the ground, the entrance gate has Soviet skeletons hanging on it as a grim form of decoration or message, most likely strung up by the prisoners.
The gulag is small and not nearly as terrible as Lara narrates it as. This sounds horrible for me to say but it was mainly just a bunch of wooden buildings encased in barbed wire fence. Lara is captured by the main bad guys, Trinity, and is imprisoned there with a Native named Jacob. Lara and Jacob manage to escape together and while making their way through the gulag Jacob will narrate how his people were treated so poorly by the invading Soviets and now by Trinity, making parallels between the two. While he talks you can turn on a slide show that shows a bunch of photos taken at the gulag, in which Jacob will continue on about the horrors his people faced. They really push this idea of the Soviets being ruthless colonizers. Just like Trinity.
Trinity is a weird cult/organization that has existed since ancient times. They are hyper religious and were hunting down a prophet, an immortal man that defied the rules of their God. The Natives talked about and encountered through the game are followers of this immortal prophet. The prophet is immortal due to this thing called the Divine Source, something the Natives, also called the Remnant, will protect fiercely. The Soviets were not privy to this Divine Source until later and by that point the Remnant wiped them out. Trinity is also after the Source and Lara has to stop them. I explain Trinity’s whole deal to show who the game is comparing the Soviets to. It’s not great.
Like its predecessor, Rise has optional challenges that can be completed for EXP. Two of these challenges are called “Capture the Flag” and “Difference of Opinion.” The flag challenge has to do with the many USSR flags strewn around the installation. The point of the challenge is to cut down every Soviet flag found, this can only be done once finding the knife. The opinion challenge has to do with Soviet propaganda posters hanging up on walls everywhere, many depicting cosmonauts and Lenin. The challenge is completed by burning all the posters, this can be done with Molotov cocktails and/or fire arrows. These are just more forms of anticommunism that plague this game.
Now, why did I mention the noble savage trope in the title? Because the Remnant, also known as the Natives, somewhat embody this trope in the way they are framed against the technologically “superior” Trinity and Soviets. The Remnant themselves do not use any form of modern technology, except radios, and they do not wear modern clothes either except for Jacob, their leader. Now this is not an issue, I know people in real life subscribe to this, living without much of modern tech and that is fine. It is the way this is juxtaposed against the antagonists, people who the Soviets are compared to, where the trope becomes more evident. Not only that, but they are not specific at all. Notice how they are only called the Natives? They have no real resemblance to any native Siberian group at all.
The Remnant are confusing as well in their origins as they seem to be from Syria, but their documents and other collectibles are in Greek. The ancient Remnant collectibles are in Mongolian, but I do not recall any Remnant documents in Russian. The only real flaw to the Remnant is that they are initially hostile to Lara’s existence but rely on her heavily once she proves to be an ally against Trinity. It is odd to me how they are shown to be opposites of the Soviets, not being able to work together. They are opposing forces, an oppressor that must be defeated.
More can be somewhat learned about the relationship between the Soviets and remnant in the Baba Yaga DLC. This DLC follows three people: Nadia, her grandpa Ivan, and grandmother Serafima who is supposed to be dead, but spoiler alert grandma is actually Baba Yaga. Ivan is a ex-Soviet soldier who fell in love with one of the prisoners, Serafima, and runs away with her. That does not last as she is taken and killed by Baba Yaga. Ivan makes a vow to get vengeance and heads off to kill Baba Yaga, because he is missing Nadia asks Lara for help in finding him and defeating the witch. The game treats Baba Yaga as her mythological, supernatural form, as Lara suffers from hallucinations brought on by pollen from a flower.
You get to fight some pretty cool battles because of these drug trips. One of the fights you have to survive a bunch of spooky wolves while Baba Yaga commands the area with her walking house. A house that is revealed to just be a gondola. Long story short you find an antidote for the drug trips but are unable to take another dose before the final battle thus having to fight the witch in her floating cauldron. The witch is revealed to be Serafima, who was a researcher enslaved by the Soviets to conduct, well, research. Serafima details severe abuse dealt out by the Soviets against the prisoners, her included, and she decides to use the hallucinogenic pollen against them. She also attacks because she believed the Soviets killed her husband. Her diaries that can be found detail all of this and it was just more of the same “Soviets are evil” stuff. Nothing new from what the game has given thus far.
The game itself was fine in terms of mechanics and gameplay. It felt similar to the first but the story was lacklustre. Maybe my judgement is clouded by the anti-Soviet sentiment sewn through its narrative, but I do not seem to be the only one who felt the same. I was interested in the beginning, regarding the Syrian campaign (a brief flashback tomb raid, but it was fun) and the history of the prophet and ancient trinity, but it just got super boring once exploring the Soviet installation and the rest of the Siberian wilderness. The beginning was, again, interesting, especially that first bear fight and stealth killing trinity goons in the forest, but it just dragged on as the game continued.
The tropes were annoyingly obvious and decisions made by characters were frustrating, drawing out an already predictable story. The side-quests weren’t even that good either. What saved it for me was those beginning areas of gameplay, the mystery (at first), the tombs, exploration (in some areas), and the final boss fight. I actually dealt the final blow with a tin can. You are able to craft them into an explosive but instead of that I just threw it at the guy and he died in the most dramatic way possible. It was hilarious.
I still love Tomb Raider from a gameplay view and it has honestly inspired me to work out. I want to be able to shoot arrows, fight, and climb things like Lara. I know it is probably silly that a video game makes me want to get more active but it gives me a “tangible” goal to work towards which is something I need. I wanna be tomb raider without the raiding because that is unethical as hell. Also, as someone who is working towards becoming a Historian (I do not feel comfortable calling myself one just yet), the actual history that is found in these games, through the artifacts found, is really nice.
In conclusion, I am glad I finished this game and I look forward to Shadow of the Tomb Raider, the final instalment of the survivor trilogy.
Broke my heart seeing the news this morning. Such an inspiring comrade and amazing historian. He is now in the Great Lecture Hall in the Sky.