As you will have understood, the purpose of this PC test is not to return to the content and the very substance of the game, since the subject was already covered by Maxime last November. For all that concerns the gameplay and the scenario, we therefore refer you to the test of the Xbox One version. For our part, we are going to focus on the technical aspect of this port which, as much to say right away, follows in the footsteps of the 2013 reboot and therefore knows how to flatter the ego as well as the graphics cards of PC gamers. Both superior to 2013's Tomb Raider PC and the Xbox One version of Rise of the Tomb Raider, the visual quality is very high. This is especially true in the most confined spaces, which display extremely realistic light displays and allow you to admire detailed textures up close. All this is all the more significant as we are now free of the 30 frames per second limitation previously imposed by the relative power of Microsoft's console. As long as you have an honest configuration, you will easily reach 60 frames per second. And with a war machine, you can even experience 4K resolution to top it all off.
GOOD OR GOOD ?
In any case, be aware that the graphic options are numerous and configurable enough for everyone to find a good compromise between graphic quality and fluidity on their own machine. There are indeed nearly twenty different settings, some of which can even be set to four distinct quality levels. From antialiasing (which limits staircase and flickering effects) to softened shadows, including reflections or depth of field, there is plenty to do. Among the most emblematic visual improvements of this PC version is ambient occlusion, which offers more contrasting scenes thanks to the addition of shadows on nearby surfaces (typically, a corner of the wall for example). You can also count on tessellation, which adds a lot of relief to certain floors and walls, the stones then really taking on volume. Dynamic foliage allows vegetation to move believable as Lara passes or in the wind. And the increased level of detail increases the geometry of the most distant objects, which are then more numerous (in particular the elements of vegetation) and more detailed (the buildings). By combining all these graphic options, we obtain an image quality worthy of the best PC productions, including those exclusive to this platform blessed by the gods. But Rise of the Tomb Raider also has a very specific asset: Lara's hair, driven by the PureHair algorithm (which replaces the TressFX of Tomb Raider 2013).
But let's not sulk our pleasure because, in the end, we are dealing today with a quality port, which is perfectly at ease on our computers and whose graphics greatly surpass those of the Xbox One.
On PC, you can deactivate the effect (hair managed in one block), activate it (hair managed individually) or switch it to Very High mode. The latter increases the number of hairs managed simultaneously, thus enhancing the volume of Lara's hairstyle and its realism. Very nice but not necessarily revolutionary, this effect still has a slightly too significant impact on performance compared to what it brings. Unless you have a particular hair fetish and/or a competition machine, you will therefore avoid the highest level of settings. Let's end this overview of the specifics of the PC version by specifying that the keyboard/mouse couple is perfectly managed by the game. On the other hand, the two-month delay compared to the temporary exclusivity on Xbox does not entitle us to any preferential treatment for downloadable content. While Baba Yaga: The Temple of the Witch DLC is releasing today on Microsoft consoles, it is not included in the PC version of Rise of the Tomb Raider. And it will also be necessary to go back to the checkout for all the next content to come. For their part, PS4 players may be entitled to an "ultimate edition" at the end of the year in compensation for the twelve months of waiting... But let's not sulk our pleasure because, in the end, we are dealing from today we have a quality port today, which is perfectly at ease on our computers and whose graphics greatly surpass those of the Xbox One. That's the main thing!
