Preview: Hands-on with Rise of the Tomb Raider's first few hours (spoiler free)

[Windows Central]

Sharing a launch window with Fallout 4, Halo 5 and CoD: Black Ops 3, it's probably fair to say Rise of the Tomb Raider is a bit of an underdog.
For the time being, Rise of the Tomb Raider is a Xbox One exclusive, a fact that's proven somewhat controversial. Over a year since that announcement, Tomb Raider's developer still receives angry tweets for "betraying" the iconic franchise to Microsoft, which rose to the fore as a Playstation system-seller back in the 90s. Tomb Raider's current owner, Square Enix, spoke of their "disappointment" in the sales of Crystal Dynamics' 2013 reboot. As a result, hopes for a sequel seemed thin.

Despite a disappointing financial year, Square Enix did greenlight a Tomb Raider follow up, resolving to restructure the way the company finances "Triple A" titles. Whether that apparent anxiety led to the joint-funding deal with Microsoft will likely remain a secret. However, given what I've seen in Rise of the Tomb Raider's first few hours, even the most voracious elements of the anti-Xbox crowd might find themselves thanking Microsoft for stepping in.

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