Android Gamer: Tomb Raider is now live on Nvidia’s GeForce Now game-streaming service

Details: Published on Thursday, 18 February 2016 08:03; Written by Andy Dyer

Nvidia just launched Tomb Raider (2013) onto their cloud-based streaming service GeForce Now, and it's available for GeForce Now members to play for free on their Shield device of choice. In other words, it isn't one of those games you can purchase at a premium price on GeForce Now.

Reboots are rarely pulled off with as much flair as 2013’s Tomb Raider, a game that takes us back to the origins of Lara Croft and the chain of events that transformed her from fresh-faced archaeology graduate to gritty adventurer.

Tomb Raider drops players on a mysterious island off the coast of Japan where Lara and a team of explorers and scientists have been shipwrecked. The island is thought to be Yamatai, the former home of a great kingdom ruled over by Queen Himiko who is said to possess the power to control the weather. As the story kicks off, Lara has been separated from her traveling companions and must try to relocate them while surviving the island’s numerous hazards.

Although there is a single linear storyline threaded through the game, this is a more open adventure than seen in Lara’s previous outings. In between the completion of key narrative missions you can travel freely around the island, and take on various side quests including finding relics and documents hidden throughout the game.

As is traditional in the Tomb Raider series the action plays out in a third person perspective and there are various different key elements to the gameplay. When it comes to exploration, Lara’s unusually high level of athletic agility enables her to navigate the environment effortlessly, stringing together several moves in one fluid action. Plus, she can set up temporary ziplines to rapidly traverse difficult areas.

Combat is a pleasing mix of short- and long-range weapons action, close physical combat and the option to perform stealth kills. There’s also a Survival Instinct ability (not unlike Assassin’s Creed’s Eagle Vision) that allows Lara to detect enemies and highlight objects that are important to solving a particular puzzle.

The game also includes some role-playing elements. By performing well in missions you can accrue points that can be used to upgrade Lara’s abilities. Plus, you can even use discarded objects to enhance and upgrade your own arsenal of weapons.

So, if you are a Lara Croft/Tomb Raider fan, and happen to own a Shield device, you now have another option for playing Tomb Raider. For those of you still not familiar with this service, GeForce Now is Nvidia’s recently launched cloud-gaming service that streams a library popular PC games to Shield devices. There's currently just over 50 titles so far that are available. Plus, members have the option to buy new game releases and play them instantly. Membership is free for the first 90 days, then $7.99 per month.

GeForce Now: Tomb Raider (2013)