‘Rise of the Tomb Raider’ PlayStation VR Experience ‘Blood Ties’ Detailed

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Rise of the Tomb Raider (2015) launches for PlayStation 4 on October 11th and with it comes an exclusive PSVR experience called ‘Blood Ties’.

While Rise of the Tomb Raider launched on Xbox One in 2015 and PC early this year, the 20 Year Celebration edition of the game is headed to PlayStation 4 in October, featuring all DLC released for the game to date as well as the new Blood Ties mission which can be played on a standard screen or with PlayStation VR, according to the official PlayStation Blog. Blood Ties will have players exploring Croft Manor:

In the wake of her father’s death, Lara’s uncle challenges her ownership of Croft Manor. Lara is determined to reclaim her legacy and prove that she is the rightful heir, but to do that she will need to confront her past head on. Explore Lara’s childhood home in an hour of new Story Mode gameplay, and uncover a family mystery that will change her life forever.

The PlayStation Blog calls the Rise of the Tomb Raider PSVR experience a “purely explorative piece of content.” Unfortunately it sounds that the action-oriented variant called ‘Lara’s Nightmare’, which involves killing supernatural ghouls in the mansion, is not compatible with PlayStation VR.

rise-of-the-tomb-raider-blood-ties-playstation-vr

Rise of the Tomb Raider Blood Ties on PlayStation VR has two different virtual reality control schemes, according to the PlayStation Blog. The first, Free Mode, gives you fairly standard stick-based movement. The second, Comfort Mode, lets you teleport around by placing a figure of Lara where you want to move and then pressing a button to appear there; the Comfort Mode also enables comfort-turning which causes controller rotation to snap in increments, both known techniques for allowing more comfortable virtual rotation and movement.

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Both control schemes use the PS4 controller rather than PlayStation Move. Still, thanks to the tracked controller, you can pick up objects inside the Manor and manipulate them by rotating the controller in your hand. In dark places you’ll also be able to wield the PS4 controller like a flashlight, pointing it where you want to look, the blog says.

Rise of the Tomb Raider: 20 Year Celebration launches on October 11th with PlayStation VR launching on October 13th.

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Ben is the world's most senior professional analyst solely dedicated to the XR industry, having founded Road to VR in 2011—a year before the Oculus Kickstarter sparked a resurgence that led to the modern XR landscape. He has authored more than 3,000 articles chronicling the evolution of the XR industry over more than a decade. With that unique perspective, Ben has been consistently recognized as one of the most influential voices in XR, giving keynotes and joining panel and podcast discussions at key industry events. He is a self-described "journalist and analyst, not evangelist."
  • VRgameDevGirl

    Almost makes me want a psvr!!!

    • Kaldar8215

      do u have it yet?

  • Moose

    Haha. Xbox logo flashing in at first.

    • Ben Berry Balthazar

      HAHAHA that was a sneaky good catch, my friend!

  • Sky Castle

    I really want a PSVR, but it’s pretty clear there will not be any full AAA VR games for awhile. Resident Evil 7 is the only full VR game but I heard it’s coming to other VR devices too. I know development takes time, but I already have a Vive and Rift so there’s nothing Sony is offering that makes me must run out to buy their HMD.

  • djkoz78

    Typical… Let’s make the VR part of the game the worst and most boring part. Thanks everyone for purchasing a $400 piece of equipment so we can give you a bunch of shitty short experiences and charge you an arm and a leg and since it has VR in the title we expect a pass for terrible and boring game design.

  • artrock

    i think the ps vr is epic and i own one , just hoping gta , mafia , far cry release patched for vr play