When comparing Just Cause 3 vs Rise of the Tomb Raider, the Slant community recommends Rise of the Tomb Raider for most people. In the question“What are the best single player games on PS4?” Rise of the Tomb Raider is ranked 31st while Just Cause 3 is ranked 66th. The most important reason people chose Rise of the Tomb Raider is:
In Rise of the Tomb Raider there are 9 optional tombs that serve as large scale environmental puzzles. They all rely on you reading the environment carefully. For example, one of them is a wooden ship frozen vertically on the wall of an ice cavern. The puzzle is reaching the treasure at the top of the ship. It might seem really hard at first, but if you carefully look at the environment you'll find a path. Solving one of these puzzles is really fun, especially because you get an upgrade from them.
Specs
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Pros
Pro A really fun way of getting around
To explore have a wide selection of vehicles available to you, including bikes, sports cars, tanks, helicopters, and airplanes. However, all of the vehicles combined are nowhere near as fun as the combination of your grapple gun, wingsuit, and parachute. This combination gives you one of the most fun open-world traversal methods to date. You use the wingsuit for gliding, the parachute for gaining height and accurate steering while the grappling hook helps you latch onto various vehicles such as helicopters. It takes a while to get used to, but once you do, you'll probably not look back at regular vehicles.
Pro Entertaining over-the-top action
Just Cause 3 is all about going crazy in its open world environment. To help with this, your character has a wide variety of weapons, including assault rifles, rocket launchers, and even a limitless supply of C4 explosives.
You can stand on top of a plane as it flies over an enemy base and rain down fire and death down on it with your RPG. Or you can attach a C4 charge to everything you see, and watch the world's most colorful fireworks simulator. You even have a grapple gun that allows you to perform various hilarious shenanigans. This includes connecting two helicopters with a rope, causing them to spin out and tangle into a massive explosion.
Whatever you decide to do, it's guaranteed to be over-the-top action goodness.
Pro Massive open world
The total area of JC3 is 400 square miles (1,000 km2), which makes its world one of the largest in gaming. You can explore rural settlements, military bases, grassy plains, dense forests, damp subterranean caverns, and even snowy mountains. There's so much to explore it almost never feels like there's an end to it.
Pro Challenging but fair optional puzzles
In Rise of the Tomb Raider there are 9 optional tombs that serve as large scale environmental puzzles. They all rely on you reading the environment carefully.
For example, one of them is a wooden ship frozen vertically on the wall of an ice cavern. The puzzle is reaching the treasure at the top of the ship.
It might seem really hard at first, but if you carefully look at the environment you'll find a path. Solving one of these puzzles is really fun, especially because you get an upgrade from them.
Pro Jaw dropping graphics
Rise of the Tomb Raider has phenomenal graphics and a very great attention to detail. Simple things like the snow moving as you step into it or how Lara's hair moves in the wind. This gives it a feeling a of polish most games don't have.
The character models and animations are also phenomenal. Each of their movements and facial expressions look real, creating a movie like experience.
Pro Rewarding exploration
Each level is large, so there is quite a lot to see and do in each one. You'll be rewarded for exploring as there are many hidden items, weapons, and beautiful views to be found. This gives you an incentive to fully explore each location.
Pro A variety of weapons to keep the gameplay fun
There are over 20 weapons to choose from, including handguns, shotguns, assault rifles, and bows. You can also craft special ammo or explosives such as nail bombs. This keeps the gunfights interesting since you can switch to a new weapon whenever it gets dull.
Pro Replayability through unlockables
Once a level is competed, you can to complete unfinished or new objectives. These will unlock new outfits or other items. This gives you plenty of goals to strive for outside the main story. Trying to complete all the optional objectives can be quite addictive.
Cons
Con Poorly optimized
Sometimes you might get sudden fps drops, even when there's practically nothing happening on screen. It can make playing the game very difficult, which is especially annoying during very intense moments.
Con Story missions feel tedious
Just Cause 3 severely lacks story mission variety, having mostly tower defense and escort missions that start getting really repetitive after a while. As a result, you might find yourself hoping a story mission ends sooner, so you can get back to the free-roam and destroy-at- your-own-leisure aspect.
Con Overused and overly familiar plot
The gist of the plot is that Lara is searching for the key to eternal life. This plot has been used in other franchises such as Indiana Jones and Uncharted. It seems kinda lazy, especially because both of these franchises are also about treasure hunters. You won't be able to shake the feeling that you already know the story, which somewhat ruins the enjoyment.
Con Very linear
Most of the time you'll be forced to move along a single path. There are occasional quick-time events and simple puzzles, but every situation only has a single solution. This makes it feel more like an interactive movie than a game since you're never really given any freedom of choice.
Con Focuses on action too much
Rise of the Tomb Raider doesn't have many puzzles or slow-paced sections, so you never really feel like a treasure hunter looking for artifacts. There are just way too many gunfights and high intensity moments one after another. It would have been nice to see more puzzles to balance out the action.
Con Stealth seems pointless
While there are stealth takedowns and you can be stealthy in many areas, there is no real incentive to be stealthy. You can easily take out most enemies in an open confrontation and you won't ever feel like you're truly in danger.
Con Difficulty spikes late game
During the latter half of the game the gunfights will suddenly become a lot harder. While they're not impossible to beat, the sudden difficulty spike will take time to get used to. This may cause some frustration and worsen your overall experience.