Rise of the Tomb Raider: 20 Year Celebration

Rise of the Tomb Raider: 20 Year Celebration is a third-person action-adventure game for PC that combines cinematic exploration, stealth, gunplay, environmental puzzles, and light survival mechanics. It has not been replaced by a renamed or rebranded edition: Steam lists the product page as Rise of the Tomb Raider, while the purchase bundle and the Epic Games Store and GOG listings use the complete 20 Year Celebration name.

Crystal Dynamics originally developed the game, with Nixxes responsible for the PC version and Square Enix associated with the original publishing. The package is aimed at players who want the complete Lara Croft experience rather than only the main campaign, because it includes the base game, Season Pass content, extra outfits, additional modes, and the Croft Manor chapters.

A larger, more flexible Tomb Raider adventure

The main campaign follows Lara Croft through ancient ruins, hostile wilderness, and frozen Siberian locations as she searches for the legendary city of Kitezh while opposing Trinity. The structure is more open than a strictly linear action game, with connected areas that encourage backtracking, optional exploration, collectible hunting, and revisiting earlier locations after acquiring new equipment.

Movement is built around climbing axes, rope traversal, ledge grabbing, swimming, jumping, and environmental interaction. Lara can approach many encounters from cover, use vegetation to conceal herself, or create a direct firefight with bows, pistols, rifles, shotguns, and improvised equipment.

The game is not a pure survival simulator. Its survival elements support the action-adventure loop: Lara hunts animals, gathers salvage, searches containers, and collects rare materials to craft ammunition, upgrade weapons, and improve equipment. Base camps act as fast-travel points and progression hubs, allowing players to spend earned skill points and manage Lara's development.

Combat, stealth, and exploration systems

Combat gives Lara several viable approaches. Stealth attacks, headshots, crafted arrows, explosive traps, and environmental hazards can thin enemy groups before a fight becomes loud. When stealth fails, the shooting remains central, but the player still needs to move between cover, read enemy positions, and choose weapons suited to the encounter.

Progression is divided across skill categories that improve combat, hunting, and exploration. Upgrades can expand ammunition capacity, strengthen survival tools, improve melee options, or make scavenging more efficient. The result is a flexible character build rather than a fixed class system.

Optional challenge tombs provide some of the clearest puzzle-focused content. These areas temporarily shift attention away from enemy encounters and toward spatial reasoning, climbing routes, water levels, fire, wind, and mechanical interactions. Players who prefer traversal and tomb puzzles over constant shooting will find more depth here than the main story alone suggests.

The overall design sits between a linear cinematic adventure and a semi-open exploration game. Players looking for a similar blend of climbing, gunfights, puzzles, and treasure hunting may also enjoy story-driven third-person adventures such as Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection, although Rise places more emphasis on crafting and optional wilderness exploration.

Modes beyond the campaign

Expeditions turns completed story chapters and standalone challenges into replayable score-focused activities. Expedition Cards can modify rules and objectives, creating a different type of progression from the campaign's skill and equipment systems.

Endurance Mode is the most distinctive alternative mode. Lara must explore a hostile wilderness, gather supplies, hunt for food, manage exposure, and decide when to continue searching for artifacts or return to safety. The longer the run continues, the more important resource management and route planning become.

The package also includes Co-Op Endurance, an online mode for two players. This is not a cooperative version of the main story. It is a separate survival challenge where partners share the pressure of exploration, equipment management, environmental hazards, and the decision to extract before the run collapses.

Lara's Nightmare changes Croft Manor into a zombie combat scenario with score-attack elements. It is deliberately more arcade-like than the main campaign and gives the familiar location a combat-heavy purpose.

What the 20 Year Celebration package includes

The current complete edition combines the main game with the Season Pass. That means buyers receive the story campaign alongside the major add-on content rather than needing to assemble the package from separate purchases.

• Blood Ties, a single-player Croft Manor story chapter focused on exploration, family history, documents, and light puzzles.
• Lara's Nightmare, a zombie-focused combat mode set in Croft Manor.
• Baba Yaga: The Temple of the Witch, a supernatural story adventure with a dedicated tomb environment.
• Cold Darkness Awakened, a combat challenge involving waves of infected predators.
• Endurance Mode and Co-Op Endurance, including solo and two-player survival variants.
• Extreme Survivor, the toughest campaign difficulty, with reduced assistance and stricter saving rules.
• Five classic Lara Croft character models, plus a Tomb Raider III-inspired outfit and weapon.

The package therefore serves two different audiences. Players mainly interested in Lara's narrative journey can focus on the campaign and Blood Ties, while completionists and repeat players have Expeditions, Endurance, the challenge tombs, and score-based modes to revisit.

PC features, input, and storefront differences

The PC version supports keyboard and mouse as well as gamepad controls. Keyboard bindings can be customized, while the official manual documents a standard controller layout. Steam lists controller support, Steam Cloud, achievements, leaderboards, Family Sharing, and Remote Play support for compatible devices.

SteamVR support is available for the Blood Ties chapter, allowing Croft Manor to be explored in virtual reality rather than converting the full campaign into VR. The VR feature is therefore an optional way to experience one contained story chapter, not a complete VR version of the game.

Storefront requirements differ. The Steam version is tied to Steam features and lists a third-party EULA. The Epic Games Store version requires an Epic ID. The GOG edition is explicitly DRM-free, does not require GOG Galaxy, and supports offline installation and play.

Localization is broad. The Steam listing provides interface and subtitle support in fourteen languages, with full audio available in a smaller selection that includes English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Russian, Japanese, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, and Korean. Arabic and Dutch are listed for text support rather than full voice acting.

Who should play it?

Rise is a strong fit for players who want third-person shooting combined with climbing, puzzles, stealth, collectible hunting, and optional exploration. It also suits players who like a clear campaign but want additional score challenges and survival modes after the story ends.

It is less suitable for anyone seeking a pure puzzle game, a fully systemic survival sandbox, or a conventional cooperative campaign. Co-op is limited to Endurance, and the story itself remains a single-player experience.

Players more interested in classic trap rooms, deliberate platforming, and older-style tomb design may prefer classic Lara Croft exploration in Tomb Raider I-III Remastered. Rise is the more modern, combat-oriented interpretation of the series, with stronger emphasis on cinematic pacing and character progression.

Rise of the Tomb Raider: 20 Year Celebration FAQ

Is 20 Year Celebration a separate game or a renamed version?

It is the complete edition of Rise of the Tomb Raider rather than a different sequel. Steam's product page uses the shorter Rise of the Tomb Raider title in parts of its interface, but the included package and the Epic Games Store and GOG listings identify it as Rise of the Tomb Raider: 20 Year Celebration.

Does the PC edition include the Season Pass?

Yes. The 20 Year Celebration package includes the base game and Season Pass content, including Blood Ties, Lara's Nightmare, Baba Yaga, Cold Darkness Awakened, Endurance content, extra outfits, weapons, classic Lara models, and Extreme Survivor difficulty.

Is the main campaign playable in co-op?

No. The main story is single-player. Online co-op is available specifically through Co-Op Endurance, which is a separate survival mode rather than a cooperative campaign.

Does Rise of the Tomb Raider support controllers on PC?

Yes. The PC version supports gamepads as well as keyboard and mouse. Steam also lists controller support, Steam Cloud, leaderboards, achievements, and Remote Play features.

Can Blood Ties be played in VR?

Yes. SteamVR support applies to the Blood Ties chapter in Croft Manor. It does not make the full Rise of the Tomb Raider campaign playable in virtual reality.

Which PC storefront is DRM-free?

The GOG edition is the DRM-free option and does not require GOG Galaxy. The Steam version uses Steam platform features, while the Epic Games Store version requires an Epic ID.

Is there a real campaign progression system?

Yes. Lara earns skill points, improves combat, hunting, and exploration abilities, upgrades weapons and equipment, and unlocks new traversal options. Optional tombs, collectibles, side objectives, Expeditions, and Endurance provide additional mastery loops beyond the central story.