Video games have a funny way of making recreational activities you wouldn’t normally be interested in doing, like fishing or hunting, in real life far more appealing. My latest enjoyment is hunting in Rise of the Tomb Raider.
As an adventure/survival game, Rise of the Tomb Raider gives you plenty of opportunities to hunt and kill all sorts of animals for the purpose of crafting weapons and items Lara Croft would need during her latest dangerous quest. Just about anything is fair game for hunting from rats to a fearsome bear. If it moves, it’s likely Lara can kill it.
In between exploring the new areas I unlock as I progress through the game, I find myself making time to hunt the wild animals scattered in the woods. I’ll be honest and say I’m maybe not the best hunter in the game. I struggle with aiming Lara’s bow quickly enough to get a direct hit with a rabbit or deer. Thankfully, there are some useful items to make hunting down some critters easier like an outfit Lara can wear to help her blend with her surroundings and make her less threatening to the far more gentler creatures in the game. The more challenging animals like the bear or pack of wolves prove to be more stressful.
There’s a reason why I go looking for the rabbits, deer, and birds more than the predatory animals in the game—they’re not a bitch to kill quickly while trying to dodge an attack. Aside from gathering all the resources I need to replenish my supplies, I find hunting the non-predatory animals more relaxing after finishing a high octane story mission. As much as I love this game, it can give me heart palpitations with the amount of enemies Lara has to fight to the occasional moments where she has to literally run and leap for her life before an entire mountain or ancient cathedral collapses on top of her. The last thing I need is to raise my blood pressure even more by trying to outrun bears, wolves, and leopards.
If I can avoid needing to kill the scarier and more threatening animals I will, but I am aware these predatory creatures yield more resources needed to craft or upgrade your weapons. Sometimes it’s not always the case and I’m forced to kill these animals while running and dodging their attacks, especially when they’re standing in my way of getting to a hidden tomb I want to complete. An icy fear now grips me whenever I enter a dark cave that leads to the entrance of an undiscovered challenge tomb.
Despite the pitfalls of hunting in Rise, I would absolutely make time to do it for every single Tomb Raider game. Maybe it’s part of the adventuring you’re doing as Lara, or maybe it’s the desire to have all the necessary items you need to craft arrows on the fly. Whatever it is, I can kind of experience the thrill of a hunt without actually going into the woods to do it for real.
Are there activities in a video game you enjoy doing but may not ever do in real life?
simpleek 
Fishing, the digital equivalence nearly always guarantees a catch?. Was a calming presence in Ocarina of Time as a down time between temples.
The idea of standing around in the cold trying to catch a fish….nooooo….
I enjoyed fishing in Final Fantasy XV and would find some time to do it. The allure was to record new types of fish or get new recipes as a result. Fishing in real life? No thanks! All that waiting around is super boring.