Following on from one of the gameplay demo's shown at this year's Gamescom, some asked for more detail on the stealth aspects of upcoming Rise of the Tomb Raider. Bits and pieces of which were teased already, but mostly only in how they better facilitate Lara's combat skills. And though I, personally, am still most decidedly unimpressed by the direction of the franchise, I can't deny it worked well. However, to answer the request, Crystal Dynamics have now released a second version of the Advancing Storm demo geared not only entirely around stealth, but in a completely none lethal way to boot.

Now, we are told that there are sections where combat is unavoidable, which is one of the things turning me off the series...oddly enough. However, we are also being assured that the way in which you approach combat, and the majority of the game itself, is left very much in the hand's of the player. To that end, we see a lot of the more sneaky tricks and tools at Lara's disposal here. And I must confess, it does work well. Though the obligatory scratches on walls that can be scaled, and whitened edges that can be climbed onto irks me. Not least because they are recycled textures from the previous game. And yeah, it's a nit pick, but two completely different societies that were fully isolated from each other had the exact same architect?

I knew Laurence Llwelyn-Bowen and Alan Titchmarsh got about a bit, but come on!