Shadow of the Tomb Raider Review

After honestly feeling burnt out by the end of the last game, ‘Rise of the Tomb Raider’, I wasn’t expecting this entry to grab me in the way that it did. At first glance ‘Shadow of the Tomb Raider’ looks like simply more of the same, and while that isn’t an entirely inaccurate conclusion to jump to, ‘Shadow’ changes the structure enough the third time around to make this entry well worth your attention.

‘Shadow of the Tomb Raider’ begins largely in the same manner as the last two; the iconic Lara Croft crashes in a vehicle due to extreme weather conditions and is consequently left scrambling to survive in the wild. The parallels to the last two games in the series are jarringly apparent in the opening hours, but eventually landslides (literally) into something much more.

For once in the series Lara actually has an interesting arc in this entry. She begins her adventure just as obsessed with her father’s unfinished research as she was in the last game. Last time around this built an emotional barricade around Lara, making her largely unrelatable, but this time she gets more than a few great character moments especially early on which shed light on her past while making her more likeable. Part of the problem with Lara was that she had very little personality due to the fact the supporting cast was entirely forgettable; ‘Shadow’ on the other hand, reintroduces Jonah (Lara’s BFF) and seeing her open up, having fun and caring about something other then ancient artefacts is both refreshing and incredibly needed. Speaking of which I was quite excited with an early story beat that I thought would confront why so many Indiana Jones-like protagonists feel the need to steal important cultural artefacts. The story never quite goes in that direction but some of Lara's questionable actions make the story more challenging, while the relatabilty of the main villain also add shades of moral ambiguity.

While Lara has an interesting arc, the main plot of the game can get convoluted with forgettable names and a slow second act doesn't help in this regard. There's also just nothing massively interesting about the story in general; ideas of obsession are handled well in regards to Lara's character, but the writing with many of the side characters either feels like exposition or cheesy, forced attempts at making the player feel emotional. There's nothing offensive or deeply bad about the story, it's just a simple action adventure storyincluding to some ancient supernatural artefacts and a shady organisation.

Even though there's nothing to gush about story wise, graphically, and artistically, 'Shadow of the Tomb Raider' is absolutely stunning. The use of colour is always vibrant, especially in the game's more natural, jungle areas. The greenery pops and is breathtaking in the same way the translucent blue of water in the game is. Whatever tone 'Shadow' wants to set, it achieves just that: there's an especially creepy section of the game including Christian iconography. The game is overflowing with photo ops in photo mode. 

This being Lara’s third adventure, she's naturally a more confident hunter, adventurer and killer which is appropriately reflected in the story and gameplay. The tutorial section naturally ends much faster then usual leading to less downtime before the game truly opens up, even though the game does start with a few great action set-pieces. It doesn't take long at all to regain many of Lara's previous tools and weapons either, further contributing to an accelerated pace.

For as much as 'Shadow' is designed to get started quickly, it's refreshingly light on combat; instead of a shootout occurring every 10 minutes like previous Tomb Raider games, 'Shadow' restrains itself leaning heavily on its exploration and puzzle elements more than anything. When combat scenarios do occur they don't feel drastically different to the past two iterations. Shooting is fine despite aiming feeling a little loose, thankfully on-the-go crafting is back, adding some fun second-to-second decision making in shootouts. A stealthier play through is where the fun's at however, since the series has a new found emphasis on guerrilla warfare. Stalking enemies like prey, covered in mud or silently swinging between trees until you have an enemy isolated beneath you, never gets old and make these encounters both tense and intimate. Plus, Lara has some flashy, brutal stealth takedowns this time around; appropriate considering her experience and obsessive drive in this iteration.

If you're finding stealthily taking out your opponents too easy, 'Shadow' has different difficulty sliders for combat, puzzles and exploration which all adjust independently from one and other, allowing you to optimise the Tomb Raider experience to what you love most about the series. If you're a returning player I'd greatly recommend at least putting the exploration difficulty on hard which removes the blatantly obvious white paint guiding you through the game's climbing and parkour segments. Rather than following a set out path I was actively observing the environment for ledges to grab onto and walls to scurry up. The tensest moments in the game, where the ground is frantically falling apart at your feet are even better when exploration is on hard as you desperately make snap decisions. The addition of a new climbing rope leads to some genuinely exciting traversal moments where you can't quite reach a ledge and need to instead, swing your pickaxe mid-jump to climb up. When 'Shadow of the Tomb Raider' has its Uncharted style action chases, it's the combination of all Lara's traversal abilities that propel the moments to new heights. Stringing together jumps, swings, climbing and wall running can be devilishly exciting in these rare but judicious moment.

'Shadow of the Tomb Raider' further expands the swimming mechanics of the last game. Big pools of water are common in the game and diving down to explore can gift you with just as many rewards and loot as the ground. In terms of gameplay, the underwater sections are heart-pounding in all the right ways. Avoiding piranhas or reaching the surface just before you run out of breath is as frightening as it is exhilarating.

The optional challenge tombs which present the majority of the game's puzzles are slightly hit or miss. There are a handful of exceedingly creative tombs, which essentially act as great sandboxes filled with physics-based environmental puzzles while also having their own unique gimmick. However, a few of them get lost in the shuffle and end up feeling regrettably forgettable. Disappointingly, none of them are as breathtaking as 'Rise of the Tomb Raider's' gorgeous spectacles. In the last game, the sight of a tomb was just as much of a reward as the reward at the end itself, but visually, this time around, they fall short.

If puzzles don't excite you, but raiding tombs does, there are more than a few crypts that act as mini-tombs where the puzzles are replaced with Lara's satisfying traversal being put to the test and these are also usually more scary than an average tomb with minimal lighting, booby traps and claustrophobic tunnels.

In fact, the side activities on offer in 'Shadow' trumps anything from the last two games. Boasting the largest hub area in the entire series, 'Shadow of the Tomb Raider' clearly takes inspiration from open-world games in its design with NPCs to interacts with, tons of collectibles scattered around the map and side quests in every hub area. Side quests usually aren't anything too creative or interesting and until you've finished all 8 of them they don't connect to the main storyline in any significant way. At best, these give you more of what's great about the game including enemies to take out and crypts to raid. At worst these can be seriously mundane fetch quests, running back and forth across the map; lacking any kind of agency or decision making.

Customisation leaves something to be desired also. Allocating skills to different abilities is again, fine, but doesn't offer the same amount of variation found in some of the game's action/adventure contemporaries. All of the upgradeable skills are useful, but hardly ever make a noticeable impact in the same way as other games. Weapon customisation is a regular affair involving scavenging for supplies to upgrade the accuracy, damage, ammo capacity etc. of a weapon. Outfit customisation is where 'Shadow' could've been creative, but fumbles slightly. For a majority of the game's time in it's largest hub area you're required to wear a certain outfit if you want to interact with villagers, get side quests or sometimes even progress in the main story. This is quite disappointing since many of Lara's outfits are actually quite cool, with some call backs to previous games, and you have the option to craft lower and upper body pieces that give Lara upgrades, so it's a shame that the game restricts you from experimenting with these for so long since it's too much of a hassle to keep changing Lara's outfit from camp sites.

While it's easy to nitpick with 'Shadow of the Tomb Raider' mechanically, it's undeniable that this is one of the most refreshing and odd AAA action games of the year. It's rare for a blockbuster like this to put such an emphasis on solving puzzles, exploring and raiding tombs, opposed to shooting things in the face every corner you turn. And despite some of it's problems 'Shadow of the Tomb Raider' is never boring; controlling Lara is consistently fun. While this might not be a revolution of the structure established in the last two games, it might just be the perfection of it.

8.8/10