Shadow of the Tomb Raider Review

Shadow of the Tomb Raider 
Developer: Eidos Montreal
Publisher: Square Enix
Reviewed On: PlayStation 4
Available On: PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One

---

Shadow of the Tomb Raider does little to differentiate itself from the other two games in the reboot trilogy, but that’s not exactly a bad thing. For the most part, this is a solid entry to close out Lara Croft’s final adventure, but the meandering first half and the recycled gameplay mechanics in relation to the significantly darker narrative at play, keep it from being a great thing.

In Shadow of the Tomb Raider, the militant organization known as Trinity still looms over Lara Croft; and Lara, believing she is stopping Trinity’s destruction in its tracks, inadvertently propels a series of cataclysmic events into motion, which ultimately drives the next eight or so hours of the story mode. These events take players from Cozumel, Mexico to the areas in and around the ancient city of Paititi in South America.

Where Tomb Raider (2013) put Lara through the ringer physically, Shadow of the Tomb Raider goes straight for her psyche. We already know Lara can fight. We know she can shoot, climb, strangle a man dead from the bushes, and take a few bullets.

While Shadow of the Tomb Raider obviously still puts an emphasis on these elements of visceral combat, it also manages to take a deep plunge into Lara’s emotional state in a way we’ve never seen. She’s angry. She’s more lethal. Her actions are more impulsive and her words are more aggressive, both having been fueled by guilt and unimaginable loss. It becomes clear early in the game that no one, not even Lara’s good friend Jonah, is safe.

More than once that anger is felt in the gameplay, as the developers were able to sustain the intense moments of a cutscene and carry it into a high-action gun-fight with Trinity’s soldiers. During these battles, Lara has a few new stealth mechanics at her disposal. In woodland areas especially, she has the option to smear herself in mud, which makes her more difficult to spot. While the mud seems like more of a throwaway mechanic in the first half, it becomes increasingly useful as the game progresses and when there is a bigger emphasis placed on stealth.

Other new bells and whistles include wall grappling 2.0 and Lara’s ability to see which enemies are in view of other enemies, making for a smoother kill. On climbing surfaces, while Lara is hanging on with her climbing axe, she can now use it, along with a pair of boots, to crawl up the ceiling of a cave or to a higher part of the wall. Honestly? It wasn’t the most intuitive feature. I found it to be a lackluster addition to the game at best. A frustrating one at worst- one that made it difficult to know where it was safe to climb or jump to next.

On some level, the developers must have been aware of this, too, because there are blatant, in-game texts to guide players to the next jump or rope swing. Because of this, Shadow of the Tomb Raider strikes an odd balance between player hand-holding and smooth, uninterrupted gameplay for most of the game.

A shining light in the game, however, are its level designs. Shadow of the Tomb Raider dips its toe into the waters of the open-world genre, with an expansive skill tree, side missions, and heavy emphasis on lore, but somewhere along the way it forgets to actually jump into the deep end. The levels are expertly designed and are bustling with dozens of nooks, shops, and people, which offers hours of exploration.

Each location has an impressive map that can take up players’ time as they scavenge a variety of supplies to craft weapons, or to level up Lara’s skills from the three different sections of the skill tree: Warrior, Seeker, and Scavenger. Being a Tomb Raider game, players are naturally rewarded for exploration and for crafting new items. Some areas are mysteriously boarded off and require an upgraded version of a weapon in order to access it. A newly-opened area also offers some nice XP.

In spite of how “busy” the world appears, many areas still manage to seem empty because they are filled with side missions whose objectives either complicate the main narrative (and believe me, it takes a few eyebrow-raising twists and turns), or that don’t contribute to it at all. Even Lara’s many outfit changes just seem like they are there for decoration, despite the descriptions mentioning each one serves its own helpful purpose. For the most part, when Lara didn’t automatically put on the traditional garments of Paititi, I kept her in the standard jeans and jacket, and didn’t notice it negatively impact my enemy encounters.

Purchasing skills can seem like a slow-moving experience for much of the game, as some require three points at a time, but it does eventually feel like it’s going somewhere. The quickest ways to earn skill points are through interacting with the lore around Paititi and taking out enemies from Trinity- the latter of which is noticeably scarce during the first few hours of the game. (At one point, I verbally expressed how I hadn’t used any of my weapons in over an hour, which I found odd). Several of the most basic skills are readily available from the start, with others becoming available either through story progression or completing challenge tombs.

The challenge tombs and puzzles are front and center and are, by far, one of the biggest standouts of Shadow of the Tomb Raider. They are scattered throughout each location and are, dare I say it, actually challenging.

Where Lara skirted through the tombs as more of an afterthought in previous games, Shadow of the Tomb Raider makes it clear on one of the first puzzles that won’t be the case this time around. Each puzzle is integral to the progression of the game and intricately woven into each location; and all of them are expertly made, effectively giving Shadow of the Tomb Raider a more well-rounded experience. The puzzles force you to really stop to consider Lara’s skills, the environment, and even die a few (okay, several) times to get it right. There wasn’t a puzzle encounter that I didn’t enjoy, and completing them left me with a great sense of accomplishment.

These puzzles are also nicely-spaced throughout the game, so they never become tedious from occurring one right after the other. They complement Lara’s skill set well and nicely reinforce her wealth of historical knowledge, as she often speaks aloud while she works on solving them.

The hours put into Shadow of the Tomb Raider culminate in a battle and final cutscene that should satisfy fans both new and old to Lara’s journey.

---

Final Thoughts: 

Shadow of the Tomb Raider is a solid game that just takes a while to really get off the ground. Even once it hits its stride somewhere around the three-hour mark, it still plays its hand too safely, with the scarcity of worthy enemy encounters for Lara’s deadly skill set. The game nicely wraps up the final chapter of Lara Croft’s journey, but its pitfalls culminate in a good ending for our hero, when perhaps a few tweaks could’ve made it a great one.