Shadow of the Tomb Raider - Pros & Cons

The wait is over! Shadow of the Tomb Raider - the final chapter of the reboot Tomb Raider trilogy has finally arrived, after fans have been waiting patiently for almost three years following the previous Rise of the Tomb Raider. As a long-time fan, I am very pleased with this game after my first playthrough, although at this point, I have not achieved 100% completion with all the collections. So, there will be more updated opinions in the future since I will definitely re-play it again.

The following review is my personal opinion based on my first playthrough of Shadow of the Tomb Raider, with some positive experience that I felt about this game, as well as some issues I had. Please notice, the gaming console I used for this game was a standard PlayStation 4.

Pros:

· Graphics: Overall remains excellent. I feel the daylight environment is more detailed, with richer textures compare to Rise of the Tomb Raider. The intro scenes and the jungle space in Shadow of the Tomb Raider are especially stunning.

· Gameplay: If you like the previous two Tomb Raider games (2013 reboot and 2015 Rise of the Tomb Raider), you will enjoy Shadow of the Tomb Raider, the gameplay overall is delivered with a very similar style as the previous ones.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider is open world with a larger map and more places to explore compare to Rise of the Tomb Raider (and Rise was already three times larger than the Reboot!). The newly added under water exploration is a charm for me, Lara being able to swim freely in most of the underwater areas, finding supplies and treasures, etc. The deeper she goes, the more stuff she finds as rewards, although, the further she goes, the dangers come with it as well, there is no breath bar or indicator when she is underwater, so players need to time it right and make sure to find the surface for breaks.

The escape chase scenes are just as good or even better than the previous ones, although more than likely you will have Lara killed in all different scenarios during the escape / chase, but the intense action play through gives a thrilling feeling to the players. 

And yes, like it or not, you will again see many death scenes of Lara when you accidently “kill” her.

· Combat: STEALTH! STEALTH! STEALTH!

I feel stealth mode plays a major part when it comes to combat in Shadow of the Tomb Raider, in that case, Lara’s new camouflage skill is very useful when she faces multiple enemies. Lara is also able to escape most situation when she gets caught in a fight.I also feel Lara is more aggressive in combat mode compare to the previous two Tomb Raider games, players would feel she is definitely more experienced in Shadow of the Tomb Raider.

The major weapons such as bow and arrows, rifle, handgun, as well as Lara’s climbing axes still remain the main weapons so for people who played the previous two games will feel comfortable with the weapons use.

(Can you spot her?)

· Story and Characters: The overall storyline of Shadow of the Tomb Raider is well connected with Rise of the Tomb Raider, it gives more explanation about Trinity, as well as more background story of Lara Croft. The writer of Shadow of the Tomb Raider put a lot of thoughts in the storytelling, I feel the new “Friends and Foes” Lara met in Shadow are very interesting characters, there are a few surprise twists and turns during the journey and towards the end. But even for new players, I think they will be able to follow the story without having the previous games knowledge.

Also, classic Tomb Raider fans will be pleased to find many “Easter eggs” within the game.

Another favorite moment is occasionally seeing Lara lightening up, she will (try) making jokes, being playful, you will see and hear her laugh every once in a while, which I do not recall she ever laughing (happily) this much in the previous reboot games.

· Other Cool Stuff:

o  Players are able to select varies difficulties to enhance game experience: Combat, Exploring and Puzzles.

o  Puzzle designs are very clever and well-paced, some of them are easy to figure out, some of them requires patient and detail seeking. But overall, they are fun to solve!

o  One of the features I enjoyed from Rise of the Tomb Raider was Lara’s outfit selections, similar in Shadow, Lara will have various outfits, and some of them give Lara certain advantages.

o  Photo mode is offered during gameplay, you can take a picture and put a smile on Lara during intense combat, or a grumpy look when she “had to” talk to strangers.

Cons:

· Graphics: As I mentioned above, the overall graphics of the game remains excellent, the daylight environment has rich textures and detailed touches. However, I personally felt the graphics in some of the dark environment is very much the same quality as Rise of the Tomb Raider. Please keep in mind that I performed the game on a standard PlayStation 4 console, graphic qualities may be improved for updated consoles or on PC.

· Combat: When Lara is not in stealth mode, I feel her health is low, it was very easy to take her down with just one or two hits （even in Easy/Normal Combat difficulties）. She lacks hand-to-hand combat skill and axe fighting was pretty weak as well. Her health can automatic regenerate, but a little slow so player needs to manually generate her health, personally I feel the health function was not very effective, it took me a little bit to get used to press 2 buttons together to get her health back, but again, when she is in an intense combat situation, her health generation does not help much.

· Plot and Characters: The history, culture and archeology parts of the game are still my favorite, I also like the fact that the writer did a decent job on connecting it with the previous games and giving great background stories for Lara. Considering the writer of Shadow is different from the previous two games. She has done an excellent job on researching and providing connections.

However, there are a few moments (including cut scenes) that do not make much sense, example like she will knock down an armed enemy but choose not to pick up the weapons to enter combat, etc. Although I do not think those “awkward” actions were writer’s fault, but a couple moments like this always left me questioning and asking “Why would she do that?!”

Lara’s old good friend Jonah is with her in this new journey, although I do feel Jonah is the right choice and a good companion for Lara in Shadow, while there were some funny conversations between the two, a few of their lines were a little dull and dry.

If you are a big fan of Sam (as some of my friends are), you will be disappointed with not mentioning this very best friend of Lara in Shadow of the Tomb Raider. However, at this very moment, I have not collected everything with 100%, so there may be documents or journal pieces that I missed. Lara’s mentor Roth from Reboot 2013 was honorable mentioned once though.*

(* Update: I was told that the game did mention Sam in one of the journals / documents, however I have not found it yet)

Conclusion:

Overall, my rating for Shadow of the Tomb Raider is 9 out of 10, same rating I gave to the previous two reboot Tomb Raider games, as Shadow of the Tomb Raider very much delivers the same quality and feelings to the fans.

Tomb Raider series has always been my all-time favorite games and I have been a big fan of Lara Croft for over 20 years. Throughout Classic to the Reboot, I love them all. I would like to thank Crystal Dynamics and Eidos Montréal studios who provided me this first-hand review opportunity, as a long-time fan, it is absolutely a great honor, and I can’t wait to find out Lara’s future journey!

June is co-administrator for official Tomb Raider fansite - Tomb Raider China.

Follow her on Twitter : @TombRaiderCN