Shadow of the Tomb Raider review.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider review
by Dovahniik

Finally finished it! It is one hell of a game, no doubt about it, but there are aspects that felt a little underwhelming to me. But before I get into that, let's go into detail about the game itself and some of the parts that stood out to me.

Graphically Beautiful 

The first thing you're going to notice about Shadow is that it is a visual masterpiece. Because of the warmer location, the landscape is rich and colourful which is a contrast to the snowy mountain scenery of the previous games and it is beautifully rendered. The main plus point of this game is without a doubt the water. In previous games, the water has been pretty much bland and uninhabitable but in Shadow, not only can Lara swim but large portions of the game is played deep underwater. The water itself is also the most realistic I've seen so far in a game and it's a pleasure swimming through the crystal clear lakes and watching the light filter through the waves and leave patterns on the lake beds. Each area seems to have different coloured and styled rivers and lakes: crystal clear, blue-tinged lakes to murky ponds and even ones stained with blood!

Tomb Raider has always been a visual treat as far as main character facial models and this one doesn't disappoint; Lara and Jonah look fantastic and their cinematic scenes are enjoyable to watch. The one downside is that besides the few great main character models, the NPC variety is quite limited. You'll probably be doing multiple side missions for what seems like the same character.

Lara Herself 

Lara's acrobatics in the Square Enix TR have always felt to me like a toned-down version of Underworld Lara; similar but slower and more realistic. Though Underworld Lara's movements were a lot more fluid and fun, it was pretty unrealistic. (Though I must say, I prefer her swimming than current Lara's. It was a little clunky compared to the dolphin Lara of old.)

As far as tools and weapons, she's got a very similar arsenal to what she's had before: bows, single pistols, shotgun and assault rifle and to be honest, I didn't really notice anything too special about them, they did the same job as before. Her pickaxe is yet again her go-to tool and for a lot of her climbing, she uses two of them. She also uses it for melee which again was a little annoying. You can upgrade your weapons as you go through the game, should have you have enough provisions to do so but I didn't really pay attention to that, I just checked if any upgrades were available and upgraded whatever was first on the list.

She can also choose and create a variety of outfits, some that have no purpose and are purely for glamour (such as some of Core Design's skins) and then some that you create with supplies and that have added benefits when wearing e.g. extra XP when hunting or more silent movement. Some of these outfit - called Vestige outfits - are found in crypts and tombs throughout the game.

Plot 

I'll try to keep this quick so I don't ruin the game for anyone who hasn't played it yet but the plot is pretty much on par with Lara's previous exploits in complexity. Lara - on the trail of Trinity members in Peru  - stumbles upon a sacred dagger and impulsively takes it and starts the Armageddon. Simple stuff like that. Obviously it gets deeper and more complex but I don't want to ruin anything. It is a very enjoyable story.

When I first started the game and found that you could do side missions, I felt like it detracted from the game unnecessarily but as I continued I felt that these were a good way of really getting to know the villagers and the civilisations that you come in contact with and eventually you do start caring for them, as does Lara as the game progresses, intensifying the need to stop the series of events that Lara has brought upon them.

Speaking of things that detract from the game, this might be a good place to discuss some of the areas that I found lacking:

Skills 

This is the biggest annoyance in the game for me. I absolutely hated it. In previous TRs I really didn't notice the skills menu too much nor really cared about it, and in this game that feeling was more intense for me. There really is no point in it. The actual menu is visually complicated, it's not easy to see which skills are available to you nor which aren't, the skills themselves are lacklustre and some of the best ones are made available by doing certain side quests anyway, so you never really pay that much attention to it. The XP and skills system is the one part of this game that I felt too closely resembled games like Far Cry for me and it was an added bore that Tomb Raider simply didn't need. I never checked if I had any skill points and I just unlocked them at random as I went through the game. I feel like Lara earning her skills, moves and tools at certain story points would be in keeping with the game a lot more than this method.

The other thing that felt like a bit of a filler was the constant need to collect random bits of 'treasure' that do nothing other than add a bit of XP or give you a map marker for yet another piece of 'treasure'. It's not even difficult to find them because your map (like Far Cry) is full of their locations, so all you're doing is running to that spot and picking them up. Not exactly treasure hunting if you know where the treasure is!

A more enjoyable experience for me was the steles and monoliths that give you clues as to the location of some treasure and you have to go and seek it out. More things like that and less of the random junk scattered across the map would have made the game stand out against all the other games that do the same thing at the moment. So many have these additions that just bloat out the game and after all this time, it can get a bit boring.

Combat

Combat is another area that wasn't particularly innovative. Considering past Lara was extremely acrobatic, the sticking to walls and hiding in designated hiding spots (that magically glow with Eagle visio--err, hunter vision, err, what is it called in this game?) seems a little limiting. Melee is with the axe as I mentioned before and is pretty much just a smack in the face with it. Gun and bow combat is very similar to the other games except for the addition of being able to hang people in trees like the Predator. Kind of cool but I didn't get to do it very much because I'm about as stealthy as a bull in a china shop. I'll be honest, I do miss the jumping and kicking from the other games.


Jonah

I'm giving Jonah his own paragraph because I love him. One of the most memorable aspects of the TR series is Jonah. He's lovable, kind, brave and yet adds the common sense that Lara severely lacks. Their friendship is a light in the (literal) darkness of the events that unfold and I really do love the way they were written.

 I always had this sneaking suspicious that Trinity was somehow connected with the antagonist from the first TR with Trinity meaning 3 and there being 3 Atlantean Gods (Natla, Tihocan and Qualopec), not to mention Lara's visits to both Mexico and Peru in previous games. This scares me because if they do choose to go down the same route, Jonah was not a part of old TR world and if they kill him, I will cry real human tears.

Jonah deserves immunity from any future death ideas and I will actively start that petition myself.

Photography Mode 

This is a really fun addition to the game. You pause it at any point in the game and go onto this mode to take a photo of whatever it is you're doing. You can take selfies with Lara and change her facial expression, you can add filters and borders, zoom in and out and pretty much manipulate the image as much as you want to before taking the shot. It doesn't affect the game in any way so you can snap to your hearts content!

Conclusion

I'm going to try to wrap up my feelings of this game and it's difficult because I tend to focus on the points I don't like more than what I do like. I think that's because the parts I do like are pretty much the same as they were in previous games, apart from the water and swimming, which is wonderful. There really hasn't been anything innovative or fresh besides that in this game for me. Not that that is a bad thing as the others were also enjoyable games. The problem is, half of the game feels filled with bloat that, instead of building the game up, hinder it from really feeling fresh and exciting. For the most part, you can pick up exactly where you leave off in the previous TR and know exactly what you're doing.

If you want an open-world game play experience, an entertaining story with a very familiar feel, this game is for you.  But if you wanted or expected something unique in the present day gaming market, then Shadow of the Tomb Raider just misses out. It's just a little too similar to previous games and games like Far Cry and Assassin's Creed for me to really make my jaw drop.

In any case, I'll look forward to seeing what they try for the next one!

Thanks for reading, nobbers!

DovahNiik