Now Playing: Shadow of the Tomb Raider

I enjoyed the 2013 Tomb Raider reboot, but felt there was far too much emphasis on combat and not, somewhat ironically, on tomb raiding. Spin on to 2016 and Rise of the Tomb Raider, a game which addressed many of my criticisms of its predecessor, but still left me feeling a little disappointed. And now we have Shadow of the Tomb Raider, the concluding piece of this reboot trilogy. The question is, is Shadow a step up from Rise, or a step back?

In my eyes, it’s neither – it’s a step to the side. It gets the same things right and the same things wrong. I feel like I could copy and paste most of my Rise review here and, aside from changing a few names here and there, everything I’d written would still apply.

 

Shadow sees Lara travelling to Mexico and South America as she once again tangles with the totally uninteresting Trinity organisation – a rather dull group of paramilitary bad guys who are obsessed with obtaining ancient, powerful artefacts. (I really hope that, if this series continues, this is the last we ever see of Trinity) Lara, in an attempt to prevent Trinity from stealing another artefact, inadvertently triggers a Mayan apocalypse and she must now find a way, not only to stop Trinity, but to prevent the catastrophe she’s unleashed. 

The plot, overall, is pretty decent and I’d say I enjoyed it more than Rise. The main villain is a little more fleshed out but, without getting into spoilers, it does feel like he’s a character who should have been introduced in Rise and then expanded upon here, especially considering certain revelations regarding his connection to Lara’s father. That stuff is somewhat glossed over and rushed as it was clear the writers wanted to wrap up any loose plot threads before the end of this trilogy.

But whilst the main story and missions are all fun and engaging, the side missions are a mixed bag ranging from decent to dull, with some pretty bad VA – so bad in fact, that I just started skipping all the side quest cut scenes and just figured out what I was supposed to be doing from the text on the quest marker.

 

Like Rise, Shadow is a game of ‘hub’ areas that you can explore, each with collectibles to find, riddles to solve, optional tombs to raid and ancient crypts to explore. Like Rise, they also overdo the collectible stuff a little too much to the point that maps can sometimes feel like collectathon marathons as Lara races from one item to the next and you soon stop caring / reading about the relics you’re picking up.

Like Rise, Shadow also uses an XP/crafting system, which also means you’ll be gathering resources in the world to upgrade your gear and weapons. I don’t really mind the skill tree system for unlocking new abilities, but the crafting just feels kind of pointless and if this series does continue, it’s another thing I’d like to see scrapped.

Visually, Shadow of the Tomb Raider looks pretty damn impressive – the environments, lighting and attention to detail. It’s a game I never got tired of admiring each new location I came upon. It really is a fantastic looking game and that’s one aspect I can’t really fault.

 

The tombs in Shadow, both as part of the main story and the optional ‘side’ tombs, are all pretty fun, although do suffer from the same problems as those in Rise in the sense that they’re all far too linear and far too easy. Navigating the tombs is, more or less, simply a case of following a linear path from A to B and solving the occasional puzzle along the way. There’s not really any sense of exploration or investigation involved.

I’m not saying I want a tomb with endless backtracking and ridiculously obtuse puzzles, but I’d like something a little more elaborate, thoughtful and clever than what we’ve got. That’s another thing that I’d like to see improved upon if this series continues. I played the ‘definitive edition’ of Shadow which included several post-release ‘challenge’ tombs and some of these, though short, did seem to be taking steps in the right direction.

The combat in Shadow, like Rise, is kept short and sharp, with more emphasis on stealth, although if things do kick off, you don’t need to worry – enemy AI is pretty basic and easy to defeat. There are a number of ‘set piece’ moments in Shadow to enjoy – I say ‘enjoy’ rather than play because they’re more like roller-coaster rides that you can sit back and watch, only needing to press the occasional button.

 

And a lot of Shadow, like Rise, really is just about following the linear path and pressing the occasional jump / grab button at the right time. There’s not much sense of risk, or of needing to time a jump properly. It’s all a little easy and relaxed, despite Lara’s grunts and groans. And I guess, like Rise, that’s my main criticism of Shadow – it’s all a little easy and simple and it never really challenges you, not in terms of combat, platforming or solving puzzles.

Overall though, I still thoroughly enjoyed playing Shadow of the Tomb Raider and I think that if you enjoyed Rise, you’ll also enjoy this. But if you didn’t like Rise, I wouldn’t recommend it because it is, more or less, just more of the same. I don’t know how successful Shadow was and if we’ll see this series continue, but I hope we do, because I certainly want more Tomb Raider adventures.

Ditch Trinity, scrap the crafting, build more elaborate tombs and puzzles to explore. Give us a more global adventure with multiple countries to visit to loot – sorry, protect – ancient artefacts. No more ‘end of the world’ dramatics. And give us a Lara who’s a little more cocky, adventurous and not quite so haunted by the past. Let her move on and just enjoy doing what she does because what she does is pretty damn cool.

7/10