REVIEW

Shadow of the Tomb Raider Review

by Dan Morris, October 1st, 2018

As a huge fan of action-adventure games, and one that will probably never fully recover from the Uncharted games coming to end, my biggest trepidation coming in to Shadow of the Tomb Raider was that lead development duties had transferred from Crystal Dynamics to Eidos Montreal. Thankfully, my anxieties that the DNA of this third rebooted instalment may have felt ‘off’ were quashed immediately during the opening chapter. Taking place in Mexico during Day of the Dead, this colourful and dramatic opening not only felt wonderfully familiar but also set the story off on a very strong path – namely what if Lara’s actions have serious consequences? The game’s answer to this question gives us easily the darkest Tomb Raider game of recent times, and far from that being a criticism it really brings a sense of urgency and desperation to the plot.

The game is set just two months after the ending of Rise of the Tomb Raider and sees Lara and her friend Jonah Maiava hot on the heels of the shady organisation Trinity. Having had more of an influence in Lara’s life than she’d ever dared thought, Trinity could quite easily be the ‘shadow’ the title of the game is referring to. The main antagonist, Pedro Dominguez, isn’t just another of Trinity’s lieutenants, he’s their leader. Stopping him ups the stakes considerably. After beating Dominguez to a well-hidden ancient relic in Mexico, Lara sets in motion a tsunami that destroys much of the nearby coastal village. Far from being a purely local anomaly, there are global ramifications to these events.

Much like Rise, the game quickly moves on from its opening area and most of the story unfolds in Peru. After the frosty extremes of Siberia in Rise, the lush vegetation of the South American rainforest is not only a welcome change of scenery but also shows off the beauty of the game – Shadow gives us a phenomenal looking world in which to play. The ruins, cliffs, villages and caves all look incredible and wanting to see what’s around the next corner keep the pad in your hands just as much as the unfolding plot does. Jill Murray, writer of Assassin’s Creed III and IV, has taken over from Rhianna Pratchett for this game and injects fresh energy into Lara. This fits well with Lara’s overall development across this trilogy, and Shadow sees a more confident, developed Lara who’s more comfortable and assured with herself.

Lara’s quests are once again built around large hub worlds that can be traversed not only for story progression but also to find numerous hidden relics and documents that add background to the plot. The world is also full of resources for Lara to pick up, from the wood and feathers from which she crafts her arrows and the salvage she uses to upgrade her weapons, to the herbs she uses to heal herself. One of the innovations of Shadow is that on top of healing plants, Lara can also collect perception, endurance and focus plants which, for a short amount of time, allow Lara to better see things in the environment, take more damage and slow down time respectively.

These aren’t the only improvements that Lara has gained from her new developers. The upgrade tree is improved with lots of fresh skills, including specialist ammo types for all weapons and improvements to existing skills, such as being able to breathe for longer underwater. You’ll also come across merchants in various areas who not only sell resources if you’re running a bit low but are also the primary source of new weapons. You retrieve gold from fallen enemies and find gold and jade ore in the environment, which can be sold to the merchants for more cash. It’s an enjoyable and much improved way of getting hold of the best guns. Considering how many great guns there are to purchase, it came as a bit of a surprise that there weren’t all that many opportunities to use them. On top of this, the much-improved stealth mechanics meant that the guns I had invested in often went unused. Lara can now cover herself in mud to better blend in with the environment and can hide in tall plants and against certain vine-covered walls.

In keeping with Lara being much more experienced in this story, you start the game with many of the moves she learned in previous adventures already unlocked. Traversal is as fluid and effortless as always and has also seen some tweaks. You can now rappel down off certain walls to explore new areas and find secrets, and as well as the usual vertical climbing you can now climb under and across horizontal overhangs after finding special spiked shoes during the story. Swimming has been much improved, allowing Lara to explore further underwater than she would have been capable of before, and controlling her when submerged is a dream. Crypts are also much more varied in their general appearance and Tombs are not only improved in scale but in scope too – taking one on can be a fun diversion from the main path as you figure out the unique problems each one presents. The rewards are high for successful completion, as each one unlocks a skill that cannot be purchased any other way.

Shadow is also primed for longevity, featuring a ‘new game plus’ mode for the first time that allows you to carry over any learned skills and purchased weapons into a second pass at the game. There are even extra skills and weapons that can only be obtained in this mode. There’s a season pass on the way too, that not only adds seven brand new tombs to explore, but also adds new modes to the nine existing ones. If I had to criticise anything, the supporting characters felt undeveloped, a lost opportunity to really develop the people around Lara as much as Lara herself. And whilst the character of Jonah from the first two recent games made a welcome return, I liked the expanded cast of 2013’s Tomb Raider and the way they all had a place in the story. Lara feels a bit ‘alone’ in this game, although I fully admit that’s probably the point.

Ultimately, Shadow of the Tomb Raider is just shy of inching out the first game as the best of the trilogy, but it is nonetheless a brilliant, must-play Lara Croft adventure that leaves our heroine in a convincing and exciting place from which to launch the next evolution in the series. I can’t wait to see what they do with it, but I have a strong feeling it will involve raiding and tombs.