8.0Shadow of the Tomb Raider
This is a bit of a belated review, cause technically I completed the game 2 weeks ago and I currently just started the prequel - Rise of the Tomb Raider, so this will be a rushed one.
Long story short: I'm a Tomb Raider fan now. It's a good game, just maybe not the one you might want to start your Tomb Raider journey with. Why? Well, for starters (SPOILER) Lara triggers a f'in tsunami after the first level of the game, causing a village to get flooded and you watch people die as you dodge obstacles to save your own life. Lara is somewhat still just upset by not getting the artifact and the whole game is just looking at her to "Read the room!". You can possibly imagine expecting my introduction to the heroine, which I was more familiar with as the sexy gunning lady from the older games, to be a bit different. Now having completed Shadow and even starting Rise just now, I have to say that's quite on brand for Lara. Not that she is an awful person lacking empathy or guilt, just to my surprise this Lara Croft - as opposed to the sexualized marketing for the games I grew up with in the 2000s - is a damage case. She is strongly driven by completing her mission for her father's sake with her family being viewed as crazy rich people. It took a bit for it to click, but honestly I like this Lara Croft.
Anyway, solid graphics for a PS4 game. In particular I loved the explorable areas and the architecture of the towns the game throws at your. Oh and the San Juan exploration section with the Jesus crucifixtion path - marvelously morbid. Good job.
Gameplay-wise I could compare it to a lot of AAA games released across the last 10 years, so in some ways the game might not stick out as much, but perhaps not knowing the full history of the franchise I might do the game injustice by saying it's just chasing the other games. First comparison I could make is to The Last of Us with it's cinematic graphics, stealth mechanics, arsenal of weapons to use in combat and even a somewhat horror-esque vibe with a certain faction of enemies who come out to challenge you in a certain explorable cave. Besides that the game comes heavily loaded with platforming featuring climbing, swinging and jumping reminiscent of the recent Star Wars Jedi games and I swear someone at Guerilla must have a soft spot for the franchise because I can think of atleast two mechanics the Horizon games might have been inspired by from TR directly (namely the pullcaster in Forbidden West being pretty much the same mechanic Lara can do with a bow and arrow + the mountain climbing in Call of the Mountain feeling quite reminiscent of the climbing sections in this game, just in VR). Last but not least the game breaks away from being just a mix of action, skill and exploration by adding some quite interesting puzzles.
Story was overall pretty solid too. I feel I might have not gotten quite the full picture from it, cause I haven't played the previous games in the Tomb Raider reboot series, but Lara has grown on me, the world as I experienced it was pretty cool. The villain was fine, but felt a bit like previously traveled themes with the anime/manga X/1999 coming to mind. But all in all a solid adventure. Would recommend.
