Publisher: Square Enix
Developer: Eidos Montreal, Crystal Dynamics
Platform: PS4, XB1, PC
Genre: Action-Adventure

It's been around 3 years since the last Tomb Raider, almost 6 years since the first game of the trilogy. Now it has come to a conclusion. With Lara's main Trinity arc finally done, one could hope she will expand her horizons to more captivating stories elsewhere.

Though I wouldn't call this epilogue the best in the series. While Crystal Dynamics transitioned to more of a collaborator handing the development task to Eidos Montreal; it didn't seem things worked out quite as it should've been expected. There were new features introduced though to what is disappointingly the same game it was years ago only it falters more where its predecessors did. So it hope for the next iteration is tentative.

But the scales do ramp up, the story of this trilogy has finally received the closure it needed. Also Lara's personality had a slight adjustment; let's just say she's more mean spirited than before. Albeit maybe close to borderline.

Story

You start off couple of months after Rise of the Tomb Raider, hot on Trinity's trails alongside your old besty Jonah Maiava. You find out that Trinity this whole time has been ran by a Pedro Dominguez, head of high council to somewhere in South America, Peru. As you venture, you find more about Lara's past and also work to stop Trinity after Lara well, unleashed Armageddon.

Ok so straight out of the beginning, things have already been tense as the plot follows in high note. Lara's character development takes a much awkward turn, though it's understandable considering the circumstances in the previous game. But there are moments where you sort of have a hard time following her, also few of Lara's struggles ensued from the start of the game wasn't explored to proper means. She just up and decided to take Jonah out for the ride of their lives and go through crazy obstacles. Somewhere in the last act of the game, her personality takes a drastic shift and she goes total tilt. Again, I could understand considering the circumstances but it feels abrupt.

Though then the main story overall is very serviceable, you finally start to connect everything while learning newer things. Other characters in this game including Jonah is well written. Jonah happens to be the anchor to Lara's downward spiral. Providing moral support as well as helping her defeat Trinity. You do get a couple of funny moments from the two though this aspect is also bit underdeveloped.

Shadow takes itself to more epic scale, as if the barometer the series was going for wasn't enough. Even with the protagonist's problems, game resolves itself a good climatic ending that does leave room for more as well.

Gameplay

If you played Rise of the Tomb Raider, yes it's pretty much somehow the same game set in a different locale. Kind of like playing a stand-alone expansion with few neat tricks. Shadow of the Tomb Raider also falters mostly in the gameplay aspect. I've had trouble climbing platforms or ledges thanks to odd level designs and visual queues. In fact, I've died a lot more than I could count, more than I had my share from Rise of the Tomb Raider.

The game does come with a few new things as well as expand on ones present. You can rope down from a grappled hook and, swing them to and fro. You even get new items that changes platforming entirely, being a good addition during the intense exploration you do around this game.

Oh, also you can now adjust difficulty of including both exploration and puzzles. Remember the white visual hint on ledges? yeah you can make that disappear if you want the extra challenge. Though I had a very difficult time faring against this because again the graphics didn't help, though more on that later. Your survival instinct is also limited based on the difficulty you pick.

Stealth aspect is, how should I say...underdeveloped? it's sort of more of the same, except the same old problems are there with claustrophobic level design. However, the enemy A.I in this game is very basic. To a point, where you know what you have to do it's only a matter of pulling it off in good execution with planning. The thought of improvising doesn't come to mind especially thanks to bit wonky walking animation Lara has like the previous games. You do apply mud to your face, cling to the grass walls hiding, stealth killing enemies before dragging their bodies out. That bit is satisfying but it doesn't help relief the lackluster feeling entirely.

As for skills, you have three types: Warrior, Scavenger and Seeker. They're highly expanded and as you progress further into the game, they have good use cases especially exploring Tombs, Crypts and so on since you have a lot more Tombs to explore here than ever. Oh and bit of advice, try to increase your inventory load because there's too many items left out in the open to pick and you don't use them much as you need to. Weapons can also be upgraded too, but again that's nothing new.

The gunfighting in this game is again, more or less the same just like Rise. You have newer special munitions you can use, including one which you make enemies hallucinate and kill each other. But the ab and flow is very familiar. Plus shooting mechanics is still a bit clunky.

One irritating issue that I had with the Tombs and Crypts were the requirements to their entrances. You would have to progress through certain point of the main story before accessing them but you get most of the them at late part of the game, you even wonder if you should do it or not. I wish the placements was much sooner and have avoided the hassles. God of War 2018 almost did the same thing, I wasn't fond of that.

Eidos Montreal did a weird hotchpotch with this game, especially in the puzzle and platforming areas. Shadow's inferiority is very present and there's little to convince you otherwise.

Graphics/Technical

Ok so the title might have skipped out on a few things. One in particular is the texture quality, I've played this game at ultra texture settings and it was turning out to be a mixed bag. There were some objects and areas that looked great with an edible color palette and good lighting alongside post processing affects. But aside those, you can still clearly see lack of polish. This was the issue I had when it came to platforming, it was difficult to distinguish and would result in my death multiple times. I had a hard time telling which is a ledge and which isn't. Same thing with walls and rocks to grapple on.

The character models do look great, that's a given. Shadow of the Tomb Raider is stuffed with visual options especially with the upcoming Nvidia graphics cards on the way. Ramping up the visual fidelity does improve the look and feel, though it won't help with the texture issues.

It's also a well optimized title, though don't consider using a 960 for this because I've faced multiple frame dips using it at best graphical quality possible. Also did I forget to mention I stumbled onto a couple of bugs on the way? yeah they were silly enough to ruin immersion.

Verdict

[I skipped sound/music because I couldn't get the time to cover it, the audio quality in this game is great. You can literally hear echos of gunfire, explosions, animal inhabitants and so on. It is succinctly distinctive. The music score is still plays few reprisals of the previous games. This is how much I could cover it]

Shadow of the Tomb Raider is not like the previous games in terms of pizzazz. This is a more serious toned game and it does not let up on the violence factor. But a good amount of underwhelming things leave it wanting more. It turned to be a bit of a letdown.

The story finally reaches a good conclusion with a post credit ending that hints at more to come. There's also a whole bunch of extra content to work yourself over, just thread lightly. Shadow needed a lot of room to improve, including Lara's character itself. Though with this out of the way, can we get a better game next time if there's one?

7/10