Jan 4th - Shadow of the Tomb Raider (PS5)
I’m a long term Tomb Raider fan. Played just about every one. But it’s always been a confused series with an identity crisis.
There are games where it’s just you, some ancient monuments to explore and a bunch of puzzles (my favourite). There are games that try to flesh out Lara Croft, and give her a set of characters to interact with (my least favourite). There are games that go all in on combat and stealth. There are games that try to do it all.
Despite all that, I have really liked most of the games over the years as Tomb Raider massively scratches my biggest itch in gaming; to explore, jump around and find cool hidden areas.
I really loved the reboot. I 100%ed it - something I rarely do - and whilst I sense it heavily emulated Uncharted at times (a series I haven’t played) I felt like it was a good base to build on, if it had some more puzzles, as it just felt so good to move around as Lara.
‘Rise’ was largely more of the same, but the tighter setting and new equipment made puzzles more satisfying and expansive. And there were a few more of them.
And ‘Shadow’ continues that arc, upping the platforming, exploration and Tombs further. Whereas the reboot only had about 5 from what I recall, with the DLC too There are more like 15 here and they’re all a decent challenge. There is also a lot less combat here than I was expecting, which I was hugely thankful for. I really love the combat in these new Tomb Raiders but for me it jars with what the series should be about.
I do think at the heart of these games is still that same conundrum that’s existed since Tomb Raider 2.
Is Lara an explorer or an action hero?
They tried to lean into it in reboot, where you spend the first few hours agonising over killing a deer, but somewhat undermine that narrative 2 hours later when Lara is slaughtering dozens of indigenous civilians.
‘Shadow’ starts to explore a similar tension in her past: what if Lara is nothing more than a selfish spoiled thief, nicking monuments from countries and leaving a trail of destruction behind her? Here, her actions literally result in apocalyptic events and huge human suffering.
It’s a really interesting idea. Again though, the developers utterly back out of exploring that fully and you end up with a fairly traditional Hollywood hero finale. I didn’t find it overly gross or problematic like a few people warned me I would; rather more tiresome and a waste of a good narrative arc.
But I think I always go off Tomb Raider games when they try to not make Lara a blank vessel, much like Samus Aran or Link. Her back story to me just isn’t really interesting. I’m here for all that other stuff.
And on that, Shadow really excels. If you overlook or skip the average story (which is already pretty slight) and power through the 3 or so forced stealth / combat sections, then the rest is the closest the series has come to Tomb Raider, The Last Revelation, Underworld or Anniversary in years. There’s lush forests, underground rivers, epic lost pirate ships, Incan temples, sunken death traps, tricky rope machinery conundrums, vertical rock climbing, Tombs, secrets, forgotten crypts, decaying Christian churches, wildlife infested glades, rope bridges and a ton of puzzles.
It was the most I’ve enjoyed a Tomb Raider game in a decade. Sure, it’s largely more of a formula that’s 3 games old. But it’s the best balanced of the new trilogy. And it’s over within 18 hours.
I’ll be mopping up the last few Tombs over the next few nights and when the Definitive Edition is on sale, I’ll be back to tackle those 8 or so DLC Tombs too.
