Shadow of the Tomb Raider

14 Sep 2018

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8.0 rating
3924 want
10963 played
965 playing
334 reviews
Developer
Eidos Montréal
Developer
Crystal Dynamics
Publisher
Square Enix

Tags

Time to beat

Main story

12h 53m

Main story + extras

23h 57m

100% completion

37h 6m
Based on 75 answers
Summary

As Lara Croft races to save the world from a Maya apocalypse, she must become the Tomb Raider she is destined to be.

A lot more of an emotional story packed into this one. It started off with a bang, and really didn't slow down. I love the Lara/Jonah development of their friendship. This one was the best of the trilogy.

The last dance and the culmination of all three stories lead to a great conclusion.

Beautiful game. Beautifully written and scored. Bombastic and exciting set pieces.

But that final act though...😘🤌

9/10

Played on Xbox Series S
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16 Jun 2024
Played on: Playstation 5
Version: Playstation 4 (Performance mode)
Edition: Digital

This was straight up AWFUL. Such a step down from the previous two entries in this "reboot" trilogy. The story is a mess. So much so that for the first time in a LONG time I started to skip the cutscenes because I gave up on it & just didn't care anymore. The gameplay is so hollow & dull. Let's not even talk about the "puzzles".

The game is also very uneven in tone as it shifts in every act (in a bad way). There are only about two somewhat memorable set pieces in this & both of which involve flooding water. I don't recommend this AT ALL as there are so many better games out there waiting to be played. The one good thing I can say is that it has a lot of content to be explored but other than that it is hollow, bland, & a bitter send off to such a beloved character.

Final verdict: Don't touch it
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24 Nov 2022
gameplay is still enjoyable but the story is forgetable
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04 Oct 2021
Shadow of the Tomb Raider
✪ {ᏚᏟᏫᏒᎬ : 5.1}
…   …………….
🝰 | 𝚁𝙰𝚃𝙸𝙽𝙶𝚂

• Story : 1.5
~ god the story is SO BAD. it's even worse than TR13, at least in that one it was goofy for a sec and then it'd let you go, but in this one it grabs you by the collar and drowns you in shit.
𐄁 Characters : 2.2
~ why the FUCK is this fat fuck still here?
just fucking kill him already.
and NPCs somehow manage to be even more soulless and empty than jonah.
the most interesting characters i met in this game were the cute mfkn lamas and the guy who said nothing and went bonk bonk on his drums. oh and how could i forget Eli the parasite.
𐄁 Acting : 5.2
~ it varies alot, tho still none of them are like amazing or anything. lara's does a good job.

• Atmosphere : 6.2
𐄁 Immersion : 3.2
𐄁 Intensity : 4.3

• Gameplay : 6.5
𐄁 Gunplay : 6.4
𐄁 Combat : 1.6
𐄁 Stealth : 8.4
𐄁 AI : 3.0
𐄁 Movement : 4.5
~ movement has seen massive downgrades. it feels extremely weightless. they've also completely gotten rid of camera shake which is also a big downgrade.
• Level Design : 5.0
~ very disappointing level design. there was literally no action the whole time. just climb climb, talk to this soulless shit, climb again. now kill 2 guys and wait 6 hours to do it again. don't need to talk about paititi neither. T-T
𐄁 Pacing : 0.4
~ it's SO fucking badly paced it makes me wanna crush my head with my controller. the fucking paititi was THE most unbearable thing I've ever played. WTF? it was so so so fucking boring and it contained most of the game and it absolutely ruined it for me. the game was actually enjoyable before that section, and got good again right after it but it was too fkn late because i had already peeled my face off.
𐄁 Puzzles : 3.8
~ it's not that they're hard, it's that they're so poorly designed that you'll only ever get through them if you look them up. otherwise you'll be stuck in them for hours trying to find wtf you're even supposed to mess with.
𐄁 Difficulty : mentally difficult
• Skill Range : low floor - low ceiling

• Visuals : 8.7
~ graphically it has lost alot of details, and now it doesn't reach for quite as high RotTR did, but it manages to keep it's consistency well. it finds a middle ground between TR13 & RotTR.
𐄁 Textures & Models : 7.9
𐄁 Lighting : 8.9
𐄁 Small Details : 2.0
⋆ Environment Design : 9.4
~ even more fucking amazing this time. i just feel bad for the environment artists & designers at Crystal Dynamics. they always deliver top notch work just for the rest of the game to be neglected like this. the gap is WAY bigger this time too.
𐄁 Environmental Storytelling : 2.9
𐄁 Cinematography : 8.2

• Animations : 8.3
𐄁 Movement Animations : 8.5
𐄁 Facial Animations : 6.7

⋆ SoundTrack : 8.7
• Sound Design : 4.5
~ sound design has left the chat. it's so incredibly unbalanced and janky, so many sounds are missing half the time and just the whole thing is a big mess.

• Multiplayer : ꭗ

• Performance : ↑↑↑↓

⎆ 𝙾𝚃𝙷𝙴𝚁𝚂⬎
• Side Content : 1.0
~ wtf are these side missions? i hate my life and even i couldn't bare to do them.
𐄁 Customization : 4.0
~ it makes you wear this ugly ass outfit for the better half of the game and you can't even change out of it XD
𐄁 Innovation : -
𐄁 Accessibility : ⍟⍟
𐄁 Setting Options : ⍟⍟
𐄁 UI/HUD : 6.2
~ wtf is this skill tree?
𐄁 Extras : ꭗ
𐄁 Trophies : 4.8
~ locked difficulties that make you replay the thing min 3 times + collecting the collectibles in paititi? I'm from the aslume but even I'm not crazy enough for that.

…   ……………….
?| 𝚀𝚄𝙴𝚂𝚃𝙸𝙾𝙽𝚂

𐄁 Do i recommend this game? NO, GOD NO.
𐄁 Did it make me take my time with it? i gave it a fair shot but after paititi, i just wanted to fuckin kill myself.
𐄁 Did it meet my expectations? visuals aside, i was extremely disappointed.

…    ……………………
〄 | 𝙸𝙽𝙵𝙾𝚁𝙼𝙰𝚃𝙸𝙾𝙽

- Platforms : PS4 Pro
- First Playthrough : 9.9.23
𐄁 Finished at : 12.9.23
𐄁 Playtime : 11h 11′
𐄁 Difficulty : Rite of Passage
𐄁 High Framerate
- Beaten : 1 time
- Trophy Progress : 28℅⁶⁰'°
⟆⟅ | Won't Platinum D:
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12 Sep 2023
Shadow of the Tomb Raider is what happens when you take the best part of the last game, the Tombs, and make almost the entire game about it. To most people, this makes this the black sheep of the Trilogy. To me, it is the best of the 3 and also just one of my favourite Tomb Raider games ever.

As someone who grew up with the classic saga on the PS1, I can definitely say this game certainly captures the essence of the classic Tomb Raider games where the last two didn't. In fact, the last 2 games felt like they were building up to this moment. Finally, I'm playing a confident Lara Croft who is all about exploring tombs and solving historical mysteries.

As mentioned, there is barley any combat save for towards the end of the game, which is totally fine by me as the shooting was the weakest part of these games. The challenge here is in the platforming and puzzle solving. I also implore you to play this on the hard difficulty where they turn off any hints for puzzles; It gives you the feeling of solving really challenging puzzles from the classic games that the previous 2 games couldn't capture.

I highly recommend playing this with the definitive edition where you get all the DLC. The DLC missions are easily the best parts of the game and are also geniusly interwoven into the story as side missions along the main story. With that factor, it's DLC that just feel like an expansion to the main game's story rather than something just tacked on the side.

If you're a Tomb Raider fan who was disappointed by the first 2 games in the reboot trilogy, I implore you keep playing till Shadow. It is the most rewarding pay-off as a classic Tomb Raider fan and a great end to a trilogy setting up all of Lara's future adventures as we used to know her.
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18 Oct 2022
Looks amazing but that's it. The story feels silly and didn't grip me at all. The stealth mechanics of previous games is ruined by enemies always wearing head armour. There's an annoying amount of 'hidden' loading screens too.
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11 Jul 2021
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