It's been five years since Crystal Dynamics has restarted the story of Lary Croft in a modern style. They surrendered to the experienced Lara and started from the very beginning, from her first task and survival effort on Jamatai Island. Subsequently, they continued in the title of Rise of the Tomb Raider, where the more experienced Lara went on her first own trip to Siberia in the mysterious town of Kitezh. Both showcased the high-quality new Lary style game that blended closed environments, open locations, exploration of the environment, and action. Maybe it's too harsh action for Laru, who has not been tested yet.
Crystal Dynamics, however, began to work on the Avengers after Rise of the Tomb Raider, and so the third part of the birth of Lary Croft got into the hands of Eidos Montreal, the writers of Deus Exu. They were given the role of closing the prodigy of Lary Croft's inexperienced Tomb Raider. We can already say that they did not disappoint. And while some things did not catch up like Crystal Dynamics, in other things, the original concept improved very well. They have improved it in the direction of being the fan of the original titles. They have diminished the number of splinters and maximized the discovery of the environment, climbing and playing with tombs. They found a very good balance of all the elements.
In Shadow of the Tomb Raider they drag Lara to Mexico, where they get to watch the links of their father and the activities of the Trinity organization. But Lara is right about what she did not have. In an attempt to protect one artifact from Trinity, he takes him from the sacred place and triggers the Mayan apocalypse that will culminate in the destruction of the world. Like her, Trinity is now struggling to find another artifact that would stop it. Trinity wants it for himself, that is, if he combines both artifacts, they can make a world of themselves. Lara wants to make up her mistake and stop everything.
We are waiting for the story of Lara, her troubles over what she did, and the story that moves Lara forward. Lara gradually stops watching the father, his links, his family and his past, and focuses mainly on himself and his role. It is a difference from the first two games and it is a good direction for other parts of the game, but the fact that this game concludes its creation could be deeper here. But there will be some nice scenes and interesting closures.
The greater the depth of the Lary's psychic state, which begins to doubt itself. This, along with your focus on your role, will be continuously tracked alongside its 20-30 hour cruise through Mexico and the jungle in Peru. Repeat the combination of direct levels and a few open areas where you get the freedom and additional side missions and opportunities. The open areas here are fewer than in the previous game, but they are bigger and with additional content. They do not forget the obligatory and optional side-tombs with logical tasks, with which the really beautiful authors have played. It is enough and they are best in modern trilogy. They are not extremely complicated, but they are always interesting and different.
As I mentioned earlier, the new authors have mixed it somewhat differently than Crystal Dynamics, the shotguns and more precisely the inevitable snapshots already make up only a minimum of game time, the authors put emphasis on the stealth possibilities of quietly destroying enemies. The vast majority of gameplay will be the exploration of the environment, jumping, climbing, and now a new type of clutter has been added, yet expanding the possibilities of climbing and also the tasks the authors have prepared for Lara. Well, it will add a lot of diving. It will all overflow the action scenes with running and jumping for skill. Mostly caused by the disasters that Lara has launched. Whether earthquakes, floods, landslide ... reflexes will be important there.
The weapon Lare does not miss its iconic bow, which is its basic weapon in the trilogy, but gradually gets a gun, a knife, a machine gun, a shotgun. It will not be a great offer of arsenal, but every weapon will be improved by crafting, new types of missiles, new weapons throwing options. It is similar to the previous game, but more limited, as the authors have killed the action and the primary weapons of destruction are knife and bow. They tried to focus primarily on slapping where Lara would climb the mud and hide in thickets and bushes to gradually eliminate enemies. In big snapshots, he has little chances to survive, but if you prefer a violent way of level crossing, you can try it. Just to consider that weapons are more cumbersome to use and target. These action parts seem to me slightly undeveloped and they see that they did not primarily engage with them.
But a few open fights will not be missed. The game did not necessarily need them, but they sometimes revive the gameplay and show the dark side of Lara. He will not only fight against the Trinity army, but also natives and animals.
Combat themes will usually take place at night and will contrast with a bright, colorful, and very nice display of the rest of the game. Lara finds a lost Mayan city with a civilization that still lives peacefully in the middle of the mountains in their way of life. Everywhere there are colors, gold and relics. Their city will be one of the fully open environments in the game that you can explore, take on tasks from people, help them, and help save some. So people have kept the old habits, among which there are bloody sacrifices to the gods. You will also find side tombs that you can unlock by solving logical problems. You will drive different trucks, direct the lights, rotate the mechanisms, do not miss the ropes. But it complements the purely searching task where you will need to find information that will open your way forward. You will break the walls, look for old frescoes, information, and join them to find the secret door. Simply, it will be Lara as it belongs.
The new Lare also includes stock picking, where you will ride berries from bristles, parts and various things, whether for healing, making weapons enhancements, or selling to merchants. They can sell you more weapons, supplies and equipment in the town for money. You do not have to deal with it, it depends on how much trouble you have. The higher, the more you have to supply before the fighting and the fight to prepare. That's what you get higher, the lesser the shells in the environment, the enemies are heavier, and for example you will not even see their outlines. In addition, you can set up the difficulty of discovering environments where you will no longer have the tinted parts of the walls you can go to, the path indicator in the survival Instinct view disappears. Finally, you can also set up the complexity of the tombs where you can completely turn off the display of important things. It's very well crafted and you can choose which part of the game you want to be challenging.
Finally, there are no upgrades to the characters in which Lare can experience other features in combat, stealth, and discovery. It will add new ways to eliminate enemies, better underwater stamina, better targeting, healing and much more. Lare will gradually expand the possibilities. If you can not extend them to the end of the game, do not mind, even after you finish, you can go back to the jungle and continue in the side missions and search for tombs. Or, if you want to play again, there's New Game Plus, where you'll have Lary's experience and equipment. Indeed, in terms of content, it's a great offer that will be expanded every month with new tombs and storytelling missions. It's a different approach to Rise of the Tomb Raider, with three large DLC packages. It will be smaller.
The visual in the game is great. It's a different style than the previous two games, it's no longer cold and rough, but more colorful and pleasant. So there are colors that fit more into the jungle environment and the secret places of the Mayans full of gold. It's very well tied up and the atmosphere makes it feel right at every step. Mainly, it's a nice look at Lara, her detailed work from textures through face, hair and dress details, as well as talk-like expressions that are great. Camilla Luddington has tried again both with motion capturing and dubbing. By the way, it will be interesting to see if it will be in the fourth game as, as she said, the contract had been signed for three games.
The light has been refined with very nice contrast of light and dark caves. Especially if you have an HDR screen, you will enjoy it. They also played very well with fraudulent spaces where much of the game takes place. Again, neither the capture of brutality, nor the death of Lara, or even the brutality of the Mayans and Christians. The game will always remind you that it is not a trip to nature. All environments overlay pop-up animations, which are of high quality, and that there is plenty and possibility from the beginning to too much with too little freedom. It is also a story, but in the first third of the game I missed a larger open environment.
If you like the graphics very much, the game has a built-in photographic mode for editing scenes as well as Lara's face that will smile and smile as you set it up. In addition to the PC, Ansel is more of an option with more freedom and filters.
Overall, Shadow of the Tomb Raider is a high-quality game, otherwise inherited as a previous one, but very nicely focused on the nature of Tomb Raider, and hence climbing, exploring, searching for tombs and this time less on the number of dead bodies. Although the creators did not completely miss the action, it is less and it is better balanced. This is all about Lara's very good forward to the real Tomb Raider. Both the game and character development. It may be a shame to over-direct or unintended action, but otherwise Eidos Montreal has confirmed that they have to continue and further develop this brand.
