Shadow, is set shortly after the events of Rise of the Tomb Raider and is the final part of the narrative started in the rebooted Tomb Raider, based around Aztec and Mayan lore, set in Mesoamerica and South America.
The first thing that hits you is how familiar everything feels, not just in the playing style, but more in the set pieces and the inevitability surrounding how Lara’s journey starts, and dare I say it ventures into the ’not this again’ territory.
Development of Shadow of the Tomb Raider started just after Rise, in 2015 and focused around a core set of new fundamentals, Swimming becomes more prevalent with sections of the world being broken up by explorable underwater tombs, with new enemies and pickups. Grappling introduces new ways to traverse the landscape and segment between set pieces and explorable. Stealth is probably the biggest addition, not just in its addition but in how the game heavily suggests that is the only way to play.
Lara can now dowse herself in mud to hide in walls and camouflage herself, reeds, bushes and treetops now provide stealth cover. The intent isn’t wrong, it’s just how it seems like the gameplay has been changed to focus on stealth, even if you prefer to run-and-gun you will feel it very difficult and sluggish wielding guns and trying to fire-fight your way out, it’s not a difficulty setting issue, more of an afterthought of having to focus heavily on stealth. Shadow isn’t an action-adventure game, it’s a stealth-adventure game.
On the subject of difficulty, the in-game options have been changed quite substantially. You can change both puzzle and game difficulty, whether characters speak in certain languages within the games background or a base English language referred to as ‘Immersion Mode’. The problem is the puzzles are not that hard and are quite a few in number within the main game, all the options do is turn off the highlighting within the game, and when using your Instincts. If you’ve played any other game in the series or pretty much any other linear game it’s not really a challenge.
More than any game I’ve played in recent memory Shadow holds your hand like none other, even at medium difficulty, it will constantly prompt you on the most basic parts of the game, no matter how far you are, with constant on-screen reminders. If you happen to be in a puzzle section of the game and want to explore the area bit using your Instincts? Lara will audibly hint at you every time you use your Instincts, and considering the Instinct does not last more than a couple of seconds once moving it becomes massively annoying, with the number of pickups and collectables needing highlighting.
Shadow feels more linear than the rest of the series, it still has its open-hub areas, but they feel less expansive than previously, there does not feel any urge to explore or venture from the set path, when you do explore you will find yourself going quite far before realising you don’t have the correct upgrade making the journey quite a slog and disillusions you from venturing further. There are a lot of collectables, a lot, it probably needs stating again, a lot. You don’t seem to be able to turn a corner without picking something up or finding something, there is a lot of lore there, but you don’t need any of them, they add to XP which is the only benefit but that in itself is quite the muddle.
Like the previous games, you can upgrade your weapons but also Lara’s abilities, yet nothing really seems to have much impact on the game, there are maybe 4-5 purchases that would make a difference, not in gameplay, mainly in less annoyance, which begs the question why include all the collectables? there have been times within the game as it linearly takes you through sections that you rarely come across a basecamp leading to having to upgrade sporadically at 10+ points a time, you traverse the game in big strides between basecamps that the upgrades they enable seem pointless.
It feels like a core of a game, with AAA expectations bolted on as if there was a checklist somewhere of what you need in a AAA game and what you need to include. Shadow is built for re-playability, everything screams ‘come back and play me’ that it’s almost to the detriment of the main game as it leaves you a bit bored and seems stretched that wanting to go back and re-play does not seem like something you’d want to do. in a hurry
Rise upped the graphical ante, beautiful in parts and really taking a hold of generational graphic increases in terms of resolution and HDR implementation. Shadow isn’t worse, it’s not better, we’ve just seen it all before. There are parts in the game where Lara is audibly gasping at some vista or tomb and it’s, unfortunately, a shrug at best, been there, seen that.
PlayStation owners more than most are spoilt in this specific genre, the Uncharted series has led to some awe-inspiring moments and God of War has redefined the expectations of the single-player semi-linear game and at this point, Shadow just is not up to par. It is about a year too late in what it offers, if it came out before Lost Legacy it may have been a different story but too much has been released since.
Eidos seemed to really want to strip everything back and focus on the notion of the Tomb Raider, puzzles, history and traversing the landscape, but they stuck to one location, that features caves, underwater and jungle. After a while it all blends into one, there were times I was sure id done a section before, certain aspects seemed very cut-and-paste, in the interactions be it crawling, scrambling to walking on ledges, just seemed very repetitive. I’ll briefly mention the fighting animal’s aspect, which has been mentioned in promos and pre-launch material, why they decided to include it in any marketing is baffling and feels like a con if you are expecting anything barely similar to Far Cry or Assassins Creed Origins.
Shadow is a quandary, it is not a bad Tomb Raider game, it’s certainly not the best Tomb Raider game if you like Tomb Raider games you’ll be fine, it’s not, however, the finale the trilogy deserves. PlayStation owners, I don’t think it’s enough.
Everything the game does seems to be counterproductive and work not against the game but seems almost pointless to the game. At its heart, it tries to be the best Tomb Raider game at the essence of what Lara and being the Tomb Raider is, but baffling ‘AAA’ additions and a repetitive world really, really let it down.