Shadow of The Tomb Raider: A Somewhat Disappointing Masterpiece.

One of the very first video games I purchased when I first bought a gaming console was Tomb Raider from 2013. I purchased the sequel alongside it and in the last year I was able to purchase the final game in the trilogy. Technically speaking, the video game is a masterpiece albeit with some technical issues. Gaming on an Xbox One X, I experienced frame drops and screen tearing especially in the hub areas of the video game. The game has two gaming modes on now last generation consoles: It can either be run at 4k 30fps or at 1080p 60fps. As I don’t have a 4k monitor I ran the game on the higher frame rate performance mode. While the game did seem to hit its target in most areas the drop in performance was very noticeable in the hub areas.

In terms of writing I feel that the first two games were superior especially in terms of the story content. The first game is my favourite in the series because all the characters felt fleshed out to some extent. Also, because Lara was just starting out on her journey as an explorer-adventurer and still had a lot of growth. In the latest title she feels more mature as a character but not entirely that much developed from what she was in the previous titles. Shadow of the tomb raider has some pacing issues and doesn’t deliver its story and action in a similar fashion to the way the previous outings did. There is more of an emphasis on exploration than there is to the forward momentum of the story. This being said, the game’s combat is in step with the last two and is a lot of fun. The stealth mechanics have been improved and stealth does feel like a more rewarding path to take in terms of gameplay. The technical achievements are virtually unparalleled compared to the first two but also when compared to most triple A games released in the last two years. The character animations especially for the main character, Lara, seem to have received a lot of time and attention. As an example, Lara gets tired from hanging off of cliffs and edges and shifts her weight from one foot to the other to reflect this.

A personal highlight of the video game was when the story shifted focus to a younger Lara a la Uncharted 4. This was good fun and also a good break of pace. The change of scenery also felt warranted and provided some visual relief from the rest of the game’s South American locale. Here you as the character of Lara gets to explore parts of the Croft Manor and learn a bit more about Lara’s mother who was mentioned briefly in Rise of The Tomb Raider but not at all in the first video game. It also helps to establish Lara as an explorer because we learn that she was engaged in shenanigans from a young age as she played pretend explorer-adventurer as she tried to solve practical puzzles that were laid out throughout the manor.

There are more side missions in this game compared to the first two. Unfortunately, as they all start in the hub areas I didn’t attempt any of them. The screen tearing was really atrocious and at least for me made these areas unenjoyable and almost unplayable. Bar parts of the story and the minor technical issues this really is a good game and a job well done by the developers.

I present to you my in-depth review below: