The last paragraph is my TLDR.
The title is probably a bit confusing, so let me explain.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider marks the end of my time with the new Tomb Raider trilogy. After spending almost 40 hours with this game, the best way to sum it up would be to compare it to one of its specific features. In Shadow, you have this audio option called ‘voiceover immersion’, which essentially allows for all NPCs to speak in their native language rather than having it appropriated by English, as it so often happens. “This is awesome!”, I thought, immediately turning it on. As I went through the game, however, I quickly began to realise the massive design flaw in this feature: ‘voiceover immersion’, as it stands, means that everybody understands everyone regardless of what language they speak. Lara understands both Spanish and Yucatan Maya as a native, but she can only speak English. The locals, in turn, understand English as natives, but they can only speak in their native language. Consequently, you are almost always taken aback by the fact that every single NPC in the game has a perfect understanding of what is being said at any given moment. In other words, ‘voiceover immersion’ sounds fantastic on paper, but ultimately, it does the opposite of what its ‘immersion’ label would lead you to believe, resulting in little more than confusing window dressing implementation. This was my impression of Shadow as a whole: a game that looks and sounds amazing and a prospective journey that fills you with positive anticipation, but that when you start digging deeper, shows problems that highlight execution laziness and sometimes even defy comprehension.
I don’t say this to mean that I had an awful time with the game. I haven’t, and in fact, I’ll willingly admit I got into a bit of an addicted mode, having spent as much time in with it as I did. A big part of that comes from its presentation. Visually, Shadow is absolutely stunning, offering an incredibly detailed, luscious and colourful world. It easily features the most breathtaking scenery of all three games. Towns are lively and feel like actual places, remote jungle areas truly seem remote and inhospitable, crypts are more elaborate now, and tombs come with an unparalleled variety in terms of colour and layout. Through those lenses, I loved every minute I spent in Shadow’s version of the Amazon jungle and its adjacent areas. Audio wise, I also felt that they did a great job, not so much with its audio clues but particularly with its ambient soundtrack, which I found quite moody and tone-fitting, and definitely worth a mention when compared to the previous two entries. This works quite well with the elements introduced to the environment, not only in the form of attractive, harmless wildlife but especially with the inclusion of jaguars, whose growls make them seem absolutely terrifying (even if their animations, and at times AI, seem wonkier this time around). These aspects combined offer a compelling world to spend time in, at least on the surface of it, and made my experience with Shadow considerably more satisfying than it would’ve been otherwise.
Something else that caught my eye: the way this third entry lays out the pace in its early stages is curious. Where TR and Rise throw you into action-packed segments right from the start, Shadow chooses a different approach, far more reliant on cutscenes and slow-paced moments. There are a couple of intense segments as you get going, one of which quite effective at eliciting feelings of claustrophobia - something that the game actually does pretty well throughout -, but for the most part, what you get are segments where direct input from the player is, at best, sparse or very short-lived. This creates a duality: if on the one hand, this more breathable, hands-free cinematic approach works nicely in the way of filmic presentation to set the scene, characters and stakes, on the other it gives off this quasi-walking simulator vibe, especially for a Tomb Raider title, at times feeling more like a film you get to play occasionally. It is a jarring contrast in tone setting when looking at the intro of the previous two games, and though this does change as the game progresses, there is still a bigger cutscene emphasis throughout.
This heavy-handed cinematic approach is equally noticeable in Shadow’s camera work, which forcefully shoves a specific ‘artistic’ angle down your throat every time the game thinks you should be looking at a particular awe-inspiring something that just came up on screen. This was also the case in previous titles, but here it feels compulsory to the point of becoming detrimental: you can force the camera to go elsewhere, but if the game decides you still haven’t looked enough at whatever you’re supposed to be looking at, it will drive you right back to the same angle. Even when you’re trying to move your character in a different direction. Cinematic presentation has been a defining staple of the new Tomb Raider trilogy, and although I ultimately lapped it up like an easily brainwashed fanboy, it often feels like Shadow pushes it a bit too far, even if this is arguably the most beautiful game to look at in the entire franchise.
There are other things that Shadow does well, but just like its ‘voiceover immersion’ inclusion, rarely are these things one-sided in its favour. An example of these are the new gameplay mechanics the game introduces. Rappelling and wall running are really cool, logical introductions, and I love that you get to use the grapple axe much earlier in the game when compared to Rise. Yet from movement to combat, gameplay as a whole feels less satisfying to the point of hinting at a lesser level of polish, which is astonishing since the last game of a trilogy should give you the opposite impression. Camouflage is a brilliant introduction, and something that feels like it should’ve been in all games. Yet because not only is the stealth experience dumbed down from Rise but the game gives you little recourse to lure your enemies, if often devolves into no more than a temporary respite (also, still not being able to drag bodies at this point is just ludicrous). These are just two aspects in the way of mechanics that the game fails to fully bring home.
Another example of something Shadow nails only partially is character design. Lara is even more fleshed out now: she feels more relatable and physically vulnerable, and we even get a nice little throwback that adds useful insight regarding how she turned into the person she is, both in terms of her personal drive and her physical abilities. Yet there is something about her interactions, especially in her relationship with Jonah, that always feels artificially established rather than organically evolved. Her breaking point was very cool to witness, yet it was so ridiculously short-lived that it was nowhere near long enough to have any sort of narrative or emotional impact. Shadow’s villain is easily the most ambiguous, nuanced one in the entire trilogy, seeming much more like an actual person than a stereotypical gamey bad guy. Yet he’s marred by such a borderline lore-defying backstory, that his whole existence is too contrived to make him unequivocally believable as a character.
One more aspect where you find this opposition between idea and execution is tomb design. Both visually and thematically, there is no two ways about it: this is easily the best iteration in all three games, with all the variation, environmental richness and appropriately balanced tone you could possibly ask for. Yet this is also the title with the most mechanically obtuse puzzles, riddled with inconsistent physical traversal rules and a lack of important visual indicators, thus making the whole experience more laboured and less intuitive (and don’t get me started on those absurd wind-based segments on the DLC tombs). Again, Shadow is full of these contradictory messages within itself, making it very hard to look at any of its achievements without simultaneously being put off by its flawed equivalents. Which is particularly frustrating, because at every turn, it feels like this game was very close to becoming something considerably deeper than what the final form delivered.
I can find even more positives in all the aspects I mentioned above, flawed as they are, and I was generally happy with them. But this tussle between surface-level greatness and absence of true depth gains a bigger dimension in the areas of the game I do have problems with. I’ll try to run through them quickly as this post is already too long as it is, so in a bullet point-type manner:
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Shadow features the worst level design of all three games, at times completely abdicating the simple, clear-cut nature of the loop-type system that was so awesome and prevalent in TR;
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directly tied to this, exploration often feels simultaneously more restrictive (making you backtrack a lot because you’re not properly equipped yet) and confusing (making the use of survival instinct a literal necessity in order to get by and take stock of your surroundings - the big, wide areas in the maps don't play nicely with the game’s linearity, so you end up not being given any indicators as to where to go, meaning you’re often lost unless you use survival vision);
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Shadow also features, by some margin, the silliest main story of the trilogy (which is saying something considering TR’s history). Believability takes a back seat throughout the whole main thread, at times to the point of conflicting with the narrative in Rise;
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progression is less enjoyable, with less useful ways to use your items in crafting/upgrading or your skill points in perks;
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it also doesn’t help that the game has a terribly confusing menu whenever you’re trying to navigate through your missions, relics, documents etc;
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finally, Shadow is a lot more ‘hand-holdy’ than previous games. This can be seen in a myriad of different ways - oversimplified mechanics, overuse of the exact same trap, the fact that Lara can now swim for ages, or that she can walk around the Hidden City willy-nilly with the literal leader of Trinity in the exact same place, or that she can fool an entire cultist organisation whilst speaking perfect English for no other reason than simply wearing a different outfit, etc. And all these ways, even though they were probably designed to facilitate entry and make the game more accessible, end up resulting in a shallower, somewhat half-baked experience that may do little more than frustrate part of the fanbase. Especially because the Tomb Raider games were never that difficult to begin with.
I likely came across as more critical than I aimed for. The truth is I spent literal dozens of hours with Shadow and had a genuinely fun time doing it, flaws and all. It ultimately wasn’t the trilogy evolution I was hoping for, and in fairness it ended up being my least favourite of the recent games. There is a lot of wasted potential here, where good ideas end up betrayed by lazy execution. But the worst game in a very solid trilogy can still be pretty enjoyable, and such was the case with this title. Through all its issues, there is a tangible grasp in Shadow that stems from its audiovisual allure yet is hard to put down in words. This alone would be enough to warrant a playthrough, but peek through its environmentally beautiful curtain and you’ll also see more things to appreciate. Your own final level of enjoyment when credits roll will largely depend on how frustrating you feel its problems to be. Personally, I still thought Shadow of the Tomb Raider was certainly worth it, and on the whole, this was a trilogy I ended up liking even more than I thought I would. Wish we had more adventure explorer-based titles like these. 7.5/10
