Lara is a killing machine

Shadow of the Tomb Raider Rated M for Mature (PS4,Xbox One, PC)

The final instalment of the story — while the darkest — is still the tomb raiding experience players wanted.

The game has some of the most jaw-dropping visuals you have seen in 4k. The game hosts lush jungles to claustrophobic tombs. The dense jungle environments feature monkeys climbing trees and birds flying around. The trees and shrubbery move and it looks lifelike. At times, you can even see the sun’s ray brightly fighting through the dense jungle.

The visuals really need to be experienced on a 4k TV and your Xbox X.

The sound design is another strong point for the game. Whether you’re exploring towns or travelling through jungles, your ears will be bombarded by different sound experiences. In the jungles for example you’ll hear birds chirping, monkeys grunting and even flies buzzing around with such realism you’ll be looking for your fly swatter.

Different regions also talk in their native tongue. If you have a good sound system, this game will take advantage of its power. Even without a sound system, a good pair of headphones will work as well.

Lara is back in the final instalment of this storyline. A year after the events of Rise of a Tomb Raider, Lara is trying to stop the Mayan apocalypse, but actually triggers it. As Lara has evolved over the past two game’s stories, it has all led to this point. This isn’t the same naive person we saw in the first game, she has gotten more deadly than ever.

Lara, by the end of the game, caused more destruction and deaths than Trinity did. This fact does seem to weigh heavily on her. The combat has seen improvements from the other two games.

Lara, since she is in the jungle, can use the vegetation to her advantage. Lara can cover herself with mud and hide in hedges to get that stealth kill. Bushes can also be used to conceal yourself to make stealth and combat easier.

Lara is a killing machine in this game. By the end, you have killed tons of enemies with no regret. Gun fights are fast and frantic with tons of explosions at times. The game has some of the best environments ever seen in a video game. You will be exploring dark and scary tombs, lush jungles and many more locations.

The lighting in the jungle is truly breathtaking. Seeing the light peek through the trees looks amazing. As the game progresses, you will explore tombs through the main story and as side quests.

A new addition is the ability to change several different difficulty settings on the fly. Players can set combat, exploration and puzzle settings independently. This lets you make the game as easy or tough as you want. The tomb’s puzzles themselves aren’t overly complicated, but do require you to explore the location and follow the clues the game gives you.

If you loved the tomb aspect of previous games and wanted more of that, this game has what you were missing. Underwater exploration is another new element, with players having to contend with not only holding their breath, but also eels. The controls — whether exploring or swimming — are as responsive as you would want. That being said, while jumping to ledges and traversing Lara will miss a jump instead of grabbing a ledge one second then complete it the next. So the game has solid combat, exploration and the tombs players wanted.

The story will take you through many different areas as you bring the fight to Trinity. The story will take you around 20 hours to complete with the player being able to backtrack to different areas to collect missing items and explore tombs they may have missed.

With the story starting back in 2013, the character has progressed nicely. Lara has grown into a badass character you would expect from a true Tomb Raider.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider gets a 10/10 — a must buy!

Sascha Heist is a lifetime gamer who resides in Penticton.

Feel free to contact Sascha at sggall@telus.net with gaming questions and more. On XBox One : acehardy13 On PSN: acehardy13 This column appears Saturdays.