SHADOW OF THE TOMB RAIDER
Shadow Of The Tomb Raider looks like Lara’s finest adventure yet
This final instalment in the trilogy that started with 2013’s reboot is the culmination of everything Eidos Montreal has striven for and learned over the past decade. Lara Croft’s latest adventure has been billed as her darkest yet (and it absolutely is; you’ll get no argument from us there), but it’s also her biggest in all sorts of ways.
“The critical path story is very comparable to the last two,” Jason Dozois, Shadow Of The Tomb Raider’s narrative director, explains to us. “Where it’s bigger… the challenge tombs are bigger, crypts are bigger in this one, exploration in this one is way bigger because it’s on many, many layers”.
We’ve played a large portion of the game and feel confident in saying this is the best of the three titles. The opening of the game is going to be a shock for many, as it subverts our image of Lara as a hero: she steals an object that sets in motion an apocalypse, making innocent people suffer. We saw her grow into a ruthless survivor in her first outing, and now the creators want us to question how far she’s gone and if there’s any way for her to come back from that.
NICE TOMB-EET YOU
“What is missing from Lara is people. She’s been so isolated for so
AS POWERFUL AS SHE IS, WE SHOULD BE A LITTLE AFRAID OF LARA TOO.
long, and part of becoming the tomb raider, to us, what that means, is not just the archaeology of getting the object or getting the relic but it’s something more like modern archaeology, which is culture and language and history and people. So that’s alive, it’s not just going to a dead place,” Dozois says.
To that end Shadow bolsters the semi-open world design of the previous games with large hubs full of NPCs who can give quests to Lara. It’s not just more content for content’s sake, it really helps change the feel of her story.
You need these quests, these little snippets of human interaction, because Lara has become incredibly fearsome. It’s no accident that some of her new moves, like slathering herself in mud for camouflage or stringing up her enemies in the trees, evokes the film Predator. As
powerful as she is, we should be a little bit afraid of Lara too. Her enemies are scared of her, and you’re able to provoke them into making fearful outbursts, attacking their allies, or running off alone. Despite that darkness, though, the game is full of surprises to contrast with this, light touches and warm moments between characters that stop the game becoming too grim.
Combat is a real challenge this time. Lara might be more capable than ever but so are her enemies, and they’ll no longer sit and wait to be picked off. New charging enemies can easily put you on the back foot if you’re not careful.
NEW DEPTHS
Lara’s become far more competent in traversal too. The new rappelling ability is a natural extension of her skills in the previous game, and she starts with many of the abilities she had to unlock in the older titles. More impressively she can swim again (and swan dive!), with large underwater areas for you to explore. This feels every bit as perilous as the rest of the rebooted series, so expect deadly traps and dangerous animals to find you if you’re not cautious.
The world now feels absurdly expansive, and you’ll take Lara over cliffs, down into ravines, and across everything in between. Tombs, even optional ones, now feel more akin to their counterparts in the original games, but they call on all the abilities of modern Lara. Some are huge, moving structures that aren’t merely impressive to see in motion but really get your brain going as you decipher and navigate them. The dense jungle of Peru is also refreshing after the more drab environments of Siberia.
All of which is to say Shadow Of The Tomb Raider seems a fitting end to Lara’s journey. It won’t win over anyone who hasn’t enjoyed this rebooted series, but if you have, this is a banquet of everything that’s made it so good.
Will you play the finale to this trilogy when it releases on 14 September?
You’ll want to revisit previous areas to unlock secrets with new equipment.