That’s right-the entire game takes place under the shadow (pun intended) of that ominous end of days we all feared back in 2012. What is completely new, however, is the awesomely inspired setting: The steamy, unpredictable depths of South America’s tropical jungles, complete with empress jaguars, hooting howler monkeys, capybara, poison dart frogs and, oh, you know, the encroaching Mayan apocalypse. Shadow of the Tomb Raider Credit: Square Enix There are a few Sonic the Hedgehog- style sections that will have you holding your breath and practically hearing that infamous running-out-of-air warning music. Stealth and swimming have also been reworked to encourage more strategy, I’d say successfully so. On top of that, Lara can now rappel down cliffs, a useful added skill for swinging onto faraway ledges or dropping safely onto precarious perches. You’ve got your warp-ready base camps, your resource crafting, animal hunting, constant looting and the expected gear upgrades. Besides a few important tweaks and additions, there isn’t much new here in terms of basic gameplay and progression structure. Right off the bat, it’s important to note that if you’ve played Tomb Raider 2013 and Rise of the Tomb Raider, you’ll feel right at home with Shadow (and even get some extra goodies if you played them on the same console). And while Lara’s latest outing doesn’t do much to progress the action-adventure genre as a whole, it’s still one of the most polished and enjoyable exploration titles I’ve ever played.
The end result? Proof that despite our own limitations, we (and our heroine) have the power to shape the future. 2018’s Shadow of the Tomb Raider aims to complete this newer trilogy, showing what can happen when an unrestrained treasure-hunting obsession begets real catastrophe, tragedy on a colossal scale that demands difficult choices be made. The 2013 Tomb Raider reboot surprised a lot of gamers with its mature, character-driven origin story catalyst, which led to the excellent Rise of the Tomb Raider, a sequel that saw a more considered Lara coming into her own, forging a fresh gritty path. An in-game quote that reverberates throughout the entirety of Shadow of the Tomb Raider, this sentence also describes Lara Croft’s 20-plus-year journey from low-polygon video game sex symbol to the fully realized female adventurer badass that we see before us today.
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