Updated:

22 Aug 2024

The legendary tomb raider is back for another adventure in Shadow of the Tomb Raider.This is the 12th game of its franchise and said to be the final game in the rebooted Trilogy. We will be discussing whether this trilogy ended with a bang or if it stale and predictable.

About

Shadow of the Tomb Raider is a single player action adventure game played in third person and is the first game of the trilogy to be developed by Eidos-Montreal. Released September 12th, 2018 and was made available for PC, PS4 and Xbox. Its story has less than a dozen action filled quest that are beautifully designed with architecture of amazing tombs and massive environmental puzzles.

Explore the impossible as Lara attempts inhumane stunts that only of course the legendary tomb raider could only pull off. Discover new land, skills and rewarding challenges while taking out threats with awesome gun play. Get a true sense of what a tomb raider is like by swinging from skyscraper heights, exploring underground caverns and scavenging for resources. Game play is like Riseof the Tomb Raider with additional features added based off of reviews giving it a more realistic approach.

Story

Shadow of the Tomb Raider continues 2 months later from where Rise of the Tomb Raider left off. In an interesting story Lara accompanied by Jonah track Dominguez (the leader of Trinity) from the frozen tundra’s of the Siberian Mountains across the world to the legendary hidden city Paititi, located deep in the heart of Central America. While in pursuit and hot on the trail, Lara stumbles upon an ancient Mayan artifact in a tomb being raided by Trinity called “The Dagger of Chak Chel”, as well as information written on murals about a hidden city (Paititi), “The Silver Box of Ix Chel”, and a warning that an apocalypse resulting in a permanent solar eclipse called “The Cleansing” will happen if the dagger is removed.

Lara despite the warning takes the dagger in order to keep it from Trinity. Catching Lara Dominguez warns her of what she has done and takes the dagger from her to unite with the box in order to use its power to make himself a God. Shortly after Lara and Jonah escape a tsunami that destroys Cozumel, proving the warning true. They continue chasing Dominguez into the Peruvian jungles where their plane crashes during a massive storm, the second cataclysm. Jonah and Lara find the legendary city of Paititi and the clues needed to stop Dominguez from using the power the god Kukulkan and despite their differences must stick together in order to save us all from the apocalypse.

Gameplay

Experience the fear of drowning as Lara struggles to hold her breath while trying to escape collapsing tombs. Feel the sense of panic as you rappel down cliffs hoping not to fall to your death as you use only climbing axe and rope. Like in Rise, you can hunt animals for crafting resources, solve puzzles, and explore to discover additional paths. You can choose your own difficulty level as puzzles, combat and gameplay have their own settings.

For example, if you choose hard the white painted indications won’t be there to tell you where to go leaving you to have to trust your instincts. You can choose what language you would like the natives to speak in and Lara is able to pick up on the language the more, she reads it. Shadow has the largest social hub out of all Tomb Raiders, the legendary city of Paititi where players can socialize with traders, complete side missions for NPCs, discover and buy new outfits, gear, complete tomb challenges and other activities.

Combat

There are enemies lurking around every corner in The Shadow of the Tomb Raider and you would think Lara was more of an assassin than a tomb raider by how she maneuvers stealthily through the jungles successfully and easily picking off trinity soldiers one by one. Threats are plentiful and become more deadly as Lara increases in skill. Skill levels are set into 3 categories called The Tree of Life; Warrior, Scavenger and Seeker that you can upgrade with skill points or acquire by completing tomb challenges.

With the choice of ranged weapons being bows, pistols, shotguns and rifles you have all you need to take out an enemy from close or far. Weapons can be upgraded at campsites with crafting materials, and new weapons can be found by completing quests or bought from merchants. In defense, Lara can disengage from a fight when she is out of sight of an enemy and can camouflage herself by using mud, hiding in nearby bushes and blending in with surrounding vegetation. She can set traps, craft Molotov cocktails, smoke bombs, grenades, and use exploding containers to take out multiple enemies at once. She can also heal herself but only on easy and normal difficulty levels.

Quest/Mission System

There are plenty of awesome missions in Shadow of the Tomb Raider that are sure to keep you busy for a while. The main story line leads to an abundance of side quest and tomb challenges that upon completion you win various skills or weapons. You can talk to the locals and discover additional side quest as well and there are 3 bonus paths called the Serpent, Jaguar, and Eagle paths that only become available after completing the story line.

Graphics

With most of the layout being forest even on the highest quality of game play there is no pixel popping. Shadow of the Tomb Raider has beautiful graphics capturing every detail of the land, the architecture of the tombs, people and animals. Plants have a realistic shine to them as the sun passes through and the scenery doesn’t look like clay. In the video below you can see examples of the lowest and highest qualities available for game play.

Developers

Developed by Eidos-Montreal and released on September 12, 2018. Development began shortly after the Rise of the Tomb Raider was released back in 2015 where co developers Crystal Dynamics from the previous two games of the trilogy decided that they wanted to part ways leaving Eidos-Montreal to take on the lead role of production, although still there for support Eidos-Montreal had to endure growing pains.

Wanting to know everything they could to make the best game possible they took reviews from Rise of the Tomb Raider and applied what critics were saying to the game, features that make the game more realistic. With 100-million-dollar budget and a separate 35 million dollars for promotion. Shadow of the Tomb Raider was Eidos-Montreal’s largest production at the time ending on July 18, 2018 and other than being compared to Uncharted has successfully sold 74 million copies since its release date.

Price

The price was $60 when Shadow of the Tomb Raider first released but has dropped to now just under $20 it is available for purchase at Walmart, Best Buy, Game Stop, Amazon, Xbox store and PlayStation store.

Final Verdict

Shadow of the Tomb Raider is a roller coaster full of obscure events beautiful graphics and thrilling adventure. Developers have done a good job capturing the emotions of the characters and as well as keeping you on your toes throughout the whole game as you experience unexpected near-death experiences time and time again, clenching your teeth as Lara does the impossible.