Review: Shadow of the Tomb Raider

[Anthony J Agnello]

Review: Shadow of the Tomb Raider

Shadow of the Tomb Raider would be a perfect game if no one spoke.

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[Neurotic Void Melody]

"Shadow of the Tomb Raider would be a perfect game if no one spoke." - That's quite a lot how I felt about Mass Effect: Andromeda, except with the word "perfect" swapped with "alright." If all dialogue options were just different emotive dances that you could pick, maybe accompanied with the sound of an excited dolphin or various other creatures... like Pingu. Space Fantasy Pingu.

Am getting the same impression with Destiny 2 also.

Maybe this Tomb Raider is doing a twilight and splitting the last entry in two, but haven't told anyone because they haven't actually thought of it yet. But they will. If this sells well.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

"Shadow of the Tomb Raider would be a perfect game if no one spoke."

So it's pretty much like the last two games. The story and the dialogue in these games is absolutely terrible and every character is a badly written stereotype.

I still enjoy the gameplay a lot, though.


Anyway, this article was barely coherent. I had to read most of the paragraphs twice to get the general idea of what you were trying to convey.

 

[PsychedelicDiamond]

I'll be the first to admit that the Tomb Raider series was never something I particularly cared for but nevertheless it's a bit frustrating how consistently the new games manage to do nothing creative or imaginative with a premise as versatile as "hot female Indiana Jones".

There's a lot to be said against old Lara Croft, she was little more than a tough dame with a nice body but the new Lara ist just a... dame with a nice body. You can argue she's a more well realized character than her older incarnations but I'd hesitate to say she's a more memorable one. The new games have an obsession with making her go through all sorts of trials and tribulations that should shape her character but somehow they never actually shaped her character.they're playing up her vulnerability, especially the first one took almost masochistic pleasure in having her get stabbed, beaten, shot and almost raped, yet there was never a point where she emerged from it triumphant. Not in that game and not in the sequel. It's gritty but it's pointless. What matters is not that heros suffer but that they overcome their suffering by the strength of their character but new Lara just doesn't have a very strong character. I wish they got over themselves and just turned Tomb Raider into a lighthearted swashbuckling adventure with a suave british lady again. It's not like whatever they're doing now is stopping anyone from comparing these games unfavorably to the Uncharted series.

 

[Darth_Payn]

Great, that's what the series needs: a Deconstruction. And it's the weak-sauce kind, where the hero is implied to be as bad as the villains (which I think Yahtzee was only joking about), and YOU (the player) are THE REAL MONSTER for enabling her. What does it say about the people who MAKE the games that tell these kinds of stories?

I'll be the first to admit that the Tomb Raider series was never something I particularly cared for but nevertheless it's a bit frustrating how consistently the new games manage to do nothing creative or imaginative with a premise as versatile as "hot female Indiana Jones".

There's a lot to be said against old Lara Croft, she was little more than a tough dame with a nice body but the new Lara ist just a... dame with a nice body. You can argue she's a more well realized character than her older incarnations but I'd hesitate to say she's a more memorable one. The new games have an obsession with making her go through all sorts of trials and tribulations that should shape her character but somehow they never actually shaped her character.they're playing up her vulnerability, especially the first one took almost masochistic pleasure in having her get stabbed, beaten, shot and almost raped, yet there was never a point where she emerged from it triumphant. Not in that game and not in the sequel. It's gritty but it's pointless. What matters is not that heros suffer but that they overcome their suffering by the strength of their character but new Lara just doesn't have a very strong character. I wish they got over themselves and just turned Tomb Raider into a lighthearted swashbuckling adventure with a suave british lady again. It's not like whatever they're doing now is stopping anyone from comparing these games unfavorably to the Uncharted series.

So you're saying the Nu Tomb Raider games are Uncharted without charm, quips, brighter colors, or any real sense of fun? Ouch.

 

[Dalisclock]

I'll be the first to admit that the Tomb Raider series was never something I particularly cared for but nevertheless it's a bit frustrating how consistently the new games manage to do nothing creative or imaginative with a premise as versatile as "hot female Indiana Jones".

There's a lot to be said against old Lara Croft, she was little more than a tough dame with a nice body but the new Lara ist just a... dame with a nice body. You can argue she's a more well realized character than her older incarnations but I'd hesitate to say she's a more memorable one. The new games have an obsession with making her go through all sorts of trials and tribulations that should shape her character but somehow they never actually shaped her character.they're playing up her vulnerability, especially the first one took almost masochistic pleasure in having her get stabbed, beaten, shot and almost raped, yet there was never a point where she emerged from it triumphant. Not in that game and not in the sequel. It's gritty but it's pointless. What matters is not that heros suffer but that they overcome their suffering by the strength of their character but new Lara just doesn't have a very strong character. I wish they got over themselves and just turned Tomb Raider into a lighthearted swashbuckling adventure with a suave british lady again. It's not like whatever they're doing now is stopping anyone from comparing these games unfavorably to the Uncharted series.

I enjoyed the 2013 game for what it was but I never bothered with Rise because of this issue. When pretty much every review says it's pretty much the exact same story/arc as the first game, I kinda have to wonder what's the fucking point. And I was holding out hope that Lara would actually get some real character development in this game and it seems like they dropped that ball yet again, at least from some of the early reviews I've been seeing. Maybe some of the reviews yet to come will disagree and say the whole thing is a satisfying ride but right now the question is: If all the game has going for it is a bunch of puzzles and action setpieces, why not just play Uncharted? And I criticized Uncharted 3 for pretty much being a retread of Uncharted 2, albeit the sequence involving the plane was fucking amazing and even the sinking ship was fun(even if it had nothing to do with the rest of the game)

 

[Qvar]

why not just play Uncharted? And I criticized Uncharted 3 for pretty much being a retread of Uncharted 2, albeit the sequence involving the plane was fucking amazing and even the sinking ship was fun(even if it had nothing to do with the rest of the game)

Because it's a PlayStation exclusive...

 

[09philj]

why not just play Uncharted? And I criticized Uncharted 3 for pretty much being a retread of Uncharted 2, albeit the sequence involving the plane was fucking amazing and even the sinking ship was fun(even if it had nothing to do with the rest of the game)

Because it's a PlayStation exclusive...

The third person action-adventure genre is not exactly one lacking in quality titles on any platform.

 

[Dalisclock]

why not just play Uncharted? And I criticized Uncharted 3 for pretty much being a retread of Uncharted 2, albeit the sequence involving the plane was fucking amazing and even the sinking ship was fun(even if it had nothing to do with the rest of the game)

Because it's a PlayStation exclusive...

I used uncharted as an example because it feels like that's what the new Tomb Raider games are most trying to emulate. Feel free to substitute any other quality action/adventure game.