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Shadow of the Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition Review

Introduction

We all know & love Lara Croft. Square Enix couldn’t have made a better ending to the Tomb Raider Trilogy than this. The transformation of Lara Croft from the prey to the predator is what we all waited for, and this game finally gives us our long-yearned desire. Can Lara master the deadly jungle & overcome terrifying tombs to save the world from the apocalypse she started?


About Lara Croft….I mean the game


Storyline

The story picks off from where Rise of The Tomb Raider stopped. Compared to the inexperienced Lara from the previous two parts, here, she is well aware of all her abilities and also knows what to do against the Trinity. As always, Lara is accompanied by her best friend, Jonah, who Lara relies on a lot. It’s not clearly visible, but the story could have not been set in motion without Jonah’s help as he helps Lara take major decisions & find clues. I, obviously, do not want to spoil this well-woven story, hence I will not be revealing anything. I Will just give a really short intro:

As the game unfolds, Lara Croft seeks the key for a Silver Box with positive intentions to help the people but ends up releasing a catastrophic apocalypse, endangering thousands of lives. The story revolves around how she will fix her mistakes and the obstacles (Mainly Trinity) that fall onto her path.

The previous games had at least a bit of Open-World Freedom during main quests, but this game makes you take the pre-defined route. They encouraged the use of curiosity, to bring out one of Lara’s main characteristics to the player. Using curiosity permits you to enjoy this game & discover hidden tomb/treasures etc.

Funnily enough, we don’t have freedom in combat too. The game wants you to take a Stealthier Approach rather than a direct assault as you could in the previous parts of this trilogy. For instance, in one part, the only weapon you have is a knife/Pickaxe and the enemies have legit Assault Rifle & Armor, so a sane person would obviously take the Stealth approach as there is no chance of survival otherwise.

Gameplay

The game has the classic Tomb Raider mechanics along with newly introduced mechanics that shows Lara is now experienced. You can now Rappel down from higher spots instead of Jumping down or falling. You can also throw your Axe to reach places that are out of your reach. They made it so you can overhang over ledges & ceilings. They increased the Swimming mechanics as there are several instances where she’s thrown underwater & survive while hiding from dangerous creatures like Piranhas, holding her breath & finding a way out.

Combat has been altered to encourage Stealth. You can cover yourself in mud and hide behind vines on walls. You can jump on tree branches and drop jump on enemies, executing them. Or use your bow, shoot an arrow with a rope attached to it, pull in the enemy & hang them on the branch, then choke them to death. There are so many ways to get stealth kills. Combat is overall smooth & decent. But I prefer the freedom granted in the previous games.

Like several other RPGish type games, SOTR also has a skill tree. There are three paths you can follow;

Seeker (Perception)
Scavenger (Handicraft)
Warrior (Physical Capabilities)


These can be unlocked by earning skill points. The easiest way to obtain these is to just follow the main story. The other side quests, tombs, etc. give you rewards but, in my opinion, they are kinda useless as you can sustain the main story with the items you get. I feel like they are just there so the player gets more content for the high price of the game.

You can upgrade your weapons too. Firearms play a vital role in survival. Personally, I prefer using the bow as it’s One-Shot One-Kill to enemies with no armor & is silent. You can also use Fire Arrows, Exploding Arrows, or Fear Arrows, which make this weapon even better. I personally had a lot of fun using fear arrows to make the enemies turn against their comrades, might sound sadistic but was needed for Survival. I forgot to mention that you can change outfits. Certain outfits give the player some buffs. But if you want Lara to look hot, you need to sacrifice the buffs. I used the fitness outfit as she looked o.o in it.

You can hunt for animals to get supplies to upgrade your items & crafting. Hunting has been brought up a notch as now animals flee when they even sense you a bit. But ofc, hunting with an Assault Rifle is a piece of cake.

Graphics & Audio

Graphically, all the games that are part of the trilogy were beautiful. But Shadow of the Tomb Raider is even more beautiful. From tombs to Caverns, the size of everything was increased, offering more areas to explore & permitting Lara to use her abilities pretty well. Everything is detailed to perfection for the best visual experience. From the high rising mountains to the splashing waterfalls, everything was a real feast for the eyes. You see green everywhere, a very calming color! The one thing in this game that obliviously steals the limelight is Lara herself. She looks stunning as always! Well, there’s nothing much to speak on the aural aspect of the game as the dialogue deliveries were on point. I liked how they had an option where you can choose to permit the NPCs to speak in their native languages for a more realistic experience. This is the first time I came across such an option!

Pros


Purely a Story-driven game.
Beautiful Graphics. Lara Croft is a feast to the eyes as always.
Loads of Side-missions & Tombs to complete.
Skill tree that allows you to make Lara even stronger.
Upgradable weapons. There’s a lot of secondary fire modes to the weapons. The different types of arrows available for use make the bow stand out from the rest of the weapons.
Jonah never leaves your side. Yes, this is a Pro as Jonah is the best of the best when it comes to friends.
Your sense of curiosity drives the gameplay by helping you find hidden objects/tombs.
You can choose different difficulties for different aspects of the games. The aspects are: Puzzles, Combat & Environmental Exploration. There are four levels of difficulty; Easy, normal, hard & deadly obsession.



Cons


The main story is really short. I finished it in under 10 hours.
Side quests and tombs are quite unnecessary when it comes to progress towards the Main Story. It feels like they just squeezed it in there for content.



The Finale


I am a big fan of the Tomb Raider trilogy. I enjoyed each & every one of the games. They have something in them that makes me hooked to them. Well, I am sure it’s Lara Croft but okay. Jokes aside, this is a real masterpiece and if you don’t play it, you are missing something wonderful. But yeah, the game comes with a heavy price tag for a few hours of fun. I recommend getting it on a very good sale.
Ratings:9.5/10
I swear I don’t s-simp for L-Lara Croft! ☹