Shadow of the Tomb Raider is a third-person action adventure available from retail stores and for download from the PlayStation Store for the PS4. Lara Croft became an iconic videogame character in 1996 when the first Tomb Raider game was released for the PS1 and received much attention for starring a female protagonist, while the original game was followed by four sequels on PS1 which saw Lara Croft gain even more prominence across the entertainment industry. During the transition to PS2; Angel of Darkness saw the series lose its way somewhat, although it did massively bounce back with a series of successful titles including Legend and Anniversary on PS2 which were later re-mastered for PS3 in a trilogy story arc that also included Underworld which had previously released as the first Tomb Raider game on PS3. The character and the series are certainly no strangers to spin-offs as there have even been a range of side projects such as Game Boy Advance spin-off games that are not considered to be connected to any of the story arcs found in the home console games, alongside isometric home console games titled Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light for PS3 in 2010, Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris on PS4 in 2014 and a further isometric game albeit in a turn-based fashion named Lara Croft GO which released for mobile devices in 2015 before being ported to Vita and PS4 in late 2016. There have even been three films with the third film released in 2018 starring Alicia Vikander as Lara Croft. However, it was the terrific Tomb Raider reboot which has resulted in the Tomb Raider series and Lara Croft’s character being at the peak of their popularity and quality. Rise of the Tomb Raider celebrated Tomb Raider’s and Lara Croft’s 20th anniversary by building upon the momentum and overhauling gameplay mechanics that were previously established in the Tomb Raider reboot. Can Shadow of the Tomb Raider deliver a thrilling conclusion to Tomb Raider’s and Lara Croft’s story arc within the reboot trilogy?
The story directly follows on from Rise of the Tomb Raider within two months of the prequel’s conclusion; as Shadow of the Tomb Raider revolves around Lara Croft trying to outrun Trinity in a race to the hidden city on a globetrotting adventure in order to prevent the apocalypse as foretold by a Mayan prophecy.
The story has various gameplay mechanics that keeps gameplay feeling fresh including challenges are situated throughout Lara’s surroundings such as picking flowers from particular plants that require Lara to climb trees to find them, while side missions involve talking to non-playable characters that sometimes provide side quests for Lara Croft to complete including defeating pillagers; finding and retrieving items; rescuing people; exploring and investigating. Extra motivation to complete each side mission is produced in the form of the majority of characters that send Lara on a side mission thanking her with a reward such as a river hawk pistol for Lara’s arsenal or alternatively unlocking new abilities such as lock picking and a gadget used to destroy heavy barriers. There are also 9 challenge tombs located throughout the story containing climbing, rappelling, exploration and puzzle solving with each challenge tomb providing a reward including eagle’s perch that increases Lara’s traversal speeds in exchange for completing the first challenge tomb, while completing the second challenge tomb allows for Lara’s health to regenerate quicker. Meanwhile, upon completing the main story; New Game + allows the player to bring all of their progression through to the next playthrough including all previously acquired skills, weapons, outfits, equipment upgrades and gear.
Collectibles are presented in a fashion that is quite reminiscent to that found in Rise of the Tomb Raider as there is a wide variety of collectibles with their own purposes such as collecting archivist maps in order to unearth secrets on your map, alongside survival supplies for Lara to remain healthy and well stocked for ammo. The most intriguing collectibles include relics, artifacts, journal documents and rubbings with journals particularly providing backstory, while reading journals and observing artifacts, murals and rubbings will improve Lara’s proficiency in foreign languages to improve Lara’s chances of solving the meaning contained in ancient Monoliths.
Character design is just as good as it was in Rise of the Tomb Raider with Lara Croft and Jonah Maiava particularly having had an overhaul in their style in comparison to the beginning of Rise of the Tomb Raider that reflects the significant difference in environment and climate. Shadow of the Tomb Raider’s character design has truly excellent character models and animations resulting in the character design being the best it ever has been in the Tomb Raider series to date; as Lara Croft is every bit the female iconic, heroic character that she always has been since the original Tomb Raider in 1996. Lara’s costume can be changed at camp sites including a variety of modern costumes that are tailored to specific weather conditions and purpose of the mission, while as a loyalty reward for playing previous Tomb Raider and Lara Croft games; Lara’s outfits from previous games are available. Every Tomb Raider game needs a believable enemy to go up against and Shadow of the Tomb Raider certainly delivers in that aspect as Dr. Dominguez is rather unique as the villain and new leader of Trinity with a conscience as he questions a major choice that Lara makes in the opening chapter, while explaining to her the consequences in a caring manner in a stark contrast to the ruthless villain Konstantin from Rise of the Tomb Raider. Trinity is a tough enemy for Lara as they have an entire army worth of armoured and armed soldiers, alongside wildlife on the ground and underwater in addition to enemy bosses.
Environment design is one of the largest differences in comparison to Rise of the Tomb Raider’s snow-capped mountains as Shadow of the Tomb Raider follows in the footsteps of the Tomb Raider franchise’s tradition of every third game focusing on foliage in a jungle environment. The jungle of Peru plays a substantial part of the environment design as a dangerous jungle full of wildlife that is not all friendly surrounds the ancient ruins from past civilizations. There are certain areas that cannot be explored without having specific gear such as a passage that cannot be utilised until having upgraded Lara’s knife to being a reinforced knife or walls that cannot be climbed until Lara is reacquainted with her climbing axes, while weak walls can also be brought down by one of Lara’s climbing axes.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider pretty much follows the path of Rise of the Tomb Raider when it comes to Lara’s weaponry that she is progressively equipped with to fight off her enemies. Lara starts out with her bow and arrow, two climbing axes to help her climb walls and a pistol to shoot spike trap mechanisms and enemies who are shooting at Lara with the intent to kill as they aim to remove Trinity’s one obstacle in their way of claiming the archaeological discovery. As Lara progresses through her adventure; she will obtain more bows and pistols as well as further weaponry to increase her and Jonah’s chances of survival. When Lara has run out of ammo or an enemy has got too close during an ammo reload; Lara can also rely on melee attacks including a tactical knife and climbing axes. Every weapon has their unique attributes such as the crossbow’s damage, rate of fire, draw speed and hold time. Weapons can be upgraded such as reinforced limbs allows for increased string tension and faster arrow speeds which causes more damage to enemies and string nocks on the bow, allowing for quicker loading of arrows and a faster rate of fire.
Another large area of weaponry is the ability to craft weapons from materials such as cloth, hide, salvage, mushrooms, hardwood, feathers, plants and more besides. Crafting is not just about making a weapon to use in self-defence though as Lara can gather herbs and cloth to heal her wounds, while useful tools can also be crafted that leads to new areas providing that Lara has the corresponding supplies. For instance, certain items have a single purpose including natural red flowered plants yield herbal mixtures for healing, while blue flowered plants temporarily grant perception boosting effects and orange mushrooms temporarily provide endurance boosting effects. However, multi-purpose items such as cloth and hardwood can be utilised for crafting special arrows for Lara’s bow, upgrading weapons, restoring Lara’s outfits and more besides.
XP and levelling up is handled in the same method as Rise of the Tomb Raider; as players can earn XP by collecting documents, relics and artifacts, completing story objectives and side missions, defeating enemies through combat or stealth kills and more besides which is important for levelling up as each new attained level results in gaining a skill point. Skills are spread across three categories including 20 seeker skills, 19 warrior skills and 17 scavenger skills, while some skills are only unlocked when an adjacent skill has been purchased, although some skills must be earned through story progression instead of being purchased with skill points. For instance, seeker skills include eagle’s sight that reveals artifacts, monoliths, treasure chests, archivist maps and explorer backpacks when using survival instincts, alongside owl’s wisdom that reveals challenge objects when using survival instincts. Meanwhile, warrior skills include Raposa’s wit that unlocks the next weapon upgrade level and puma’s charge that reduces the amount of time between charged shots from the bow by reaching full draw weight much quicker. Scavenger skills include boa’s coil to automatically loot enemies killed by a stealth takedown and serpent’s glint adds a flare round attachment to all pistols to damage unarmoured enemies and momentarily blind surrounding enemies.
Photographer mode available from the pause menu allows you to observe the closer details of the surrounding environments. Photographer mode is an excellent feature; allowing the camera to be positioned with freedom within the vicinity of Lara and the environment including extensive customisation of images such as panning, camera height, zooming in or out, anywhere from a minor tilt to a full sideways tilt and eight image colour filter presets or a custom image filter comprising field of view, roll, depth of field, brightness, saturation, seven types of decorative presentation for borders around the photo, visibility and positioning of the title logo, changing the expression of Lara’s face from her facial expression during gameplay to any of another eight expressions and even the ability to participate in a photo contest. What makes the photographer mode work so well is that it provides players with the opportunity of producing customisable action shots in a fully immersive environment which works in perfect harmony with the PS4’s share feature.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider has a variety of downloadable content contained within a season pass that for the price of £24.99 comprising of 7 challenge tombs; 7 weapons, outfits and skills; and multiple narrative side missions with one of each being exclusive to the season pass. Shadow of the Tomb Raider’s special editions include a Steelbook Edition for a retail price of £54.99 or the Steelbook Edition and a highly detailed Lara Croft Totaku figurine with a height of 10cm for a retail price of £66.99 with the Steelbook Edition and Lara Croft figurine being exclusive to Game. Meanwhile, the Croft Edition includes a steelbook, 3 art cards, 3 additional weapons and outfits, a digital soundtrack and the season pass for a retail price of £79.99.
It is disappointing to not see any of the Tomb Raider reboot ported to Vita, especially the first game in the trilogy when considering it was on PS3 before the enhanced port released on PS4. Fully fledged Tomb Raider games in the form of Tomb Raider: Legend and Tomb Raider: Anniversary that released on PSP in 2006 and 2007 respectively, although the Vita has only received the isometric turn-based strategy action puzzle game titled Lara Croft GO. However, if you are looking for Tomb Raider games on Vita, then PS1 Classics digital releases of Tomb Raider 1 through 5 are available, alongside digital releases with full backwards compatibility of both Tomb Raider games released on PSP and Shadow of the Tomb Raider’s remote play is a further consolation. Shadow of the Tomb Raider’s remote play performance is superb as it retains the quality of graphics, audio and general performance from the PS4 version. Remote play control scheme optimisation has been handled with as much care and attention as Rise of the Tomb Raider as shooting Lara’s weaponry and aiming has been re-mapped to R and L respectively, while shooting special ammo has moved to the right of the rear touch pad with healing moving to the left of the rear touch pad. Meanwhile, Lara’s survival instincts is mapped to the bottom right of the touch screen, swapping shoulders when aiming is re-mapped to the bottom left of the touch screen and zooming when aiming has moved to the bottom right of the touch screen. Every control scheme optimisation has resulted in one of the very best, most immersive, atmospheric and entertaining remote play experiences on Vita.
The controls are appropriately mapped to the DualShock 4 controller with the control scheme consisting of pressing R2 to shoot base ammo or throw an item; holding R2 to craft silent arrows; holding L2 to aim or swim faster; pressing R1 to shoot special ammo; holding R1 to craft special ammo; holding L1 to heal through herbal mixtures; pressing X to jump or climb; holding X to emerge from water; pressing square to interact with objects, use a climbing axe for grip on tough terrain, throwing a grapple axe or reloading; pressing O to scramble, roll or drop; pressing O when aiming to dodge; holding O to submerge into water; pressing triangle to perform a melee attack or finisher; pressing up on the d-pad to select bow or cycle special arrows; pressing left on the d-pad to select a shotgun; pressing right on the d-pad to select a rile; pressing down on the d-pad to select a pistol; pressing L3 to sprint or shoulder swap when aiming; pressing R3 to focus on Lara’s survival instinct or zooming when aiming; changing the direction of the left analogue stick to move; changing the direction of the right analogue stick to adjust your aim or look around the environments; pressing the share button takes you to the share feature menu; and pressing the options button to display the pause menu. Tapping the touch pad displays the map and inventory, while the light bar produces a bright white during darkly lit environments, alongside vibration which reflects the physical exertions on Lara’s body during rope climbing, heavy landings after a high risk jump, when the ground gives way resulting in a serious impact or getting into fights with enemies.
Graphically, Shadow of the Tomb Raider improves beyond the already stunning Rise of the Tomb Raider with character models, environments, particle effects and everything in-between being elevated to another level of quality. Eidos Montreal has utilised Crystal Dynamics’ Foundation game engine, but built on top of it including a temporal anti-aliasing technique that makes the foliage look substantially better in comparison to Rise of the Tomb Raider, alongside a genuine step up in lighting and shadows as light within the exceptional jungle environments passes through the much denser foliage and casts the appropriate shadows. Meanwhile, realistic lighting is also present during smoke effects as nearby flame lit torches become hazy in appearance when smoke is dispersed outwards. Texture detail has noticeably improved as high resolution textures produce realistic weathering of materials on the exterior and within ancient ruins. Mud textures are gradually deformed as Lara steps through mud, while Lara has mud splash on her clothing and skin, while the leaves that fallen from the surrounding foliage onto the ground are not a simple flat texture as they are given significant depth via parallax occlusion mapping, alongside water reflections having far more emphasis in realism resulting in bodies of water behaving differently from location to location and Lara’s arms causing ripples in the water as she swims. PS4 Pro offers a high frame-rate mode and high resolution mode with the high frame-rate mode providing a more consistent frame-rate when displaying at 1080p, while the high resolution mode provides 1872p, despite Xbox One X delivering 2016p, albeit both PS4 Pro and Xbox One also include even higher resolution textures in comparison to PS4 and Xbox One. Eidos Montreal has highlighted their emphasis on HDR support was implemented from the very outset with further texture enhancements referred to as HDR textures.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider’s presentation is solid with a great user interface across various menus such as the title menu, main menu, story menus, challenge tombs menus, community hub menus, options menus and gameplay menus with support for navigation via the left analogue stick, directional pad and face buttons, although it does not include support for navigation via the right analogue stick and touch pad. Menu backgrounds are situated throughout a large forest with the camera panning from one area of the forest to another based upon the menu, while the main menu background focuses on Lara Croft disguised in mud as she wraps herself around a tree in a similar fashion to Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Dutch when The Predator is in pursuit of him; as two enemies stand guard with weapons drawn only a matter of metres away.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider possesses an extremely talented cast that all deliver superb performances throughout performance capture and voice-overs for every scene. Camilla Luddington returns to provide performance capture and the voice-over for Lara Croft having previously portrayed the role in the Tomb Raider reboot in 2013 and the sequel Rise of the Tomb Raider in 2015 and starring in TV series such as Californication, True Blood and Grey’s Anatomy, while Earl Baylon reprises his role as Jonah Maiava from Tomb Raider and Rise of the Tomb Raider. Shadow of the Tomb Raider introduces some new cast members including Carlos Leal as Dr. Dominguez having previously starred in TV series such as The Team and The Boarding School; Steve Hope Wynne as Richard Croft having previously voiced Father in Perfect Dark Zero; Rebecca Rogers as Amelia Croft; Francesca Aston as a young Lara Croft; Erika Soto as Abby having previously voiced Joule Adams in ReCore and Isabel in Halo Wars 2; Carlo Mestroni as Commander Rourke having previously voiced Radich Nikoladze in Deus Ex: Mankind Divided and more performance capture and voice-over artists that are all very talented throughout the main and supporting cast.
Sound effects include walking, running, jumping, swimming, shooting a gun or crossbow at enemies, enemies firing back at Lara, reloading weapons, performing a melee attack, crafting items and more besides, alongside ambience that lends further immersion through wildlife and weather conditions. Brian D’Oliveira composes a soundtrack of adventurous and equally foreboding music which creates an appropriate atmosphere in synchronicity with the highs and lows of Lara Croft’s journey; having previously composed music for Far Cry: Primal, Resident Evil 7 and Tearaway. Despite Rise of the Tomb Raider having one of the most immersive uses of the DualShock 4 speaker by producing gunfire from Lara’s weaponry; the DualShock 4 speaker is not even utilised in Shadow of the Tomb Raider that could have produced the same sound effects from Lara’s weaponry or could have alternatively focused on producing ambience from the jungle and jungle’s inhabitants in the form of some nice and some quite unpleasant wildlife.
The trophy list includes 64 trophies with 60 bronze trophies, 2 silver trophies, 1 gold trophy and 1 platinum trophy. Easier trophies include the Treasures from the Past bronze trophy for deciphering a monolith and the First Steps bronze trophy for purchasing a skill. Harder trophies include the Deadly Obsession bronze trophy for completing the story on the hardest difficulty level and the Completionist gold trophy for reaching 100% completion. It is estimated that depending upon skill and a good trophy guide to provide some helpful tips that it would take between 30 to 50 hours to platinum the trophy list.
There are four difficulty levels including smart and resourceful, rite of passage, one with the jungle and deadly obsession that are the equivalent of easy, normal, hard and very hard difficulty levels respectively. However, despite there being one less difficulty level in comparison to Rise of the Tomb Raider; each difficulty level is technically more detailed as combat, exploration and puzzles are factored in to every difficulty. Meanwhile, players can individually adjust the difficulty levels of combat, exploration and puzzles between easy, normal and hard difficulty levels within smart and resourceful, rite of passage and one with the jungle, although deadly obsession difficulty ties everything to a compulsory very hard difficulty.
Rather surprisingly, Shadow of the Tomb Raider does not feature any form of online co-operative multiplayer at launch, despite the quite entertaining endurance online co-op mode in Rise of the Tomb Raider. However, online co-operative multiplayer is said to be included within the seven challenge tombs, although that is only through purchasing the post-launch downloadable content and there is no sign of that including local co-operative multiplayer either. Meanwhile, remnant resistance mode that allowed players to create and share their own user generated missions with the world in Rise of the Tomb Raider is not retained in Shadow of the Tomb Raider.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider’s replayability stems from loyalty reward costumes for having played previous Tomb Raider and Lara Croft games, while finding collectibles such as relics, artifacts and journal documents, alongside completing challenges, side missions, challenge tombs and New Game + go a long way to providing variety within the single player story focused gameplay. Not to mention the addition of a photography mode and accompanying competition that really provides a new avenue of gameplay in the Tomb Raider franchise, while collectively every feature offers many hours of gameplay that will definitely have Tomb Raider fans coming back for more. However, there are some exciting features in Rise of the Tomb Raider that have rather unexpectedly not been brought back for Shadow of the Tomb Raider including endurance online co-op, remnant resistance user generated missions and PlayStation VR compatibility for a standalone gameplay sequence.
Analysis
- Title: Shadow of the Tomb Raider
- Developer: Eidos Montreal in collaboration with Crystal Dynamics
- Publisher: Square Enix
- System: PS4
- Format: Retail/PSN Download
- Cross-Buy: No
- Cross-Play: No
- Players: 1 (Online Co-operative Multiplayer for Challenge Tombs contained in post-launch downloadable content)
- Hard Drive Space Required: 41.82GB (Version 1.05)
