While I quite enjoyed the original in the Tomb Raider reboot trilogy, I never got around to finishing the second entry. I tried Shadow, the final game in the trilogy when it appeared on Gamepass, but it didn't click with me and I dropped it pretty much immediately.

Coming back to it now with the Tomb Raider anniversary sale and its Series X enhancements and it's probably the most fun I've had with the trilogy.

It's far from perfect. I didn't particularly care for the story and there are annoyances like being unable to use your guns for large sections of the game. The lack of gun combat may be because it's one of the weakest aspects when it is there. The game is much more fun when you're playing Rambo in the stealth sections, although I did chuckle when you briefly switch to Terminator style (very jarringly) for a gun section in an oil refinery.

The tombs and overall setting are my favourite of the reboot series though. I enjoyed the little hub towns with their side missions too. It's also a fantastic-looking game, one of the most impressive third party games of the last generation.

Worth a play if you're a fan of the series, as it's regularly on sale.

I don't actually have much to say for this game. The story was pretty good and overall it's nice.

It's cool that they added a few more platforming mechanics, but there are a lot of bugs and many times you will fall to your death for no reason or Lara will not cling to platforms that are within her reach.

There were a few visual glitches too, with Jonah's torso missing, so it was just limbs flying in the air. Though it made for a funny moment, I'll give them that.

I played this within the span of a week and a half in order to include it in an essay, so some of my criticism here may be because I was rushing.

Anyway, after abandoning the reboot trilogy after seeing the direction that rise was going, I decided to give this one a chance. And it isn't actually that bad. It is easily the best in the trilogy (the bar to surpass is on the ground though, so that's not really an achievement).

Shadow at least feels like a Tomb Raider game. The plot and gameplay actually involve raiding tombs and finding artifacts. I did also like the section in Kuyaq Yaku, and how it added another aspect of Tomb Raiding.

However, the RPG elemts that rise introduced are still here, and are easily the worst parts of the game. I can barely go three meters without coming across some new artifact or document that I have to wait for Lara to read (the artifact examination also is hot trash, you have to just keep spinning the artifact around arbitrarily until you stumble upon the 'secret'). The item shops were used better, although I don't like how two item upgrades are locked behind a shop that is locked behind a sidequest. And while the whole language learning shtick was handled better in this game, its still just a way to pad out the game. Because this game is a LOT shorter than I was expecting, and half of its length is just due to exploring and reading collectibles.

I don't hate the idea of towns in a Tomb Raider game, and think it could work well if they were a) kept to a minimum and b) weren't massive. Paititi is too big. Way too big. Its size serves no purpose other than to be a place to hide collectibles in. The other two towns int he game are much better, because they are smaller and don't have millions of boring sidequests that are badly voice-acted and inconsequential to the plot. Paititi is also hillariously close to Kuyaq Yaku. It only takes about half an hour of gameplay to get there. I wanted a much longer stretch between towns.

In general, the quality of the game as a whole really dips when it reaches Paititi. The actual dungeons are very clearly rushed, as too much effort was obviously put into this huge city. The Cenote in particular was a dishonourbale mention, because it reminded me of how ugly the first game in the trilogy was, and how it was impossible to see anything. The challenge tomb there was also extremely unintuitive.

I really like the challenge tombs (half of them are memorable for good reasons, the other half are memorable for bad reason), but I still think that it's a travesty that the most "Tomb-Raider-y" aspects of the trilogy are optional.

Also, what is the point of having a hundred and one clothing outfits if you are locked into wearing two of them for half of the game, and then are restricted from wearing them at all if you want to wear vestiges (y'know, those things you went to the trouble of finding and then crafting)? The game also locks you out of using your guns in Paititi, probably because the devs are still super proud of the bow.

The combat is fine, although I hate the low ammo count and the fact that the default button mapping for the secondary firing mode is the scroll wheel. I would re-map it to other buttons on my mouse, but they were taken by the plants.

My favourite parts of this game though, are the chase sequences. The two disaster survival areas, and the two areas where you have to run away from enemies. They are by far and away the coolest parts of the game, and actually left me with a positive impression. They were everything that action in Tomb Raider should be. The final level and final boss are probably also the best in the series. The flashback sequence with smol Lara was also a highlight.

I still don't like Trinity as bad guys, mainly because of how they misrepresent the Christian faith, BUT I will actually let it slide here, because of the mission of San Juan. It was nice to see a catholic site being explored.

Overall, a mixed bag that is at least, for once, an actual Tomb Raider game.
Can I just get another Tomb Raider game that is set in more than one country? please?

The thing I liked about Shadow of the Tomb Raider was more of an added emphasis on puzzles, making it closer to the Legend-Anniversary-Underworld games. Rise was great (a masterpiece), but Shadow just adds in more here and there. The narrative is just not as strong as Rise or 2013. It starts strong, then drags in the middle with a lot of optional side-quests, picks back up and no spoilers, but has the weakest, unsatisfying ending in the trilogy. Action combat was fine, but I was quite taken out that one section near the end of the game played more like something out of a Rambo or the Expendables movie. There's a good bit of stealth combat, which was a lot of fun to sneak around with and adds to the classic feel. Exploration and puzzles feel strong with a nice difficulty.

While I would have preferred story-based DLC and a Croft Manor to explore rather than 7 separate challenge tombs, the DLC tombs are well-thought out, engaging, and provide that classic Tomb Raider challenge that I felt with some of the main game puzzles. Most of them are quite different enough to add some variation and mixes things up. Challenge tombs can either be played traditionally, or in a score attack mode or a time trial mode with leaderboards.

I consider Shadow of the Tomb Raider my favorite out of the Survivor Reboot trilogy, but wish the narrative and story was as strong as its predecessors.

This game is something of a mixed bag for me. On one hand, the series has never looked better. The graphics really are outstanding, though once again, Lara's hair is the most visually impressive piece. The story is decent enough, probably my favorite of the three, though it can feel rushed and muddled at times. I can especially appreciate the focus on Aztec and Mesoamerican history/mythology this time around, and it brings to the game some of my favorite locations and artifacts of the series. The gameplay is more or less the same, though slightly fine-tuned. Overall, the story is decent, though can feel choppy, but the graphics and gameplay are very much there, and it culminates into what really feels like a true Tomb Raider game.

The finale of the reboot trilogy Shadow of the Tomb raider FINALLY feels like the old Tomb Raider games. ‘Tomb Raider’ felt like a proof of concept that bore no resemblance to a Tomb Raider game. ‘Rise of the Tomb Raider’ made massive improvements and was a really enjoyable game but there was still more action than tomb exploring in the game than I would have wanted. Shadow puts you in tombs for most of the game, shame that cumulatively it ends up being a short game.

Despite being a previous gen game (at time of writing) it looks absolutely stunning and the underwater swimming looks and handles the best out of any game I have played. The lighting and detail of the environments is breathtaking despite the lighting glitching out in almost every area I visited. You would see sunlight being cast against a wall but you would see it flashing rather than just being static light.

I never got round to playing Croft Manor in the DLC of Rise but playing it in Shadow and climbing the side of the house reminded me of using the ‘Climb all Walls’ cheat in Tomb Raider 2 / 3 and brought back nostalgic memories. Apart from that there does not seem to be any call backs or tributes to the earlier games as far as I could see.

As each game progresses in the reboot trilogy each game improved vastly on the one before, it’s just a shame that Shadow doesn’t improve the map to make it easier to traverse the areas especially crypts and challenge tombs. Like the other games, Rise is littered with a plethora of collectables. One difference this time is that lara will not inspect documents or relics by default, instead just picking them up and it’s down to you to choose if you want to read documents or have lara explain a relic. Personally as I don’t care much for the fine details so I was happy to skip all of them. Recently someone posted on Twitter about the Resident Evil 4 remake having very obvious breakable and collectable items and how it hurts immersion. Shadow has the opposite effect where all the collectables blend in with the scenery and I found myself constantly tapping R3 to find them. After the game was completed I didn’t feel the desire to go back and find them all as I had already unlocked all the skills I was interested in on the skill tree and all my weapons easily dispersed of enemies as I was playing on easy mode. Shadow does have less climbing than the previous games but there is still a lot of it. I climbed so many holey walls in Shadow that I developed trypophobia while playing the game. Another annoyance of mine was when you would try and pick up an item with a full inventory and Lara would say “impossible” no Lara it’s not impossible, you have two free hands you could use to carry the item.

I did enjoy the scene where Lara gets raging at the main antagonist and goes tonto with a automatic rifle shouting and swearing at people, more of that please. I enjoyed her character more in this game than the previous instalments.

I was casually progressing the game and thought “when I get to the end I will backtrack opening a lot of locked areas for the collectables” but the game just ended abruptly and so quickly. I was sitting thinking “surely this is not the end of the game after traversing like 4 areas” it was. I don’t even have the temptation to go back and finish all the collectables as the rewards are so minor that it wouldn’t be worth my time. Such a shame as well being the best in the trilogy. Lara doesn’t REALLY get new tools or weapons that will open up previously sealed areas, there is one or two but none that would make you want to backtrack all the way to open a previously locked off area. Due to this, I barely used the fast travel system. Only really to get from one side of an area to another without running.

My other nitpicks of the game are: The fact Lara has a moulded flight case for a shitey wooden bow and a walkie talkie. Getting achievements for actions Lara does in cutscenes. Again, and how short the game was.

This is the best in the series and actually does not rely on the previous two games to be understandable meaning that if I was to recommend to someone to dip their toe into the reboot trilogy and they have limited time I would just recommend that they play this game and skip the rest. I wanted to give this game 4.5 stars due to how amazing it looked and played but the repetitive climbing and enjoyment from opening up previously locked areas made me downgrade it.