Tedious, janky, bloated, boring, FRUSTRATING... no improvements from Rise.
Shadow of the tomb raider mostly felt like a chore to play, because a SIGNIFICANT part of the game is waiting for animations to end (collectibles, crafting equipment, looting enemies, pushing a lever, turning a wheel, prying a door open, crawling, shimmying across a ledge, etc.) Even the tombs are boring... in a TOMB raider game!!! The only part I enjoyed about this game (other than the gorgeous visuals) is the stealthy/strategic combat. Unfortunetly, combat is a lot rarer than the previous two games of the trilogy, and the game focuses more on dull semi-open world areas filled with side content that feels like doing chores. I also felt like stealth was heavily discouraged, because simply shooting everything with the assault rifle was a way better solution in most encounters.
I did like that they added options to remove the white paint telling you where to go and the survival instincts ability, but the game clearly is built around those helping mechanics, so I was often wandering around with no idea what to do next for a few seconds/minutes before figuring out how to progress.
I would have liked the game to focus more on the "survival in the wild" aspect that was tossed to the side after a few hours of gameplay. I thought a jungle-themed tomb raider would have more to do with wild predators than just another one-note power hungry villain and his goons.
DLC adds a few quests that are somewhat better than the main game. However, I encountered a glitch that made it so I couldn't progress and ragequit. Decent game with a lot of potential, but too many quirks that annoyed me to enjoy my time playing.
Shadow of the tomb raider mostly felt like a chore to play, because a SIGNIFICANT part of the game is waiting for animations to end (collectibles, crafting equipment, looting enemies, pushing a lever, turning a wheel, prying a door open, crawling, shimmying across a ledge, etc.) Even the tombs are boring... in a TOMB raider game!!! The only part I enjoyed about this game (other than the gorgeous visuals) is the stealthy/strategic combat. Unfortunetly, combat is a lot rarer than the previous two games of the trilogy, and the game focuses more on dull semi-open world areas filled with side content that feels like doing chores. I also felt like stealth was heavily discouraged, because simply shooting everything with the assault rifle was a way better solution in most encounters.
I did like that they added options to remove the white paint telling you where to go and the survival instincts ability, but the game clearly is built around those helping mechanics, so I was often wandering around with no idea what to do next for a few seconds/minutes before figuring out how to progress.
I would have liked the game to focus more on the "survival in the wild" aspect that was tossed to the side after a few hours of gameplay. I thought a jungle-themed tomb raider would have more to do with wild predators than just another one-note power hungry villain and his goons.
DLC adds a few quests that are somewhat better than the main game. However, I encountered a glitch that made it so I couldn't progress and ragequit. Decent game with a lot of potential, but too many quirks that annoyed me to enjoy my time playing.