After really enjoying the first, and liking the second of the Tomb Raider reboots, I've had the third one on my list for quite some time. I finally had the opportunity to pick it up on sale, and I must say that I'm glad I didn't get it at launch. I didn't play this one for very long so these are pretty early-game comments. But that's the game's fault for not being interesting.
Gameplay
The Tomb Raider games have followed basically the same formula that the Uncharted games do: Climb, puzzle, combat, story, climb puzzle combat, story. Usually in that order ad nauseam. The things that keep this cycle from becoming boring are the characters, the variations in the action, and the story being, ya know, interesting. Unfortunately, Shadow of the Tomb Raider does not have any of these things. The puzzles are boring and require a lot of waiting, the climbing sections are contrived at this point (not sure if it's this game's fault or just that after 4 Uncharteds and 2 other Tomb Raiders, I kinda get it. You push the control stick forward), and the combat is way too few and far between. And I'm so entirely over "oh no the hand-hold you grabbed broke!" It's no longer interesting, it's just a scripted sequence now. To the point where you can often tell it's about to happen before it does. The hazards of making/playing games in a particular genre for too long, I suppose.
Story
The game begins so slowly and gives me no reason to care about what the villain is doing, or why he's doing it. All we know is "Trinity Bad". I know that this would of course expand through the remainder of the game but I didn't care to stick around for the payoff so who cares?
Characters
Lara's character is rather flat in this one, even though that was a huge positive for me in the other two. In the first she was a naive adventurer in over her head, in the second she was a deeply traumatized young adult grappling with her past and future burdens. Now she's just a whiny, overly intense sad sack.
Art/Level Design
Everything looks like generic jungle ruins. There isn't really much more to say. None of it is terribly interesting. The puzzle sections are monotonous.
Music
I seriously have no idea what the music even sounded like. I'm sure it wasn't bad but I have absolutely no memory of it.
Gameplay
The Tomb Raider games have followed basically the same formula that the Uncharted games do: Climb, puzzle, combat, story, climb puzzle combat, story. Usually in that order ad nauseam. The things that keep this cycle from becoming boring are the characters, the variations in the action, and the story being, ya know, interesting. Unfortunately, Shadow of the Tomb Raider does not have any of these things. The puzzles are boring and require a lot of waiting, the climbing sections are contrived at this point (not sure if it's this game's fault or just that after 4 Uncharteds and 2 other Tomb Raiders, I kinda get it. You push the control stick forward), and the combat is way too few and far between. And I'm so entirely over "oh no the hand-hold you grabbed broke!" It's no longer interesting, it's just a scripted sequence now. To the point where you can often tell it's about to happen before it does. The hazards of making/playing games in a particular genre for too long, I suppose.
Story
The game begins so slowly and gives me no reason to care about what the villain is doing, or why he's doing it. All we know is "Trinity Bad". I know that this would of course expand through the remainder of the game but I didn't care to stick around for the payoff so who cares?
Characters
Lara's character is rather flat in this one, even though that was a huge positive for me in the other two. In the first she was a naive adventurer in over her head, in the second she was a deeply traumatized young adult grappling with her past and future burdens. Now she's just a whiny, overly intense sad sack.
Art/Level Design
Everything looks like generic jungle ruins. There isn't really much more to say. None of it is terribly interesting. The puzzle sections are monotonous.
Music
I seriously have no idea what the music even sounded like. I'm sure it wasn't bad but I have absolutely no memory of it.