This review contains spoilers
Shadow of the Tomb Raider was my favorite of the reboot series. Having played them back to back, I was happily surprised at the level of improvements as the titles evolved. I beat Shadow on the Deadly Obsession difficulty and was challenged greatly as unlike the last game's Extreme Survivor difficulty, you lose your survival instincts and can't see a lot of enemies or where to climb without use of herbs.
The story is set in Peru and covers a lot of Maya & Inca histories from the lives of the people to their beliefs. The game covers multiple large maps and has a lot of life in the cities/towns you visit. Trying to stop the end of the world gives Lara the motivation to push forward as so many people have been lost because of what she believes she caused with removing an artifact in the opening tomb. To stop the destruction, she has to find a second artifact and stop the cult that she has known as the organization, Trinity.
The upgrade system to gear is simple and easy to work through by hunting and gathering materials or selling and buying components to level up your weapons and outfits. A lot of them have bonuses and if you play the Definitive Edition like I did, you will get a good amount of weapons to start the game and can still find worth in upgrade others as they can outshine the bonus ones.
My biggest issue with this title was some lighting glitches in tombs and cutscenes, the game feels very dark even on the brightest settings. However, the loading issue that Rise of the Tomb Raider had was thankfully fixed for this title.
I hope to see more from the new Lara in the future. I finished the game at 100% completion but missed one combat achievement and played a few DLC tombs but got frustrated with the full level resets due to me playing on Deadly Obsession. I'll return for the. In the future, maybe on my New Game+ file.
The story is set in Peru and covers a lot of Maya & Inca histories from the lives of the people to their beliefs. The game covers multiple large maps and has a lot of life in the cities/towns you visit. Trying to stop the end of the world gives Lara the motivation to push forward as so many people have been lost because of what she believes she caused with removing an artifact in the opening tomb. To stop the destruction, she has to find a second artifact and stop the cult that she has known as the organization, Trinity.
The upgrade system to gear is simple and easy to work through by hunting and gathering materials or selling and buying components to level up your weapons and outfits. A lot of them have bonuses and if you play the Definitive Edition like I did, you will get a good amount of weapons to start the game and can still find worth in upgrade others as they can outshine the bonus ones.
My biggest issue with this title was some lighting glitches in tombs and cutscenes, the game feels very dark even on the brightest settings. However, the loading issue that Rise of the Tomb Raider had was thankfully fixed for this title.
I hope to see more from the new Lara in the future. I finished the game at 100% completion but missed one combat achievement and played a few DLC tombs but got frustrated with the full level resets due to me playing on Deadly Obsession. I'll return for the. In the future, maybe on my New Game+ file.