Being a fan of both classic TR and the reboot series, this game left me very conflicted. I think Eidos did a better job at giving us a "true" Tomb Raider experience than CD, focusing less in combat and more in exploration, platforming and puzzles. that's great. however, i found the story to be weak and considerably worse that the first two in the trilogy. the game starts really strong but there are lots of problems along the way and some design choices really hurt the narrative. I'm so tired of these RPG elements and AAA tropes being in almost every story-driven singleplayer game nowadays, for no reason other than having more "content". it does not make things better and harms the dynamic and pacing of the story SO MUCH, it's a real shame. upgrades, skill trees, hub worlds and side quests don't belong in a tomb raider game. i'm totally okay with TR not being that mainstream anymore tbh, we don't need all that stuff.

Back to the story, apart from some stale moments the plot is still interesting and engaging, until it becomes really disappointing and predictable after they killed off an important character middle of the game, it makes no sense and the ending is weaker because of it. and don't get me started about the white savior stuff because yeah, that happens. the villain was ok with a cool final fight, but the end could have been so much more satisfying. i still don't know what Jonah is doing in these games, his solely reason to exist is that Lara can have a friend. he has zero character. I recognise the effort to make him a bit more of a character this time but it ended up being too superficial. remember Sam from the first game? yeah, she was nice.

Now that this trilogy is over I hope we can have a bolder tomb raider game in the near future that isn't so concerned about telling the origin story of Lara Croft because, really, we never needed that.