I remember Shadow of the Tomb Raider being announced at E3 to... not much excitement. The spokesperson apathetically claimed that, in this thrilling conclusion to the trilogy, we'd get to see Lara finally become the survivor that she is. It was a baffling way to present the game, not only because it doesn't represent the final product at all, but because anyone who played either of the prequels knew that that subject was settled: Lara first kills someone within the first hour of TR 2013, and it quickly escalates so that by the midway point of that game, she's screaming bloody murder, leveling enemy bases solo and demanding her girlfriend back. Come Rise of the Tomb Raider, she was out and about, pulling the veil on Trinity and exercising the biggest death wish in the history of fiction.

And Shadow picks up where Rise left off: Lara is hot on the trail of Trinity's agents, and the game opens with her suffering a horrifying near-death experience, then cuts to a few days before when she was suffering another, even more horrifying near-death experience just to reach the interior of a cave she could apparently have just walked into. Her adventure, this time, makes her cross paths with that of the leader of Trinity, who in turn is chasing after two Mayan relics: the knife of Chak Chel and the Silver Box of Ix Chel, which together, legend has it, will summon the God of Creation and allow their bearer to remake the world.

Said to have had a budget of upwards of 75 million US dollars for development alone, it seems Square and Eidos really wanted to send Lara out with a bang, and aside from a beautifully realized game world and gorgeous cutscenes, the game boasts a handful of changes compared to its predecessor that, while probably not enough to bring in people who weren't into the series before, and while not necessarily for better or for worse, feel refreshing to a returning fan like myself.

One of the most prominent changes to the formula is that the game no longer follows a metroidvania-like design: items like explosive arrows are now used in combat only, and others like the rope ascender and lockpick are simply bought. Backtracking is now entirely optional, with the only reward being money and collectibles. Whether that's a good or bad thing is personal: I miss some of the exploration opportunities, but at the same time, I found that SotTR's environments are far easier to parse than its prequel's due to focusing more on a linear track than on openness.

In fact, on the topic of environment design, should you choose to play on hard difficulty, the game will entirely disable the white paint that usually guides you through climbing sections, and what a fascinating experience that was. At first, it's confusing, but over time, you start picking up on the more subtle cues and paying more attention to the environment, and thus, appreciating the level design a bit more. Curiously, an even higher difficulty disables Lara's detective vision, but that one, I don't recommend. Not because of that handicap, but because it removes checkpoints, making some sections a massive PITA.

Another way in which I enjoy Shadow's environments a bit more than the prequel is that they focus a bit more on nature -- the game mostly taking place in the Amazon jungle -- and on actual ancient ruins. Rise had this thing with the Soviets having found Kitezh first, and a lot of time was spent in buildings they made instead of the lost civilization -- that, and it also had a lot of firefights. Shadow, on the other hand, dials back on the shooting and has Lara spend almost her entire time either in lush environments or in Mayan/Incan buildings. Plus, the challenge tombs it brings are phenomenal: they include some visually stunning locations, as well as a bunch of real head-scratchers. Shoutouts to the Temple of the Sun and its great use of Tomb Raider mechanics to create a fiendish light puzzle.

There are, however, ways in which Shadow feels somewhat less polished. This is noticeable during normal gameplay with the odd glitch here and there, but the most painful shortcoming by far is in the narrative itself, which feels like different versions of the script got mushed together, or the major plot points were defined first and then had the gaps between them filled retroactively. Those are the only explanations I can muster for the weird pacing and awkwardly timed events. There are also bits of the story that feel too contrived even for the levels of suspension of disbelief the Tomb Raider series usually calls for. Reading the many lore items found throughout the game helps undo some of the apparent contradictions, but not all.

This could have all been forgiven if the main characters' development had been more consistent, but that also doesn't happen. The story seems to want to focus on the theme of guilt: on one side, we have Lara, crushed not only by all the deaths she witnessed in the past, but also by causing disasters through her search for relics in the present. On the other side, there's the antagonist, Dominguez, whose failure to stop his brother's death pains him greatly, as does his involvement in Richard Croft's murder. This latter event creates an interesting dynamic between the two characters: Dominguez's regret for taking away Lara's father makes him look at her with eyes of pity, and even compassion. On many occasions, he could easily have had her killed, but refrains from it -- his official explanation is that Lara is useful to him, but it feels like his true reason is that he can't bring himself to hurt her further. Lara displays a similar compassion towards him in some of the sidequests, an empathy towards another who also had his family torn apart.

At least, this is my personal reading of the narrative. This is where some might accuse me of reading too much into the game, as these are undertones the story never specifically addresses nor resolves, and thus, you kind of have to squint to see them. Maybe these scenes I'm finding characterization in weren't supposed to mean that much in the long run, like so many others. For instance, at one point, Jonah snaps at Lara, and what he says is... quickly forgotten for the next several hours. At another, Lara has a psychotic episode of sorts that's followed by a mental breakdown... and everyone forgets about it one dialogue later. Maybe that was just how it was meant to be.

This is especially painful because the actors and actresses absolutely carry those scenes: Camilla Luddington makes for a phenomenal Lara, as always, and the rest of the main cast delivers some stellar performances, with Earl Baylon as Jonah and Carlos Leal as Dominguez playing off Lara spectacularly. Plus, the scene direction, the use of lighting, the visual effects, are all stunning. The scenes are individually teeming with emotion, and watching some of them individually gives me chills... but sadly, their whole doesn't reach its full potential.

Nevertheless, Lara's adventure in the lush jungles of Peru is still a fun one, and I can't help but feel melancholic that it's over. I like the survivor trilogy's Lara: she has that lovable, gentle nature to her that contrasts with the darkness lurking under her character, the complete disbelief in karmic death and the will to just stab someone who threatens her or her friends in the neck. I don't think she's coming back, though. For one, the trilogy struggled to put that character to good use past the first game -- both Rise and Shadow felt like Lara had lower stakes and a weaker development overall.

Also, as much as the cost of these games increased over time, sales decreased as the trilogy went on, with Shadow not even reaching 10 million copies sold. That, in combination with the drastic changes between games, from mechanics to console exclusivities to DLC models, to me, tell a story of games that struggled to find a place in the market. With the franchise now in new hands, Crystal Dynamics and Eidos having been sold to the Embracer Group, I'm not sure the new owners will want to keep this concept going. But oh well. One can hope.

On the subject of the DLC packs... I'm not going to write separate reviews for each one, as few of them even exceed one hour length, and even then only barely. To summarize, all of them feel like sidequests to the main game that hit the cutting room floor since the cost of development was skyrocketing. They're all fine extensions to the main game. The Nightmare is a standout for its more experimental sequences and fantastic (in both senses of the word) challenge tomb, while The Forge dives into the backstory of Kuwaq Yaku, which is conspicuously missing from the main game. If you're playing this nowadays, chances are you have the Definitive Edition, so it's worth taking the time to do these additional quests.