While
not a return to the original Playstation’s Lara Croft, 2013’s
reboot Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition did bring the
archeologist cum gunslinger cum puzzler onto the modern generation of
consoles with a splash. Focusing more on action and platforming than
puzzles, the game was a rush of shooting and scrambling that kept the
story’s pedal to the metal all the way to its fantastical ending.
The follow up title, Rise of the Tomb Raider, looked to expand
itself and slow things down a little. Upping the ante on
environmental puzzles, the game likewise added a lot of geography by
moving from linear to semi-open world, something which was
ill-considered in my opinion. Caught on the fence, it couldn’t
offer everything of what each form is good at. Players who enjoy
open worlds and collectibles had a heyday, while those who wanted a
pure story experience were often forced to participate in spurious
activities and retrace ground they’d already covered (items a
person could spend hours collecting in the world could just as easily
be looted from dead bodies while pushing the main storyline forward).
And this is all not to mention the facts that the game’s bad guys,
Trinity, were as vanilla as can be, and the Siberia portrayed in the
game rarely convinced of being a home to ancient, fantastical magic
just waiting to be discovered. The Tomb Raider reboot originally
conceived of as a trilogy, 2018’s third and final game in the
series, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, looks to complete Lara’s
character arc: how the tomb raider became the tomb raider. Let’s
take a look.
Shortly
after the events of Rise of the Tomb Raider, Shadow of the
Tomb Raider opens with Lara on the heels of Trinity, this time in
Cozumel, Mexico, where she and her partner Jonah believe they have
pieced together enough of Lara’s father’s journals to be able to
locate a special Mayan artifact. Finding the artifact just before
Trinity, Lara is caught while escaping, and is forced to confront Dr.
Dominguez, an archeologist working for Trinity who has dire warnings
given that Lara has disturbed the artifact. A supernatural
occurrence intervening, Lara has no choice but to continue her search
for Mayan artifacts in the jungles of Peru, still on the heels of
Trinity…
In
terms of format, Shadow of the Tomb Raider sticks closer to
Rise of the Tomb Raider than Tomb Raider: DE; it
remains a semi-open world experience onto which story is laid. But
this time around, however, things are more refined and specialized,
making for a tighter, more enjoyable gaming experience for gamers who
dislike repetitive open world gaming. Harking back to the original
Tomb Raider, the game’s focus leans more toward
environmental puzzling and discovery than collecting and action.
While I wish Crystal Dynamics had gone the whole way and made story
progression a matter of puzzle solving rather than action-sequences,
the manner in which discovery and puzzling have been integrated into
progression is satisfactory, feels more closely aligned with tomb
raiding, and helps disguise clichés and gaps in story. The fact
that players can adjust the difficulty of these puzzles at any time
in the game’s menu feels a minor breakthrough in AAA gaming, and a
boon to the game.
And
setting is just perfect. Where Siberia fell flat in Rise of the
Tomb Raider, the jungles of Peru in Shadow, with their
jaguars and mossy stones, buzzing insects and dripping leaves,
hanging vines and tropical heat, feel perfect for tomb raiding,
particularly when some giant stone face or jade pyramid emerges from
the jungle. Mayan culture one of the world’s most perfect fits for
Indiana Jones’ style exploration, the environmental puzzles and
challenge tombs all fit wonderfully within the motif. There are
numerous moments where rounding a corner to find a massive golden
temple or crawling through mud to arrive in a mysterious ante-chamber
invoke a sense of awe. At no time in any of the previous games did I
catch the same sense. Developers seeming to have saved the best
setting for last, Lara feels very at home in Shadow.
And
Lara’s move set grows in parallel. Where players spend most of
their time in Tomb Raider: DE and Rise accruing XP and
progress to unlock special skills, Lara begins Shadow with
almost all of those skills available. Onto this foundation Crystal
Dynamics layer new skills, including extensive swimming sections
reminiscent of the original Tomb Raider games. To reveal additional
special skills is a spoiler as several are quite enjoyable to
discover on their own, but suffice to say Rambo appears to have been
a key influence on the game. Stealth taking on additional
importance, the number of options in this area are significantly
developed to the point even some Assasssin’s Creed developers
should pay attention.
And
the move toward stealth complements the storyline. Where Lara is
essentially a mass murdering freak bent on archeological discovery at
all costs in the first two games, Crystal Dynamics call this approach
into question in Shadow. Lara spends much of the game paired
with Jonah, which gives a chance for their two different perspectives
on treasure hunting and collateral damage to surface. Secondly,
Shadow’s antagonist Dr. Dominguez is (almost) everything
that Konstantin from Rise is not. Where Konstantin
continually does what every villain in every mainstream story has
done for decades: be bad, Dominguez offers something different.
Almost (but not quite) a good guy in several scenes, he casts Lara’s
actions and behavior in a new light, even making her appear evil at
times. (Shadow of the Tomb Raider, get it?) No longer is Lara
clearly in the right with every move she makes. No longer does mass
murder always seem the right path forward. No longer does it seem
proper to push at all costs to discover and disturb the secrets of
the past. These differing perspectives, as well as memories of her
childhood leading up to her father’s death, take Lara down paths
previously unexplored in Tomb Raider games. I could go off on how I
wish Naughty Dog had interrogated Nathan Drake’s character in a
similar fashion in Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, but suffice
to say it’s extremely refreshing to have a developer question the
carnage and mayhem their characters cause within the game.
If
there are any issues with Shadow, one would be dialogue. It’s
not always as mature as, for example, that of Witcher 3: The Wild
Hunt. There are some touchy-feely moments that suit the story,
but don’t feel wholly natural or realistic. The second issue would
be story editing, for example, the opening sequence. Trying to start
with a bang, the game begins in media res; Lara and Jonah are
plummeting earthward without parachutes in a damaged aircraft. They
are just about to crash when the scene cuts to Mexico and the pair
exploring a temple. The exploration of this temple vivid and
engaging, one wonders why this could not have been the ‘bang’ on
which to open the game. When looking at how developers/narrative
writers were looking to portray a softer, more contemplative Lara
this time around, opening on the temple and the subsequent
confrontation with the game’s antagonist would have been more
appropriate, especially given that immediately following the temple
scene the games cuts back to the crashing airplane. Most good media
res openers save their weight for later in the story when the
action and realization how the pieces connect have greater impact
(Uncharted 4 did this well). There are some other editing
hiccups that lightly impede the flow of story, but nothing that
corrupts the overall vision. And thirdly would be overall story.
More cohesive than the first three entrees, it nevertheless moves at
a speed that outpaces itself upon the final few chapters: too much
crammed in. Crystal Dynamics would have been better off unpacking
some of the earlier scenes rather than skipping lightly over them in
an attempt to deliver as dynamic a conclusion as possible.
So,
while a good portion of the internets believe Rise of the Tomb
Raider is the best of the trilogy, I have to say Shadow is
definitively the best. There is room for improvement, but of the
three games it offers: the most dynamic gameplay (Lara’s skill set
keeps getting bigger and bigger), the best, most integrated puzzles,
the least vanilla storyline (in fact, even attempting to subvert the
standard video game hero story), the best graphics, and overall the
tightest balance between action, stealth, platforming, and puzzling.
And let’s face it, jungles with mossy temples, tombs, and ancient
magic are Lara’s home—it’s where she was meant to be doing her
thing. Ironically, I believe it is Crystal Dynamics’ questioning
of Lara’s ambition, hubris, and mass murdering that put the game
out of favor for people who reviewed the game negatively. (ACG even
openly states: “not enough action”, which leads to the question:
since when is killing a requisite for an enjoyable gaming
experience?) Thus, for as mature as the game may be in comparison to
the previous two entries in the trilogy, it’s likely too mature for
the crowd who love Call of Duty, Battlefield, and other mindless
shooters. In other words, don’t let the “disappointment” of
Shadow expressed by some gamers put you off. If you enjoyed
the original Tomb Raider games, this is by far the closest the
current generation has gotten to delivering a similar experience
without sacrificing the best of what modern gaming offers.
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