Care of a battered hand-me-down disc, Tomb Raider 2 is one of the very first games I remember playing that had something resembling character. Lara Croft was an unstoppable force, smirking in the face of danger and racing forward to the next challenge. She was beautiful and curvaceous, yes, and intelligent too. She was also a millionaire who could afford home gyms and butlers and walk-in freezers - she didn't need the money or the infamy that all these dusty old relics provided. That's why I loved her; she did it all and risked everything just for the thrill of the hunt, and had a damn good time while she did it.
That Lara was dead and buried in her tiny 90s sunglasses with 2013's Tomb Raider reboot, which cast Croft as a frightened and shaken ingenue thrust into horrific circumstances on the island of Yamatai, where she was forced to do whatever she could to survive. This chain of events supposedly started her down the path to becoming an iconic adventurer, but ever since that outing, I've been waiting for her to regain that thrill-seeking bravado that I fell in love with, which coincidentally happened to be the reason she's willing to put herself in any of these ridiculous life-threatening situations in the first place. After playing this, the third of the prequel trilogy and the first from Eidos Montreal, I'm sadly still waiting.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider starts with an interesting idea - to explore the negative repercussions to all this selfish snatching and storing of ancient artefacts that simply don't belong to you. Since revelations involving the Croft family that came to light at the close of Rise of the Tomb Raider, Lara has become ever more obsessed by vaguely evil and omnipotent corporation Trinity. But this single-mindedness betrays her, as in her hurry to stop Trinity from possessing a ritual Mayan dagger, she takes it herself and in doing so sets the lead-up to an honest to goodness apocalypse in motion. Whoops.
We're promised a darker take on both Lara's personality and her treasure-hunting impulses, but it never pays off and things quickly take on the same narrative beats we've seen before in the previous two games. This interpretation of Lara already felt far too one-note, and it turns out taking an already stony-faced character and then loading them with the guilt of causing the death of hundreds of people does not a dynamic, relatable or likeable heroine make. It only serves to render Lara more morose, which would be fine if the game ever found an effective channel for her grief other than the two extremes of murderous rampage and awkward sulk.
And while Eidos Montreal has doubled down on the character's ferocity, it's led the studio to cast around for other ways in which to ground and humanise her. This effort mostly falls on the broad shoulders of her friend, Jonah. The story relies heavily on players caring about him, but it's hard to when the one facet of his personality we're beat around the head with is that he is Lara's best (and only) friend and seems willing to risk almost certain death just to humour even her most taciturn of whims. He's also her employee, if that gives you any indication as to the current state of Ms Croft's extensive social circle. Other characters are more interesting, including an Incan queen whose blend of lofty imperiousness and sense of selfless duty is far more compelling than Lara's own, and a young but capable prince eager to prove himself.
The majority of Shadow of the Tomb Raider takes place in the Peruvian jungle, which deftly steals the show from the off. It's a gorgeous backdrop, lush and teeming with life. The set pieces are incredible creations, making the most of the jungle setting but also sweeping you off to sparkling mountain vistas and rappelling into cavernous underground labyrinths. You can tell that care has been taken to make each stop on Lara's journey feel less like a corridor and more like an open space where players can explore and stay a while, even when in reality it's just a matter of scooping up whatever resources have been scattered around before continuing down the one set path that's been laid out for you.
Shadow has a much more pronounced balance between combat and tomb raiding too - not only in the main campaign, where ornate and often challenging puzzles are perhaps even more prolific than lengthy fight sequences, but in optional extras like Challenge Tombs and Crypts. These can be found sometimes quite far off the beaten path, offering additional adventuring to those brave enough and/or well equipped enough to heed the call. Rewards vary in usefulness, a crafting recipe here, some new boots or a cape there, but really it's the experience they provide - uninterrupted spelunking without any of the story guff - that will keep you seeking them out for more.
The same lightweight XP system from before is still at play in Shadow, albeit in slightly new garb. Players can pour Skill Points into a branching Skill Tree, which feels utterly superfluous given that any skills you really need are unlocked as you continue through the main story anyway. The crafting system has been streamlined further, meanwhile, so that you can cook up consumables like arrows and performance-enhancing drugs on the run with a couple of simple button presses. Lara's arsenal of weapons is much the same as before - you've got assault rifles, shotguns and handguns which you can upgrade or add to via crafting or visiting merchants, but as always, it usually comes back to your trusty bow to see you through most predicaments.
In terms of new traversal mechanics, nothing here will feel particularly new to series stalwarts. Which is fair; as the final instalment of a trilogy, Shadow understandably wants to build upon an established formula, not reinvent it entirely. Lara's dual pickaxes are now joined by fancy footwear that allows her to overhang climb, she can now use air pockets to gulp for breath down long forgotten flooded passageways, and to complement the game's themes of descending into darkness Lara can use new rappelling gear to, well, do just that, as well as wall-run to new heights. On their own these new touches seem barely worth mentioning, but when inserted into Lara's already impressive repertoire of skills, they allow for greater inventiveness on the part of the developers to craft more intricate puzzles and elaborate environments, which make up pretty much all of the best moments Shadow of the Tomb Raider has to offer.
All this is good if predictable stuff if you're just here for the tombs, which makes it more of a shame that those hoping for a stirring final act to close out the trilogy will likely be disappointed. The script is littered with trite cliches, clanking dialogue and predictable plot points we've not only seen multiple times before, but multiple times before in this very series. More than one climactic moment is completely derailed or undermined by bizarre staging, and try as it might with soft-focus flashbacks and a couple of rictus-like grins, Shadow just cannot make this Lara Croft likeable or relatable.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider ends this reboot on much the same note that it began, which for its fans may not be such a bad thing. This is a well-crafted and polished experience, and when the game actually gives you full control and leaves you alone to seek out its quieter mysteries, it can render you wide-eyed with wonder. And this Tomb Raider may have motivation and purpose and a vague semblance of an emotional arc but it all rings hollow, particularly when elsewhere there's repetition and an overall lack of new ideas. This Lara has forgotten herself and forgotten the joy and the thrill.
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