Mind Dump, Tech And Life Blog
written by Ivan Alenko
published under license CC4-BY
posted in category Technology & Dystopia / Video Games
posted at 08. Dec '24

Shadow of the Tomb Raider

The third part of the Tomb Raider reboot is the worst part.

I have a very mixed feeling about the game, but overall it is just mundane and too long. Everything is worse and the story and one location are so bad that they actually drag the whole game down. I finished the whole game including sidequests.

The beginning is 10/10, Lara falls down, there is a little drama, some groans, gets up, explores caves, enters through a hole in rocks somewhere and she finds a pyramind. Classic. Then it continues like in James Bond Spectre in Mexico (I hope it is Mexico) with day of the dead holiday. Overlayed with some jumping. Then there is quite epic sequence with jaguar and then it begins to be much less intersting.

The first village is still all right, although something is missing there. I’ve never been to South America, but everything in this village seems so sad there and not much human.

But the worst is Paititi, the hidden original Aztec village where I had a feeling that my IQ just lowered sometimes. I thought that in Uncharted towns on the verge is civil war are crazy, but I accepted it. But this village is much worse. While it should be a totally different culture with slightly different thinking, this is not captured there at all. People there do nothing, quests are dumb, behavior of oppressors is not believable and well, everybody behave weak. Maybe it’s just depressing, there is no humor, little enthusiasm. I get that Lara is going through tough shit, but others could show more life. Jonah is all right, but it is not enough.

Also the game mechanics could be simpler. Jumping is not as fun and feels long, sometimes mundane, probably because the sceneries and variability of environments is much lower.

I think I cannot really describe right now why it’s worse than Rise of the Tomb Raider and the first reboot. Everything looks fine, graphics is great, music, sfx, terrain, puzzles are good, but overall it doesn’t work that well. I’d just cut 40% of the game. Yes, I could have skiped some quests, but how should I know which one is good and which one is dumb and mundane?

For me it’s always what I learn from the game and what I experience.

Yeah, mixed feelings about this one.

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