Review
Played on: Xbox One X
Released: 2018
Released: 2018
The 2013 reboot of Tomb Raider, review here, and it's sequel Rise of the Tomb Raider, review here, were two heavy hitters when they launched. Incredibly well produced, visually stunning, action adventures. They're some of my absolute favourite titles of modern times. Such a massive undertaking then, to follow up and make a third sequel.
Development has shifted from Crystal Dynamics to Eidos Montreal, the guys behind Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, review here, and script writer, of Rhianna Pratchett fame, has been swapped out. Same amazing graphics engine, same gameplay layout and the familiar voice of Camilla Luddington though.
Does Lara's latest adventure build itself up to, and deliver, the heavy burden of hype from the fantastic predecessors? Let's get our climbing gear, pick axe and bow ready, and dive in!
Gameplay is familiar ground for this trilogy of Tomb Raiders. One continuous world, with fast travel campfires along the way. Some areas open up as large hub worlds, with Metroidvania backtracking required at later points to open up locked sections with newly acquired equipment.
A lot of the weaponry is familiar and easy to dive into if you've played the previous instalments, so is the skill and weapons upgrade chart. Tried and tested ideas for the series, that work fine once again. This time around, there's more focus on outfits giving you benefits of increased experience points for certain criteria. However, disappointingly, a large portion of the game you're forced to wear certain outfits.
There's a much, and very welcomed, expanded focus on exploration. What in turn ends up to be it's strongest suit. Bringing back the fundamentals of the series, all the way back to 1996. Luckily, they've abandoned the generic, black uniformed, SWAT-like, mercenaries of ROTTR and replaced it with more suiting enemies for it's Mexico setting. Although they do return at the latter part of the story.
There's a much, and very welcomed, expanded focus on exploration. What in turn ends up to be it's strongest suit. Bringing back the fundamentals of the series, all the way back to 1996. Luckily, they've abandoned the generic, black uniformed, SWAT-like, mercenaries of ROTTR and replaced it with more suiting enemies for it's Mexico setting. Although they do return at the latter part of the story.
The gun fights are fewer and more heavily rewarded focus for utilising stealth. It even goes as far as letting Lara cover herself in mud, then sneak inside bushes and leafy walls like a predator, before attacking and returning to the shadows. It's clever, if not a little simple with predictable A.I., but it works and the general focus on combat has been toned down to better suit what Tomb Raider is about.
The long periods of time simply traversing the dense jungles of Mexico, finding paths to underground tombs, catacombs and discovering jaw dropping wall murals, statues and ancient buildings is very welcome one. It's about raiding tombs, setting this latest release closer to what Tomb Raider was all about in the first place. It allows the player to soak in the beautiful locations and feel some of that awe in the loneliness, deep inside a tomb. Just like the original Tomb Raider series did.
Climbing mechanics are further improved, even sporting upside-down climbing and ropes to lower and raise yourself by rope to reach deeper into caves. It gives Lara a more professional look to her climbing. There's more verticality in too and often, especially underwater caves, are nervously claustrophobic and scary to traverse. Luckily, the breath timer is generous and the typical annoyances for underwater sections is not present. I found them tense and fun to play.
Graphically, the series has outdone itself once again. Dense foliage, with crisp 4K presentation and tons of detail. Rocks, trees, old paintings, ruins and tombs have incredible amounts of detail with focus on small effects like particles in the air and light shining through cracks and openings in roofs and caves. The lighting. in general, is just superb and perhaps the best use of HDR I've seen to date. Inside lava caves, it's almost blinding with brightness!
Climbing mechanics are further improved, even sporting upside-down climbing and ropes to lower and raise yourself by rope to reach deeper into caves. It gives Lara a more professional look to her climbing. There's more verticality in too and often, especially underwater caves, are nervously claustrophobic and scary to traverse. Luckily, the breath timer is generous and the typical annoyances for underwater sections is not present. I found them tense and fun to play.
Graphically, the series has outdone itself once again. Dense foliage, with crisp 4K presentation and tons of detail. Rocks, trees, old paintings, ruins and tombs have incredible amounts of detail with focus on small effects like particles in the air and light shining through cracks and openings in roofs and caves. The lighting. in general, is just superb and perhaps the best use of HDR I've seen to date. Inside lava caves, it's almost blinding with brightness!
Water sections are richly designed too, with beautiful reflections and light beams going through the water. Mud is impressively like liquid, where Lara sinks into it and footsteps are filled with water behind you.
A truly beautiful game, that depicts the jungles of Mexico magnificently. Albeit with less variety visually than the previous titles as it stays within the Mexican jungle and Aztec style throughout. Perhaps, this one-sided location has allowed the developers more time to dig into the small and rich detail. Stunning from beginning to end.
A truly beautiful game, that depicts the jungles of Mexico magnificently. Albeit with less variety visually than the previous titles as it stays within the Mexican jungle and Aztec style throughout. Perhaps, this one-sided location has allowed the developers more time to dig into the small and rich detail. Stunning from beginning to end.
Some negatives need to brought to the table though. My main gripe is the sluggish story. It moves along with little incentive of making you dislike the bad guys or feel engaged to do something about what they're threatening.
I get the intentional morale choices for Lara, but they seem to backfire. Making her look like the bad guy and it doesn't help that the cause of why you're fighting seem far-fetched. It tries to make you feel like you're part of a hidden tribe in Mexico, wanting you badly as a player to care for them, but in the end it fails to do so in successful manner. The result makes the main story uninteresting and loses focus on what I'm her for: being Lara and experiencing exploring ancient locations.
That said, Lara's voice actress Camilla Luddington, does her best performance yet. With fantastic voice acting performances, ranging from touching to desperate scenes. The story parts that focus on Lara herself are the best ones and should've been a larger focus of the story. We're, after all, seeing the famous Tomb Raider being born in this trilogy. Her story is the most intriguing one, the reason why we are gathered in front of the screen, yet it's underutilised.
My other negative is the lack of reinvention. It feels too close to the previous entries and takes a safe route through it's design elements. You've seen it all before in TR2013 and ROTTR. Gameplay doesn't introduce many new elements and the environments could've done with more freedom, less of a check-box structure inherited from the previous instalments.
Places unreachable, that in classic Metroidvania style become accessible after you obtain a weapon or gadget, end up to be small, offbeat and insignificant areas. The rewards for backtracking don't seem worth it and could've hidden more memorable places to discover. On a positive note though, they've added a significant number of side missions to flesh out the lifespan of each hub area.
All things considered, I really enjoyed my playthrough but I was hoping for that something that made it stand out more. It seems ridiculous to complain about a end product with this kind of high end quality, but I just wish there was more new ideas here. The bland story and repeated game structure fall short. That said, I did truly enjoy the larger exploration focus and wonderfully detailed jungles and tombs.
It's a release aimed at older TR fans, yet never dares go far into hardcore style of those early games. A great third entry, for a fantastic trilogy, that just doesn't quite reach the heights of what you expect. Play it for the large amount of great Tomb Raiding, not for the story.
All things considered, I really enjoyed my playthrough but I was hoping for that something that made it stand out more. It seems ridiculous to complain about a end product with this kind of high end quality, but I just wish there was more new ideas here. The bland story and repeated game structure fall short. That said, I did truly enjoy the larger exploration focus and wonderfully detailed jungles and tombs.
It's a release aimed at older TR fans, yet never dares go far into hardcore style of those early games. A great third entry, for a fantastic trilogy, that just doesn't quite reach the heights of what you expect. Play it for the large amount of great Tomb Raiding, not for the story.
Update: Since launch, SOTTR has frequently had DLC tombs added into the main campaign. If you purchase it as a complete edition you'll have a ton of content. It's also been updated for Xbox Series X, running 4K@60fps and 1080p@60fps for the Series S!