Shadow of the Tomb Raider (PlayStation 4) Review

Lara's third adventure predominantly takes her to the vast jungle expanses of Peru. The somewhat tired story arc of the young researcher battling the armed forces group Trinity (which, as it turns out, has been functioning for hundreds of years) persists, with leader Pedro Dominguez in search of the mysterious Silver Box of Ix Chel, which he hopes to use in combination with a Mayan dagger, the Key of Chak Chel, in order to remake the world.

Things start promisingly on the whole, as Lara obtains the dagger before Dominguez in Mexico, but her doing so triggers an apocalypse across the land. Aside from a great tsunami that Lara gets caught up in, many of these events' full effects aren't always shown in motion to their full potential or turn out underwhelming, leaving this portion of the plot feeling a little lacklustre. It isn't long before the story becomes uninteresting and completely forgettable altogether. The attempted seriousness is melodramatic, never really developing into a gripping plot, falling into the same trap as Rise of the Tomb Raider as a result. Many of the people Lara meets rarely become anyone to get attached to, and the protagonist herself has become a conflicting and rather bland character.

Since the Definitive Edition of the 2013 Tomb Raider reboot, Crystal Dynamics has altered Lara's facial features to essentially match up with her performance capture artist Camilla Luddington, which is a shame, since her original design for her shipwrecked first adventure was the best-looking Lara to date. The main issue with her character, however, is the accent. Camilla has lived and worked in the United States for many years, often acting in American roles, and her accent outside of work is amusingly all over the place depending on the time and place. However, this isn't an excuse for why Lara Croft has an abnormal accent herself throughout this trilogy, where it is quite possibly the worst it has ever been with Shadow of the Tomb Raider.

For many players, this really won't even enter the radar as a problem, but since American hands acquired the rights to develop Tomb Raider games from the England-based and now defunct Core Design, Lara just hasn't been treated with the respect she deserves. Ninety percent of Lara's accent is fine, but that ten percent that comes out with predominantly American pronunciations is jarring and frustrating. Add to this the disgraceful mispronunciations of Lara's name itself (just how on earth do so many Americans keep getting this wrong?) spoken multiple times in the game, and it feels like a total insult to not just the character, but the creators of Lara Croft.

Were there no native English voice directors to hire to keep things in order, or actual checks done to ensure the authenticity of the accent and prevent other dialogue faults? Camilla herself surely should know better than to slide in Americanisms in a role such as this, but the blame cannot be placed solely on her. When the game development staff cannot even say Lara's name correctly, there were always going to be problems. Whatever the case, it all ends up feeling disrespectful and seriously needs rectifying for future Tomb Raider instalments if Square Enix continues to place the licence in North American hands.

Weak story and poor accents aside, Shadow of the Tomb Raider springs to life in its exploration and tomb raiding aspects. One of the main complaints of the past two games was in the lack of tombs, but Eidos Montreal has excelled where Crystal Dynamics hadn't before to provide a strong reason to keep on playing even after the main campaign is finished. By taking the time to venture off the beaten path, players are rewarded countless times with some well hidden and excellent trials to overcome, putting focus on the whole tomb raiding thing that, you know, this series is supposed to be about.

The trials are backed up by some high quality puzzle sections that require a good degree of thinking at times. Factoring in the accessibility options that allow players to alter the difficulty of combat, exploration and puzzles on the fly, the latter element is made all the more superior by turning the dial up to hard. In fact, the best way to play this game is to switch all three options to at least the hard mode (very hard for the exploration side restricts saving to only at base camps, which needlessly turns things into an exercise in frustration, instead of rewarding great skill).

Hard mode removes the white paint that indicates where Lara can climb, making for a much more engaging adventuring experience, and limits being able to see enemies during Survival Instincts (the returning sense mode that shows objects and points of interest while standing still), although certain optional unlockable skills can mitigate the latter, for example. Strangely, hints still pop up mid-game even on hard mode, such as telling Lara where she can grapple from.

The jungle setting works wonders for the adventure as a whole, and it looks absolutely gorgeous throughout the vast majority of the game - and that is only considering it running on a standard PS4. Using her surroundings to her advantage, Lara is able to stealthily take out her enemies, incorporating a cool camouflage mechanic where she can cover herself in mud and hide in vegetation on walls. It is a really smart feature that sadly isn't used to its fullest, as there just aren't enough opportunities to put it to the test, since combat scenarios are rather limited and just plain easy.

Hiding in the treetops and firing rope arrow traps at soldiers is great and all, but rarely do all of Lara's abilities need to be utilised, as the most trouble-free skills only end up getting used, especially once fear arrows can be crafted, which make enemies turn on their comrades before succumbing to the poison themselves. There are many ways to take the bad guys out, but not enough chances to get the most out of Lara's techniques, or enough of a reason to push players to be creative. Resorting to a bait and wait tactic is often a sure-fire way to success. On the flip side, however, it is good to see less focus on combat in favour of exploration and tomb raiding - but a little more developing of the stealth sections could have gone some way to improving the tense soldier encounters.

On a related note, multiple costumes to craft is a neat feature, but, again, it can't help but be thought if there were extra options to create even more unique pieces of gear by hunting animals and scavenging, there would be a greater desire to actually venture into the jungles to take down rare animals more often. That said, some of the unlockable outfits are very fitting and appealing, each with bonuses of their own, but it feels like another area that could have been expanded upon in tandem with the stealth gameplay.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider falters a bit more when it comes to the set-pieces. Far too many clumsy deaths spawn from these sections, bringing what are supposed to be free-flowing auto-run segments to a grinding halt, negating the adrenaline-pumping moments they are supposed to create. Lara just doesn't go where you want - or expect - her to at the critical points, leading to set-pieces just being another failed attempt at delivering exciting interactive action sequences. Add to this a totally disappointing battle with the secondary antagonist, and it is clear that this game is at its absolute best when platforming and treasure hunting in the lush jungle expanses than running and gunning.

Credit must be given to the underwater sections, though. These are quite plentiful this time around, but the controls are generally so good that it is a joy to take Lara into the depths and through the sometimes lovely, sometimes dark and treacherous caverns, coming out of the other side to beautiful new locations. There are a couple of annoying parts, where trying to stealthily hide in and amongst the plant life to avoid piranhas doesn't always work out, since the little nippers can be extremely quick to spot and devour Lara in seconds, but these outweigh what is often a fun time swimming in the dangerous and even scary underworld.