The last part of the rebooted Lara Croft origin story is an fantastic game that might well exist my highlight of the twelvemonth.

I've read many criticisms of Shadow of the Tomb Raider, and I call back they are all wrong. The tertiary instalment of the Tomb Raider reboot is an excellent game that delivers on everything it promises and even surprises in a couple of places. Shadow of the Tomb Raider is the best release in an already excellent trilogy of games. It is also much maligned, by and large for stupid reasons that I will also address in this review. Simply showtime, let's talk about how I got to love this series and what I like about this detail game. If you'd rather want an overview and a score, you can spring to the ƒΛḄ scoring tabular array right abroad.

It's no undercover that I've been in dear with the Tomb Raider reboot from the very get-go day of release of the 2013 game. I'd been a fan of the series always since I've played the original Tomb Raider on a friend's PlayStation in the wintertime of '96, but Rhianna Pratchett's take on the character of Lara Croft is the i that completely drew me into the series. Earlier, Lara to me was simply the most boot-ass girl in video games – maybe in all of pop culture – but Pratchett managed to turn her into a nuanced, conceivable character that solicited the whole range of human emotions from me. I laughed, gasped and cried in despair with Lara every bit nosotros fought our mode through the horrors of Yamatai. And nosotros grew together, as characters.

Five years later on, I was looking forward to the end of Lara'due south origin story. After raising the stakes so much in the sequel, what could the guys at Squenix bring to the table that would drag this game over the other two and make it worthy of last this part of Lara'due south story?

The joke making the rounds in the gaming press is that Squenix has been touting Lara finally "becoming the Tomb Raider" with every subsequent game beyond the 2013 surprise hit. And in some respects, that's really what happened. You can draw a direct through-line from 2013s Tomb Raider to 2015s Rise of the Tomb Raider and right into the outset moments of Shadow of the Tomb Raider that shows Lara growing up from an innocent teenager into a ruthless and seasoned, withal still kind-hearted, adventurer. People laugh near how she cries over killing a doe in the start game and so immediately goes into a murder spree, slaughtering men left and correct. Merely I've been on this journey with Lara, every step of the way, and I call back I understand.

In cinematic games like these, you're either with the master character throughout, or you fall off the wagon. For my part, I've loved the outset ii games and couldn't await to see what comes next.

Well, allow me tell you, they dial information technology up to eleven in this one. Right from the outset, Lara is an experienced adventurer; much like when we first meet Dr. Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark. She certainly knows almost raiding tombs. And that's what turns out to get her greatest weakness, but also her salvation in this game. Because Lara raids the ultimate tomb and finds an artifact of such power that it will destroy the world. Then, merely like in Raiders, the bad guy takes information technology away from her. This leaves Lara in an impossible situation: she literally has to salvage the globe, but has no idea how to practice it. Yep, it's the Maya apocalypse and it'due south populated with hokey cultists who look like they walked right off the set up of Temple of Doom but that doesn't take away anything from the fun. If anything, it heightens it. In many means, this is what Temple of Doom should have looked like.

And this is where we get to a lot of the idiotic criticism that Shadow of the Tomb Raider had to endure in the gaming press. I hateful, sure, you could criticise this game'southward narrative on overall realism. What with the bloody Maya-Incan-Aztec-Templar-Conquistador doomsday cult, solar powered ancient mechanism and dagger-and-magic-box-that-gives-me-actual-god-powers gimmick. Sure, we could use this review to indicate out some glaring colonialist problems with the profession of tomb raiding – completely ignoring the actual colonial narrative that'southward told in the game's item descriptions and flavour text. Or, here'due south an thought, yous could just take it for what it is: a fucking pulp fiction activeness-run a risk. Considering in real life, archeologists don't use bull whips or ice axes. And they certainly don't pack oestrus. No shit.

This game goes to the length of actually pointing out that the developers have consulted historians and linguists to make the earth as immersive and true to their vision of what a game set in the jungles of Mesoamerica and Peru should be, as possible. And they welcome people from all genders, ethnic backgrounds and cultures on the very outset screen you see when yous commencement the story. And what do they get for their troubles? Backlash from some smartarse gaming critics too stuck-up to enjoy an awesome risk when im bumps them in the olfactory organ.

It's almost laughably ironic. Hither nosotros have the purest Twitter feminist fantasy – a adult female with a survival knife and a bow, slaughtering toxic masculinity by the dozens – and the producers of this game nonetheless tin can't catch a suspension for their expiry scenes. Yeah, co-ordinate to one respected gaming site, these are borderline torture porn. Never mind the Trinity mercenary I've left strung upwards in the jungle canopy, bleeding to death from three stab wounds in the eye and a severed jugular. All the important people in this game are female person and Lara's main sidekick, Jonah, while buff and rugged-looking, is an absolute pussy. That's refreshing and fun writing and I'm amazed it isn't historic more.

Of course, I never bothered with whatsoever other reviews. As soon as the game was finally out and I had a gratuitous weekend, I jumped right in. And I never really stopped thinking about the story until I had finished it. Don't go me incorrect: I haven't completed the game. I've barely finished the principal story and I plan to jump back into it with New Game Plus to farm out every nook any cranny of this beautiful matter. Probably right after I've played through the other two games again… Only I practice know that I love it!

The graphics are gorgeous, Camilla Luddington'south acting is spot on, and the new jungle fighting mechanics are a world of fun. The new Tomb Raider games always had stellar archery mechanics and decent gunplay, but the new hide-and-seek stuff had me entertained for hours. Never listen the climbing, which they've massively ramped up and the absolutely gorgeous locations – the level designers on this game deserve an bodily medal. And so the tombs… the tombs are so good. They all look dissimilar and have their own unique season and the main story locations are better than anything Hollywood could come with. I hateful it. This game has sets that accident the hell out of whatsoever billion dollar movie I've seen in the terminal 20 years. This is some serious good shit! In more than 35 hours with this game, I never got bored once. That's an achievemnt of titanic proportions when it comes to video games and something that Shadow of the Tomb Raider has in common with the first instalment in the reboot serial and non many other games beyond that.

And I haven't even mentioned the new hub locations and oversupply scenes. Very early into the game, Lara visits a Day of the Expressionless celebration in United mexican states and remarks that she "isn't good with crowds", a clear hint at the fact that Tomb Raider, in its long history, has always concentrated on action in remote locations rather than interactions with people. Only this game pulls off the crowds scenes. And does them actually well, at that. They are woven neatly into a story that, while at points quite anticipated, is fun and very engaging from begining to end. I very much enjoyed my last reckoning with the high ranking members of Trinity and even some lower down henchmen that I've had a grudge with always since Siberia.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider is a game that knows what information technology wants to be and goes all in, trying to attain its goal. That is laudable. If you lot don't like linear games or you don't have the patience for story, it's probably not the game for you. But if, like me, yous have given upwards on most of Goggle box and a lot of movie house a while ago and yous're willing to append some disbelief in order to be entertained all night past video games, then this is probably the blockbuster y'all're looking for. Information technology has action, it has story and it has drama. In that location'southward climbing, puzzles, shooting and talking to people. You tin can upgrade your guns, bows and knife, larn new survival tricks and discover secrets. And all forth the way, yous'll acquire something nigh aboriginal cultures, modern weaponry and Lara's peculiar aloof roots.

Yes, it isn't the most highbrow or nuanced of storylines. Only the technology that went into making this is extremely sophisticated and people spent an amazing amount of attention to detail on this game. And most chiefly, its eye is in the right spot. If you're one who'due south e'er looking for gamble, no thing the odds, who'southward request what things are well-nigh, who'due south never giving upward, then yous'll be happy playing this game.

In curt: The start 2 games will have shown if you are a survivor who can dauntless the odds. If you are, what are you waiting for? The argent box of Ix Chel is waiting for you. If you aren't sure, get-go with 2013s Tomb Raider and get a survivor. Then dauntless the cold darkness of Siberia. Merely when you've survived the Oni and the Deathless Ones should you try and burden yourself with saving the earth as the Tomb Raider. Take the journeying, one stride at a time, and enjoy the experiences forth the way. Believe me, it is worth it. Y'all won't take more fun in any other AAA game on the PC this year, I reckon.

Scoring • Shadow of the Tomb Raider • ƒΛḄ 91⁄100

Shadow of the Tomb Raider is incredibly polished. I noticed very few bugs in my 35+ hours with the game. I've as well had a lot of fun from get-go to finish – it'southward a wild rollercoaster ride all the way through. I play these games for the story and the cinematic experience and the tertiary instalment of the rebooted series definitely delivers on this and quite possibly beats even the first game. There's more climbing to practice, the jungle fights are more fun than fighting has ever been in the serial and the tombs are even more circuitous than in the second game. That you lot can separately alter the difficulty for climbing, fights and puzzles is a stroke of genius. The checkpointing is also very well done – I never once got frustrated by how far the game prepare me back, even on tricky sections.

The only criticism I have on this front is how often the game takes your tools away from you and forces yous to go dorsum to simply the bow or but a knife. Yes, this does fit very well with the storyline and presents interesting challenges, but I like to use the dissimilar pistols and rifles given to me. I feel like the second game did a better task here, simply that's a relatively minor point in the grand scheme of things.

ƒun 48⁄50

Technologically speaking, Shadow of the Tomb Raider is brilliant. The locations are cute, the game has probably the best character faces I've e'er seen in a video game and the animations are very smooth and natural. Lara'south character is rendered to perfection in every infinitesimal detail and many of the NPCs – especially the main cast – are polished to almost the same level. As with the first 2 games in the series, the voice acting is superb. Camilla Luddington'south operation as Lara is among the very best acting in the history of video games. I also love the amount of local linguistic communication voice lines in this game and the fact that you tin can switch to having almost everyone speak in their native language with subtitles.

The merely thing that detracts from the cinematic immersion a piddling flake is the fact that some of the NPCs in the more than populated areas repeat very blatantly. You see the same face again and again. The developers could have hidden this a bit more than by varying the wearable and having a few different hairstyles for each character model. Every open world game these days uses many simple tricks like that to hibernate the fact that the supply of graphic symbol models is limited – this game could have profited from more of that too.

Λrtistry 23⁄25

This game knows what it wants to exist: Nosotros're stepping into the shoes of the virtually iconic and badass woman in video games history. The goal here is run a risk, discovery and braving the most unlikely circumstances. Tomb Raider has ever taken a very obvious inspiration from Indiana Jones. At its cadre, information technology's e'er asked the question: "What would the story be like if Indy was a woman?" The rebooted series also asks the question of how Lara became the Tomb Raider. What needs to happen to a immature daughter to get the badass adventuring archaeologist we know her as? The bottom line here is: All of this is very silly. And these games are so good precisely considering they don't enquire impaired questions like "hey, how come all the ancient cultures seemingly did nothing else but build temples stuffed to the roof with sunlight-powered mechanical traps?" You don't ask these questions when you watch an Indy movie, so don't ask them now. I respect these games for knowing that and sticking to their guns. And Shadow of the Tomb Raider even manages to subvert all that once in a while to make you think about what y'all are doing as Lara …and if it is actually good for the world.

It is clear that a game like this isn't going to tread any terribly new ground or revolutionise its genre. What information technology does, it does very, very well. Sometimes that is all you tin ask for.

Ḅoldness 20⁄25

Full Score: 91⁄100 • Game of the Year Potential

In summary, if y'all like a gripping story, seeing amazing things and doing fun stuff, buy this game. If you want factual information on ancient cultures, read a history book.

Disclaimer: I played this game at 2 press events pre-launch and got given a review fundamental past Square Enix. I've as well been a Tomb Raider fan since the '90s.