I enjoyed my time playing this game, as Shadow of the Tomb Raider is the best in the trilogy gameplay mechanics-wise, but collectibles-wise, this game got the short end of the stick. These collectibles ruined the story for me. Not that the story is bad, but the collectibles just made it harder for me to digest the story. Let me explain in my points below, starting with the pros: Pros: - Stealth. I have to put it here, as the devs have just improved its stealth mechanics even further in this third installment than what was already possible in the second game. Starting with the mud, Lara can now cover herself in mud and camouflage herself to the muddy walls around here. Not only that, she can now pull enemies up to her level in the tree canopies using her bow and arrows. These additional elements to Lara's stealth allows her to lurk between enemies undetected with even more creative freedom in regards to how should Lara approach her enemies. Even better, Lara can now re-enter stealth after being detected if she got far enough and found cover fast enough before her enemies could notice. This wasn't possible in the second game (if I remember correctly), let alone the first game. This, in my opinion, is one of the more welcome improvements in the game, as I always prefer the stealthier approach when playing games - Swimming! Yes! Swimming! Lara can now freely swim and dive to whatever depths she desires - Puzzles and tombs. Just like the second game, the puzzles and tombs in this game do not disappoint. The addition of swimming with complete freedom also allowed the devs to incorporate that feature to the way the game's puzzles and tombs are designed, adding more variety and complexity to the puzzles. And I thought Rise of the Tomb Raider's puzzles couldn't have been refined even more - Sceneries. I'm not sure about you guys, I enjoy the sceneries in all the three games in the Survivor Trilogy, but I think I like the ones in this game better, with the second game taking a close second spot - Side quests. Unlike the second game, the side quests are much more diverse here. And some side quests even take you to explore secret tombs that you otherwise might not have stumbled upon had you not taken the quests. Heck, one of the side quests even made you help the investigation of a murder lol - Story. I was at quite a bit of a predicament in deciding whether I should've placed this game's story in the pros or decent side of my review, but I've finally chosen to put it here. Although not as engaging as the second game, this third game also isn't without its merits when it comes to its storytelling. To be more specific, I really like how the conversations/dialogues were written between the important characters of the story, be it between themselves, or between them and Lara. How despite the villain being the evil person that they are for the bloodshed they have committed, we also got to know the story behind them and how some of the hard decisions they'd taken were forced upon them to make, in order to protect what they hold dear. Moreover, the villain was also pretty reasonable in this game too, and how the good side characters were also willing to listen and have normal discussions with the villain - Game's performance. This game is by far the most optimized compared to the other two games in the trilogy. I've never once experienced a crash in this game, and no freezings, something that happened quite a bit in the second game Decent: - Combat. I don't think much has been improved in terms of combat when it comes to this third installment - Graphics. It's clear to me that the texture details for the character models definitely experienced a downgrade, especially Lara. Back in the first and second games, we would see dirt, mud, or other grit in general to give Lara that more gritty and serious look to her. However, she no longer has those said details, and her expressions kinda look a bit dead to me most of the time. Only during cutscenes do I see those details appear the most, and during stealth whenever I let Lara cover herself in mud. Could be a deliberate choice from the devs to really emphasize the difference between when she's in her clean mode vs dirty muddy stealth mode. That said, I don't believe them to be mutually exclusive, and do very much prefer for the devs to have kept both Cons: - Collectibles. This game really embodies the perfect example of quantity over quality when it comes to its collectibles. Why? It's apparent to me that the devs tried to make the player explore and learn about the cultures and polytheistic religions of the Maya, Inca, and Aztec civilizations through its collectibles. I actually appreciate the devs wanting us to study these things through gaming, but doing it through collectibles entirely is just not the right choice to make in my opinion. Imagine all those civilizations' information packed into collectibles and spread throughout the game's map for you to search. You know how many of them can there be? Too many. And this affected my immersion with the game's story because I couldn't quite pinpoint which of the information I got from the collectibles actually had anything to do with the actual main story, because there were just so many of them and how you got introduced to the numerous deities from each civilization made you feel that you need to remember them as they might be important to the story and only to be disappointed afterwards as only a portion of them turned out to actually matter. Again, I thank you Crystal Dynamics for this enlightening journey, but why not just make the whole literature an extra that you get upon completing the game which you can access anytime (again, after you've completed the game) from the main menu. That's a much preferable alternative than the current one. That way, you (the devs) could've focused more on making use of the collectibles to allow the player and Lara to explore more about the Maya civilization and Trinity instead, thus fortifying the story even further as support blocks for whatever information that were not clearly explained through playing the main story alone - Save game bug. I still don't know what caused it, and couldn't find a solution online. So I tried solving it on my own, and I did. If you're lucky, you might never have to encounter this bug, and that's great. But if one day the game suddenly resets and you can no longer click continue and load game, know that there's a good chance your save files are still there in your PC/laptop. Just open Document/Shadow of the Tomb Raider, and you'll see two folders named with numbers only. There's only supposed to be one, but the game would somehow make a new folder with a new profile. So what you need to do is just open one of the numbered folders that has the save.dat files in it, and copy and paste those save.dat files to the other numbered folder that only has a profile.dat file in it. Open the game again and you should be able to continue from your latest progress - (NITPICK) I kinda wish the devs could've stuck with the older format where the individuals' journals would be read by the people who wrote them instead, hehe. Hey, Lara needs an extra pay for reading all those people's journals you know! And if they're no longer with us, who's gonna pay her huh?! Some of those journals are at least four hundred years old, you know! This game has the best gameplay mechanics in the Survival Trilogy, and the worst collectibles in the trilogy, with the first game taking the close second spot (that game's individuals' journals had their own problem which I've explained in my previous reviews for Tomb Raider (2013) and Rise of the Tomb Raider). Overall, Shadow of the Tomb Raider could've been a better game, but a great game nonetheless.
I'm really glad I played this game. What a masterpiece of a game, and a great sequel. Pros: - Story. Despite Lara's journey more or less still revolves around seeking artifacts that are said to hold powers to immortality, just like the first game, I'm happy with the fact that the second game finally focuses more on Lara's personal history with her father or just her family in general as we get glimpses of flashbacks of her memories about her relationship with her father in the past back when she was younger. This was really well done, especially with how the Blood Ties DLC gave to us the player together with Lara the opportunity to find out what actually happened to her parents in more detail than what was initially explored through the main story. About her father, and her mother, how they felt towards one another, and what the younger Lara saw in both her parents during her lonely childhood years. I was so emotionally invested in the story that I felt happy to know that I get to accompany Lara in her next adventure in the third game of her Survivor Trilogy - Journals. Finally, the devs fixed the issue that I had with the first game where it seemed like the individuals' journals (part of the collectibles) were racing with the main story in regards to which of the two gets to reveal the major plots of the game first. Without spoiling the first game, basically if you tried to collect as many collectibles (in this case, the journals being one of them) before completing the main story like finishing all the side quests before facing the final boss, you'll realize that you've been spoiled of the game's major plot points. And worse, in the first game, Lara would still act surprised whenever she discovered an unexpected development in her story, which also happened to be something that she should've realized had she read the journals she collected. This affected my immersion of the game pretty badly. But, this time, it didn't happen in this game. I'm glad the devs tried to pace the individuals' journals more properly this time while taking into account Lara's current progression in her main story - Great action sequences. There are quite a few levels in this game that happen to be my favorite, taking into consideration all the enjoyment I had with the first game. The underwater stealth, the 1vEveryone in a small room full of pillars, and a few others I refuse to include in the list for you to play for yourself - Puzzles. The puzzles and the tombs have definitely experienced an improvement since the first game. They're still not as many as the ones in Tomb Raider: Anniversary (I've never played the original Tomb Raider games), but the ones that are here are much better in terms of difficulty compared to the first game. So I really appreciate that - Stealth. Yes! Finally! The stealth in this game is just much better than the first game. It's been quite some time since I last played Tomb Raider (2013), so I can't quite recall if that game had any bushes for Lara to hide in against patrolling enemies. That said, I'm going to assume that that was a missing feature since I feel like the existence of bushes as part of the game's stealth mechanics has made the stealth gameplay a lot more enjoyable to take as an alternative to just going guns blazing at every enemies encounter. Back in the first game, it also felt that the map layouts just didn't really support for a stealthy approach. Either it was the awkward placement of covers, the rooms just being too small, or maybe the game just missed the opportunity to add bushes and TREE BRANCHES. Yes, I just remembered how such a wonderful addition the tree branches are to the game, both as a means of traversal and an ambush takedown feature during stealth gameplays. Last but not least, I also appreciate the new ways Lara can now interact with the dead bodies of the enemies she's just killed by putting things like a poison bomb, and more. Again, it's been quite some time since I last played the first game, so this feature may have already been implemented in the 2013 reboot, I'm not sure. Bottomline is, I enjoyed the stealth in the second game a lot more than in the first game - Graphics. The graphics just look gorgeous here. Love the visuals, the character models, the sceneries, and more Decent: - Side quests - Swimming. Why just decent? Because you can't dive deeper than what the game allows you to do. But hey, you still get to swim unlike in the first game Cons: - Graphical bug, where there were times when Lara, or even her environments would turn black for some reason. And after looking around the internet for a solution, it turned out that disabling the tessellation option in the graphics settings should eliminate this problem completely. And try experimenting with having the DirectX12 enabled or disabled in the game. For me, enabling DirectX12 helped with improving my game's performance - The game would sometimes freeze, but not long enough for you to have to resort to using the task manager to forcefully close the game. Still, a bug is a bug. It happened only in one or two levels out of many tho Despite the bugs I've mentioned, they don't take away from the fact that I believe this game to be a great game overall that I'll forever cherish :)
Pros: - Story. I know I've said the same about Legend, but Underworld just expanded on it by brilliantly weaving both the stories of Legend and Anniversary and putting a conclusive end to the trilogy, including what happened to both Lara's parents, Avalon, and more - Platforming. The devs added many new movements that Lara can now do, like standing on ledges and horizontal poles, and also wall jump! As a result, they were able to add more puzzles and intricate level designs into the game, pushing the limits of what the player was initially made to accept from the previous games in regards to what Lara was thought to be capable of - The perfect amount of puzzles mixed with just the right dosage of complexity. Knowing that the devs had previously worked on Anniversary a year prior, I'm glad that they made use of that experience to ramp up the difficulties of the puzzles in Underworld seeing that Legend didn't have much of those - Combat. Not much was improved, but the things that the devs had improved, were really significant although few in amount. The two major improvements worthy of mention and praise here are the fact that Lara can now shoot while climbing (mostly) and aim at two different targets at the same time with her dual pistols. That's cool and exactly how it should have always been - Soundtracks - Visuals. Much better looking than Legend and Anniversary, and you can clearly see how Lara has aged based on her model alone Cons: - The camera. Not gonna expand on this since this has been an issue since Legend - (NITPICK) I already got used to this, but at first, I was kinda put off by Lara's movement speed. I feel like her jogging speed in this game is a bit faster than in the previous games, and it could get pretty annoying when you couldn't help prevent Lara from falling off ledges while standing on small platforms simply because her movements are simply too quick A great example on how to end a trilogy. Exceptional story and gameplay :)
Pros: - Story. Compared to Anniversary, I like the story in Legend better - Dialogues. With Lara gaining new friends in Legend, there's bound to be more dialogues between Lara and her colleagues. This also provided an opportunity for Lara to show the player her quick-wittedness through her remarks whenever she's conversing with the other characters in the game. One thing I wish could be reduced is the exclamations her friends shout out whenever Lara does a stunt. The "Woohoo! Yeah" parts. Not all of them, but make them less frequent please - Combat Decent: - Soundtracks - Motorbike levels. I find the controls to be pretty responsive when it comes to these levels, but it can get pretty overwhelming at times when the enemies just kept on coming. And the placement of the medkits are always random each run, meaning after you die, there's a chance you won't encounter the same medkits at the same spot you last saw them. Heck, you can even make a roguelike game out of this segment of the game lol - Cutscenes. It's an "either you hate it or love it" relationship. On one hand I like their quality, but at the same time, there's just too many of it Cons: - The camera, just like in Anniversary (meaning the devs still hadn't fixed the obnoxious camera controls). Like sometimes you just have to hope that there's a ledge across Lara because you can't move the camera in that direction to make sure - Lack of puzzles - Crashes in the Kazakhstan level (or even in the other levels after that, I'm not too sure). The game would crash and exit you to your desktop, not until you disable the new generation content option in the display settings. Sure you might not like the brighter look of the game now (since I believe the new generation content adds more shadows into the game, making the graphics darker and more gritty), but if that's what you need to do to get the game running, then so be it I still love this game though despite everything :)
Pros: - The number of puzzles, and the complexity of the puzzles - The quick time events. Now, I've heard that many dislike the quick time events replacing the old boss levels from the original game, but I find them pretty enjoyable here as they make the encounters more realistic (bosses won't withstand hundreds of shots before dying). And I also appreciate that the devs decided to make the final two bosses stay as an actual boss fight rather than a quick time event (except for the finishing part) - Soundtracks Decent: - Story Cons: - I hate how you need to be really precise with the jumping or else Lara won't be able to grab on the ledge that she's trying to jump to. I've never played the original game, but it can get really annoying when you had to die several times before getting it right. There was even a time when I began to question myself whether the reason I couldn't make the jump is because that was not the path I was supposed to be taking, but turned out I was supposed to get there after a few more tries. It's annoying - The camera. In tight spaces, it can get pretty obnoxious trying to look around Lara for any possible ledges that she can use as for some reason the movement of the camera just became restricted - Save game bug (Autosave damaged) where you won't be able to load the game from your previous save. This happened to me once, and upon looking for a fix, I found out that this bug would happen when you try to play a cutscene from the main menu. A fix for this that worked for me was to head over to the save file folder location of the game and rename one of your manual TRASave files into an autosave.TRASave. Open the game back and you should be able to continue your game like before Despite the autosave bug, restricted camera, and imprecise grabs, overall I still enjoy my experience playing this game. I guess what saved the game for me was the complex puzzles and cutscenes (including the quick time events).
Pros: - Great graphics, love the sceneries especially - The controls feel responsive - Great action sequences - Quite a lot of collectibles to collect and tombs to explore - The AI can be quite smart at times. There was this one moment in a bunker where some of the enemies would go out of their way to flank me through the rooms that I've already explored, by going in a different pathway from their side that seemed to connect to those same rooms that wasn't initially made available to me until I've defeated them to finally discover that path Decent: - Story - Soundtracks Cons: - The puzzles are quite easy to solve, with only the harder ones being present nearing the end of the game. Even then, those harder puzzles are still solvable without having to look for a guide on the internet - If you love taking your time to explore and collect the different collectibles in the game, know that as you progress through the story, you'll sense a disconnect between the contents you've discovered simply through reading the notes left by the NPCs (some you've met, some not) and what Lara seems to know as she slowly grasps the whole situation throughout her journey. This only gets more apparent nearing, again, the end of the game. As a result, you'd just end up getting frustrated at Lara. It's like, "Lara, didn't you read the notes you've collected? You should've known about this already." Personally, I think it is just bad planning by the devs as they tried to incorporate notes-collecting as part of the game's many features with the pacing of its story - Stealth. Not sure whether I'm just bad at it, but I feel like the game doesn't provide much room for stealth gameplay to be viable. Often the enemies are just too close to one another in/on a small room or platform with not much cover for Lara to move undetected. As a result, most of the silent kills are the ones you take with your bow and arrows, as closing in for a melee kill is just not possible at times Overall, I like it :)
