Shadow of the Tomb Raider New Stuff

[vivek1997]

Lara ditches the tropical islands and snowy peaks of past adventures for dense jungles and what appears to be Mayan architecture on her third modern adventure. Combat is the same familiar blend of third-person stealth action, although it’s implied that sneakiness will play a larger role this time around, with an ability that lets Lara slink into a wall of moss like John Rambo. The plot revolves around Lara accidentally triggering an apocalyptic cataclysm by removing a sacred Mayan dagger from its resting place, plus all the secret society stuff that’s de rigeur in treasure hunting games.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider will purportedly allow Lara to become an exciting jungle hunter with new exploration spaces, stealth mechanics and refreshed combat, unfortunately there’s very little evidence of this in the first playable section of the game. It feels like an early setup mission, so I expect a degree of linearity, but most of the hour-long demo is one narrow line through a series of tableaus that look beautiful and atmospheric, but leave little room for the player to get involved. You guide Lara through a colourful party to trigger a cutscene. There are underwater sections where Lara struggles through narrow spaces, on the verge of drowning, but all that’s required from you is to mash a button at the right point to dislodge some rock or smash a window. 

Between the scripted sequences and the poor trial-and-error flood platforming section, there are glimmers of potential. Early on in the demo there is a jumping puzzle arranged around a huge underground pyramid, artfully lit by a beam of sunlight. You have to leap between huge bells attached to a pulley system. Some need to be weighted down or destroyed to raise other bells and form a path to the illuminated temple dais. To reach the final platform you use Lara’s new rappelling ability to hook a line into a climbable surface and scoot down the rope. You get to do some fun swinging and leaping with rappel lines, but aside from this neat addition the rest of the running, jumping and climbing feels identical to the last two games.