SHADOW OF THE TOMB RAIDER

What if the heroes of your favorite game were actually bad guys? After all, Nathan Drake, the intelligent and beloved of the Uncharted series, has killed hundreds of people to achieve his desires, bringing a lot of destruction and death around him, yet he has not blinked at anyone. But in the Shadows of the Tomb Raider, Eidos Montreal seems to have shown the other side of the series heroine Lara Croft, a hunter of selfish and cruel effects that gives priority to her desire to reveal secrets above anything or anyone else. This is the kind of sharp and self-critical criticism on which the story of the game is based, which is interesting in this respect, but I only wish that the developers will deepen these subjects further and more deeply into the emotional state of Lara to see what really motivates her. But for now, this three-year trimester ends in an unsatisfactory way, as we still do not know whether Lara has learned (or wants to learn in the first place) from her mistakes. Lara Croft at opening hours Shadows of the Tomb Raider Leaping out of a devastating disaster without being able to resist snatching a plane from a hidden cave. Its irresponsible behavior brings immediate concrete consequences. Earthquakes destroy the neighboring city, leading to a massive tsunami that not only destroys the entire city but also many lives. In a powerful scene, Lara's close friend Jonah Blumha tells her recklessness that things are not always about what she wants. This has made her think of her actions, which has strained the relationship between the two characters, but nevertheless this plot passes in sporadic waves of momentum and decline as the game progresses. After this scene, Jonah surrenders again to Lara's behavior, which continues to do what she always does, although she realizes that her actions are causing real harm to all around her

But the general story of the game is very ordinary. There is always an artifact that gives tremendous power. There is Trinity again, and Lara's job is to keep things from getting worse. Then comes the best moments in the story when the game starts exploring who Lara Croft is as a person. We see her evolve from a naïve and reluctant adventure to a merciless killer who covers herself with mud and stabs the people in their throats with amazing brilliance. She also suffers from frequent psychological upsurges where you can clearly see how the anger mounts in her eyes when she wants to kill every living person within sight. On the other hand, Lara is also presented as an introverted and non-social person who feels comfortable only when she is doing her research in the shrines. A well-thought-out flashback scene also reveals what restricts it to its past and why it strives to "fix things." Lara plays in the English language Camilla Ludington (and Nadine Nijim in Arabic, which you can see our assessment of Arabization at the end of the review), which gives one of its best performance to date. Lara Kraft looks as if she is a personality integrated with her own behavior, her own ideas and her own personality that have been affected by this turbulent trip. In terms of style, Shadow of the Tomb Raider keeps all the things we loved about the series: exploring through rich stages of detail and naturally designed, Puzzles, and, of course, the scenes of Hollywood escapes that we expect from such games (although they are far fewer than previous Tomb Raider games). Interestingly, the importance of the battles has fallen to second place in this segment, as developers in Eidos Montreal instead push for exploration and solve the puzzles to the fore. Lara is left to many parts of the game on her own without any enemies to stab her back with her ax. The game goes back to the old Tomb Raider style, which is certainly not bad because it is exactly what made these games famous in the first place. Frankly, puzzles and exploration have always been the highlight of the Tomb Raider series. It gives you a great sense of satisfaction to walk around the catwalks, make leaps to challenge death, climb the ruins of ruins (and now you can climb the steep slopes and add another layer of magnificence to the style of play). The game also adds a lot of side missions in the city areas, and while it is usually a set of normal tasks that are about collecting objects and scenes of combat, but it offers good spoils as rewards.

But with this focus on puzzles and exploration, the game seems to undermine the importance of the skill tree. Similar to the previous games, the skill tree is divided into three areas: explorer, warrior (battles), prospector (drafting and concealment). Each zone opens up a capacity that Lara can use to make her life on the prairies a little easier, such as a sense of superior survival, making plants that slow down time while shooting, or making arrows of fear that flare enemies on one another. However, with the exception of a few other capabilities, the skill tree seems somewhat shallow and most of the skills it opens are of little or no use in the challenges of the game (at least in the normal degree of difficulty). For example, one of the capabilities allows Lara to install two separate enemies and eliminate them using single-shot arrows. But as much as I tried to take advantage of them, the design of the stages did not provide me with sufficient opportunities to do so. I found myself in later parts of the game putting points in abilities I did not want or could not use just to spend the skill points I had collected. There are very few skills that require you to actually unlock the game, and I am confident that a better player would easily have been able to pass through the entire game without opening a single capacity. The skill tree seems to be a secondary idea, and this is evident when the game ends with giving you many free capabilities that you know you will need to advance. When the battles actually start in the game, Lara is highly skilled at eliminating enemies using her bow Although the use of stealth is always preferred. While stealth mechanisms are not as complex as Metal Gear Solid, playing is still fun. Lara's cover with clay and hiding in the mud walls gives a very enjoyable feeling with its full background blend. I also enjoyed launching the arrows of 'fear' from afar on multiple enemies at once to see them evacuating the entire camp themselves, making explosives and booby traps and luring enemies. A shootout is always an option, but it is risky because it attracts more enemies who prefer to attack you. Lara often does not have the ammunition to eliminate them at once.

In quieter times, when you do not run on your fingers behind an enemy to stab him in the neck, Shadow of the Tomb Raider captures you with its wonderful graphics that will make you irresistible to run the image mode to capture some shots. Although there is not much diversity in the scenes, the aesthetics of Mexico and Peru are fully exploited with great results. Forests flooded with bright sunshine shrouded shrines and basements as naturally as the waterfall does, and these scenes seem remotely a realistic place to inhabit their own wildlife. But all this visual splendor does not come without a price. On the Xbox One S, the tire speed in the game drops to less than 30fps in crowded cities and areas and becomes difficult to navigate through. Fortunately, this problem is improving during battles and exploration. The game probably works better on PS4 / PS4 Pro and Xbox One X, but I have not had the chance to try it out yet.