As much as I hate to say it, for me this is the most disappointing game in the Tomb Raider reboot trilogy. There are many problems with this game, but the two most important are its story and its stale mechanics.

Lara being completely unlikable is perhaps the biggest reason why Shadow's story failed. Lara is no longer the desperate young woman stranded after a shipwreck who was so easy to empathize with in the original reboot. She is now a bloodthirsty killer with an unhealthy obsession towards destroying a generic evil organization. But I don't dislike Lara because she is now a killing machine, I dislike her because a killing machine is all she is. In order for a player to be invested in a story, they must be invested in its characters. The original Tomb Raider reboot made players feel sympathetic to Lara by making her a victim of violence and hardship. But as she grew in strength in each game, she has found nothing else to hook players with. In Shadow of the Tomb Raider, she is not a victim anymore, instead, she is nothing. She has no character: she never cracks jokes, she talks in a monotonous voice, and her decisions are generic... She is a shadow (heh) of the older Lara that a generation of gamers fell in love with. As a result, every scene containing Lara in this game (a.k.a every scene in the game) feels dry. Combined with forgettable allies and villains, an insistence on unneccessarily dark themes, and a complete lack of levity, Shadow of the Tomb Raider's story could not engage or let alone interest me in any way.

Gameplay wise, the game is almost identical to 2015's Rise and 2013's original. Tomb Raider (2013)'s mechanics were fun and exciting when the game released, though it's combat system was relatively weak. Rise of the Tomb Raider lifted it's gameplay almost 1:1 from Tomb Raider (2013), but it's massively improved graphics helped add some novelty. Shadow of the Tomb Raider adds almost nothing to the table gameplay wise, but more importantly does nothing to fix the glaring problems with its existing mechanics. Combat is immensly frustrating: enemies are far too tanky and don't even flinch when shot, close quarters encounters (almost all combat scenarios) do not suit most of Lara's arsenal, the cover system is unreliable etc. Even the traversal mechanics are showing it's age: Lara's movements feel floaty and sometimes imprecise, difficult jumps are made even harder by bad geometry that stop Lara in midair... All of these are problems that were also present in the previous game, but I expected them to be fixed 3 years later considering there are no massive graphical leaps this time around.

By the end of this game, Lara's origin story is over and she is ready to embark on a fresh new journey with the skills of the true Tomb Raider. Hopefully by the next time we see her, she will also have the charm and character of the true Tomb Raider, and the gameplay behind her will be as excellent as a Tomb Raider game deserves to be.

As much as I hate to say it, for me this is the most disappointing game in the Tomb Raider reboot trilogy. There are many problems with this game, but the two most important are its story and its stale mechanics. Lara being completely unlikable is perhaps the biggest reason why Shadow's story failed. Lara is no longer the desperate young woman stranded after a shipwreck who was so easy to empathize with in the original reboot. She is now a bloodthirsty killer with an unhealthy obsession towards destroying a generic evil organization. But I don't dislike Lara because she is now a killing machine, I dislike her because a killing machine is all she is. In order for a player to be invested in a story, they must be invested in its characters. The original Tomb Raider reboot made players feel sympathetic to Lara by making her a victim of violence and hardship. But as she grew in strength in each game, she has found nothing else to hook players with. In Shadow of the Tomb Raider, she is not a victim anymore, instead, she is nothing. She has no character: she never cracks jokes, she talks in a monotonous voice, and her decisions are generic... She is a shadow (heh) of the older Lara that a generation of gamers fell in love with. As a result, every scene containing Lara in this game (a.k.a every scene in the game) feels dry. Combined with forgettable allies and villains, an insistence on unneccessarily dark themes, and a complete lack of levity, Shadow of the Tomb Raider's story could not engage or let alone interest me in any way. Gameplay wise, the game is almost identical to 2015's Rise and 2013's original. Tomb Raider (2013)'s mechanics were fun and exciting when the game released, though it's combat system was relatively weak. Rise of the Tomb Raider lifted it's gameplay almost 1:1 from Tomb Raider (2013), but it's massively improved graphics helped add some novelty. Shadow of the Tomb Raider adds almost nothing to the table gameplay wise, but more importantly does nothing to fix the glaring problems with its existing mechanics. Combat is immensly frustrating: enemies are far too tanky and don't even flinch when shot, close quarters encounters (almost all combat scenarios) do not suit most of Lara's arsenal, the cover system is unreliable etc. Even the traversal mechanics are showing it's age: Lara's movements feel floaty and sometimes imprecise, difficult jumps are made even harder by bad geometry that stop Lara in midair... All of these are problems that were also present in the previous game, but I expected them to be fixed 3 years later considering there are no massive graphical leaps this time around. By the end of this game, Lara's origin story is over and she is ready to embark on a fresh new journey with the skills of the true Tomb Raider. Hopefully by the next time we see her, she will also have the charm and character of the true Tomb Raider, and the gameplay behind her will be as excellent as a Tomb Raider game deserves to be.