The game begins in media res: Lara and Jonah are on a damaged helicopter about to plummet into the Peruvian jungle. Cut to: a flashback-slash-game controls tutorial retracing Lara's steps prior to the crash. Then the action starts up properly, and it's tomb raiding we shall go!
Shadow of the Tomb Raider does many things exceptionally well, including gameplay, controls, combat, and sound. In this adventure, Lara is closing in on Trinity, the ancient secret organization responsible for her personal tragedies. The group's leader and second-in-command are now known entities, as is their goal: the knife-and-box combo of Chak Chel and Ix Chel, the two faces of a Mayan goddess, representing life and death. Something something eclipse apocalypse, and only Lara can do a thing on time to save the world!
Early on, Shadow of the Tomb Raider does something unexpected: it has Lara screw up, big time. Now her mission is to fix her mistake, in ways that will be predictable to those who played the previous two Tomb Raider games: raid tombs and kick butt! Sidequests are also introduced, adding a different dimension to Lara's progress.
The most frequent activity here is exploring, which involves gravity-defying leaps and goddesslike upper body strength. (In the recent movie version, Alicia Vikander absolutely nailed how buff Lara would have to be to perform all her feats.) While the visuals in Uncharted: The Lost Legacy are prettier to look at, it's a joy to bound across chasms and scale sheer cliffs in Lara's pursuit of relics, and by the same token, absolutely nerve-wracking to venture into the darkness of vast underground structures littered with bones and corpses and haunted by unseen skittering creatures.
Game controls are easy and intuitive. Movement is effortless: Lara automatically balances when she's on a narrow ledge or ramp, and she never falls off edges. Switching between weapons, and even subcategories within one weapon, is a breeze. Lara can also use different herbs to enhance her abilities, again with simple button combinations. The only issue I encountered, which Hubby commented on, is the difficult camera angle during aiming--Lara tracks targets relatively slowly, so it takes a while to center on an enemy for a shot.
That aside, combat mechanics are terrific. Outnumbered at every turn, our intrepid heroine must use the environment to conceal herself, stealthily removing isolated guards one by one. But if direct confrontation is the only way, she can just as easily take out multiple bad guys with a single strategic shot (at a conveniently-placed barrel of oil, etc.) However, fighting is definitely a challenge; I especially remember the first time I had to face the Ixaal, zombie-like creatures living in fetid subterranean caves. It was like a horror movie, except I had a shotgun and, wouldn't you know it, cases of unused shotgun shells lying around!
Having ammunition always on hand is just one of the many laughable (but fun!) gameplay elements in Shadow of the Tomb Raider. Another are the historical/classified documents scattered everywhere, which is fine with me because they reward observant players and add to the overall story. But the winner of the Unintentionally Humorous category goes to Lara's comically gruesome death sequences. While they're less over-the-top than in the previous installments, they also beg the question: Lara trips and gets impaled on a spike, but doesn't die from inhaling mold or from some viral illness during all her gallivanting? I mean, she literally gets mauled by a jaguar at one point, and is like, "Ow, my back hurts." Plot Armor at its best, folks.
Moving on: costumes! Accessories! Merchants! All of the above make advancing the plot easier, hurray! The costumes are especially satisfying, as they are rewards from completing challenge tombs.
Human connection is a new theme in the game. To that end, the new sidequests feature in Shadow of the Tomb Raider, which are optional, serve to strengthen Lara's ties to the people in the towns she visits, making her more sympathetic. For the main storyline, her most important relationship, apart from with Jonah, is with Unuratu, whose unyielding strength of conviction makes an impression on the adventurer. Like Lara, Unuratu fights against Trinity, against the idea of using power to unilaterally "save" others. "We make our own destiny, together," she declares. Lara would later echo her, after finally realizing that she can't do it all alone.
As with the previous games in the series, Lara's growth is a main focus. In this third and final game, Lara confronts her reasons for hunting Trinity ("I could have had a family."), and her frequently dangerous (to herself and others) obsessiveness. She's come so far from the innocent young woman who washed ashore on a cursed island and had to traumatically kill someone for the first time, in mud and dirt. Shadow of the Tomb Raider gives players that scene again, but this time with a harder Lara, who is *clap* not *clap* having *clap* it. There's also a shot of her wrathfully rising out of water that made Hubby go, "That's badass!"
Yes, she is! And she has learned lessons and she has grown and she has changed. The developers, cast, and crew did a terrific job with Lara, using the trilogy to tell the story of how she eventually became the unflinching, unflappable, sexy af tomb raider of my childhood. It's been a hell of a ride. Thank you all.
Finally, some standout moments from Shadow of the Tomb Raider:
- Players can meet little Lara and understand that surviving serious injury is actually one of her childhood traits!
- Jonah, on Lara's plot-advancing powers: "If it were you, it would've worked."
- Lara, to a hidden survival cache: "Come to Lara." Me: @_@
TL;DR: A perfect end to the trilogy. Now waiting for the Uncharted crossover with Zoe and Nadine. It shall be called...Uncharted Raider.
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