The same goes for the much-touted improved stealth. Sadly, this and most of Lara's new tools in the arsenal are only available for an extremely brief amount of combat scenes. When in the jungle, for instance, Lara can move from tree to tree above the heads of her enemies, which opens up new tactical options. There are a few additions worth mentioning, anyway. Related Story Nathan Birch Google Stadia Cost, Founder’s Edition Revealed, Games Include Baldur’s Gate III, Destiny 2 There's nothing wrong with that as the core combat and exploration mechanics were already tight in Rise, just don't go in expecting major improvements. Overall, Shadow of the Tomb Raider is clearly built on the solid action/adventure framework of its predecessors with only a few refinements added to the formula. Truth to be told, in this regard the game feels much like the two previous entries and that's actually the case for the combat system as well. While the environments have a decent amount of exploration for those who want to look under every rock to find lore and resources, it's still not quite the same thing as roaming one seamless region as traditional in many games nowadays.
These are full of little stories and side missions that provide Lara (and, by extension, the player) with more context on the local population and the opportunity to help them with their troubles, reminding her that she's really fighting against the likes of Trinity to protect the living. Shadow of the Tomb Raider features a few fairly large outpost hubs, including the largest ever for the franchise, Paititi. In fact, this improvement is also deeply rooted in this title's gameplay. The writing itself may not be exceptional, but it delivers on all counts and properly concludes her character arc. It's quite the change for someone who, since the beginning of her journey to become the Tomb Raider, mostly focused on raiding ancient tombs and crypts and had to kill loads of Trinity mercenaries (not to mention various monstrosities) who stood in her way. In Shadow of the Tomb Raider, after famously triggering a potential apocalypse by acting rashly, she has the chance to meet a whole host of characters that eventually become friends of her. While Croft had been hellbent on the pursuit of Trinity mainly to avenge her father and to deny them the powerful artifacts they've been seeking to remake the world as they see fit, she was blinded to everything else, perhaps understandably so for a youngster. After completing the game, I can say that this final chapter in Lara Croft's reboot trilogy succeeds in coming full circle and defining her character better than it had ever been done before. It was the perfect way to set up her new adventures, as players got to experience her growth through the first two games and finally Shadow of the Tomb Raider, which has been developed by Eidos Montréal for the first time (though with the supervision of Crystal Dynamics, currently busy with the Avengers project).
The new Lara was initially a relatively naive adventurer, a fresh archeology graduate not yet versed in the tomb raiding skills.