Shadow of the Tomb Raider

THÔNG TIN VỀ GAME

Lara Croft has accidentally triggered an apocalyptic event by raiding a Mayan tomb. Now she must find the legendary city of Patiti in order to set things to rights. Her job is made harder by the paramilitary organisation, Trinity, who seem to have their own reasons for wanting to let events play out.

Along the way, Lara Croft explores the depths of wild South American forests and mountains, hunting beasts, finding hidden tombs, solving puzzles, and trading with and aiding villagers along the way.

She must also battle Trinity’s soldiers as she strives to reach Patiti before them, needing to work out how to stop the apocalypse that she has accidentally triggered.

New Details

The map of this game is immense, and the city of Patiti is a particular delight, being the largest hub in the game franchise so far. This gives players plenty to be getting on with, even as they work to fulfil the terms of the game’s overall story arc.

This version of the game, more than the older editions, place an enormous emphasis on puzzles and hidden tombs. These mini games and side quests are beautifully tailored to be interesting, challenging and – once solved – ultimately satisfying.

Another new addition to this iteration of Lara Croft’s world is a barter system in which items needed for crafting and upgrading supplies can be swapped for items which Lara has in excess.

Lara’s movements have also been dramatically overhauled, with a greater range of motions now available. Subtle movements are also possible, allowing for slow stealthy movements when necessary.

Lara’s swimming ability has also been vastly improved – she can use air pockets when swimming under water to keep going for longer, and the 360° underwater world becomes a delight when you can explore a little while you dive.

And exploring is something that you want to do: the scenery is beautifully depicted and the game allows you the time to appreciate your surroundings every now and then. The glorious sunsets, breath-taking views, and spectral tombs are all well worth taking a moment to enjoy, before getting back into the game.

The newly incorporated stealth mode offers features that allow you to pick off enemy guards one by one, using a poisoned arrow rather than having a noisy gun battle – although you can still do that if you want to!

There is a playable flashback sequence, showing us what young Lara’s home life was like, before everything went wrong.

Ways to Play

Lara Croft is a loner at heart, and throughout much of the game she is solo, battling the elements, the environment and enemies by herself, using her weapons and ingenuity to get by. However, there are three styles of gameplay for you to choose between:

• Puzzle solving

This is self-explanatory, but it bears repeating that the puzzles and hidden tombs are beautifully designed: challenging enough to keep you interested, but not so hard that you become disheartened and stop playing.

• Environment Navigation

Explore the open map ranging as reveal a bigger area than any of the other games in the franchise, with animals to hunt, enemies to sneak up on and beautiful scenery to admire.

• Combat

Vent some stress by taking out as many Trinity henchmen as you can in as short a time as possible!
If at any point in the game you feel that you want a bit more excitement in your life, you can up the difficulty so that you have more difficult missions, trickier opponents and more challenging beasts to hunt.

Endgame

As mentioned above, the endgame is a simple premise: prevent the world from ending by finding the artefact that reveals how to stop the events that Lara Croft set into action.