Shadow Of The Tomb Raider Review: 7 Ups & 3 Downs

1. It Doesn't Go Dark Enough

If you believed the marketing campaign for this game, Shadow was going to be the darkest Tomb Raider game yet, questioning Lara Croft's place in the world and the dubious morality of her raiding ancient ruins and stealing their artefacts for her own ends.

Sadly this was ultimately more of a PR angle than representative of the entire game as a whole, because while Paititi's citizens do occasionally confront Lara over her actions, it typically ends up quickly hand-waived and is rarely lingered upon.

While Lara is partly responsible for the game's opening destructive event, this again isn't given anything more than lip service by the story. There was clear potential here to take a deep dive into Lara's psyche and create a more tortured rendition of the gaming icon, but ultimately nothing particularly ambitious is done with her characterisation.

It's similar to when Marvel Cinematic Universe movies are occasionally marketed as "dark and gritty" - looking at you, Iron Man 3 - only for the end result to be decidedly less-toothy and interesting.

So, there are clear issues, but Shadow of the Tomb Raider is also a lot of fun if you're prepared to accept the lack of refinement. Here's everything it gets right...