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

4. More Exploration, Less Combat

Many fans complained that Rise got a little too action-heavy for its own good, and they'd be right. Thankfully, Shadow scales the combat back considerably, resulting in an experience that's less stressful and more breathlessly enjoyable.

Even though Shadow gives players more combat options than ever - namely switching between stealth and direct action at a moment's notice - battles against human enemies are surprisingly scarce throughout the main campaign.

The focus is more on puzzles, platforming and exploration, which will be music to the ears of anyone who found Rise's slavish devotion to shootouts rather monotonous.

Even the action beats that do show up are rather on the easy side: you're rarely if ever overpowered by too many enemies, and the game makes Lara extraordinarily well-equipped to deal with just about any situation.

There are extremely long sections here without any human contact whatsoever, and that's glorious.