Shadow of The Tomb Raider in 2026

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Chapters -
Intro: 0:00
Chp 1: 1:49
Chp 2: 11:50
Chp 3: 19:47
Chp 4: 28:58
Conclusion: 33:49

By far the most polarising Tomb Raider game has to be 2018's Shadow of The Tomb Raider; the final entry in the latest reboot, known as the Survivor trilogy. Some argue it’s because it lacks originality. Some say it has not enough puzzles. Some say that it has a bad story, and others say that its attempts to characterise Lara are too little, too late. The part I find interesting is that nearly everyone is correct. There are few parts of Shadow that are great at the expense of something else. Lara’s characterisation is better here, at least, in subtext, but she remains in a hamsterwheel, powering a coming of age engine. This is the 3rd time now where we see Lara turn into the Tomb Raider she is “meant to be”, and even if it’s still done in interesting ways, one can’t help but feel we’re spinning our wheels and getting nowhere. This permeates Shadow of the Tomb Raider, because it’s true even in gameplay, so much so that if playing on normal difficulty, the game doesn’t even give you a tutorial any more; that little has changed. Is that a bad thing? To me, no, but it’s a symptom of a greater disease, a lack of innovation. I know my thoughts seem immediately scattered and conflicted, and that’s because; to boil it down, I think Shadow of The Tomb Raider is a disappointing game that I enjoyed heavily. So, this video will explore why that is, and why I feel that, in many ways, this game breaks Lara Croft. In Shadow of The Tomb Raider, Lara Croft’s characterisation feels pulled in too many directions, leading to a consistent push and pull between the game and its subtext, as if the developers themselves believe the lies they are telling us, and it causes Lara to break. This isn’t an end to the trilogy, it feels like a new beginning that was snuffed out.

Let’s start first with the looks, because it’s more than the fidelity Shadow is known for. While yes, the sights are breathtaking, even 8 years out, and the technology still impressive, like the way characters' throats are animated to give each anxious swallowing of pride and held back tear even more weight; what Shadow excels at most is how it shows us Lara. And considerable care must be placed on how Lara is shown, because what the game tells us, is often conflicting. Lara this time around showcases a newfound mastery of the wilderness. I found her gasping at the environment less, as though she is no longer caught off guard, and I think even her starting gear represents a Lara that no longer enters the Siberian wilderness without a lighter. Her outfit is more tactical, and even her attitude struck me as more prepared. If we briefly look back to Rise of The Tomb Raider, we can see that Lara views herself as a survivor, someone capable of making it through impossible situations by mere determination. In Shadow, Lara is presented to us as an apex predator.

Tomb Raider is a series I have come to love over the course of my Tomb Raider critique and Tomb Raider analysis videos surrounding the Tomb Raider reboot trilogy. Now, with a new Tomb Raider on the horizon, one that I'd like to cover in this Tomb Raider retrospective, we can complete our Tomb Raider reboot retrospective with this Shadow of The Tomb Raider critique. A critique of Tomb Raider must also include the Tomb Raider DLC, however, because the DLC here was just some challenge maps, I'll leave stuff like that to the Tomb Raider walkthroughs online. This video will also not cover the full history of Tomb Raider, as I mostly covered that in my previous Tomb Raider years later video. Tomb Raider 8 years later, specifically in this Shadow of Tomb Raider review, holds up well, and this Shadow of Tomb Raider analysis will discuss where it went right, wrong, and where it could have gone if it was given the chance.