User Score
7.4

Mixed or average reviews- based on 1696 Ratings

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  1. Sep 30, 2018
    4
    Not bad Tomb Raider, but didn't like it as last two games. Look more like walking simulator with really no fight at all! There is much more searching and climbing. Clearing levels for platinum trophy is boring and frustrating. But, still nice and fun to play. And not to forget.... Tombs are mostly fun this time!

    EDIT: First review was score 8, but until I finished and tried to
    Not bad Tomb Raider, but didn't like it as last two games. Look more like walking simulator with really no fight at all! There is much more searching and climbing. Clearing levels for platinum trophy is boring and frustrating. But, still nice and fun to play. And not to forget.... Tombs are mostly fun this time!

    EDIT: First review was score 8, but until I finished and tried to platinum things changed! First for 100% completionist game glitched 1 stash and stuck on 99.92%. Internet research showed that glitch is common. Second, on hardest difficulty combat is not hard. It's same as on easy. Mode is hard only cause it's annoying. You can save only on camp fire and there is parts of game which are really silly!

    ETC... You start at campfire, must pass 3 waves of enemies, solve 10 minute puzzle, swim and then after 20 minutes you must dive through lake full of piranhas which attack random. If they kill you you must play everything again and again because there is no save.
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  2. Jan 28, 2021
    4
    Poor little rich girl Lara Croft white knighting her way around South America saving the indigenous people while pilfering any relic that isn't nailed down. Mechanically solid, but the narrative is at best dull, and more often cringe worthy.
  3. Mar 18, 2022
    4
    There are other reviews saying Shadow is the best because it's most like the original games, with less emphasis on action and greater emphasis on tombs and puzzles. I disagree. This is a REBOOT series, and the first two reboot games were massively successful based on their new, fresh take, which included a greater emphasis on combat.

    Yet, despite that Shadow took the less-combat route,
    There are other reviews saying Shadow is the best because it's most like the original games, with less emphasis on action and greater emphasis on tombs and puzzles. I disagree. This is a REBOOT series, and the first two reboot games were massively successful based on their new, fresh take, which included a greater emphasis on combat.

    Yet, despite that Shadow took the less-combat route, that didn't have to be a deal breaker. They just had to make up for it in other areas. They didn't, and that's the problem with this game.

    But where Shadow really went off the rails was by rug-pulling nearly all combat from the game and confusingly not removing other systems related to it. The skill tree, for example, is mostly composed of combat, gathering and hunting abilities. You hunt and gather to acquire crafting items to upgrade weapons or make potions that enhance combat. So all hunting, gathering and direct combat skills are of almost no value BECAUSE THE GAME HAS VERY LITTLE COMBAT.

    This could not possibly have happened without a lot of copy and paste from Rise's source code. I can imagine the meetings: SENIOR DEV: "Well, that was already done in the last game and it works. Just copy it over."

    JUNIOR DEV: "Uh... but we're de-emphasizing combat, so shouldn't we pare this down a bit?"

    SENIOR DEV: "Did you hear what I said? Copy. And. Paste."

    But you're thinking, "Fine, just ignore them, then." However, they're something like 70- 80% of all available skills! It's a total bait and switch. I spent several hours grinding skills, exploring, getting XP and investing in skills, only to realize nearly all of it was pointless.

    At the very least, if Shadow wanted to switch focus they needed to massively improve exploration, puzzle-solving and platforming, and change the leveling and progression to support it. There could be multiple ways to solve a puzzle, for example but some approaches require certain skills. Shadow gutted a working part of the reboots (combat) and replaced them with slightly better tomb raiding. And then left a clunky, broken skill tree "hanging around" that just served to confuse and raise the hopes of all the fans of the previous two games.

    If they wanted to make such a dramatic shift in gameplay back toward the originals, they should have saved it for the next reboot, not created this confusing, disappointing mess.
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  4. Aug 31, 2019
    4
    It looks like low budget project. Most of man npc with same face. Bad storyline.
  5. Nov 1, 2018
    4
    Wonky mechanics, outdated character graphics, weird facial animations, bland level design, cliché story and villain, uninspiring puzzles, unsatisfying combat.. all make for quite a boring game indeed. And that's after downloading an 11GB patch. If you were hoping for something even remotely close to the quality of the 2013 installment, let alone an Uncharted game, you will be sorely disappointed.
  6. Feb 26, 2019
    4
    If the dialog doesn't make your eyes roll, the dialog delivery of many of the NPCs will. I know this remote village in Peru does not all speak perfect English. I'm fine with reading subtitles because that at least makes the game feel less cheap. I like learning about the mythology through finding items but this just feels like all digging around and no story.
  7. Oct 13, 2018
    4
    I think this is a step back after the first two of this trilogy. The story and pacing is not good...Nothing new to the gameplay, and without those huge jawdropping scenes the other games delivered. Rise of the Tomb Raider had it all right and progressed everything from the first game, that I also loved. But Shadow are just weak in comparison, and it makes me sad.
  8. Feb 27, 2021
    4
    The Tombs are great visually and mechanically, most of them. All else is somewhat normal if not bad. Action sequences are worst part of the game.
    Changed score to 4 after playing DLC.
  9. Dec 28, 2018
    4
    Ho aspettato questo capito con grande entusiasmo peccato che lo abbia trovato di una noia assoluta e per nulla coinvolgente, tra l'altro anche molto corto. Non è lontanamente paragonabile ai due capitoli precedenti. Grandissima delusione.
  10. Oct 9, 2018
    4
    This game suffers from poor controls, frustrating design, bugs, and is honestly just boring.

    To start off, let me say I quite liked the previous two entries to the series. Unfortunately this third entry seems to have lost a lot of it's polish. Here are a few of the things I'm talking about. If these things frustrate you, then avoid this game: 1 - Too much insta-death. By itself,
    This game suffers from poor controls, frustrating design, bugs, and is honestly just boring.

    To start off, let me say I quite liked the previous two entries to the series. Unfortunately this third entry seems to have lost a lot of it's polish. Here are a few of the things I'm talking about. If these things frustrate you, then avoid this game:
    1 - Too much insta-death. By itself, this isn't necessarily bad. After all, uncharted does this in action sequences as well. The problem here is that you can end up playing the same section dozens of time because the game has buggy controls, or because it doesn't do a good job of showing you where to go.
    2 - Which brings me to the bad sign-posting. This game hides the path from you all the time, not just in puzzle sequences. You can spend minutes just trying to figure out where to go, only to see that the next ledge was just camouflaged for no reason.
    3 - Voice acting. Lara is extremely monotone. To be fair, this was never strong in the series, but it gets really annoying since she'll talk every time you use survival instincts.
    4 - Bad camera/controls. The camera will often rotate around to prevent you from actually looking at where you are supposed to move to next. Also, about 20% of the time the controls crap out so you can't use your climbing gear.
    5 - Boring side quests - fetching, fetching, and more fetching.
    6 - Broken combat. Even with aim sensitivity set to the maximum, your reticle moves slower than most enemies, making it just a game of luck that you were pointing the right way when attacked, because you'll never be able to adjust in time.
    7 - Boring story.

    This game is so flawed that it really isn't worth the money. I wish I could get my money back. Spend your money on a better game instead.
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  11. Sep 17, 2018
    4
    Why is this getting 10s and 9s? Maybe the fans of the series are not seeing the flaws, or maybe despite the flaws, they find this game that much enjoyable nonetheless. As someone who has completed the first two games, I find this quite disappointing.

    I mean, I see what were the developers going for. They put more "tomb raiding" and less shooting. And I don't know why people think this
    Why is this getting 10s and 9s? Maybe the fans of the series are not seeing the flaws, or maybe despite the flaws, they find this game that much enjoyable nonetheless. As someone who has completed the first two games, I find this quite disappointing.

    I mean, I see what were the developers going for. They put more "tomb raiding" and less shooting. And I don't know why people think this is a good thing. Why not more of both? There's no point of upgrading your weapons, you won't be using most of them. Tomb raiding side quest rewards you with combat moves or crafting materials which you rarely use.

    The game mechanics are so similar to the previous games. The only thing new about it is that Lara can camouflage herself by smearing mud all over herself. Don't expect that you'd be doing this quite often, you won't. The encounters with enemies are cut down by 3/4, at least. So, if you're looking for combat as it was advertised, (like a predator) those moments will be brief and you won't miss it.

    The animations are the same ones as the previous titles. I had hoped that they change the dodging animation. It's the same one since the first, crawling like an ape. If you're trying to get back to the roots, keep in mind that Lara is acrobatic, not a wild animal!

    I'm not finished with the flaws. At some point in the game, you are required to be in a specific outfit to talk to people. And this makes my blood boils. It's so annoying going back and forth to the camp just to change clothes. I hated this mechanic. Who thought this was a good idea? This was the worst thing about this game.

    I'm still not finish with the criticism. It's the story. I don't care that the characters are uninteresting. But it's about Lara. The first two game had moments where Lara just snapped, going berserk to seek out vengeance. And after that fallout, she had to deal with that transformation, by going all emotional. This is good and a believable transformation... the first time. There is no reason for this to happen again! She already killed a lot of people in the last two games. When are we going to see Lara Croft The Tomb Raider rather than Lara Croft "becoming" the Tomb raider?

    The good thing about this game. I did enjoy the stealth section, despite it being so brief.
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  12. Oct 23, 2018
    4
    This game feels like someone got an uncharted script, immediately shredded it, tried to glue it back together from the shredded pieces, and then got a tomb raider fanboy, who only played the ps1 version of the games, to fill in the gaps.
  13. Nov 27, 2018
    4
    Absolute failure by comparison to the previous two games. Simple as that. I so eagerly awaited this release only to be profoundly disappointed. The visuals and art are great, but beyond that a waste of money. It is drastically shorter, felt like I was on rails the entire time, puzzles sucked, story had so much unrealized potential it is sickening. I think this may be the end for Lara. LastAbsolute failure by comparison to the previous two games. Simple as that. I so eagerly awaited this release only to be profoundly disappointed. The visuals and art are great, but beyond that a waste of money. It is drastically shorter, felt like I was on rails the entire time, puzzles sucked, story had so much unrealized potential it is sickening. I think this may be the end for Lara. Last time for me. I am a huge fan and played pretty much all the games right from the beginning, this is an epic failure. No idea why anyone would score this above a 5-6 and that even is overly generous. Expand
  14. Mar 31, 2019
    4
    Prepare to die.

    A lot. In what is easily the worst of the Tomb Raider reboot ("Tomb Raider" / "Rise of the Tomb Raider"), "Shadow of the Tomb Raider" somehow takes a major step -back- on its mechanics. It's awful to the point where you stop caring if you die because you don't really feel like it's really in your control, anyway. Pretty much every
    Prepare to die.

    A lot.

    In what is easily the worst of the Tomb Raider reboot ("Tomb Raider" / "Rise of the Tomb Raider"), "Shadow of the Tomb Raider" somehow takes a major step -back- on its mechanics. It's awful to the point where you stop caring if you die because you don't really feel like it's really in your control, anyway. Pretty much every escape/run-from-the-impending-disaster scene will take multiple attempts, though somehow I managed to do the Oil Field escape without dying. Also, the scramble button is rendered almost completely useless in melee - you get hit most of the time, anyway.

    For contrast, the game I played before this, "Assassin's Creed Odyssey," I played for 120 hours. in 1/3 or less of playing time, Lara died approximately 5x more than Kassandra did. Dying's part of any game, of course. After playing through the entire Uncharted series and all the other Tomb Raiders, I'm fairly convinced that no single person could take on an entire private militia by themselves and win in real life. And as frustrating as dying can be, players are generally ok coming back for more -if they're having fun.- The ridiculous final battle (where there are plenty of places to hide but it doesn't seem to matter because they see you no matter where you run/jump/climb) is one of those moments where if you weren't so close the end, you'd just quit out of spite. You just don't -care- to come back and do better/different.

    Yausarl's review (currently listed as most helpful critical review) also hits upon some major flaws - combat content is greatly reduced, making the offensive upgrades and skills you acquire another "so what?" about this game. As an example, one of the trophies you can get is "20 headshots with arrows." I love the silent bow-play from the last two games, but those opportunities do not exist here unless you force it. You can't stay hidden for long. The AI is bad along the lines of "Assassin's Creed: Unity" where you'd be blended with crowds and the guards would still see you do things.

    The tombs aren't even that fun. I TRIED not to look up walkthroughs, but in the 8 or so challenge tombs that exist, I needed a walkthrough for 3 of them. Two because I never would have found the path to the next step, and one I just never would have figured out, so not very satisfying there, either.

    Finally, if you insist on playing this title, just set up the audio for English voiceovers. I get what they were going for with the immersion of having locals speak to you in their language, but the language spoken in the Hidden City, especially, is either the most inefficient language ever (like saying "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" as slowly as possible only for it to translate to "ok") or the subtitle is the extreme Cliff's Notes version thereof. Oh, and I would highly recommend "cheating" when you're setting the brightness and the gamma toward the "bright" side. I was honest about it, unfortunately, and battles with the "never miss" Yaaxil were pretty much a grind (refer to useless scramble mechanic above) as half the time I couldn't see them (even with Survival Instincts) or see where I was going when running for breathing room.

    Positives - Camilla Luddington's voicework as Lara is once again quite good, despite the poor writing, and Carlos Leal as the self-righteous villain, Amaru/Dr. Dominguez, does his best to make his character multi-faceted. There's also a lovely cut-scene of a revenge-bent Lara emerging in silhouette from flaming water after she's been told to retrieve a friend's body and she's in full predator mode (currently top match on youtube with "lara flaming water"). But I have very little positive to say about the gameplay here. A huge disappointment after two fairly interesting predecessors. This feels like a thrown together money-grab because, goddammit, we've got to finish a trilogy!
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  15. Jan 9, 2020
    4
    Da fan sfegatato della serie, devo dire di essere rimasto estremamente deluso da questo capitolo: i minimi cambiamenti effettuati si rivelano completamente inutili, il 90% delle abilità sbloccabili non hanno un'utilità, il sistema di shooting è terribile, tant'è che ci si ritrova più volte a "combattere" corpo a corpo. mi è capitato più volte che, durante un combattimento, la telecamera siDa fan sfegatato della serie, devo dire di essere rimasto estremamente deluso da questo capitolo: i minimi cambiamenti effettuati si rivelano completamente inutili, il 90% delle abilità sbloccabili non hanno un'utilità, il sistema di shooting è terribile, tant'è che ci si ritrova più volte a "combattere" corpo a corpo. mi è capitato più volte che, durante un combattimento, la telecamera si "incastrasse" tra i muri e le piante rampicanti su di essi, rendendo impossibile la mira. I dlc sono una presa in giro e, come se non bastasse, la storia è confusionaria. Expand
  16. Aug 16, 2021
    4
    Хз, были у меня хорошие(не знаю почему) ожидания на эту игру, но совсем дерьмовинькая она, скучный банальный сюжет, не интересный геймплей, уебищный крафт, мало экшена, совсем мало, в целом игра вышла даже хуже прошлой части, никак не ожидал что мне она понравится меньше чем та, но как есть, серия медленно умирает как по мне и все покупки только изза имени, не было бы имени, в это бы никтоХз, были у меня хорошие(не знаю почему) ожидания на эту игру, но совсем дерьмовинькая она, скучный банальный сюжет, не интересный геймплей, уебищный крафт, мало экшена, совсем мало, в целом игра вышла даже хуже прошлой части, никак не ожидал что мне она понравится меньше чем та, но как есть, серия медленно умирает как по мне и все покупки только изза имени, не было бы имени, в это бы никто не играл бы, жалко. Expand
  17. Apr 28, 2020
    4
    Confusing plot and boring gameplay. There is so much potential to Lara’s story and character but the game threw it away.
  18. Jun 26, 2020
    4
    The worst in the trilogy BY FAR.

    The game is more of the same but with way less enemies and a lot more piss easy puzzle sections which feel boring to play through. Also the story feels very rushed, full of uninteresting characters and mcGufinns.
    The game looks good, expecially the tombs, which makes raiding them better, but playing it feels like a chore, I stopped playing it about 70% through.
  19. Jun 25, 2021
    4
    Stunning graphics, disappointingly boring story. I never found it interesting. Clunky and graceless gameplay.
  20. Nov 17, 2020
    4
    nonsensical story with clunky gameplay and ugly graphics, the sound is horrible and the game has a lot of bugs
  21. May 22, 2022
    4
    Wow, talk about tedious puzzles...just so boring. And I didn't care at all about the story or what was going on as there is so little to engage with. Massive disappointment after previous instalments. Also, that accent on Lara...simply awful voice acting. Where is the excitement of working out how to get through the tombs, and where are the battles? I'd advise to avoid this one.
  22. Dec 24, 2020
    4
    Poor story telling and voice acting.Poor rpg elements poor crafting inventory elements.Even if u wann craft somethıng it feels like u doing it for nothing.You never feel anything about anyone.Scenario is a dissapoitment. Gun fight is totally useless. Therefore upgrades is feel useless. Total dissapoitment
  23. Jan 13, 2021
    4
    Just all around bad. The open world is wasted because its presented as a linear level type progression. The stealth is terrible and buggy. Exploration isnt even that fun either as it's all just the same design. The final level puts it all together. Bullet sponge bosses to combat with your ineffective weapons, and addthar are just as equally bullet sponges
  24. Jul 17, 2023
    4
    A monotonous stroll through the Peruvian jungle, with little action, clunky platforming, repetitive puzzles, a forgettable plot and an insufferable Lara that is just a shadow of her better times.

    This game takes 2 steps back from Rise in terms of combat and rhythm and it's miles away from the 2013 reboot in terms of Lara's charisma and appeal. Let's start with Lara, changing the
    A monotonous stroll through the Peruvian jungle, with little action, clunky platforming, repetitive puzzles, a forgettable plot and an insufferable Lara that is just a shadow of her better times.

    This game takes 2 steps back from Rise in terms of combat and rhythm and it's miles away from the 2013 reboot in terms of Lara's charisma and appeal.
    Let's start with Lara, changing the face/body from Megan Farquhar to Camila Luddington was an atrocious mistake already made by Crystal Dynamics on Rise under the excuse of "allowing better motion capture" although we all know the reason behind it. Now it seems that was not enough and Eidos uglyfied her even more, messing with her body proportions and designing the most hideous clothing ever present on a video game, clothing that is mandatory during long sections of the game even if you have purchased DLC outfits! This results in a Lara with 0 charisma, super weird facial expressions, no agility or gymnastic skills, it feels like handling a space marine, and an utterly monotonous voice acting. On top of that they give her a dislikeable and selfish personality. The legendary iconic Lara is gone.

    Eidos also stripped most of the combat from the game mechanics, making 2/3 of the skill tree useless, but forgot to replace it with something else apart from collecting garbage to upgrade the weapons that you will rarely use. The writing is atrocious and the history has a lot of obvious plot holes. The enemy AI is also very poor, being most of the time just lemmings that can be taken care of one after another on a corner.

    On the positive side, I liked the dark tone of the game a lot, like Indy and temple of doom, some scenarios are gorgeous, especially a couple of tombs and the executions are brutal.. On PS5 there is a free upgrade to play it on 4K and it offers impressive moments, except the NPCS, they still look consistently terrible. Another nice feature is that if you have save data of the previous Cristal Dynamic tomb raider some outfits will be automatically unlocked, even the 2013 PS3 Lara skin.

    I recommend playing it on "one with the jungle" difficulty and doing all tombs and side quests, this makes combats more frequent and gives a reason to upgrade Lara's skill tree, also removes the white painting on the platform sections.

    In summary, if this would be a new franchise I think it would deserve around a 6-7 score but being a Tomb raider with circa 100M budget (the 3th part of a trilogy!) the result is really disappointing. As a fan that has purchased and completed every tomb raider since 2006, even the isometric ones, it leaves me really worried about Lara's future.
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  25. May 4, 2021
    4
    Story that doesn't make any sense
    Short game in total (which I'm unsure if it for good or bad)
    Indifferent as to what weapons to upgrade, you just do them all
    Some skills you never manage to use them in the game

    It's just all wrong. There are so many games out there that set a high standard and TR failed to even reach it
  26. Dec 4, 2021
    4
    Could even bother myself to finish it, story it’s just too stupid. Previous two games stories also were bonkers but this one just blew it right from the beginning with apocalyptic bs. Trinity it’s supposed to be the most secret organization and yet they use trucks with their logo on it, damn how can writing be so bad. Also I couldn’t care less about Jonah. Game looks pretty but I was justCould even bother myself to finish it, story it’s just too stupid. Previous two games stories also were bonkers but this one just blew it right from the beginning with apocalyptic bs. Trinity it’s supposed to be the most secret organization and yet they use trucks with their logo on it, damn how can writing be so bad. Also I couldn’t care less about Jonah. Game looks pretty but I was just rolling my eyes the whole time. Uninstalled it after a month of couldn’t get myself to give it another try. Expand
  27. Jun 16, 2021
    4
    Don't play this crap, go re-play Rise instead. I finished all the dlc's so i dont feel like i wasted my money LOL
  28. Jun 27, 2021
    4
    lento, molto lento da tomb raider non ti aspetti questo. devi esplorare risolvere enigmi e qualche volta combattere. la grafica è nella media ma nulla di straordinario

    male male
  29. Aug 16, 2022
    4
    This is weird. The first two entries were extremely good. Awesome pacing and story and the setup from the second game was really good. We were supposed to face the leader of the Trinity, which is a organization that seeks the entire world for mystic relics. But this leader is just a generic antagonist, whose plot is just centered around the mythos of the entry. Game focuses too much onThis is weird. The first two entries were extremely good. Awesome pacing and story and the setup from the second game was really good. We were supposed to face the leader of the Trinity, which is a organization that seeks the entire world for mystic relics. But this leader is just a generic antagonist, whose plot is just centered around the mythos of the entry. Game focuses too much on stealth, there is little action. Expand
  30. Jan 12, 2020
    3
    Lara is genuinely a genocidal **** in this one.

    The storyline of this series was problematic from the first game. And boy oh boy, it deteriorated quickly. This game is like Batman vs Superman compared to Avengers (where Avengers would be Uncharted obviously). So the basic storyline of all TR games is Lara gets into the tomb, destroys it, then slays all the Trinity archeologists
    Lara is genuinely a genocidal **** in this one.

    The storyline of this series was problematic from the first game. And boy oh boy, it deteriorated quickly. This game is like Batman vs Superman compared to Avengers (where Avengers would be Uncharted obviously).

    So the basic storyline of all TR games is Lara gets into the tomb, destroys it, then slays all the Trinity archeologists (because she should be the only one to get it) and then slays all the indigenous people too. And has zero remorse. And she isn't even sacrificed in the ending to be redeemed (I'm not sure she could be redeemed, but it would make at least some sense to try).

    Wow. These game developers are trying to steal Uncharted formula by just copying gameplay elements w/o adding any good writing to the mix. And it sucks so badly.

    The drums are still excellent, though.
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Metascore
75

Generally favorable reviews - based on 63 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 40 out of 63
  2. Negative: 2 out of 63
  1. Mar 11, 2019
    60
    Shallow story aside, Shadow of the Tomb Raider has the best tomb exploration in the series, and that’s what it’s all about.
  2. LEVEL (Czech Republic)
    Dec 31, 2018
    60
    Still very good, but in some ways weaker than the previous game. Still, fans shouldn’t miss it, just because it is the conclusion of the trilogy. [Issue#289]
  3. Oct 22, 2018
    74
    Shadow of the Tomb Raider should leave us wanting more from the rebooted Lara Croft game, but with some clunky controls and a lazy combat system, what saves the game from being below average are beautiful visuals, fantastic puzzles and tomb layouts along with true adventuring. It’s as mixed up of a bag as one can get.