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7.4

Mixed or average reviews- based on 1696 Ratings

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  1. Jul 21, 2023
    7
    Good graphics but not as good gameplay wise as other tomb raider games.....
  2. Jul 17, 2022
    7
    The Black Sheep of Tomb Raider.
    Unfortunately it's indeed the weakest game in the trilogy but it's still a pretty good game, just lacks the charm and the things that made the previous games iconic.
    The game repeats itself many times, you'll climb and swim a lot in this game... A LOT, to the point where I got exhausted. There are barely any gunfights, most of the game is either exploring
    The Black Sheep of Tomb Raider.
    Unfortunately it's indeed the weakest game in the trilogy but it's still a pretty good game, just lacks the charm and the things that made the previous games iconic.

    The game repeats itself many times, you'll climb and swim a lot in this game... A LOT, to the point where I got exhausted. There are barely any gunfights, most of the game is either exploring or killing enemies from the shadows, and the pacing felt weird, it takes way too long for the game to pick up which is a shame because the core gameplay is great, and the stealth mechanics are very fun.

    The story is quite nonsensical, similarly to the previous games it's just another adventure, but I enjoyed the dark atmosphere, and there are some scary moments which actually creeped me out.

    The puzzles are even better than before, and the game mostly focuses on raiding tombs instead of fighting hordes of enemies. There are also actual side quests you can do, which aren't anything special but they're a welcome addition.

    And lastly, this game contains the single best moment in the entire trilogy in my opinion, Lara Croft's development really shows here, and yet again, she is the star of the show.

    Overall, I think I prefer this game more than the first game (Rise is still my favorite one though), I like how the trilogy ends, it could have been better but still, the game has some very strong moments, its highs are pretty high, but sadly the lack of innovation is disappointing.

    Final Rating: "Good" ~ 7/10.
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  3. Jun 4, 2023
    7
    The game appears to intentionally blend elements from Uncharted 4 and Assassin's Creed Origins, taking inspiration from these titles but falling short in terms of execution. Shadow of the Tomb Raider doesn't excel in any particular aspect, but it still offers an enjoyable experience worth playing, especially if you can overlook the forgettable plot.
  4. May 28, 2023
    7
    Not the best Tomb Raider installment, but very underrated. There is less action and more emphasis on exploration and puzzles. The change in direction recalls the original PS1 games which should please some fans. However, the controls are a bit iffy and none of the side-quests are too exciting. After a solid beginning, the game's pace slows down. Still, there is more good than there is bad.Not the best Tomb Raider installment, but very underrated. There is less action and more emphasis on exploration and puzzles. The change in direction recalls the original PS1 games which should please some fans. However, the controls are a bit iffy and none of the side-quests are too exciting. After a solid beginning, the game's pace slows down. Still, there is more good than there is bad. I liked the addition of the grappling hook and all the fancy upgrades. Like Uncharted: The Lost Legacy and Horizon Zero Dawn, "Shadow" is a must play for action fans. I would rate this with a 7.7 out of 10. Expand
  5. May 27, 2023
    7
    The gameplay is the same as in the other series, but there is one annoying detail: Lara Croft walks slowly when talking on the walkie-talkie or talking to someone, and this slows down the game.
  6. Dec 24, 2022
    6
    Answer: 75 characters is between 10 words and 19 words with spaces included in the character count. If spaces are not included in the character count, then 75 characters is between 12 words and 25 words.
  7. Dec 18, 2022
    5
    This is a game that feels so bad in the gameplay, It's like it does a lot od things wrong, and nothing great, just good. The story is a very reused story with nothing interesting. Only recommandable to the lovers of this saga.
  8. Nov 27, 2022
    7
    Muy divertido el uncharted en mujer xd, la neta esta perro, historia muy genérica de exploradores pero me encantó la neta.
  9. Oct 5, 2022
    7
    Discreto capitolo, a mio parere però il meno riuscito della nuova trilogia.
    Ad ogni modo godibile e da giocare per chiudere la trama avviate con i precedenti due capitoli.
  10. Sep 7, 2022
    5
    2013 Tomb raider was the new breathe for series. Rise of The Tomb improved it to become better. And this messed up with both. There is no good gameplay,improvment,story as a fan of series i think u wont enjoy it much. Gameplay is copying last two game but worst. Not enjoyable. I am just playing it to say its done.
  11. Mar 9, 2022
    7
    The new Tomb Raider games have been quite good but we have been gradually getting worse. The 1st one was awesome, then rise of the tomb raider was good but I thought maybe they took feedback into account and its improved in this one. Nope it gets worse again. They finally added swimming under water. Well you could do this in rise of the tomb raider but it hardly counts because there was noThe new Tomb Raider games have been quite good but we have been gradually getting worse. The 1st one was awesome, then rise of the tomb raider was good but I thought maybe they took feedback into account and its improved in this one. Nope it gets worse again. They finally added swimming under water. Well you could do this in rise of the tomb raider but it hardly counts because there was no vertical movement. But now you can swim under water properly its way to over used and just annoying. Also STOP TELLING ME HOW TO DO EVERYTHING. Its annoying and I wanna learn myself. Il be there looking at something then Lara just blurts out "I need to climb that wall" or I will shoot a rope with my bow and she will say "That needs to be timed". Why make a puzzle and then tell people how its solved. Imagine if you paid to go to an escape room and then when you was in there someone over an intercom was like the key is in this box, that opens this door which gives you a combination to... You would want your money back. Well some goes for a puzzle game. Maybe have an option to disable it. Ive turned off Tutorial hints but she still keeps opening her mouth when I am trying to think.
    The shooting in this game in minuscule and I could probably complete the game without even using a gun or bow in combat scenarios. Also when I use survival instinct can Lara shut the hell up. She keeps repeating herself like a broken record and its annoying as hell. Maybe she should only repeat it once every 5 minutes and not everytime I press the button. I found myself muting my TV until the puzzle was finished. The graphics in this game slightly improved from previous games which is nice. The attention to detail in these games has been under whelming. Things are just rushed and made to work but closer details are left untouched which is a huge shame as I think it would part really well in a game with such a nice atmosphere. Just small things like when climbing if you left marks in the rocks where you climbing axe had penetrated the wall, when tying a rope if there was an actual knot rather then a rope rapped around something just appears, skinning an animal actual leaves a skinned carcass (They already have the texture for this aswell because you see them in wolf dens of previous games), Or the worst one yet when you fire an arrow into something there is no arrow left stuck where you shot it? Like seriously if I fire an arrow into wood why can't I see the arrow. Its things like this that make a game feel real and when they are not present it really does let the game down.
    Way to many collectables. The hole point in collectables is the are more fun to collect when they are rare. In this game they are found everywhere and I mean everything. Sometimes in a single building there is 2 or 3. At this point they are just a nuisance and if I spent time reading them all then this would take 2 maybe 3 times as long to complete the game so most people like myself will not bother reading them making it a waste of time adding them to the game. Maybe the time you wasted making these collectables could have been spent adding extra attention to the details of this game???
    The story isn't terrible but it could be better. I found it generic and more of a placeholder just so you could sell the game with a story rather then just be a series of levels and tombs.
    I seriously hope Tomb Raider 2 they do a huge over haul and ditch this basic crap. I mite sound a bit harsh but a company this size can do much better. They are rushing games out left right and centre to make quick cash. What they don't realize is that if they spent time perfecting less games then these would be far more popular and make more money. 1 great game is better then 2 rushed small games. In 12 years they made 9 tomb raider games. Wouldn't it be better if they made less but those were amazing games instead?
    If you see this game on sale I would say grab it. I got all 3 games for £15 so I am happy with my purchase.
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  12. Mar 8, 2022
    5
    A disappointing end to the trilogy. Honestly slightly regret spending time on it.
  13. Mar 7, 2022
    7
    Adventure treasure hunts are very fun.

    The scene is very well made.

    The difficulty of solving the puzzle is neither too difficult nor too easy.
  14. Feb 21, 2022
    6
    The game has amazing graphics, Lara is beautiful, but the series hasn't moved forward in the entire last trilogy.

    I felt that I was playing the same game, although beautiful, but towards the middle it got boring. There are practically no differences from the previous parts.
  15. Feb 10, 2022
    7
    This game doesn't feel like a proper end or with a story that ends with a bang. First off, the story is fine but feels rather uninteresting. I tried my best to be invested in it, but idk the story just didn't make me care for it. The characters are ok. Lara and Jonah are good, but the villain was just horrendous, boring and so forgettable. The graphics have improved a lot from the RiseThis game doesn't feel like a proper end or with a story that ends with a bang. First off, the story is fine but feels rather uninteresting. I tried my best to be invested in it, but idk the story just didn't make me care for it. The characters are ok. Lara and Jonah are good, but the villain was just horrendous, boring and so forgettable. The graphics have improved a lot from the Rise game. The emphasis on the puzzles were good too, but again the encounters just weren't fun and didn't have proper level design. Overall, it was a fine game but a step down from Rise. Expand
  16. Jan 18, 2022
    5
    I've been trying to understand why this Tomb Raider "Reboot" trilogy was half-assed for me, after playing them again I noticed the reasons, which are: Lara Croft is almost a demigod, everyone loves her, apparently the game producers joined the wave of SJW and in the game the main characters that help Lara change the world for the better, of course they are women, men play the supportingI've been trying to understand why this Tomb Raider "Reboot" trilogy was half-assed for me, after playing them again I noticed the reasons, which are: Lara Croft is almost a demigod, everyone loves her, apparently the game producers joined the wave of SJW and in the game the main characters that help Lara change the world for the better, of course they are women, men play the supporting role or a bad villain, Lara is so badass that even she talks to you same in third person, but at this point the game is terribly wrong, because she is victimizing herself with everything around her, 'Lara it's your fault', Lara you let them die, blah blah blah...' The characters are scripted, everything seems like a fairy tale, she talks to people as if she were a monk, once she kills like a serial killer, the scene in which she is attacked by the jaguar, remembering that it has the strongest bite of the felines and if gets up refusing help from his friend and still lifting a log, it's just p To show female power, it's just ridiculous and totally takes the immersion out of the game. Unfortunately nowadays there is this disgusting policy in movies, series and games. Almost everyone has to attack Christianity, the family, the male figure, and praise left-wing policies. While they are concerned with this, they leave aside the true essence of the game, which is to entertain, then the game has a horrible story, empty characters, a protagonist with a double personality, I miss Lara from Playstation One, where her focus was adventure and entertaining the player and not pass on a subliminal message of feminists and all the seals we see in games today. No more pre-orders, and I stopped buying at full price. Crystal Dynamic stops SJW because you guys ruined The Avengers, take advantage of Naught Dog's preference for Neil Druckmann's mediocre and hire Uncharted creator Amy Henning for the next Tomb Raider, because your narrative is tiring. Expand
  17. Jan 16, 2022
    6
    This was a lot better than the incoherent plot mess that was Rise of Tomb Raider. Lara Croft returns as a mass murderer and historical site destroyer with auto-healing, god-like powers and probability-manipulation super powers from X-Force's Domino. The bad guys have 100 chances to kill Lara Croft, but they keep leaving her alive simply for plot. It's so over-the-top illogicallyThis was a lot better than the incoherent plot mess that was Rise of Tomb Raider. Lara Croft returns as a mass murderer and historical site destroyer with auto-healing, god-like powers and probability-manipulation super powers from X-Force's Domino. The bad guys have 100 chances to kill Lara Croft, but they keep leaving her alive simply for plot. It's so over-the-top illogically ridiculous. The action and tomb diving is also very repetitive, and I kept wanting for the game to end.

    But it's still better than Rise of Tomb Raider, which is a 4/10.
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  18. Jan 5, 2022
    6
    the story is a mess. control is okay. most of the time you are just climbing and jumping around and doing fx#$ all. try uncharted 1, 2, 4 and the standalone dlc, they are much much better in story telling.
  19. Jan 2, 2022
    5
    The environments look nice and the game is clearly written by a team that knows what is expected of a Tomb Raider game. However, much of the story feels a bit flat and the progression and resources system is silly.

    An example: the only limiting resource in the Definitive edition is hardwood, there's corpses piling up everywhere but the only thing stopping you is a lack of wood. In a
    The environments look nice and the game is clearly written by a team that knows what is expected of a Tomb Raider game. However, much of the story feels a bit flat and the progression and resources system is silly.

    An example: the only limiting resource in the Definitive edition is hardwood, there's corpses piling up everywhere but the only thing stopping you is a lack of wood. In a forest. It's like dying of starvation in a well-stocked supermarket, because you don't know how to open food packaging.

    Another example: you just traversed a dangerous ravine, killed murderous animals, making leaps that would impress Circque de Soleil and you've reached the inner sanctum of a tomb - a chest beckons. However, you haven't found a lockpick yet, so you're just going to have to come back later. Even though you hand-crafted a knife you've used to skin over a hundred creatures and built an Olympics level bow from feathers and twigs. Fashioning a lock pick is beyond you though.

    A game can only make you go "really? that's f***ing stupid!" so many times before it becomes a bad game.
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  20. Dec 26, 2021
    6
    A decent enough game with massive problems. Chief among which is the fact that it can be quite boring. The characters are not interesting. The story is needlessly convoluted whilst being an all-mighty slog to get through. The gunplay is dreadfully weightless. Shootout situations are not fun at all and on a moment to moment basis, there isn't much excitement here.

    But this game does have
    A decent enough game with massive problems. Chief among which is the fact that it can be quite boring. The characters are not interesting. The story is needlessly convoluted whilst being an all-mighty slog to get through. The gunplay is dreadfully weightless. Shootout situations are not fun at all and on a moment to moment basis, there isn't much excitement here.

    But this game does have moments when it shines. Particularly when it gives you a big open area with enemies and allows you to get stealthy. It can make you feel like a predator hunting its prey and it can be so satisfying pulling off a good stealth section. But the issue is the fact that scenarios like that are few and far between. Most of them come in the final quarter or so of the story. Besides that, exploration is fun and the puzzles in the tombs are very interesting to navigate. There were also some smaller moments in the main story that i found quite charming.

    Generally, the game is just fine but i think i preferred Rise more.
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  21. Oct 6, 2021
    6
    Creo que lo que mas me decepciona es repetido que se siente todo, aparte la jugabilidad no esta a la altura de las entregas anteriores.
  22. Oct 3, 2021
    6
    There is something wrong with Square Enix as an organization. You can see the effort of the developers that is wasted on this game. Although small, the playable areas are lush with details. The tombs are filled with glittering detail and artifacts have detailed backstories. And all of it is wasted on this game.

    A great example of wasted potential is the unlockable ability of
    There is something wrong with Square Enix as an organization. You can see the effort of the developers that is wasted on this game. Although small, the playable areas are lush with details. The tombs are filled with glittering detail and artifacts have detailed backstories. And all of it is wasted on this game.

    A great example of wasted potential is the unlockable ability of simultaneously hitting three marked targets with silent arrows. You might imaging perching above a group of enemies, strategically picking your three targets, and winnowing down the enemy numbers three at a time. You will rarely if ever have that opportunity. Enemies are sparse. Enemies wear helmets which have to be knocked off like some kind of Mario game. Lara Croft can always resort to mowing down enemies with a machine gun.

    This iteration of the Croft saga adds an additional stealth tactic, covering Lara with mud and hiding her in a wall of vegetation. Lara can wait for enemies to walk by and stealth kill them one by one. While it is nice to have options, the level design takes this to the extreme. Areas will have too many enemies clustered together to take them out silently. Or areas will have the other extreme of all enemies with their back to Lara and taking them it is as easy as moving forward. Each area is also quite small, as if we are still in the PS3/Xbox 360 era. This game would have sung as a true open world with roving squads of threats to avoid.

    Crafting and hunting are back for better or worse. Unlike “Rise of the Tomb Raider”, the trees look like trees, so there’s an improvement. Hunting wild animals is more of side show. Lara can buy animal hides at vendors and certain abilities abrogate the need for animal hides. (Why does Lara even need a particular animal hide to make wrap for her pistol handle?) The first craftable outfit has so much more utility than all the other that I had Lara wear it for the entire game. Some of the most important items in the game have to be bought from a vendor, assuming you have Lara find that vendor.

    The star of the game should be the tombs. You know, tombs for raiding. The “Tomb Raider” reboot had some ingenious puzzles. “Rise of the Tomb Raider” had two few puzzles, with some of the best coming from DLC packs. (Thank you PS+ for the 25th Anniversary collection.) The tombs in “Shadow of the Tomb Raider” are a shadow of their former selves. The visual design is outstanding. Square Enix has great artists. The execution is terrible. Unlike physics based or knowledge based puzzles, the puzzles in “Shadow of the Tomb Raider” make no sense. I simply ran through them and pushed every lever I saw. The tombs were a bigger letdown than the combat.

    Lastly, the story is just awful and I hated almost everything the characters had to say. If you despise cutscenes that make a mockery of player effort, then get ready to hit the skip button. If you can’t stand having the protagonist yell for no reason, then get ready to hit the skip button. If you don’t want to hear an isolated tribe in the Amazon jungle speak perfect English, smash that skip button. The evil archeologists from “Rise of the Tomb Raider” return like Spectre in a Bond film. I still have no idea what their purpose is. Step one, get powerful world changing artifact. Step three, profit. Meanwhile, Lara is running around, ex-aspirated, and yelling at everyone. The effort that was put into the backstory of each artifact needed to find its way into the main story. Or maybe the writing team was trying to hard. Perhaps my gripes are borne from comparisons to the Uncharted series. The team at Naughty Dog makes good dialogue look easy. Maybe Xbox players will rate Tomb Raider higher because they don’t know what they are missing.

    Full disclosure, I played this game as a PS+ “free” game on a PS5. Square Enix optimized this PS4 game for next gen, and I enjoyed 4K at 60fps with improved load times on PS5. Even with all that, ”Shadow of the Tomb Raider” is no “Uncharted 4”, but it was a big improvement over “Rise of the Tomb Raider”.

    All in all, my 12-14 hour adventure had a few good moments. I enjoyed the setting and seeing an Aztec village in action. Ultimately, Square Enix needs to put more effort into their games. If they ever bring Lara back, do right by this character.
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  23. Sep 19, 2021
    6
    Shadow of The Tomb Raider is a decent if not too notable farewell to the new Lara Croft trilogy. It's never bad per say but it also never really manages to hit any high points - it always just works.

    From a gameplay perspective everything is sort of ok with space for improvement being present in just about every aspect. Climbing mechanics don't feel tight enough and sometimes you end up
    Shadow of The Tomb Raider is a decent if not too notable farewell to the new Lara Croft trilogy. It's never bad per say but it also never really manages to hit any high points - it always just works.

    From a gameplay perspective everything is sort of ok with space for improvement being present in just about every aspect. Climbing mechanics don't feel tight enough and sometimes you end up with awkward camera angles which force you to take a guess at where you should be going. Combat is fairly rare which is good because the mechanics don't exactly feel great, a bit too floaty on consoles. Graphically the game holds up well, but once again - never really impresses. I did have odd lip sync problems and some fps drops but nothing too jarring.
    The torture porn aspect of the game however is too much - it's funny when it happens to someone like Nathan Drake but when it's Lara you just feel bad - her character is written in a way that makes these situations feel like she is constantly being beaten down by everything around her.

    Storywise Shadow Of The Tomb Raider ends up being derivative and unmemorable. It never presents us with anything new or interesting. You just go through the motions of a cliche "stop the prophecy" storyline. You can tell what's going to happen every step of the way and the ending fails to serve up any real closure for this part of Laras life. The only reason to keep going is because the protagonist is fairly sympathetic and you want to go on with the journey for her sake.

    Not a bad game, but ultimately bland and forgettable.
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  24. Aug 24, 2021
    5
    Проходная игра, для меня худшая в серии.
    Основная причина низкой оценки - слабый, глупый и предсказуемый сюжет, а также совершенно нелепые диалоги. Геймплей приелся за три части, часть механик сильно устарели.
    Если оценивать игру обособленно от серии возможно стоит поставить оценку выше, но в рамках серии и единой истории рука не поднимается ставить что-то больше 5.
    Проходная игра, для меня худшая в серии.
    Основная причина низкой оценки - слабый, глупый и предсказуемый сюжет, а также совершенно нелепые диалоги. Геймплей приелся за три части, часть механик сильно устарели.
    Если оценивать игру обособленно от серии возможно стоит поставить оценку выше, но в рамках серии и единой истории рука не поднимается ставить что-то больше 5.
  25. Aug 14, 2021
    7
    good story. gameplay okay, but nothing innovative compared to the predecessor.
  26. Aug 6, 2021
    5
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. The game had EVERYTHING to be awesome, but the lazy developers prevent the game from reaching that level.
    If we compare Shadow of the Tomb Raider with the first Tomb Raider trilogy (2013), we will see that the way Lara screams, the way she jumps and the way she walks are identical. Not to mention that her personality is very poorly crafted. In gameplay, she's a tough woman who uses a rifle, pistol, and coolly kills, but in dialogue and cutscenes, the way she talks and acts comes to seem like she's a fragile little woman. She looks like a simple university student who took a tourist trip in latin america. It's as if in gameplay she was one person and in dialogues and cutscenes she was another. I sincerely hope they work better on Lara Croft's nature and personality in upcoming Tomb Raider's projects.
    A really nasty thing about the franchise's games are the bosses. A man who wants to take over the world or misuse a powerful relic of the gods. The boring eternal sameness. But in Shadow of the Tomb Raider it went a long way. The boss became a demigod on earth and had to take 300 arrows to die. Then comes Lara Croft and uses the power of the gods too and... aff.
    I feel an immense disgust to see a franchise that could even win GOTY's being led to such negligence. Lazy Square Enix!
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  27. May 7, 2021
    7
    That's an OK game, that's it. Story-wise it's beyond average, but way too many unnecessary cutscenes, I felt like I was watching a movie or something. Not replayable.
  28. Apr 19, 2021
    7
    É muito bom quando estamos explorando os mitos da região em que o game se localiza, mas as sequências nas vilas são tediosas e desnecessárias, além de quebrar o ritmo visceral do jogo.
  29. Apr 17, 2021
    6
    More of the same.
    Beautiful but easy game, which abuses the imitation of the cinema as Naughty Dog did with its Drake.
    In the most frenetic sequences, trial and error is abused, which is little fun and frustrating. The plot is bland and the main character, Lara, is so upright, heroic and noble that it is impossible to empathize with her: that Lara is a pedantic and super nice young woman
    More of the same.
    Beautiful but easy game, which abuses the imitation of the cinema as Naughty Dog did with its Drake.
    In the most frenetic sequences, trial and error is abused, which is little fun and frustrating. The plot is bland and the main character, Lara, is so upright, heroic and noble that it is impossible to empathize with her: that Lara is a pedantic and super nice young woman capable of causing countless casualties without a hint of remorse. I do not believe that. I do not like it.
    Next reel, please.
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  30. Mar 24, 2021
    5
    This game has an identity crisis. Most of its perks are combat oriented yet there are barely any action. You can loot stuff around the world yet you can't use them to upgrade your best gear. This game is full of puzzles yet most of them are just brainless and not fun. The only saving grace this game has is the beautiful graphics.
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.