Shadow of the Tomb Raider

[DisturbedSwan]

I started to properly explore the second hub area yesterday and it really is magnificent.

 

It is just such an inviting place to explore with so many caves, inlets, streams, hidden passages, collectibles and interesting trinkets to look at. Almost everywhere you look whilst exploring you'll see something interesting, whether it's the native population going about their daily routines, coloured clothes and ornaments strewn about the place or the weathered lived-in feel of the walls and buildings.

 

The best thing about it is that you can feel the history of the place just walking around, it has a lived in feel that is very difficult to achieve but it really is masterfully done how Eidos Montreal has made it feel such a real living, breathing city in the middle of the Jungle. It feels SO much more lifelike than the open world areas and dead cities of RotTR and pretty much delivers everything that game didn't have in terms of cities - every hub should be interesting and feel like a real place otherwise don't bother.

 

I honestly felt like I was in an Assassin's Creed city whilst playing this yesterday - and that's a huge compliment for me - it just feels so real, so evocative and interesting to explore, all the collectibles dotted about making you want to dig into every nook and cranny and see every NPC going about their routines just like in an AC game.

 

I'm still relatively early in but I'm gonna come out and say it. Eidos Montreal have made the sequel that Crystal Dynamics should've done, pretty much everything about it is better in every way than RotTR - and most importantly it makes Lara primarily a Tomb Raider again rather than a mass murderer.

 

Also, there's Llamas:

 

 

[Nag]

The way people are spinning things nowadays I think it's preferable to be a mass murderer rather than a tomb raider...

 

The jury is still out on which one I prefer over this and Rise... They've got to ramp up the combat otherwise I think the second game will edge it.

[Jimboxy]

Lara looks happy in these pictures. Good for her.

[Nag]

Only because with given her stupid expressions... I still need to try for a picture of her smiling or winking when she impaled on something...?

[mmmark]

Free in game thing

[DisturbedSwan]

Played a little more today after finishing Spidey, up to about 19 hours played according to Steam

Goddamn that time has flown by as well, I've never once felt like it has dragged in the slightest. I just find it so damn compelling, even just exploring the world I find intoxicating and find myself wanting to reach the next room or complete the next puzzle before signing off for the day. There was a couple of story sections I played earlier that were fantastic as well, dripping in atmospheric with a sense of dread and unease, something I rarely experienced throughout the entirety of RotTR.

I still don't really think the story has got going though really, it all still feels strangely low key and I think I'm probably half way in at the moment. I do find it compelling though and I want to see what happens in the next story mission but it has this low key quality to it that the first two didn't have which I just think is kind of great. Like the atmosphere and exploration have had time to breath without being tied to this bombastic cinematic action fest where Lara mows down a million dudes. A new enemy introduced itself to me this evening too and felt so fresh and new compared to the identikit soldiers of RotTR. 

Some pics:

 

 

[illdog]

I’m just under the 25 hour mark. I’ve spent a bit of time backtracking as I have every piece of equipment needed to access all the tombs and crypts - the game gets mini metroidvania on your ass.

 

Ive also been doing the side quests and some of them are massive but I’ve enjoyed them, they can be a nice change of pace.

 

Combat is hit and miss for me. If you use your survival instinct thing (click right stick) enemies appear amber if on their own or red if part of a group. You kill a red guy and his mates will notice and every one in the immediate vicinity will come after you. Sometimes there’s no fucking way that killing a red guy would notify his buddies. I’ve had people change from amber to red whilst I’m in my attack animation. That’s annoying. Some enemies can be a bit bullet spongey too, I expect them to die at point blank range with my full powered shotgun but that’s not always the case. However, when everything works and you wipe out a whole set of enemies with minimal fuss using stealth and distraction techniques it’s very satisfying.

 

Im off today so I think I may just wrap up the story. Despite its annoyances I’ve really enjoyed it so far.

[Nag]

52 minutes ago, illdog said:

Combat is hit and miss for me

 

That's been one of my main concerns so far, I've noticed a lot of the enemies will run directly at you in this (far more so than the previous two games) so some short range crowd control would be nice... A shotgun should be god tier at point blank range but I've seen enemies take four or five blasts before staying down and these are natives running around in fucking loincloths, that's ridiculous.

 

The other thing is outfits, what's the point of unlocking or crafting these outfits with upgraded attributes when the game locks you into one costume for hours on end... Pretty much all of my time spent in the Hidden City hub I've been locked out of my preferred outfits, it's fucking annoying.

[illdog]

Turns out i was right at the end, my next story mission came with a warning as the point of no return.

 

The credits are scrolling as I type this. My thoughts remain the same: this is a good one of these. This game felt more compact than the second game, was definately a bit shorter but I liked the pace the story went at.

 

Combat is patchy at best as I said previously, some of the platforming is broken as well. There was more than one occasion where the obvious way forward made me fall to my death so I spent a couple of minutes looking for alternative options only to go back to what I tried in the first place and for it work. That sucks. obviously something wasn't connecting mechanicly and the game acts as tho the ledge or wall isnt interactive and you sort of get brushed aside. Hopefully they'll continue to fix it and a patch will be released.

 

Definately recommended though, pretty good way to spend 30 hours of your life in this hobby that we love to varying degrees.

[Nag]

3 hours ago, illdog said:

Definately recommended though, pretty good way to spend 30 hours of your life in this hobby that we love to bitch about to varying degrees.

 

Fixed....??

[DisturbedSwan]

Put another 4 hours into this today, 29 hours total.

 

Finally got out of Paititi and played through some batshit crazy cinematic moments which really surprised and delighted at the same time. I've adored the slow pace that has put focus on the exploration so far don't get me wrong but when such a cinematic sequence couples with tons of combat comes along after huge periods without you appreciate it that much more, it feels new and fresh at this late stage of the game rather than a trudge.

 

Stalking dudes in the Jungle feels so damn badass as well. The new fear arrows (whilst obviously inspired by the poison from AC) are so damn fun too, shoot one dude and he goes bananas and takes out a couple of others. For one of the areas I just sat in a tree, shot 3 dudes with fear arrows and they took everyone out for me  was such a blast.

 

One thing that annoyed the fuck out of me though. I'm going for 100% completion in the game and was mopping up all the remaining collectibles/side missions in Paititi after I'd finished the action scenes mentioned above. Went around collecting every bold object remaining on my map (had to look up the location of a whole area I'd somehow not stumbled across throughout my travels) and once this was done I noticed my Survival Cache count was still at 33/34 despite having seemingly collected them all.

 

So I looked it up on the net and it seems to be a bug  one of the Monolith locations where you dig up the Monolith treasure appears to be the exact same place you dig up a survival cache. So I think what's happened is when I dug up the Monolith treasure it blocked out me being able to dig up the survival cache. 

 

Pretty fucking annoying to be honest, seems to be a known bug - on PC at least - as I've seen quite a few folks have issues with it on Steam and others having issues with the Monolith treasure prompt not functioning on some of the Paititi monoliths. 

 

But yeah, doesn't really affect my view of the game as a whole - excellent, on par with TR 2013 and miles better than RotTR - still a little bit annoying nevertheless.

 

Another pic:

 

 

[Nag]

It sounds as if we're roundabouts the same place @Blakey... I've just been allowed to go all Predator on Trinity's arse and it was a blast... Literally.

 

Seriously, when the game allows you to try and stealth your way through the jungle it's an absolute joy and feels so far removed from the Piatiti hub it's unreal. I don't even mind when I fuck up because line of sight and concealment actually work now. Stealth killing five guys and then thinking fuck it and petrol bombing the last two was fun and games.?

 

The Oil Field area that followed was pretty bloody good too but I'm not gonna say too much about that, hit another hub now so I'm hoping that it doesn't slow the feel of the game down again, in the same breath I hope that I've got a fair way to go... I'm back to loving it.

 

Getting ready to roast some fools...

 

Back to being a badass!

 

[illdog]

Sorry if someone has mentioned it before but one thing that really impressed me was that every single description for everything that can be viewed in the Artifacts menu is voiced by Camilla Ludworth. That must have taken fucking ages but it's all well done. They could have just left it as text but they went that extra mile.

 

I'm up to 87% completion now and it's getting tough. Backtracking can be an asshole, some places are tricky to get to which is fucking annoying. Some paths that seem like they are leading you somewhere lead you in a circle.

[DisturbedSwan]

Yeah does sound that way @Nag ?

 

Played another 4 Hours today, 33 total and just reached the Endgame.

 

Most of today was spent polishing up all the side missions, tombs and collectibles in the 3rd hub area which was tremendous fun. I really enjoy the Tomb design in this game as they aren’t all huge puzzle rooms but some are platforming or combat based and it just keeps things fresh, I really do think out of the trilogy this is by far and away the best they’ve been implemented. 

 

Once I’d done all the side stuff and got that area up to 100% I continued on with the story - which is just so incredibly compelling - then headed back to Paititi to do the last side mission.

 

Unfortunately this was bugged as well and won’t appear on my mini-map or even register in the menu, if I try to talk to the quest giver again he just speaks in a native language that sounds nothing like his English voice and I can’t progress. Reloaded the checkpoint a few times to get it to budge but to no avail so it looks like I’m stuck at 98% in Paititi thanks to this and the survival cache bug mentioned previously.

 

Couple of pics:

 

Mild main story locale spoiler

Spoiler

 

[Nag]

Again I think I've left off exactly the same as you @Blakey, just got the notification that if I talk to that person it's the point of no return...

 

Fortunately for me the last side quest didn't bug out, so I've got that out of the way. My game plan now is to revisit all the previous areas and 100% them as there's no chance I'm doing that in new game plus on the highest difficulty... There's a couple of treasures in the Piatiti that I just cannot figure out how to reach though...

 

Although I've enjoyed the game a lot I have to say that I do believe it's the weakest in the trilogy... Maybe my mind will change one I reach the end credits.

[illdog]

8 hours ago, Nag said:

 

Although I've enjoyed the game a lot I have to say that I do believe it's the weakest in the trilogy... Maybe my mind will change one I reach the end credits.

 

I was thinking about this in terms of where it lands in the trilogy and I think it's my favorite. Life eh?

 

EDIT: Getting The Hidden City to 100% should be an achievement in itself, thank fuck that's done.

[illdog]

 

 

 

[DisturbedSwan]

Finished this today, took me 34 hours.

 

Really enjoyed it overall, it might even be my favourite of the trilogy.

 

I really do think that Eidos Montreal have made the game most faithful to the original source material as well, it actually felt like an old Tomb Raider game in lots of ways rather than just aping off Uncharted - like the original - and some Uncharted/lifeless open-world amalgamation like Rise was. Out of the trilogy it feels the most original in ideas and execution to me and I just love that I was back to just tomb raiding, finding artefacts and exploring exotic locales rather than some out-of-this-world action filled romp.

 

It just felt like you had time to breathe in this game and absorb the world around you, they attempted this downtime in the lifeless open world areas in RotTR but didn't succeed as they just felt so gamey and abject of life completely, like they were put there purely for you to clamber around rather than to get lost in. The hub areas in this are absolutely spectacular, teeming with life, incredibly vibrant - and most importantly - they fit the locale and story perfectly. The two are in harmony, Lara's action's are in harmony and there's bombast until the final 3rd. 

 

One of the most surprising elements were the side missions too. I really expected them to be crow-barred in as a new feature to list on the back of the box but they were really nicely done and told some cool little stories which adhered you to the native people that much more, making you care about their stories and way of life more which in turn makes you care more about the overarching story.

 

When the cinematic action set pieces and combat returned in anger in the final 3rd they felt so much more exciting because you'd not experienced much of them before, they felt so fresh and new and you hadn't trudged through hundreds of identikit soldiers throughout the 30+ hours getting to that point. The Oil area and the finale were absolutely spectacularly bonkers and a real treat for the eyes and ears too.

 

I really can't recommend it enough, I'm so glad this series was given a new lease of life with a new developer.

 

Proper spoilery pics:

 

Spoiler

 

[Nag]

Well I reached the final credits today, I think my opinion still stands... It's a good game, great even but it still lands behind the previous two for me. I'm happy enough with where Lara ended up character wise and I think overall it's a great trilogy.

 

In regards to the game itself I think the Piatiti hub was the weakest element with far too much time spent there, I prefer Lara on her own against the elements not surrounded by crowds of people... I would've also preferred more combat against the soldier type enemies. I actually fairly liked the end boss fight though.

 

I'll go back in eventually and try to 100 percent the map (and hope to god my game doesn't glitch)... I'll also be trying new game plus on the hardest setting at some point so that should be fun.

 

[illdog]

I started on Deadly Obsession (very hard difficulty). There are no climbing hints, no survival instinct, material and ammo are sparse and all the enemies have more health, do more damage and are alerted much easier.

 

Im still fairly near the start but then Forza Horizon 4 arrived... I’d like to do a little bit here and there as I’m only 4 achievements away from maxing it.