Dark Side

Shadow Of The Tomb Raider shows us an imperfect image of Lara Croft in what could be her most revelatory adventure to date.

- Jen Simpkins

Lara Croft is in a very different place. Not that you’d know it at first – at a glance, Shadow Of The Tomb Raider is business as usual for the reboot series. There is climbing, as Croft leaps over gaps and traverses rock faces using pickaxes. Survival mechanics return, with a bow in the place of twin pistols. And, naturally, there are tombs: huge, echoing, fanged with traps and stuffed with treasures. It is strange to think that tomb raiding, the very thing that defines Croft, was relegated to an optional series of puzzle chambers in 2015’s Rise Of The Tomb Raider. In the very first hour of this game, we are forced to fight through one of the most terrifying iterations in the series’ long history. In Shadow, there is no escaping the tombs – and, by extension, there is no escaping Croft.

Much has been made of Crystal Dynamics and Eidos Montréal’s continued insistence that each of the reboot games marks the moment in which Lara Croft honestly, truly, for-real-this-time-you-guys, finally becomes the hardened hero we’ve always known. This time, in Shadow Of The Tomb Raider, we’re inclined to believe it. The tone and atmosphere belie something far more sophisticated below a very familiar surface: a real understanding of the parallels between these deep, dark structures and Croft’s troubled inner self.

Location was at the forefront of the team’s minds: Shadow needed to be set in a place that would not just test Croft, but mirror her as her own worst enemy. “We were like, ‘Where would that be? What type of environment will showcase the right context for this type of Lara?” senior game director