Shadow of the Tomb Raider rolls out later this week and Andy likes it. “A greater focus on raiding tombs, and massively improved stealth combat, make this one of Lara Croft’s best modern adventures”, he tells us in his 84-scored review—the details of which we’ll get to sample for ourselves on Friday.
When we do, we’ll apparently unlock an ‘Inventory’ option early on in the game after resting at a base camp. Within, an ‘Outfits’ tab will let us tinker with Lara’s aesthetic—with the following low poly Lara à la early PSOne Tomb Raider games as default.
Andy tells us a Tomb Raider 2 variant is also unlockable, as is “a skin from that terrible PS2 game, Angel of Darkness”. Who can forget?
You should absolutely read Andy’s thorough Shadow of the Tomb Raider review in full, but here’s an enticing excerpt:
The balance of puzzling, exploration, and action has always felt a little off to me in this modern incarnation of Tomb Raider, leaning a little too heavily and frequently towards the latter. But Shadow shows impressive restraint, rarely using combat as a crutch and focusing more on what makes this series special: namely, raiding tombs. And the tombs here are undoubtedly the star of the show, and some of the best in the series. The feeling of trespassing in an ancient, cursed place is palpable, and hearing the stone door scrape open when you finally solve that puzzle is always a satisfying feeling. And it’s these moments, not the exploding refineries, helicopter battles, or expensively cinematic set-pieces, that make this worth playing.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider arrives on Friday, September 14.