Shadow of the Tomb Raider Review

In the shadow of boredom

Lara Croft has traversed many kilometres in her existence. First, she presented herself to us in her blocky form in 1996, but as the polygons got more rounded in the later games, it ultimately led to her demise, in the form of barely playable catastrophe named Angel of Darkness. Originally, AOD was meant to become this grand trilogy, but Eidos had to scrap the rest due to bad sales and low quality of the game. Lara has pretty much disappeared from our sight after this terrible ordeal.

Meanwhile, Eidos was thinking on how resurrect our popular heroine and ordered Core Design and Crystal Dynamics with something exciting. Both studios produced a prototype of an anniversary version of the very first TR, but Core has not learnt its lesson. According to the leaked footage, they were clinging onto the old 3D control scheme, where Lara is basically stuck to the ground and has to slowly turn to switch directions (famously known as the tank controls), while Crystal has shown much modern approach to gameplay. They have moved the emphasis from hanging onto the ledges into automatic grabs and climbing. What has happened after, is history. Legend, Anniversary and Underworld were a successful reboot trilogy, however, failed to reach the success of the original TR.

2013 has brought us yet another reboot of the brand, again in the reigns of CD. This time, they have shown us a much more vulnerable side to Lara, stranded on a mysterious japanese island, her very first adventure with a new group called Trinity in her way. While this part contained a lot of shoot-outs and almost no tombs, the game was widely well received equally by most players and reviewers. After this success, we were given Rise of TR, which gave us a breath taking introduction in the mountains and beatiful Syria and Siberia. Some aspects got better, some worse, but as Crystal was working on the new Avengers game, the next TR game was given to the hands of Eidos Montreal. This for me was the first warning sign, that maybe I should wait for reviews first. So what could have possibly gone wrong with Shadow of Tomb Raider?

We have more tombs, less action and still, the game does not function well on its own. It is difficult to pin-point which aspect Montreal has failed on, but everything which made the previous two games fun such as exploration and discovery of new weapons and tools is just midlessly thrown into the game. I had no sense of Lara herself being motivated or growing throughout the adventure. Yes, you still discover the old forgotten cities and temples, but it does not have the same drive as in the previous titles. You´ll definitely won't be making the infamous sigh which Lara cheesily produced before which is a bit of a surprise as I have seen many reviews giving this game a 9/10. Another thing which made me scratch my head was the arsenal of weapons Lara can get. It feels redundant as there is no reason to buy or upgrade any other weapons besides the ones you find. SOTR suffers overall due to poorly thought out level design and while technically it is well made, it is missing the playfulness of the previous games.

The first big change that you'll notice is the unlocking of the abilities. The skill tree is now shown across the whole screen and you don't need to switch between three categories anymore. On one side, it is a good change but now the icons of the main categories are covering up half the screen for no reason and the actual skills are laid out in a grid like system. In the end, I've found it more confusing than useful. The worst thing about the skill tree is its efficiency. Besides some of the basic first skills you unlock automatically during the story, most of the skills are unneccesary like certain prolonged effects of berries or survival instict upgrades. The only one which was worth investing into was holding your breath for longer period of time (which you get for free anyway in one of the challenge tombs), the rest you can completely forget about as they barely do anything interesting.

One of the new additions in the game is the ability to dress into costumes with separate top and bottom parts as you can now combine different outfits together. Some of them possess certain attributes such as the hide from jaguar which makes you less visible to enemies and the boots from animal skin are less noisy. It is a nice addition but again, it didn't really matter in the end. In one of the hub cities you will be actually forced to wear a tribal costume, which wouldn't be such an issue if you were not in it for almost half of the game. This undermines this whole new system of combining these outfits, so most of them you won't be able to wear.

Swimming in the previous games was mostly focused on the surface but Shadow has finally added submerging fully and it is quite well presented. Lara will get to chance to swim a lot and you will find underwater passages quite often. You can speed up your swimming underwater as many times you might be pressed for time to find an air bubble to replenish your air supply. There are also eels patrolling some routes so you need to be careful and hide in the weed to avoid them. It is a bit of a shame that breathing the trapped air animation is exactly the same every time.

I didn't like such prominent focus on combat in TR 2013 and Rise, especially the passages where you could not avoid and the game made you into Rambo. In Shadow, you can count these on your hand. On one side, I find it nice that the authors listened to the complaints but now we fell into the exactly opposite extreme. The spaces where Lara is facing Trinity soldiers are a lot tighter and in some moments you have to use your knife and stealth approach only. Interesting addition is applying mud to your face and clothing, so Lara can blend in with the environment a lot easier without being seen. Stealth kills are a fun to perform but Shadow suffers from the corner syndrom (so typical for AC series), so all you have to do is to be stand against the wall and press a button to kill all the unsuspecting enemies. I am glad that they have added more ways to kill the enemies but it could have been better and more freely incorporated with the rest of the game.

Some enemies (most of them towards the end) are wearing helmets, making headshots practically impossible without alerting everybody around, which is not fun if you enjoy using the bow. Another new gadget is the thermal goggles, which some enemies start using later on and only if you cover yourself in mud you won't be seen when hiding in vegetation. However, there is an issue when trying to aim for when enemies are up close. The target reticular is a bit big and it can be difficult to shoot things in front of you. I have also noticed a strange way Lara equips the shotgun which miraculously just jumps straight into her hands which looks quite jarring.

Overall pacing of the game is uneven and after a pretty hectic beginning, all goes to a halt. Which, as such, is not a bad thing but when the game offers you two pretty big hubs to explore and there is no combat, everything slows down too much and you find yourself doing the boring sidquests in the hope of receiving something of value. Nope, sometimes you get a piece of outfit, sometimes just a mark on your map where a rare animal is or a challenge tomb is hidden. Things you can find easily yourself as the maps are very restricted and linear. TR 2013 had its charm in its uncharted island and Rise in its superb snow effects and they both have what Shadow is lacking – variability. Yes, both of these ran out of steam about halfway through, had too much action, explosions and had predictable story but at least the gameplay as such was still fun and environments were interesting to look at.

With a game titled TR I would also expect minimum bugs. I was especially looking forward to the fight with the jaguars. The music got more intense as I was drawing near the jaguar's nest but as soon as I got there, something was off. I found my foe crouching in the grass in the middle of the arena, just standing still, occasionally letting out a roar. Confused, I started to fire arrows into its back but the beast did not care at all. Only after I walked really close, it suddenly shot out of its position directly into a… wall. Luckily, the animal came to its senses and started attacking but the whole excitement of this fight evaporated. I haven't seen this bug since but it was a big letdown to see this within the first two hours of the game. Another issue happenes when you play the game under DX11. For some reason, as soon as you enter the first cave in the game, there is a horrible stutter, making it impossible to play. Only setting the game on a higher priority in the task manager remedied this but previous titles did not suffer from this problem.

Graphically, Shadow is on a similar level as Rise, there are not many major improvements. At the beginning I was enjoying walking in a deep mud and quite dense dark jungle enveloped in a light mist. All of the atmosphere was gone as soon as the sun came up and the whole feeling of being stranded kinda dissipates. Some views in the game are still nice but in comparison to its older siblings, I had barely pressed F12 besides getting a few screenshots for this review. Maybe it is due to jungle for not being as interesting during daylight as darker environments. Unfortunately, the music is again forgettable. I guess the days of iconic melodies from the nineties are long gone now and replaced with a bunch of repetetive tribal motives. Less is sometimes more and I would have enjoyed the silence of Lara's footsteps and occasional mysterious cries or squeals coming from the depths of the tombs instead. The constant drumming can get irritating when you are trying to focus on climbing or just absorbing the atmosphere around you.

The story of TR was never its strong point. Even going back to the oldest TR games or the previous trilogy, the story was always the weakest part. It is a bit confusing why is it such a hard thing to craft a more compelling story than the premise of finding an artifact and get home. Even employing Rhianna Prattchett for TR 2013 did not help much but it at least they gave us a backstory on the various Endurance crew survivors through logs and camera footage. Rise had a bit less of it but Shadow completely gives up pretending to make you care. In the beginning, Lara is trying to cope with her deed which caused a major cataclysm, costing hundreds of lives by stealing a sacred mayan dagger from its final resting place. This apparently puts a whole prophecy in motion which will ultimatley lead into the destruction of the world if Lara does not prevent it. She regrets the whole ordeal for like few minutes, shouts a bit at her companion Jonah and then goes back to the peaceful exploration of the cities and fetching side quests. Any sense of urgency is just not present well here. Trinity are forgettable as ever together with their leader whose motivations do not make much sense.

The only moment which stuck in my mind was when Lara finally gets angry with everything and there is a cool scene of her rising up (those who played know exactly which one), but there simply isn't such an iconic moment till the end of the game after this. The finale was a letdown as well. You just run to the end of the level while things explode and helicopters can't hit you if you keep moving (because plot armour) and the final confrontation is just completely emotionless. Even when the devs had a chance to make a meaningful impact, everything is suddenly all okay. There is just no progress, no lesson learned and Lara just moves on as if nothing happened, just another day with an a new artefact in her possession. The post credit scene does not give us any resolution or a hint of what is Lara up to next. That is not until you witness the alternate ending which got released with the game by accident and that gives us a lot more closure just by adding two little nods to the old games.

The game is also a lot shorter, almost twice as short as Rise of TR, which came as a bit of a surprise. I was expecting a longer experience, but on one hand I was happy that I didn't have to play more of this game due to lack of fun factor. It was supposed to be the pinnacle of the new reboot series but instead, it fell short. I can feel that the authors tried to play it safe while not changing too much and just adding bits and pieces here and there but in the end, it just felt hastily tacked on and without much cohesion. Possible explanation could be the DLC packages and first one called the Forge will add a new area and a co-op mode. However, not even NG+ mode will save it for me and while I felt that I wanted to replay TR 2013 and Rise again, Shadow left me with a bland aftertaste. Alas, I've just found the game boring as a long term fan of TR series. There were simply a lot more things I didn't like about it. I can just hope that the authors will improve upon their mistakes, that is if Square Enix will even give them the next game after questionable quality of this . As it stands now, it is a pale shadow of the Tomb Raider legacy.

6/10

- uninteresting characters and story

- jungle becomes a chore after a while

- boring gameplay

- fetch sidequests

- barely any action

- unnecessary skill tree

- linear progress

+ more tombs

+ some locations look good

+ underwater swimming

+ mud camouflage and stealth

Shadow of the Colossus Review

Shadow of the Colossus is a legendary game and rightfully so. By coming to PlayStation 4, the players can finally experience the game as the authors intended, that is without any technical compromises. How did the new studio Bluepoint manage with this remake?

It was 2006 and I somehow got to this gem on PlayStation 2. I must say that I've missed its predecessor, Ico, which was hard to find back then, but I got hooked on this unusual game where your sole goal is to defeat all the bosses. The original game, however, was plagued by the lower framerate, which was sometimes dropping to intolerable values. Despite that, the game was highly praised and got great reviews. In 2011, Sony has released a remaster with higher framerate for PlayStation 3, made by the very same Bluepoint. So why are we returning back to the colossi again for the third time? I can only assume that during the remastering the game they thought the game would look a lot better in current gen graphics with modern shaders and particle effects, so they have called upon Japan Studio for help and guidance. Thus, Bluepoint have created all of the art assets from scratch and all the previously low-res textures received a well deserved upgrade while keeping the source code and animations intact. If you think this was a waste, watch a video comparison of all three versions. On a regular PS4, you can achieve a stable 30fps, while PS4 PRO gives you the option to play in 60fps on 1080p resolution.

SOTC has a story full of emotions taking place in a seemingly empty world. It´s primarily inhabited by the sixteen colossi, which our main hero must kill if he wants to resurrect his girl. It would be impossible to achieve in the land of the mortals, however, Wander has heard about a strange foreign land, where a god called Dormin can resurrect the dead. Determined, Wander embarks upon a long journey into the Forbidden land, where entry is punished. As soon as you see the weirdly structured bridge for the first time, you can recognize Fumito Ueda's signature architecture from Ico. You'll find many ruins and empty building which silently tell the tales of the old battles or the lives of its people. Wander, however, did not come to learn about these interesting tales of the old civilizations. After he gently puts down Mono on the altar, an ancient voice speaks out. Realizing that you are carrying the sacred sword, Wander is given his first task. Not heeding Dormin's warning that the price for this deed might be too high, Wander gets on his trusty steed, Agro, to fulfil his mission to take down all of the sixteen majestic colossi.

This is just a short intro, but the game contains minimum cutscenes and focuses mainly on gameplay. The game gives you a vast world to explore which is fun to traverse. In order to not get lost, you can always check your position on the map or just use the landmarks to orient yourself. You'll find plenty of unique rock formations, Stargate-like rings in the desert or pillars jutting out of the ground around that one corner. If you ever feel you lost your objective, there is an easy solution. Your sword is not just any random weapon. It reflects sunlight which can help you light up dark areas or, most importantly, point to the precise location where the next colossus is hiding. If Wander would try to get into this land on foot, he would probably still be running on that super long bridge you find at the beginning of the game. Luckily, his companion, mare Agro, is really fast and can tackle long distances with ease. You do not control her directly but by pulling her reins to turn or stop. You need to give her a kick to go faster. It's very effective and galloping across the plains never felt so majestic before this game. Agro will usually always try to reach you, but if you ignore her, she will try to keep herself occupied by eating the grass or drink from a spring you found. Sometimes she will start walking into the distance on her own but you can always call her back with a shout or a whistle, if she is too far away.

The world of SOTC is mostly deserted but beautiful. Wandering through centuries of nature unspoiled by human hands is thrilling and is accompanied by her serene sounds. From the rich green forests full of chirping to the wind blowing around statues half buried in countless sand dunes. You will visit several lakes, full of fish, whose silence is interrupted by Wander's splashing in the water. There is no time limit to achieve your main goal and that gives you the opportunity to just stop and look around. To think about how this ancient, crumbled city used to look like at the height of its existence. It´s so easy to just take a stroll through the forest, catch a few lizards to get an improved grip or search for the exotic fruit, which prolongs your life. You can even try to latch onto a passing flying hawk or a fish and see how long can you hold on for. There are lots of different things to do to keep yourself occupied in between the hunts for the colossi. This is strengthened by the stunning visuals, which changed quite a lot since PS2 was around. While the former blocky design was necessary in the past, now it's just a choice in places, where it actually fits. Many times I've stopped just to look at closer at those sharp textures on the rocks and ravines to make the best screenshot. Particles were also improved. Your horse now leaves hoof prints in the sand and Agro's tail and mane playfully flutter in the wind. The fur on the colossi bends as you climb over it as well. There are other effects like light mist above lakes and inside forests, sand coming off rocks in the desert and I have never seen so many patches of lush green grass in one place.

The battles with the colossi could be regarded as their own levels and are the biggest draw of the game. Every colossus has a different design, size and behaviour. Some are more aggressive than others and in order to beat them, you need to search for their weak points. Your bow serves more to draw attention of the colossus to that tiny human on the ground, which is you. Your special sword, on the other hand, is the only thing which can do any damage, though, and has to be stabbed into the glowing spot until enough of the black fog escapes. Once you have conquered the beast, it helplessly topples into a rubble of rocks and sand, as if it was just an empty shell. To climb upon such a monster is not easy. Luckily for Wander, part of their bodies is covered by thick fur which he can grab onto. It's not possible all the time, however, and you might need to find a way to flip over the colossus to reveal a climbing spot. Holding onto the alerted enemy is not an easy task either, as it will start to rock backwards and forwards as soon as he finds out that you are on his shoulder. This is where Wander's grabbing strength comes into play. You start with a small circle, which depletes rather quickly, but by eating lizard´s white tails, you can improve it significantly. The lizards are usually hidden around the checkpoint shrines but catching them is not easy as they are fleeting. If you manage to hold on (taking breaks on your grip can replenish it much faster at a risk of falling off), you have to search for the colossus' weakness which your sword can expose. Each glowing mark will take several charged up stabs before you have to move to the next one, but it is usually between two or three before the colossus succumbs to your will. The difficulty of each fight varies and while some are harder than others, it is not overly difficult. Sometimes you just need to use your environments to your advantage and lure the colossi where you need them, whether it be by hiding so it can't see you and it is fun to find out what works. If you'll take too long, Dormin will also give you a hint on how to proceed. The whole fight can take from several minutes to half an hour, depending on your skills and knowledge of the game.

The source code of the game stayed while all the 2D and 3D objects where swapped out for their higher polygon versions. Bluepoint did an excellent job here while adhering to the structure of the original. The viewing distance has been vastly improved and now you can see 3D objects in  the distance with ease. Graphics are not the only one which received an update, however. Even though the voice over, sounds and music stayed the same, they were all improved and now sound much higher quality. It is a joy to listen to Agro's hooves hitting the ground or immerse yourself into the majestic orchestra which accompanies your efforts to slay the beasts and fuels your efforts. Other times it can evoke a calm, melancholic atmosphere when you discover new locations. The intro and outro tracks bear a strong emotion but you should definitely listen to the whole soundtrack as it is brilliant. The controls were a bit clunky in the original but the developers have made Wander's motions more fluid and added two more modern control schemes. Unfortunately, both of them place the horse control on the triangle, which you need to hold down and it is very uncomfortable if you're trying to move the camera around with your right thumb at the same time. I have solved this by setting the horse command to R2 and grab to R1 instead in the PS4 settings and it was a lot better this way.

To beat the game for the first time takes about 8-10 hours. It is a bit of a shame that Bluepoint did not try to go further and bring back the missing eight colossi, which did not make the cut in the end. Throughout the world you'll find many deserted places, which almost beg for another epic confrontation. Time trials are back and if you beat enough of them you'll get extra items just like in the original (different weapon types, masks, or even a parachute). The main menu also offers concepts and screenshots to look at. At the beginning, you can choose from three difficulties – easy, normal and hard. I recommend going for hard as the colossi have more weak points this way and take longer to kill, as the game itself on normal seemed too easy. After beating the game you'll also unlock new game + and you can play the game in different screen filters. There is a newly added photo mode which is nice but I was a bit disappointed you can't position the camera freely.

SOTC is still a unique title just like when it came out originally. If you have played it back then, on PS2, it won't harm to refresh your memory again in a much better visuals and in high-res with stable framerate. Even if you already own the PS3 remaster, this is a perfect remake worthy of your purchase. Thanks to Bluepoints hard work, new gamers can now fully enjoy this masterpiece in the shadow of the colossus.

Score: 10/10

+16 unique colossi battles

+ horse riding

+ stunning scenery

+ technical improvements

+ orchestral music

+ time trials

- static photomode

- controls still need tweaking

Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice Review

Celtic warrior Senua is embarking on a treacherous path to save her beloved from death. Accompany her on this journey to find Senua's true self!

Do you go through this as well? After finishing a game you feel empty. You want more, but you know that repeated playthroughs will never be the same as the first time. I think I felt like this after finishing SOMA and more recently, Talos Principle. Both games make you think about things which you do not stop and ponder about on a daily basis. What is consciousness? In Hellblade, Ninja Theory got together with professionals and doctors to show us how mental health issues can affect an individual. The game offers a bleak, but interesting insight upon a psyche of a suffering person.

We learn who Senua is and where she comes from as the game goes on. At the beginning, we witness how she tries to reach Niflheim on her little raft, the land which is the entry to Helheim, her final destination. In Viking hell it is Hela, the ruler of death, who is the only one capable of returning a lost soul back from the Underworld. Getting to Helheim will not be easy. The bridge is guarded by a giant door with two large emblems and in order to unlock it, Senua needs to delve deep into the domains of Viking gods Surtr and Valravn. It is up to you which you go through first but both offer a very different experience. If you know about Surtr and what he is, you can already guess that this path will be like walking through inferno. He is the god of fire and Senua has to step a foot on the scorched ground, which still bears the screams of the people which burned to death there. To get through this fiery place, Senua must activate Surtr's signs scattered across the land. Touching one will materialize the moment when the fire consumed everything and you have a short time to get out of there and avoid choking to death. 

Luckily our heroine is not helpless, she is a skilled warrior after all and knows how to handle her sword. Later on, she will even master slowing down time as certain enemies can only be damaged in that state. You have one button for a light attack, second button for a heavy attack, one for dodging which is very important, and last one is for blocking. As I have been playing the Devil May Cry series for several years, this felt a bit too simplified to me and while you can lock onto enemies, you cannot really chain combos too much. The battles do not happen often and are usually spaced in between puzzle sequences. On higher difficulties the enemies get a lot tougher and dodging is something you have to master. I definitely recommend a gamepad, though, a keyboard might not be too comfortable.

Second boss is Valravn, the master of illusions and will drag you through a dark forest, where nothing is as it seems. If you ever get stuck, know, that looking at things from a different angle can help a lot. The way forward is blocked by raven insignias and to do that, you have to align the correct three symbols. If you persevere and kill Valravn, the way to the bridge will be open. It is not, however, the end of your journey, but merely a beginning to understand Senua's past. The game has some interesting mechanics up its sleeve but you have to discover that on your own.

All of this is merely a vehicle to express Senua's true feelings. Those, who are going or went through something similar, will understand. It is best to describe as being lost in hopelessness and fear, to know nothing will make you happy. Just like Senua, who lost everything. You will just know that something went horribly wrong in her past, something she chose to block out. Something which will never fully heal and caused other personalities emerge in her mind. She is not alone on her journey – there are others, voices of encouragement, cowardice and fear, but also of bravery. They are always present, just like the darkness which sleeps within our heroine. You will hear their whispers, quiet or loud. If you are unsure on where to go, some will mock you. Others will doubt your abilities. It is something I had not experienced it before in a game and it hard to explain and better to hear on your own. Besides your own voices in your head there are also other characters, which emerge over time. Druth is a mysterious ally, whose purpose is to guide you. His stories tell you more about the Viking gods and their customs. Throughout the game you'll also find rune stones and if you find them all, you´ll receive an extra scene at the end. Senua is not by any means ordinary and sees symbols and faces everywhere, where normal people see mundane objects. Sometimes it´s just a play of shadow and fire, but it's enough for the symbol to appear. The search gets progressively harder, but there are indicators on the screen if you are close enough to one.

The graphics are beautiful and the game supports 4K resolution as well, if you have a good enough pc to run it. The sunset views above the bridge leading to Helheim, the fiery paths of Surtr, or storms in the dark forest are just a few environments which you will keep pressing F12. Senua's own character model has been made with the slightest details and sometimes it is hard to believe, she is not real. I must applaud the developers here, because it gives Senua more credibility and she also has a natural face mimicry. How she looks at you, the player, feels unique, like you are there with her all along. It is hard to not feel the oppressive uneasiness together with her. That is the price which is worth to pay because Hellblade is an experience which no other game can give you.

The sound engineering is done exceptionally well and it is recommended to play only with your headphones on, otherwise you might miss a lot. The voices, which haunt Senua throughout the game, have various volume and are important part of the game. The voice acting is professional and particularly Senua's voice actor sounds impactful (she received an award for it) and she did a great job on portraying Senua's pain. She definitely belongs to one of the best video game characters introduced to us in 2017. The music is more atmospheric and changes dynamically, depending what is happening on the screen. It will reside in the background when solving puzzles, other times it rumbles when you are slicing through your enemies. Sometimes even you are not sure if the developers are just playing you, or there are legitimate reasons to be alarmed. The biggest minus is that some mechanics are being repeated maybe too often (especially the puzzles which consist of lining up the symbols) and the fights can get a bit taxing over time. However, as the game is only about 8-9 hours long, which passes quite fast, these faults do not interfere too much.

You should know the least before playing this game. Do not watch the videos, maybe look at a few screenshots. Play this with your headphones on and best at night. Leave yourself to be dragged into the dark world and engulf yourself into darkness together with Senua and her alter egos. Stand against her worst nightmares and grab your sword tightly into your hands. Only by witnessing the truth you can overcome the hardship which awaits you. There is no way back, the raft is gone and the world of unknown stands before you.

Score: 8,5/10
(PC version)

+ exposure of mental health problems

+ great atmosphere

+ believable characters

+ beautiful visuals

+ audio

- repeated puzzles

- fights can get repetitive after a while