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Shadow of the Tomb Raider

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Shadow of the Tomb Raider
Cover artwork featuring Lara Croft in front of a solar eclipse
DeveloperEidos-Montréal[a]
PublisherSquare Enix
DirectorDaniel Chayer-Bisson
Producers
  • Mario Chabtini
  • Fleur Marty
Designers
  • Daniel Drapeau
  • Michel Leduc St-Arnaud
  • Heath Smith
ProgrammerFrédéric Robichaud
Artists
  • Wilson Mui
  • Martin Dubeau
Writers
  • Jason Dozois
  • Jill Murray
ComposerBrian D'Oliveira
SeriesTomb Raider
Platforms
Release
September 14, 2018
  • PlayStation 4, Windows, Xbox One
    September 14, 2018
    Linux, macOS
    November 5, 2019
    Stadia
    November 19, 2019
GenreAction-adventure
ModesSingle-player, multiplayer[b]

Shadow of the Tomb Raider is a 2018 action-adventure game developed by Eidos-Montréal and published by Square Enix. The game is the sequel to Rise of the Tomb Raider and is the twelfth mainline entry in the Tomb Raider series, as well as the third and final entry of the Survivor trilogy. Its story follows Lara Croft as she ventures through the tropical regions of the Americas to the legendary city Paititi, battling the paramilitary organization Trinity and racing to stop a Mayan apocalypse she has unleashed. Lara must traverse the environment and combat enemies with firearms and stealth as she explores semi-open hubs. In these hubs she can raid challenge tombs to unlock new rewards, complete side missions, and scavenge for resources which can be used to craft useful materials.

Crystal Dynamics would not return as the main developer due to them working on Marvel's Avengers, instead Eidos-Montréal were chosen to be the lead developer. Development began in 2015 following the completion of Rise of the Tomb Raider, lasting until July 2018. Shadow of the Tomb Raider was designed to conclude Lara's journey begun in the 2013 reboot, with a key theme being descent both through the jungle environment and into her personality. The setting and narrative was based on Mayan and Aztec mythologies, with the team consulting historians to create the architecture and people of Paititi. Camilla Luddington returned to provide voice and motion-capture work for Lara. The game cost an estimated US$110–135 million to develop, making it one of the most expensive games ever made.

It was released for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One in September 2018. Versions for Linux and macOS, and Stadia, were released in November 2019. Shadow of the Tomb Raider received generally favorable reviews from critics, though it was not as well-received as its predecessors. It was praised for its gameplay, its emphasis on challenge tombs and puzzles and its level design, although its story, Lara's characterization and progression system were criticized. While opening to slow sales, the game eventually sold over 8.9 million units worldwide. After release, the game was expanded upon with downloadable content in both a season pass and as standalone releases. An animated television series continuation, Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft, premiered on Netflix in 2024, while another mainline game, Tomb Raider: Catalyst, will be released in 2027.

Gameplay

[edit]
Screenshot from the game
Lara Croft navigates a platforming puzzle.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider is an action-adventure video game played from a third-person perspective. In the game, the player assumes control of Lara Croft, who ventures through the tropical regions of South America to stop a Mayan apocalypse she has unleashed. Lara faces a variety of enemies in the game, including soldiers of the paramilitary organization Trinity, hostile indigineous tribes, and dangerous animals such as jaguars and moray eels.[1] Shadow of the Tomb Raider prioritized stealth over direct combat with enemies.[2] Lara can use her Survival Instinct to scan the environment to identify the location of enemies and objects of interest.[3] She can hide behind cover, hide behind vine walls to ambush enemies, and sneak through tall grass and bushes to avoid being detected. She can also use mud to camouflauge herself.[2] Certain items in the world can be thrown to distract unsuspecting enemies, while items such as smoke bombs can be used to confuse them.[3] Players can use Survival Instinct to identify if a stealth takedown will alert nearby enemies.[4] If direct combat is inevitable, Lara can also use her bows and arrows and a variety of firearms such as pistols, shotguns, and assault rifles to defeat her enemies.[3] She can also perform a roll or a dodge to avoid incoming attacks, and disengage from combat when she escapes from enemies' line of sight, as enemies will begin searching for her last known position.[2]

Players navigate intricate environments to progress. She is equipped with a pickaxe that allows her to climb rock surface and overhang over ledges,[5] and a grappling hook to swing across environment.[6] She can also use her rope to abseil down a cliff.[7][8] The game features several large, hub worlds where players can converse with other non-playable characters and discover side quests.[9] They can also find merchants to sell and purchase new weapons and upgrades.[3] Lara's outfits also provide her with added gameplay perks and bonuses.[10] While exploring, Lara can collect raw materials and hunt wild creatures for crafting arrows, consumerables and other upgrades.[9][11] Herbal plants can also be mixed and consumed to restore her health, increase her perception, reduce damage taken from hostile attacks, and briefly slow down time to aim.[12] They can also craft two arrow variants: Fire arrows that burn enemies, and Fear arrows that cause them to hallucinate and attack their allies.[13] Occasionally, Lara has to explore underwater, though she only has limited oxygen supply and must come up for air at specific air pockets in time to avoid suffocation.[13] Players have the option to tailor their gameplay experience as exploration, puzzles and combat have their own difficulty settings.[14]

By killing enemies, collecting resources, solving puzzles, and completing missions, players will gain experience points (XP). With sufficient XPs, players can receive a Skill Point, which can then be spent on three skill trees focusing on upgrading Lara's skills in combat, stealth, and exploration,[13] allowing her to perform feats such as consuming less oxygen during swimming underwater and placing booby traps on defeated enemies.[15] As players explore the game's world, they will discover campfires where they can access their inventory and upgrade the performance of their weapons and gears, such as increasing their damage output and reducing the time to reload.[3] Certain areas in the game may be gated off by obstacles until players acquired the upgrades necessary to overcome them.[11] The game features two types of optional puzzles: Challenge tombs are self-contained dungeons with elaborated puzzles that reward players with an unique skill, while Crypts are smaller variants that reward players with outfit blueprints.[8][11] By finding collectibles, Lara's language skills will increase, allowing her to decipher the text found on monuments.[3] An Immersion Mode enables players to hear the background conversations of the locals in their native languages; when turned off the conversations are heard in the players' chosen voice over language.[16]

Plot

[edit]
Camilla Luddington at an awards ceremony
Camilla Luddington portrayed Lara Croft in Shadow of the Tomb Raider.

In 2015, months since the events of Rise of the Tomb Raider, Lara Croft (Camilla Luddington) and her friend Jonah Maiava (Earl Baylon) have dedicated themselves to stopping the activities of paramilitary organization Trinity. The two track a cell to Cozumel in Mexico, led by Pedro Dominguez (Carlos Leal), the head of Trinity's High Council. At Trinity's excavation site, Lara discovers a temple containing the Dagger of Chak Chel and references to a hidden city. Murals adorning the walls allude to the Silver Box of Ix Chel and warn of "the Cleansing", a Mayan apocalypse culminating in a permanent solar eclipse. Lara ignores the warnings and takes the Dagger to prevent Trinity from acquiring it. Dominguez catches her and reveals that by taking the Dagger, Lara has triggered the Cleansing. He takes the Dagger, intending to unite it with the Box to stop the Cleansing and use the power it grants him to remake the world in his image. Lara and Jonah escape a freak tsunami that destroys Cozumel and foreshadows the coming apocalypse.

Despite growing tensions between them over her actions, Lara and Jonah pursue Dominguez into the Amazon. Their plane crashes in the Peruvian jungle during the second cataclysm—a massive storm—and the two find their way to Paititi, the hidden city shown in the murals. Exploring local tombs reveals that piercing the Box with the Dagger will grant the user the power of the god Kukulkan, which must be used to halt the Cleansing. When Lara saves a boy named Etzli (Kamran Lucas), she and Jonah are brought into Paititi by his mother Unuratu (Patricia Velásquez), queen of the city. Dominguez is revealed to be the leader of a cult dedicated to Kukulkan and Unuratu's brother-in-law Amaru, who was taken by Trinity as a child. Unuratu directs Lara to the Box, but Lara finds it is missing. Believing the cult already has the Box, Lara and Unuratu attempt to steal it, but Unuratu is captured. Lara also encounters strange humanoid monsters identified as the Yaaxil, guardians of the Box, and their leader Crimson Fire.

Lara learns that the Box was taken centuries ago by Andres Lopez, a missionary sent by Trinity during the Spanish conquest of South America. She rescues Unuratu and realizes that Amaru does not fully understand the ritual; rather than merely imbuing Kukulkan's power, the ritual sacrifices it to stop the Cleansing. Unuratu is shot by Commander Rourke, Amaru's second in command. Before she dies, Unuratu implores Lara to complete the ritual but warns her not to let the Box influence her. Rourke attacks Lara and Jonah, who are separated as they leave Paititi. The two reunite at an oil refinery and decipher the Box's location, a nearby Christian mission established by Lopez.

Lara and Jonah find a secret catacomb beneath the mission leading to Lopez's tomb and the Box. Amaru intercepts them and forces Lara to surrender the Box. He admits that he ordered her father's death to prevent him from finding Paititi and revealing it to the world. Lara tries to persuade Amaru to use the ritual to benefit the world. He refuses, as the Cleansing will only affect Paititi. He leaves Lara and Jonah to escape the third cataclysm, a massive earthquake that causes a landslide.

Back in Paititi, Lara and Jonah help the newly crowned Etzli lead an assault on an underground temple complex. They plan to disrupt Amaru's ceremony while avoiding the fourth cataclysm, a volcanic eruption. Lara is forced to go on alone. She encounters the Yaaxil and Crimson Fire, convincing them to help her stop Amaru. Rourke and the Trinity High Council are slaughtered by the Yaaxil while Lara makes her way to the temple summit. Amaru starts the ritual and absorbs Kukulkan's power as the solar eclipse begins. After a lengthy battle, Lara overpowers Amaru and fatally stabs him. Accepting defeat, Amaru transfers Kukulkan's power to Lara as he dies. True to Unuratu's warning, she is tempted to use the Box to revive her parents, but instead lets Crimson Fire symbolically stab her, sacrificing Kukulkan's spirit and stopping the Cleansing.

In the aftermath, Unuratu is laid to rest, and Jonah decides to take a vacation. Lara stays in Paititi to help Etzli restore the city to its former glory. A post-credits scene shows Lara planning her next adventure at Croft Manor, acknowledging that her role is not to solve the world's mysteries, but to protect them.

Development

[edit]

Development of Shadow of the Tomb Raider began in 2015, shortly after the release of Rise of the Tomb Raider.[17] Unlike previous entries in the Tomb Raider reboot series which were primarily developed by Crystal Dynamics, Eidos-Montréal assumed major development duties for Shadow of the Tomb Raider while Crystal Dynamics provided additional development.[18] The game was directed by Daniel Chayer-Bisson, one of the co-creative director for the 2013 reboot.[19] Eidos-Montréal estimated the game's development costs as between $75 and $100 million, with a separate marketing and promotion budget of $35 million, becoming the studio's largest project at the time. It was built using the Foundation engine, which was previously used to create Rise of the Tomb Raider.[20] Development was completed on July 24, 2018, with Eidos-Montréal confirming that the game was declared gold (indicating that it was being prepared for duplication and release).[21]

Story

[edit]

While the trilogy focuses on Lara maturing and becoming more powerful, Shadow explored her inner struggles to maintain her morality and avoid succumbing to the "dark side" like her enemies.[19] Unlike preivous games where Lara is being thrust into dangerous situations, Lara took a proactive role in the game, and she must also face the consequences of her actions.[19][22] Bisson added that Lara was "overconfident" in the game, and that this personality flaw caused her to make mistakes.[23] The opening setpiece set in Mexico were described by Eidos as the game's "benchmark scenes", as it sets the tone and shows showing that Lara's reckless actions resulted in a tsuanmi and countless civilian deaths.[19] The destruction Lara releases when claiming a key artefact before Trinity was designed as an inversion of the traditional Tomb Raider approach, which helped subvert players' expectations.[24] Jonah had a larger presence in Shadow as opposed to his previous appearances. As Shadow told a personal story for Lara, Jonah exists as a moral compass who challenges her views and reminds her the human cost of her quest for revenge.[25][23] Her obsession also caused her to push her allies away.[26] Jill Murray, lead writer for the game, added that "there’s a kind of desperation, a kind of panic and kind of anger that goes into some of Lara’s actions in the game".[27] Lara eventually need to learn to overcome her guilt and complicity, and chart a new course that align with her own principles.[26] While the Lara's had selfish motivations at the beginning of the game, she ultimately became a more "selfless" person over the course of the story.[2] Camilla Luddington and Earl Baylon reprised their roles, providing voice and motion capture for Lara and Jonah.[28]

Eidos sent a team to visit Machu Picchu to better understand Incan architecture.

The team also wanted to show Lara having "normal" social interactions with other characters. According to Bisson, she was "awkward" around people and could not handle small talk. The large hub world of Paititi was therefore, designed as a "celebration of life", where Lara can learn to make more human contact, trust her allies, and complete side quests to help its people. According to narrative director Jason Dozois, these more introspective scenes helped "create more of a person rather than just a super athlete who was always getting in and out of horrible situation".[23] During the initial design pitch, the designers wanted Lara to discover a real lost tomb with people living around it, a concept previously limited by the technology available at the time. During their research, they chose the city of Paititi due to its historic precedent over purely fictional locations such as El Dorado.[29] The setting and narrative also took inspiration from Mayan, Aztec and Incan mythology,[30] and the team consulted with historians from Yale University to explore how these culture would likely mix with each other as the tribe stayed in isolation,[31][32] and meet with cultural consultation groups to ensure that the cultures are being portrayed respectfully in the game.[26] The team also conducted field trips to Machu Picchu and the Yucatán to better understand ancient architecture.[31] They also studied archeoastronomy, and used it to link Cozumel to Paititi.[33] Through Shadow of the Tomb Raider, the team also wanted to explore "responsible archaeology." They aimed to show that the field is not about pillaging relics from ruins, but rather about understanding a culture's customs, people, and language.[34]

Gameplay

[edit]

The studio had acted in a support role on the previous entries in the rebooted series, helping with level design and multiplayer in Tomb Raider, and challenge tombs and a quarter of the main single-player campaign for Rise of the Tomb Raider.[19] The levels created by Eidos were rated very highly by playtesters, which built confidence for Crystal Dynamics to pass the franchise to Eidos-Montreal. Similar to their work on the Deus Ex series and Thief, Eidos-Montréal first gained a deep understanding of the series' basic elements, then set about building the game using both previous entries and their own design philosophies.[17] The two teams felt that traversal, combat, and puzzles were the three core elements of the franchise, and the game was evenly split between these semgents. The team seek to add more tombs and puzzles to the game, which is among the most common requests of players of the original game.[19] Tombs were spread across the main critical path and side objectives.[35] Bisson aimed to make the tombs in the game "dark", "brutal" and "scary", and that most of the puzzles in the game had a twist to upset the player's expectations. These tombs are elaboarted in design in an effort to show Lara had became very competent following the events of the two previous games.[35] The traps are also designed to be more deadly, as they are filled with traps that can kill Lara. Puzzles in the game were physics-based, and player do not need to rely on trial and error in order to solve them.[24]

One of the core narrative themes in the game was "Fear". The team sought to contrast the fear a player experiences while navigating dangerous tombs with the fear Lara inflicts upon her enemies during combat. To achieve this, they gave Lara significant control over engagements, allowing her to retreat into stealth or use hallucinogenic arrows to sow chaos. While the team initially developed a "fear meter" that filled as Lara terrified her foes, they eventually scrapped it for being too intangible. Instead, drawing inspiration from Predator and Aliens, they focused on making the enemies' terror and panic visible on-screen.[35] The artificial intelligence of the enemies of the game will also interact with each others, and notice that their fellow soldiers may be missing.[24] Also, stealth game mechanics were prioritized.[2] Lara is outgunned and outnumbered by enemies, and she had to rely on her skills to outsmart them. As a result, the game allowed players to make use of the environments to gain advantage over her enemies.[35] Inspired by older games of the series, players were encouraged to stay on the move, and Lara can traverse up the canopy, which added an extra layer of verticality.[36] The team also replaced stationary "mud pits" with a mud camouflage system that can be used anytime in combat.[35] Dozois described Lara as an "apex predator", with combat prioritizing repositioning, allowing Lara to blend into the environment shortly after striking enemies.[37][38] Despite this, Shadow is still designed to be a challenging game, as the team felt that players will not feel any fear if the experience is too easy.[35] Movement and traversal mechanics were also expanded to give players more control.[39]

The jungles of South America were chosen as the game's main setting as the team felt that it provided a clear visual contrast with those from the previous games,[34] and that it was one of the "deadliest environments" in the world.[35] The jungle setting was initialyl designed to be "dark" and "bleak", though the team eventually decided to make it more colorful.[40] The team perceived the game's world as a "character", and that players must overcome its many obstacles, such as treacherous environments and dangerous wildlife, in order to find its secrets. Lara's fight with a jaguar, an apex predator in the jungle, demonstrated Lara at the height of her abilities.[26] The fight also serves as a narrative introduction and a tutorial for Lara's abilities, which can be used against harder foes in later sections of the game.[41] Bisson added that as players progress, the jungle will become less hostile and more welcoming, as she had mastered the environment and "[become] a part of that world".[35] Underwater exploration was included, as the team wanted to bring Lara's moveset closer to the classic games, and used Shadow as an opportunity to show that Lara had finally evolved into "a full Tomb Raider".[35] Eidos wanted these sections to be "claustrophobic",[26] and were inspired by the cenotes in Mexico.[26] The team viewed National Geographic videos of scuba diving while creating these segments.[42]

The music for Shadow of the Tomb Raider was composed by Brian D'Oliveira. While following the musical styles established since the 2013 reboot, the team added new esthetic elements, incorporating the local culture and the darker portrayal of both Lara and her mission. D'Oliveira was brought on due to his ability with South American instruments, and during recording at his Montreal studios worked with native musicians to achieve the right sound for each location. Martin Stig Andersen worked as Ambient Sound Designer, who focused on the sound transition for underwater segments. The team brought back "The Instrument", a specially designed percussion instrument created for the 2013 reboot's soundtrack by Matt McConnell. "The Instrument" was used to help convey the primal aspects of Lara's character, in addition to referencing her adventure on Yamatai in the 2013 game.[43]

Release

[edit]

The existence of the game was first leaked in October 2016, when a Reddit user took a photo of a passenger working on marketing materials for the game on a Montreal train.[44] Square Enix confirmed that a sequel to Rise of the Tomb Raider was in development in December 2017.[45] The title of the game, and its announcement trailer, was officially revealed in March 2018, with the game being marketed as the "climatic finale of Lara's origin story".[46] It was released on September 14, 2018, for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One.[47] The Windows version was developed by Nixxes Software, who had worked on several earlier Tomb Raider games for the platform.[48][49] In addition to the standard version of the game, players can purchase the "Croft Steelbook Edition", which added several in-game weapons and outfits, 48-hour early access and a steelbook, and the "Ultimate Edition", which included everything from the "Croft Steelbook Edition" alongside physical items including a statue of Lara Croft, a flashlight, and a bottle opener.[50] A patch was released on launch day, as the game accidentally shipped with a different ending, one that tied more closely to the 1996 game. A representative from Square Enix explained that the team created multiple post-credit scenes for the game, though "one of the directions that was considered, but not chosen, was mistakenly included in the game".[51] A free trial that allows players to experience the first level of the game was released in December 2018.[52]

A season pass gives players access to seven "paths" of downloadable content (DLC) which include new narratives, missions, tombs, weapons, outfits and skills.[53] None of these would contain additional story content, which was complete with the base release.[34] These challenge tombs can also be played cooperatively with another player.[54] A version bundling together the main game and DLC, Shadow of the Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition, was also released on November 4.[55] The Definitive Edition was ported to Linux and macOS by Feral Interactive on November 5, 2019.[56] and to Stadia on November 19 as part of the platform's launch line-up alongside the 2013 reboot and Rise of the Tomb Raider.[57][56][55][58] In July 2021, an update that improved performance and allowed the game to run in 4K at 60 frames per second on the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S was released for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions of the game.[59][60]

Reception

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Critical response

[edit]

Shadow of the Tomb Raider received "generally favorable" reviews from critics, according to review aggregator website Metacritic.[61][62][63] However, it saw less critical success than the earlier games in the trilogy.[72]

Andy Kelly from PC Gamer wrote that stealth game mechanics in Shadow were a marked improvement over its predecessors, and that it allowed multiple ways for players to manipulate enemy's AI to the player's advantage. Kelly compared Lara's fighting style to that of Batman's and the Predators.[68] Nicole Carpenter, writing for Variety, praised the upgrades for elevating the game's stealth mechanics, and added that a stealth approach provided a rewarding challenge to players.[73] Eurogamer's Aoife Wilson enjoyed the game's renewed emphasis on stealth, and remarked that these sections of the game "treat open-world combat almost like a deadly puzzle".[74] Edmond Tran from GameSpot, however, criticized the stealth for being simple, and noted that its combat can be clumsy and unrefined.[65] Critics generally praised the game for allowing players to individually adjust the difficulty of its different gameplay elements.[67][64] Ben Kuchera from Polygon criticized the game for overtutorializing its gameplay systems, adding that the game always seems to push the player into a certain playstyle and "doesn’t seem to have a lot of patience" for those who want to experiment.[75]

The game's prioritization of exploration and puzzle-solving were praised for being a step in the right direction for the franchise.[67][68] Sam Byford from The Verge described the gameplay pacing was "excellent", noting that it "skewed less toward combat than ever" with "fewer forced gun battles".[76] Several critics remarked that Shadow had the most sophisticated puzzles in the series.[67][68] Lucy O'Brien from IGN liked the expanded traversal tools, which provided more complexity and diversity to gameplay.[67] Kelly praised the design of tombs in the game, adding that the game had successfully conveyed "a sense of place and scale". While he felt that the puzzles were never too difficult, solving them remained nonetheless a very satisfying experience.[68] Kimberly Wallace from Game Informer also liked the player need to use the traversal tools at their disposal to solve puzzles.[64] While Tran strongly praised the game's level design, he felt that the platforming gameplay was imprecise, leading to frustration as Lara may frequently fall to her death.[65]

Wilson praised the open-endedness of the maps, and described the Peruvian jungles as a "gorgeous backdrop, lush and teeming with life". Rachel Weber from GamesRadar, however, felt that its hunting and crafting mechanics felt restrictive in a linear game, with the game frequently funneling players down the critical paths.[66] Olivia White from The Daily Telegraph wrote that the game's structure did not support most of its gameplay elements, such as crafting and role-playing progression, and that the gameplay was limiting, as newly acquired upgrades often have little to no use.[71] The hub world of Paititi was praised by O'Brien for being like a "real, lived-in city". However, she felt that the activities found in these areas to be unremarkable, and the side quests to be unimaginative in their design.[67] Tran also criticized the wealth of collectibles in the game, as it made collecting them a slog to go through.[65] Several critics also praised Eidos' world-building efforts, noting that wandering in its hub world provided a welcoming change of pace.[68][74] Critics generally lauded the game's production value,[68][70] with O'Brien praising the game's setpieces and action sequences, describing them as a "wonderfully orchestrated roller-coaster rides".[67]

O'Brien praised Lara's character development in the game and considered it an improvement over its predecessors, adding that it was an emotional conclusion of the Survivor trilogy.[67] Wallace felt that its exploration of Lara's unresolved traumas was interesting, though he felt that the game's ending, marketed as the "defining" moment of Lara's origin story, to be very underwhelming.[64] Wilson wrote that the game fell back to familiar narrative tropes despite promising something darker and more mature.[74] Keza MacDonald from The Guardian described the story as an "incoherent mess" and that it was filled with "narrative inconsistencies", while White called it "incomprehensible".[71][70] Lara's characterization was criticized. White wrote that she was behaving like a "whiny, bratty child".[71] Tran felt that Lara was difficult to emphasized with, as she made decisions that players will constantly disagree with in the story.[65] Wilson felt that Eidos failed to make this iteration of Lara likeable or relatable, adding that Shadow had a "contrived revenge story that no-one asked for" with no moment of levity.[74] Several critics, however, noted that the game's violent gameplay does not mesh with its story direction which depicts Lara as flawed, human character.[68][73][64][77] Several critics also regarded Lara's actions in the game for being neocolonialist in nature.[70][78] Byford wrote that its lack of gameplay innovation and its subpar story meant that it was a ultimately a disappointing entry in the series that failed to advance the franchise forward.[76]

Sales

[edit]

Upon release, Shadow of the Tomb Raider got off to a slow start in sales, attributed by Square Enix president Yosuke Matsuda to a lack of originality compared to other titles at the time. In the United Kingdoms, it was the second best-selling game of the week behind Marvel's Spider-Man. Its first week sales were 25% higher than that of Rise of the Tomb Raider, but 70% lower than the 2013 reboot.[79] In the United States, the game was the fifth best-selling title in September 2018.[80] By the end of December 2018, the game shipped 4.12 million units.[81] While it saw lower sales than many other titles of that year, Eidos-Montréal was very happy with its sales as well as its critical reception, prompting them to produce the DLC episodes.[82] By December 2021, it had sold 8.9 million units.[83]

Accolades

[edit]
Year Award Category Result Ref.
2018 Game Critics Awards Best Action/Adventure Game Nominated [84]
Golden Joystick Awards Best Audio Design Nominated [85][86]
The Game Awards Best Action/Adventure Nominated [87]
Gamers' Choice Awards Fan Favorite Character of the Year (Lara Croft) Nominated [88][89]
Fan Favorite Female Voice Actor (Camilla Luddington) Won
2019 Annie Awards Character Animation in a Video Game Nominated [90]
22nd Annual D.I.C.E. Awards Action Game of the Year Nominated [91]
17th Game Audio Network Guild Awards Audio of the Year Nominated [92][93]
Sound Design of the Year Nominated
Best Original Soundtrack Album Won
Best Interactive Score Won
Best Cinematic Cutscene Audio Nominated
Italian Video Game Awards People's Choice Nominated [94]

Future

[edit]

In a joint co-production between Netflix and Legendary Entertainment, an anime-style series adaptation based on the video game reboot franchise was in the works, titled Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft. The series will be primarily set after the events of Shadow of the Tomb Raider[95] and it fills in the gap of the Tomb Raider timeline, bridging the reboot trilogy to the original series of games.[96] Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft premiered on Netflix on October 10, 2024.

Square Enix sold Crystal Dynamics, Eidos-Montreal and the Tomb Raider intellectual property to Embracer Group in May 2022.[97] The next mainline Tomb Raider game, titled Tomb Raider Catalyst, is published by Amazon Games.[98] Catalyst will be a sequel to Tomb Raider: Underworld, with the Survivor trilogy being Lara's origin story. Set in Northern India, it is set to be released in 2027 for Windows, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and Series S.[99]

Notes

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  1. ^ Additional work by Crystal Dynamics. Windows and Stadia ports by Nixxes Software, and porting to Linux and macOS by Feral Interactive.
  2. ^ Only available in the Season Pass.

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Macgregor, Jody (August 20, 2018). "Shadow of the Tomb Raider trailer shows off its enemies". PC Gamer. Retrieved April 9, 2026.
  2. ^ a b c d e Favis, Elise (April 27, 2018). "Six Things We Learned While Playing Shadow Of The Tomb Raider". Game Informer. Retrieved April 9, 2026.
  3. ^ a b c d e f Bishop, Sam (September 14, 2018). "Shadow of the Tomb Raider Survival Guide". Gamereactor. Retrieved April 9, 2026.
  4. ^ Bell, Larryn (September 12, 2018). "Shadow of the Tomb Raider – Combat Tips". Prima Games. Retrieved April 9, 2026.
  5. ^ Sanchez, Miranda (August 8, 2018). "What's New in Shadow of the Tomb Raider - IGN First". IGN. Retrieved April 9, 2026.
  6. ^ Pearce, Alanah (April 27, 2018). "Shadow of the Tomb Raider Hands-On Preview". IGN. Retrieved April 9, 2026.
  7. ^ Boudreau, Ian (August 3, 2018). "Shadow of the Tomb Raider adds to Lara Croft's acrobatic moveset". PCGamesN. Retrieved April 9, 2026.
  8. ^ a b Campbell, Colin (September 14, 2018). "Seven reasons to love Shadow of the Tomb Raider". Polygon. Retrieved April 9, 2026.
  9. ^ a b Locke, Jennifer (September 15, 2018). "Seven tips for beginners in Shadow of the Tomb Raider". Windows Central. Retrieved April 9, 2026.
  10. ^ Espineli, Matt (September 18, 2018). "Shadow Of The Tomb Raider Guide: 9 Useful Beginner's Tips You Should Know". GameSpot. Retrieved April 9, 2026.
  11. ^ a b c Parkin, Jeffrey (September 18, 2018). "Shadow of the Tomb Raider tips guide". Polygon. Retrieved April 9, 2026.
  12. ^ Tuttle, Will (September 12, 2018). "5 Tips to Help Lara Succeed in Shadow of the Tomb Raider". Xbox Wire. Retrieved April 9, 2026.
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