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Old 12-06-20, 01:22   #11
jajay119
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I personally feel Shadow feels more of a direct sequel to the reboot than rise does. In most aspects: story, characterisation, visual design of some characters, jonah mainly, and the gameplay went where i wanted it to go after the reboot too. Rise to me really feels like it retreats a lot of the reboot in terms of gameplay and I dont enjoy the story due to the predictability of the characters involved and the overall story being way to focused on Lara'a family. Shadow still includes references to Lara's family but in a much lesser sense and is done in quite a cute way. You dont need to have played Rise at all to understand any part of Shadow's story and one important part is retold in Shadow so it becomes self contained on many aspects. The only thing that will feel off is not really knowing who Trinity are as much but it's not a deal breaker as Trinity ended up being a plot device I thought was more of a hindrance due to how they were portrayed in Rise so perhaps its better to play Shadow not knowing that.
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Old 12-06-20, 01:24   #12
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Originally Posted by Ashnod View Post
I disagree slightly. There are elements here and there, which I don't want to spoil for the OP, which lose their context if you don't know what happened in Rise.

The primary narrative of Shadow is not affected, I agree, but I do think the experience is better for knowing the events and characters of the prior game.
the only primary thing I can think of is Trinity killing her father and Shadow has a whole playable level about it. The very first document in Shadow (You get after crawling out of the hole) has a very simple text explaining who trinity is and the second document (a photo of jonah) has Lara explaining how she met Jonah and what they did up until the begining of shadow. If he wants to know the basic information from past games just keep an eye on Lara's Journals.
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Old 12-06-20, 01:49   #13
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the only primary thing I can think of is *redacted*
There's also Anna, her death, Rourke's involvement with it, her appearance in the nightmare dlc hallunication, and a few other scattered things.
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Old 12-06-20, 02:18   #14
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Those things are mere mentions though, nothing essential to the plot.
Rourke himself is barely important in the game beyond taunting Lara.
I don't even remember what was said now. Sure you may wonder who is being talked about, but it's not necessary to understand Shadow's plot.

The stuff with Lara's dad is gone over again in Shadow, you really don't need Rise in order to understand it.

I really enjoyed Rise or on the most part, until the end. It's a fun game and imo, does improve on TR'13. There are some nice moments, especially Baba Yaga and Croft Manor DLC, but going by what the OP says he prefers out of gameplay, Shadow is still the better option.

Last edited by Rai; 12-06-20 at 02:22.
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Old 12-06-20, 09:15   #15
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The only things you'll miss from rise are Daddy issues, mom dad love story and broadhead climbing arrows.
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Old 12-06-20, 09:56   #16
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While ROTTR plot isn't vital to play Shadow, it does shed some lights on some of the stuff and what's happening is Shadow. If you don't care for this kind of plot detail, you can jump into Shadow right away.

As mentioned in previous posts, Shadow has a rundown of everything that's happening in the documents/photos/Lara's journal.

Gameplay wise, ROTTR is bit more action focused, whereas Shadow sacrificed action (a bit too much, IMO) in favor of exploration. If you're into exploration, and solving stuff I think you'll have a great time with Shadow. And I advise you to set the difficulty on hard so it hides the white paint, which can help make some stuff not so obvious and more immersive
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Old 12-06-20, 10:15   #17
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you have to also bear in mind that Rise has Blood Ties. One of the best TR levels of all time. A must play for every TR fan.
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Old 12-06-20, 10:22   #18
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Blackmoor View Post
Hmm, I'm interested to know what these things are, it's possible I'm not remembering everything.
My first thought was maybe all the flashbacks but than again I think that was overall a lazy way of dealing with that part of narrative bc a few short flashbacks made me feel exactly zero things about Lara's childhood and Richard's death. Shadow has a playable flashback sequence that is masterfully done, plays into nostalgia with CM, sheds light on her parents and her father's death in a much better way that renders everything family-related in Rise - a waste of time (Blood Ties DLC excluded, that was worth it imo)

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There's also Anna, her death, Rourke's involvement with it, her appearance in the nightmare dlc hallunication, and a few other scattered things.
I guess these are all interesting little details but they don't affect Shadow story in any way. Anna is in general imo the biggest wasted potential in a character in this trilogy but I won't get into it here bc I already discussed it in another thread about future TR characters

One beautiful level he will miss though is Syria, I love replaying that part every now and than. Not a gameplay challange but visually it's a stunning piece of TR xD
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Old 12-06-20, 12:34   #19
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Quote:
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There's also *spoilers*, and a few other scattered things.
Yeah, I still think you don't need to know these to understand Shadow. Like jackoimina wrote and Rai also covered, they're interesting details but they don't affect the story of Shadow.

Quote:
Originally Posted by jackoimina
My first thought was maybe all the flashbacks but than again I think that was overall a lazy way of dealing with that part of narrative bc a few short flashbacks made me feel exactly zero things about [*spoilers*] in a much better way that renders everything family-related in Rise - a waste of time (Blood Ties DLC excluded, that was worth it imo)
I thought about these elements too and like you felt that they were done better in Shadow - I felt very emotional about certain elements in Shadow that had zero impact on me in Rise, they were just done better. But also that you don't need to be exposed to ideas prior to this to experience and undersand them in Shadow.
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Old 12-06-20, 13:07   #20
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As I said - I agree, they don't affect Shadow's primary narrative.

But they are things, that taken without the context of Rise, just get thrown out there and will make little sense. And I still think the experience of Shadow is better for understanding them when they appear.
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