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View Poll Results: Which reboot Tomb Raider game is your overall favourite?
Tomb Raider 46 17.97%
Rise of the Tomb Raider 80 31.25%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 107 41.80%
March of the Penguins 23 8.98%
Voters: 256. You may not vote on this poll

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Old 03-01-20, 12:56   #131
jackoimina
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It's incredible how different opinions everyone has specifically on this subject, ranking the games in the trilogy, I'm surprised..

Personally, TR2013 is in my book the complete and amazingly well done origin game for LC. Lara's character progression from beginning to the end of the game is very clear and on point (comparing the whiny Lara at the start and the crazy powerful girl at the end shows a CLEAR difference in character but throughout the game it's a very natural progression from one to the other), Roth was very well realised as well and served his purpose in the story in satisfying way, Yamatai is an amazing location and it's lore and history was very richly imagined. The only problem I had ofc like many others here is that there were very little tombs involved in the main story for a TR game but it doesn't ruin the quality of the game in general. In this origin story even Lara's duals have a small meaningful origin narrative of their own, first we see Roth using them, defending himself from the wolves (I was so happy than "omg he has dual guns!" but I also imeddiately knew he will die bc those will belong to LC hahaha), than he saves Lara's life and leaves her the guns, than she gives one to Sam and keeps one so they can both be safe, than at the end bc Sam's gun ended up with Mathias in that last minute LC grabs it and uses both Roth's guns to defeat him and the game is pretty much ended. It was a really good origin story.

After that they wanted more money. Rise was a horrible filler game imo, no character development whatsoever for LC, what she achieved in TReboot was practically undone here and she was again LC from the begining/middle of the island storyline, dual guns ditched for some reason completely, even in Syria where she came prepared, all expandable characters across the board no matter how interesting and fllled with potential they were, Jonah is useless and has no impact on the story, he is there at one point to get kidnapped so the game is prolonged a little bit, to get killed so we get tricked into an emotional reaction (didn't work for me) and than get back to life bc no consequences whatsoever. The mythology and mystery around The Divine Source is vague and messy, never really explained, no major reveals, no surprises and twists (I saw the Ana 'twist' coming from a mile, Jacob = Prophet did surprise me but I didn't care about him at all as a character and didn't care about the mystery of the Prophet either due to horrible narrative design choices so when they combined into one person it was all the same to me, I just wanted to find Kitezh at that point and finish the game). At the end, LC is exactly the same and everything is wrapped up in a way that has no effect on the trilogy's story, the whole game served for only one little thing and that is setting up the family drama to be resolved in Shadow. Pluses are beautiful graphics, Syria level and tombs.

Shadow I do like a lot but it's a mixed bag. It ignores Rise completely and you can play TR2013 and go straight into Shadow without having a single question or hole in your understanding of the story, the flashback impacts the TR2013 scene when she says 'Im not that kind of Croft' and I love that, but Anna is completely absent from that flashback so you can easily pick up from 2013, see that her father killed himself and by the end of Shadow you realise he was actually killed. Anna never existed and isn't mentioned once as an agent or as a person that existed in Lara's life and in the Croft family. If she was mentioned in pasing in some random document god knows where throughout the game I don't remember it and I played Shadow 3 times now, that's how much Rise's characters and story are important to the trilogy. Shadow looks and feels imo like a true TR game the most out of the trilogy and I enjoyed the tombs and exploration parts but also LCs and Jonah's relationship. They finally decided to make Jonah a character, not a plot device. Pacing was ruined by Paititi and that's a shame, they couldn't decide what was more importantto them: good narrative or giant hub to boost exploration. I was not that much into exploration when the story says I am racing against time to save the ****ing world haha

That's it for me TR2013 should've been THE ORIGIN story of LC and than Shadow and than somewhere down the line Rise as a separate adventure in Syria and Siberia
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Old 03-01-20, 13:41   #132
Zebra
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The 2013 game. Its gameplay formula was about as far away from what I'd like to see in a Tomb Raider game as you can get (short of turning it into a top-down strategy game or FIFA) but it was at least fun in its own right. It had a nice atmosphere at times, the level design wasn't terrible and there were some aspects of the story that were actually interesting (even though it was pretty bad overall).

That is more than I can say for Rise or Shadow whose stories were just insultingly bad. Their level design felt too loose and uninspired, their gameplay boring,... Their main redeeming quality were their graphics.
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Old 03-01-20, 16:12   #133
Samz
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2013.

Admittingly for the petty reason that It's shorter than Rise.

I dunno, I alternate between Rise. (Because Blood Ties) except I'm not sure since A: thats a DLC and B: wasn't even made by Crystal.

But 2013 also I'm pretty sure is over shorter so if you forced me at gunpoint to recommend one, it'd be 2013 since I would never advise getting a game just for DLC.
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Old 03-01-20, 16:37   #134
dg1995
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Shadow.

It's the most TR game out of all of them. The other 2 are too action focused.
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Old 03-01-20, 17:22   #135
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Ok I'm sorry in advance I will again be harsh about TR 2013

Quote:
Originally Posted by Zebra View Post
The 2013 game. [...] the level design wasn't terrible

That is more than I can say for Rise or Shadow [...] Their level design felt too loose and uninspired
I'm actually really surprised to read this compliment ! I actually think it was mainly terrible. I mean, yeah they did a good job with Shipwreack Beach and Montain Village but they are the clear exceptions. The rest felt like disguised corridors during the entire game, I really felt they were no effort done in this game than ever in level design and that is a shame...
If I was to chose where the level design was the most alright in this era : Syria, Abandonned Mines, Flooded Archives, San Cordoba, Tree of Life and maybe Cenote. Well that is all I have in mind.

Last edited by Chamayoo; 03-01-20 at 17:29.
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Old 03-01-20, 18:53   #136
Costel
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TR 2013 had the best hubs.
Rise had the best tombs visually.
Shadow had the best puzzles.
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Old 09-01-20, 08:00   #137
JoelCaesar
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Costel View Post
TR 2013 had the best hubs.
Rise had the best tombs visually.
Shadow had the best puzzles.
I agree with this.
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Old 13-01-20, 18:00   #138
Kivlov
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Costel View Post
Shadow had the best puzzles.
But most of which are based on a bow and a rope. The most memorable and interesting puzzle was with mirrors and light sources in one of the tombs. Everything rest is quite mediocre. For all 3 games of the reboot I'm a tired of the bow and rope-arrows. You're not?
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Old 13-01-20, 19:12   #139
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Rise of the Tomb Raider because I love the concept that the AOD classic Lara skin has facial animation so Lara can just open up her mouth as she talks!! That's the thing I like about Rise of the Tomb Raider like the Tomb Raider franchise & all the rest of the studio will take so much care into the franchise very well like I never even want Square Enix to bother selling the rights to the Tomb Raider franchise at all!! Because Lara deserves to live for a very very very long time!!
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Old 13-01-20, 21:30   #140
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I’m torn, I voted for Shadow because of its puzzles, platforming, exploration, and atmosphere, however, story-wise it has a lot of problems and ultimately just recycles plot points from previous games and movies, making for a lackluster conclusion to Lara’s origins. 2013 is the opposite, it has simplistic combat-focused gameplay that neglects many of the things that made me love the series in the first place, but the story is focused and provides a satisfying character arc for Lara.
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