Shadow of the Tomb Raider - Review Thread (Read OP)

Deleted member 17388 · Sep 10, 2018

Semfry said:
This will continue to happen as long as Eidos is behind the series. They want their assembly line franchise and force the chosen devs to pump out game after game with no real time to truly innovate or iterate on what they have until the games are so obviously compromised they can't any more. From all the stories that have leaked of Eidos' treatment of Core it happened back then, and now very likely that it's happened with Crystal Dynamics twice (even setting aside Eidos handing this game to another dev because god forbid the series get a few years breather while Crystal work on something else). As long as Eidos force every non-emergency reboot game to be pumped out on a 1-3 year cycle the series is always doomed.

Eh, I agree, but they have given Crystal enough time and resources, specially after Square-Enix buyout, maybe the talent (Or care) for this specific franchise don't reside there*. Still, EIDOS/SE Europe is at fault for badly managing the franchise the last two decades. They have doubled down on the same mistakes over and over, they are the ones calling the shots after all.

* And I'm sure EIDOS Montreal just took the workload for the latest entry rather than actively creating their own. Crystal already had laid out the route this game has.

kpaadet · Sep 10, 2018

AdaWong said:
I still see posts to this day about being "burnt" that the reboot is more about marketing than actual gameplay, sis. I'm not talking out of my ass; the hate for this reboot is strangely loud, but not always for the reasons you'd think.

You are aware these reviews are by professional reviews and not sour platform warriors brah? But please don't let me interfere with your conspiracy crusade, I'm sure it would be a new metacritic record if only these petty reviews didn't hate TR because of prior timed exclusivity.

More_Badass · Sep 10, 2018

Joey T said:
Oh for sure. It's also funny how a site on which a lot of people claim "review scores don't matter" and "game sites should drop scores", this game is getting put through the ringer for holding a ~80 metascore.

The forum isn't a monolith. The people who post in threads about why game review scores are mostly a net negative and whatnot likely arent the same people posting about how a 80% MC is trash

Deleted member 35598 · Sep 10, 2018

AdaWong said:
The outrageous and irrational hate is stemming from three main outlets lol: the UC bias, the stigma from old fans towards reboot and finally, some spider-man fans that were hurt about that "we are not worried about spider-man" quote from Shadow's marketing team. There's also a good chance some people are still butthurt to this day about the Rise exclusivity deal.

I guess there is still some Rise vitriol there, it's a bit that's sad. You should just review the game without taking that in consideration. I mean 77 on PS4 ? That way too low in comparison to PC and Xbox, so the bias cannot be denied. Sad.

RedOnePunch · Sep 10, 2018

Game seems to be shaping up well. Less combat and more exploration is good to hear (ACG Review) and from some of the dialogue I heard, she sounds more like a nuanced human being and less like a cardboard cutout.

Ruslnis said:
I guess they didn't fix the story and characters....
Shame

Yeah I'm honestly not expecting them to fix it if they didn't with Rise, which I felt was even worse than the first game.

Barrel Cannon · Sep 10, 2018

Some solid impressions so far. Looks great for people who like these types of Uncharted/Tomb Raider titles.

Black_Stride · Sep 10, 2018

Wait does this game use prerendered cutscenes?
The cutscenes look incredible while gameplay sections look well below what i would expect lategen

Skii · Sep 10, 2018

bigol said:
Why such disparity between the Ps4 and Xbox One version metacritic scores? Number of reviews is more or less the same, too.

Sony obviously paid reviewers of PS4 copies to give lower scores to ensure naughty gods have no competition for the foreseeable future.

xolsec · Sep 10, 2018

I'm curious about the point difference too...

AdaWong · Sep 10, 2018

kpaadet said:
You are aware these reviews are by official reviews and not sour platform warriors brah? But please don't let me interfere with your conspiracy crusade, I'm sure it would be a new metacritic record if only these petty reviews didn't hate TR because of prior timed exclusivity.

First off, I have not a SINGLE time in this thread (or anywhere) talked shit about a specific review of this game no matter what the score is- after all, they are all opinions really. What I'm talking about here is the fan-reactions and co-signatures to a game they have not played yet. No conspiracies; just observations.

Suburban Thug · Sep 10, 2018

Trying to decide if I should go back and play Rise before Shadow drops at the end of the week. I'm afraid I'll get burnt out or fatigued - any idea how long the game is? I've been able to beat the previous entries in 10-12 hours so I'm hoping for something around that length.

Dust · Sep 10, 2018

AdaWong said:
Then you would express your dislike towards 2013 and Rise, not Shadow; a game you have not played yet. Is that hard to understand?

...but...reviewers had?

Era of not Yakuza · Sep 10, 2018

Conspiracy theorists are at full steam, aren't they ?

Hawk269 · Sep 10, 2018

Based on some of the reviews I have read, there seems to be less combat and more just exploring, which is great. I loved the times in Rise where it was just Lara figuring out a puzzle or exploring and figuring out how to get somewhere. The combat when it was there was pretty good, but glad that in Shadow there is less combat and more exploring etc. That footage that the IGN Video Review showed looked incredible.

Keikaku · Sep 10, 2018

The PS4 score seems to be in line when compared to GOW and Spidey. Xbox and pc reviewers probably haven't played a decent game in a while.

xolsec · Sep 10, 2018

I'm curious about the point difference too...

AdaWong · Sep 10, 2018

Black_Stride said:
Wait does this game use prerendered cutscenes?
The cutscenes look incredible while gameplay sections look well below what i would expect lategen

I think in some cutscenes you can see Lara wearing different clothes which implies that like previously they are in-game! Although I would love to get confirmation from people that have played the game, as I'm not too sure.

Gonzalo · Sep 10, 2018

Anti fun reviews once again!!!

Let's face it here, most of these reviewers are only in it for the money.

xolsec · Sep 10, 2018

Keikaku said:
The PS4 score seems to be in line when compared to GOW and Spidey. Xbox and pc reviewers probably haven't played a decent game in a while.

Seems fair

Hawk269 · Sep 10, 2018

Keikaku said:
The PS4 score seems to be in line when compared to GOW and Spidey. Xbox and pc reviewers probably haven't played a decent game in a while.

Really? There are a lot of "shit posts" strewn in this thread, but you my friend just took the cake! Just wow!

Malcolm9 · Sep 10, 2018

AdaWong said:
First off, I have not a SINGLE time in this thread (or anywhere) talked shit about a specific review of this game no matter what the score is- after all, they are all opinions really. What I'm talking about here is the fan-reactions and co-signatures to a game they have not played yet. No conspiracies; just observations.

Well considering it is "more of the same" it's not really hard to form an opinion. I personally enjoy the games so I look forward to picking it up in the inevitable Xmas sales.

Era of not Yakuza · Sep 10, 2018

The Eurogamer one seems really honest about their feelings reggarding the game:

Care of a battered hand-me-down disc, Tomb Raider 2 is one of the very first games I remember playing that had something resembling character. Lara Croft was an unstoppable force, smirking in the face of danger and racing forward to the next challenge. She was beautiful and curvaceous, yes, and intelligent too. She was also a millionaire who could afford home gyms and butlers and walk-in freezers - she didn't need the money or the infamy that all these dusty old relics provided. That's why I loved her; she did it all and risked everything just for the thrill of the hunt, and had a damn good time while she did it.

That Lara was dead and buried in her tiny 90s sunglasses with 2013's Tomb Raider reboot, which cast Croft as a frightened and shaken ingenue thrust into horrific circumstances on the island of Yamatai, where she was forced to do whatever she could to survive. This chain of events supposedly started her down the path to becoming an iconic adventurer, but ever since that outing, I've been waiting for her to regain that thrill-seeking bravado that I fell in love with, which coincidentally happened to be the reason she's willing to put herself in any of these ridiculous life-threatening situations in the first place. After playing this, the third of the prequel trilogy and the first from Eidos Montreal, I'm sadly still waiting.

AdaWong · Sep 10, 2018

Dust said:
...but...reviewers had?

....but....that's not my point? I'm talking about the fan reactions. Not the reviews themselves. It's pretty irrational for someone that didn't like 2013 and Rise to come into this thread, cosign one of the few negative reviews and shit-post about the game when they themselves have not played it yet. Now, you might say "but if I share the same opinion with the reviewer, chances are I will have the same opinion about this game too" to which I'll respond with multiple reviews from people that hated the two reboot entries but rated Shadow as one of their all-time favorite Tomb Raider game. Just don't troll, that's what I'm getting at.

Malcolm9 said:
Well considering it is "more of the same" it's not really hard to form an opinion. I personally enjoy the games so I look forward to picking it up in the inevitable Xmas sales.

See above, please. :)

Elandyll · Sep 10, 2018

Ex-Actarus said:
I guess there is still some Rise vitriol there, it's a bit that's sad. You should just review the game without taking that in consideration. I mean 77 on PS4 ? That way too low in comparison to PC and Xbox, so the bias cannot be denied. Sad.

That's got to be sarcasm...

kpaadet · Sep 10, 2018

AdaWong said:
First off, I have not a SINGLE time in this thread (or anywhere) talked shit about a specific review of this game no matter what the score is- after all, they are all opinions really. What I'm talking about here is the fan-reactions and co-signatures to a game they have not played yet. No conspiracies; just observations.

You responded to this comment (which if you look at the PS4 version metacritic site is totally wrong).

Ex-Actarus said:
It seems the PlayStation sites and magazines are hating on the game. I call that Uncharted bias.

With your timed exclusivity theory drivel, how else am I suppose to interpret that?

jem · Sep 10, 2018

Keikaku said:
The PS4 score seems to be in line when compared to GOW and Spidey. Xbox and pc reviewers probably haven't played a decent game in a while.

Lol, this cannot be serious.

Magoo · Sep 10, 2018

If the lower scores are from PS supporting reviewers still mad about Rise does that mean the higher ones are from MS supporting ones bigging it up and ignoring faults because the last was exclusive for a year too?

Where does the conspiracy end.

Are we sure nobody from The Guardian is related to anyone from Core Design and they marked it down because all they wanted was that Angel of Darkness sequel. The Kurtis Trent poster on the wall a constant reminder of what could have been.

Nauren · Sep 10, 2018

I was going to get this and pick up Valkyroa Chronicles 4 later, but I may reverse the order now.

~Fake · Sep 10, 2018

The era of Luigi said:
The Eurogamer one seems really honest about their feelings reggarding the game:

Indeed. I like her reviewrs for that.

Splader · Sep 10, 2018

Has anyone checked whether those that played it on the One X (or the PS4 Pro, to a lesser extent) reviewed it any better than the ones playing on the base consoles? I'm interested to see whether the performance difference affects the scores as well.

brokenswiftie · Sep 10, 2018

Suburban Thug said:
Trying to decide if I should go back and play Rise before Shadow drops at the end of the week. I'm afraid I'll get burnt out or fatigued - any idea how long the game is? I've been able to beat the previous entries in 10-12 hours so I'm hoping for something around that length.

You could beat rise in around 10 hrs if u just focus on the story and play on adventurer

deadpixels · Sep 10, 2018

I scored the game a 4.5/5 in our review over at HeyPoorPlayer. Personally, I loved the updates to the stealth mechanics as well as the challenge tombs, which have plenty of visual variety and provide some great puzzles. While the story isn't Shakespeare, it's perfectly servicable and Jonah and Lara's chemistry is better than ever. Oh, and Paititi is massive and features a ton of well designed side quests to undertake.

That said, I enjoyed Shadow more than both of the previous games in the trilogy. My biggest gripe is that the story seems to wrap up just as things are getting really interesting.

You can find the full review here: https://www.heypoorplayer.com/2018/09/10/shadow-tomb-raider-review-xbox-one/

Vishmarx · Sep 10, 2018

AdaWong said:
Playing enough Tomb Raider games I should know how to hold on pretty well.

goodbye era, we hardly knew each other.

Deleted member 9857 · Sep 10, 2018

kinda surprised that it only netted a 7.5 from Game Informer

I'll probably wait for a sale on this one, too much other stuff coming out Aug-Oct

Nauren said:
I was going to get this and pick up Valkyria Chronicles 4 later, but I may reverse the order now.

pretty much this, getting VC4 day 1 for sure

Vaelic · Sep 10, 2018

Here's a novel idea... make up your own mind and... determine if you want to buy the game, then... and only then... determine if YOU like it

This isn't complicated

Servbot24 · Sep 10, 2018

Gonzalo said:
Anti fun reviews once again!!!

Let's face it here, most of these reviewers are only in it for the money.

Stop spreading that ignorant nonsense.

illmatic22 · Sep 10, 2018

Ex-Actarus said:
It seems the PlayStation sites and magazines are hating on the game. I call that Uncharted bias.

Lmao

AdaWong said:
The outrageous and irrational hate is stemming from three main outlets lol: the UC bias, the stigma from old fans towards reboot and finally, some spider-man fans that were hurt about that "we are not worried about spider-man" quote from Shadow's marketing team. There's also a good chance some people are still butthurt to this day about the Rise exclusivity deal.

Hahahahahahaha

Era of not Yakuza · Sep 10, 2018

Hawk269 said:
Really? There are a lot of "shit posts" strewn in this thread, but you my friend just took the cake! Just wow!

It is not like things like this doesn't happen. If I remember correctly DriveClub launch was close to Forza Horizon 2 and a lot of reviews compared the two... and from my perspective both offered a different experience.

Christopher · Sep 10, 2018

PS4 Metacritic is 77. Xbox One Metacritic is 83. PC metacritic is 81. There isn't a incredible gap between any of these. So....what is the conspiracy theory here again?

Nimby · Sep 10, 2018

This place should just nuke review threads. Such a great civil discussion to be had here behind the score arguments, claims of reviewer bias, and console fan-baby wars.

Sitting through the Spider-Man thread and now this is just a headache.

nib95 · Sep 10, 2018

Zappy said:
Don't think those publications shift the needle much, they have a low weighting I assume. IGN reviewed on Xbox and will have a high weighting and have it a 90. Probably explains a lot of the difference.

I don't think the weighting difference is that much, hence why metacritic and OpenCritic are generally only within a point of each other if not the same score. Here it's a bit of a different situation due to the platform skew, but there have been other games where the Xbox One version has scored notably higher, eg NBA 2K18 and Assassin's Creed Origins. I guess the discrepancy with SotTR is a combination of the Telegraph review, the Xbox centric sites and IGN's score.

Deleted member 135 · Sep 10, 2018

Gonzalo said:
Anti fun reviews once again!!!

Let's face it here, most of these reviewers are only in it for the money.

So you are implying that these reviewers are being bribed to give RoTR mediocre reviews?

Grenchel · Sep 10, 2018

Gonzalo said:
Anti fun reviews once again!!!

Let's face it here, most of these reviewers are only in it for the money.

You don't become a video game reviewer for the money lol

Vishmarx · Sep 10, 2018

Christopher said:
PS4 Metacritic is 77. Xbox One Metacritic is 83. PC metacritic is 81. There isn't a incredible gap between any of these. So....what is the conspiracy theory here again?

ps4 reviewers are biased are salty about rise
xbox reviewers are biased and ignoring its faults
pc reviewers..are..RTX ON!...i dunno

Gamer17 · Sep 10, 2018

AdaWong said:
The outrageous and irrational hate is stemming from three main outlets lol: the UC bias, the stigma from old fans towards reboot and finally, some spider-man fans that were hurt about that "we are not worried about spider-man" quote from Shadow's marketing team. There's also a good chance some people are still butthurt to this day about the Rise exclusivity deal.

Are you listening to your self ? Everybody is out to get this game lol .get a grip man

NullPointer · Sep 10, 2018

OK, so two random but super-important and super nit-pick questions for me:

* Do collectibles with audio require you to stay within the menu to listen to them? Or can you do the Bioshock and listen on the go?

* Is there a point in the game where Lara has to work her way across an entire level only to have Trinity enter at the very very end by blowing up a wall or rappelling down soldiers from helicopters? Because I'm starting to think that these Tombcharted/Unraider games are somehow required to do this by law.

Edge · Sep 10, 2018

Will wait for the GamePass version. There is zero time for this at the moment and it seems..... Like you aren't missing much here.

Deleted member 8408 · Sep 10, 2018

The big thing I'm yet to see anyone touch on is this...

Who paid off the PC reviewers? Which side of the conspiracy do those reviews fall on?

Were they paid off by the Xbox team to ensure the Xbox One is deemed the home of Tomb Raider, the best place to play Shadow of the Tomb Raider?

Or were they part of the Pro PlayStation initiative that is currently taking the Internet by storm? We're the scores artificially lowered to ensure Spiderman doesn't have his toes stepped on during his quest for Fall chart dominance? Or was it to protect Naughty Dog to ensure the Uncharted series remains the number one contemporary Tomb Raider experience? Not forgetting the final theory, which is the most sinister one, are Sony still salty over the Rise of the Tomb Raider exclusivity and sought out to sabotage the reviews on all platforms other than Xbox?

I don't know guys, nothing seems clear to me.

I Wanna Be The Guy · Sep 10, 2018

Nimby said:
This place should just nuke review threads. Such a great civil discussion to be had here behind the score arguments, claims of reviewer bias, and console fan-baby wars.

Sitting through the Spider-Man thread and now this is just a headache.

Indeed. I can't wait for the actual OT for the game gets made so some actual discussion about the game can be had.

Gamer17 · Sep 10, 2018

Ex-Actarus said:
I guess there is still some Rise vitriol there, it's a bit that's sad. You should just review the game without taking that in consideration. I mean 77 on PS4 ? That way too low in comparison to PC and Xbox, so the bias cannot be denied. Sad.

Is this post serious or sarcasm .I can't tell anymore in this thread

Shadow of the Tomb Raider - Review Thread (Read OP)

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