Powerful PuzzlingFor the most part, however, Lara spends her time alone. Jonah has always been a reliable voice of reason to Lara’s flights of fancy, but he, too, evolves in this iteration and the subtle shifts in their dynamic are fun to watch. She’s well supported by series veteran Earl Baylon’s Jonah, who is her only regular confidant this time around. The tonal jumps the script demands might be jarring in lesser hands, but Luddington manages to convey empathy and introspection in one breath while believably talking about a magical artefact that can ‘remake the world’ in another. It helps that Lara’s voice actress, Camilla Luddington, treads the tightrope between the vulnerable and the ridiculous with such ease. A playable flashback sequence, in particular, does a wonderful job at illustrating Lara’s home life before she became a cold-blooded killer, and adds more poignancy to the finale. Her obsession is put into question, but we’re also reminded of the reasons behind it. Play Shadow of the Tomb Raider also skillfully hits all the emotional moments needed to satisfyingly wrap up Lara’s quest that began in 2013.
It’s a surprising and delicately-told development for the character and adds a shade of warm humanity that was not there in 2013’s Tomb Raider or 2015’s Rise of The Tomb Raider (and certainly not in this year’s dud of a film adaptation). Lara isn’t so much narcissistic as awkward and introverted, only really comfortable when alone in her dangerous element. It’s Lara who is obsessed this time, of course, and while the first act suggests a descent into narcissism (which could get tedious across 25 hours), her character is handled with a lighter touch. Beneath that, though, the nature of obsession is once again the well-crafted underlying theme. Moments of big, blockbuster-style scripted action return skin-of-your-teeth action sequences that hurtle Lara across crumbling earth and bullet-peppered buildings, and feel like wonderfully orchestrated roller-coaster rides. This time it’s centered around an impending apocalypse and the search for the ancient item that can prevent it that propels Lara through the dark guts of South America. Shadow of the Tomb Raider tells a great story that continues the series’ tradition of high-concept, Indiana Jones-style mumbo jumbo.
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