Aemony 最近的评测

Shadow of the Tomb Raider "finishes" Lara's story that began in Tomb Raider (2013) and continued in Rise of the Tomb Raider. The gameplay is solid, but also nothing amazing. There is nothing new to see here -- if you've played and liked Tomb Raider (2013) or Rise of the Tomb Raider then you'll probably find this an enjoyable time waster as well, as long as you are fine with a game that sort of wastes your time and don't really reward you for it.

This adherence to the established expectations is also what generally weakens the game. For example, there are a lot of collectables in the game, but with little rhyme or reason to them. They're there to *feel* like worthwhile side content that adds to the lore, but in practice it's clear that their addition is little more than a lukewarm effort to tick a "[x] Has collectibles" box during development.

The challenge tombs and crypts are much the same, and even the side missions too. They all feel like they were primarily designed and implemented to ensure a checkbox could be ticked off by Crystal Dynamics, regardless of the consequences.

If you really start to think about what you are doing and exploring, everything tends to break down. The player and Lara Croft are portrayed as criminals with little concern for other people, their belongings, or feelings. You move through the world and steal, "explore", and raid everything of value around you, regardless of whether it's a beloved religious symbol, an ancient tomb, or the home of a family -- everything belongs to Lady Croft and screw everyone else, basically.

At the same time, most of these "super secret" and hidden tombs and crypts are often just a short walk away from the nearest center of civilization. Even areas hidden underwater would've been easily found and discovered by any bored teenager growing up. Lara's "achievements" (and so the player's) therefor feel hollow and completely worthless.

And this is the general feeling that runs throughout the whole game. Collectibles are thrown around here or there, and some of them are even duplicates of one another. NPCs can be "talked to", but only exists to give a barely relevant snippet of text that then highlights an equally barely relevant place on the map for another "secret" (often times the spoken lines don't even have anything to do with the unveiled map marker).

In Rise of the Tomb Raider, the crafting and upgrading system felt quite rewarding as everything was quite costly. In Shadow, on the other hand, it's the complete opposite -- if you play even a little bit as a completionist then you'll shortly find yourself rich beyond your wildest imaginations, capable of purchasing anything at any given moment, and so equally capable of upgrading everything at any point to their fullest. It feels like players complained a bit too much about the system and its balance in Rise, and the developers went all in in making the whole system useless in Shadow...

I still recommend the game since, as I mentioned earlier, it can be fun for players who liked the earlier games (such as myself), and who might overlook the weaknesses of it. But for new players, there is very little to be found here.

This DLC is a waste of time, and the premise of it is just... no. The whole DLC is just Lara undertaking a challenge meant for someone else (the "friend" in the description of the DLC)... A challenge actually meant to confirm/reaffirm the "ancient legacy" of said friend...

But no... instead of said friend stepping up to the challenge, growing as an individual, and earning the rewards, we have Lara fraking Croft going through the motions and achieving all of this and telling/describing/revealing everything to said friend.

That sure must've felt rewarding, didn't it, friend?! Right?! Friend?!?!? You sure must feel that you've earned all of this, don'tcha?!

I really didn't have any expectations going into this DLC but somehow I'm still disappointed. Removing the character interaction and story entirely and just have Lara explore yet another challenge tomb silently would've actually been better than what we got.

"Yer a Wizard, Harry!"

Short, straight-forward gameplay, and beautiful in the world it paints.

--- Early impressions (~14 hours) ---

It's fun, and I'm having a blast. The gameplay, while repetitive, is still engaging and at times challenging (playing on Hard difficulty).

The most egregious I cannot agree on is the asking price, which is a bit too steep for the overall game. But at like $40 I think most buyers would end up enjoying the experience they got out of the game.

Go into it with open eyes while not expecting a masterpiece, and maybe you'll end up finding a few key elements that keeps you playing.

--- Final review (60 hours) ---

The gameplay is good and exploring the world is fun, but I'm quite disappointed at the wasteful use of everyone involved in making it. It feels like it could've been so much better and more, and it's crazy how if you just do the main story line you'd be over and done with the game in around 14 hours and without even exploring or even touching *huge* parts of the world.

It's such a damn waste... Both how the story sorta kicked into high gear all of a sudden completely unexpected, as well as how "the break" basically prevented any sort of secondary hubs out in the world where you could get a ton of quests providing a reason for exploring the various areas.

I had the most fun when I just said "screw it" to the main story and just went off the path and explored every nook and cranny, and while it kept me engaged for some 60 hours at the moment (maybe a little bit more) it still feels ultimately quite useless since, well, there's not much variation in the side activities other than the difficulty of the enemies.

And discovering and beating the most difficult of enemies in the open world ultimately also felt pointless...

Really, the combat, parkour, and world traversal and exploration in general carried the game for me, but everything else feels like such a huge letdown.

I would still recommend it at a lower asking price, and going into it with open eyes, as its core gameplay loop might be engaging all of its own. I enjoyed my time with it, but I can't help but feel that this ended up being quite a letdown as it had the potential to be so much better and larger all around...

A great sequel to the first game, and one that improves upon the first one in various important ways that among other things ends up having the combat of the game not feeling like a complete walk in the park, even with full upgrades.

I am extremely glad this got made, and ended up so great, and hope that we'll see more in this franchise.

It can take awhile to get used to the visual design and quick turns, and until then they can feel disorienting. But what's behind that is a fun little time waster if one just wants to race in a really great reimagining of the classic retro racing style.

<3

Went in expecting a stereotypical hack 'n slash game with some 12-15 hours of gameplay but ended up with a 50+ hours game (completionist) that kept the interest up all throughout.

For smashing so many containers, chests, urns, and what-have-you, and even spending probably an hour or two just sailing around the world, it surprisingly never really got boring.

I did not know what I was going into...

The game hooked me from the start, and I completed the whole game and three out of its four endings (including the canon ending) in one sitting -- some 7 hours or so of playing.

For those wanting a time loop type of game with layers on top of layers, this game is a must to try out!

What I thought was a random and quick meeting turned out to be a game long companion.

Giant Bomb's summary is truly apt:
“Journey stands as a prime example of the truly remarkable things that can be done via this medium.”