Video: Perilous platforming and jaguar extermination makes Shadow of the Tomb Raider classic Croft

I often wonder what freakish individuals were enlisted into focus testing to give publishers the idea that everyone wants things mean and moody. Had they invited me, there would be more games set in cheery pubs where you win by having the best bit of nostalgia about early noughties television. Also, the health system would be built entirely on the consumption of floral gums. There is none of that stuff in Shadow of the Tomb Raider, but for a game that is touted as a brutalising hell slog, I m surprised by how much fun I had with its first five hours. It s a tropical paradise full of unmarked platforming and preposterous animal attacks; it is, in other words, classic Tomb Raider. Further thoughts in this video.

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