Shadow of the Tomb raider Review - Worthabuy? 

I saved so much money by switching to Worth A Buy reviews instead of the sponsored RU-vidrs

The funfactor is shrinking as fast as her cupsize.

What a waste of really nice graphics.

After Halo 3, I expected as a lad to see AI in games blow our fucking minds by now. The challenges and replayability would be potentially endless with proper, next-level AI working together and the game would be a puzzle in itself, like the Original Halo Trilogy but to an Nth degree. I was excited. Instead, AAA publishers used their resources this generation on fucking resolution bumps and loot boxes, making shit games and ruining existing franchises to make a quick dollar. And people wonder why I'm so cynical.

THANK YOU!!!!

I'm playing it now and its not awful but painfully average. Should have waited for a sale. AI is shit like mack said.

Love your content . Most honest reviewer out there

And it's using Denuvo, a very anti-consumer DRM. Maybe it would be worth mentioning that in future reviews.

Tomb Raider has lost its identity. Developers keep chasing current industry trends instead of setting itself apart from other games. I miss the old Tomb Raider games.

Her crying at the end nearly killed me haha!

3 games in and this is what you get. At this point you'd expect her to be back to her original self, confident and fearless, and sporting 2 pistols. But nope, she's still pussnboots, as if she hasn't changed at all since the first game like this. This has turned into call of duty or assassin's creed, where they want to just keep doing the same thing over and over, to print money. So long as it works, you're going to have a never ending supply of these, all pretty much the same.

Thank God for WAB and thank God for Mack. Finally, someone uploads something worth watching on YT today.

A few of my buddies were developers on that game. According to them, some of the people on the team were so discouraged and bored, they did literally nothing all day without anyone keeping them accountable. Its sad really.

I can't understand game design where the designers come up with a challenge/problem to the player (like the diving sections) and then immediately introduce a singular, very specific way to counter/solve that challenge (the air pockets dispersed at exactly right interval to avoid drowning). What is the point of such a challenge when the entire challenge is timed perfectly around the "objects" used to solve the challenge/problem? They should at least put the air pockets away from the main course so that the player had to use their eyes to find them instead of planting them in the middle of the path.

"Shadow of the Tomb Raider" - at least they got the title right. This game is merely a shadow of the original series, it's a dumbed down casual game for spoiled brats, who never got to experience the real Tomb Raider series. The same spoiled brats are probably laughing their asses off, when watching youtube videos, comparing the old games with the new ones: "OMG such bad graphics xDDD, no scripted events and no boom boom bang xddddd. Mum get me my chicken tendies, mooom pls gib credit card, i need to get sum DLC for muh Tomb Raider xdd!".

"This game was developed by a diverse group of people of all types of genders, races, and creeds."

Good review Mac. How many floppy disks for this game?

Tomb raider: intense, great Rise: mmmm slower but... still good i guess Shadow: meh...

I mean the original Tomb Raider games didn't age all that well but they're way better than this - the series has gotten so homogenized; regenerating health, dull stealth, easy platforming that plays itself and whiny arse Lara who you'd think would be a fucking badass after saving the world twice before and hunting down all sorts of mercenaries, predators and otherworldly entities. I miss the old Lara, I want her back dammit where the games were an actual fun challenge. And for the love of fuck make me find health kits, so sick of regenerating health.

Tomb Raider 1 2 and 3 were awesome. No hand holding there for sure. The heights were actually scary. I remember being genuinely lost...like you ought to be as an explorer of tombs. Puzzles were hard. And no xray fucking vision!

99% of AAA sequels are creatively bankrupt, shame.

This game is getting a lot of positive reviews on Steam but as it's obvious your not into this Lara Croft reboot series, as you've stated. So It's hard to take this review serious but I've only played an hour into the game and It's been pointed out this one is steered more towards Tomb Raiding/exploring than gun play, which I like.

If you think Lara Croft can climb you should see Nathan Drake he’s like a gibbon,also you do have 1080 graphics cards but you have old portable jaguar cpus creating the baseline for Ai,that and to make it easy to finish,I played the last one,same as the one before.This one I will skip.

When you can spot that it looks exactly like the first 2 games and even reuse the same animations in the first 10s of the video you know what you can expect... Well I got the first one on a sale, the second one as a gift from a friend, and I kinda enjoyed them, but it looks like Tomb-Raider has became the new Assassins Creed (Before Origins) it seems, given how absolutely similar they look.

Emo lara? That's pretty attractive

it's not true about the guards not realizing their buddies are missing. not true at all. they realize it and search for them

I'm at 34 hours at 75% completion. Loving it so far.

Ubisoft: "Become One With the Jungle: Outgunned and outnumbered, Lara must use the jungle to her advantage. Strike suddenly and disappear like a jaguar, use mud as camouflage, and instill fear in enemies to sow chaos.". Mack: "Just press 'J'". Priceless!

Isnt this the 3rd time that she has to become the tomb raider ? . they been saying she has to become the tomb raider every game they release .

I'm not sure what the complaint is. Yes there are plenty of tombs but the clue to what the game is about is in the title. It's not meant to be a first person shooter and those looking for one are going to be disappointed. It's a game about exploring and discovery. In the options you can turn off the white paint in the game to make everything far less obvious as to where to climb etc. Granted the white ropes kinda spoil things and i wish they could be turned off as well. Also i think that different age ranges have to be taken into consideration with Tomb Raider and i think younger less experienced gamers are going to enjoy it far more than jaded older experienced gamers with rose tinted glasses looking back at the early games. Personally i look at the guards etc as a bit of an annoyance to be dispatched with quickly so i can get on with the important bits like searching for secrets etc. My only wish would be that the environments were more diverse like in the original games. I do agree though that Lara is a bit of an annoying spoilt brat emo now rather than a confident young woman i know and love her for. Peace

It's actually a decent game on hard difficulty, if you get it on sale.

Wow completely correct review! :)

Gotta disagree with you on this one Mack, I find your lack of consistency increasingly bemusing. You complain about hand-holding in games and inexplicably set the difficulty to medium with white markers signposting the climbing. It's far more immersive when you have to think for yourself and plan your route - which I thought you'd understand. Not this week, obviously. The underwater sections are the highlight, but it seems you just want to rush to the next opportunity to take a breath. You're never going to enjoy a game if you rush it, and subsequently downplay the game's merits. You have the audacity to bemoan repetition when you thumbed-up Spider-Man, which is one of the most repetitive (and simplistic) games I've played. I have no issue with you disliking a game, you were always going to thumb it down, irrespective of it being a big improvèment over Rise Of The Tomb Raider. It's your lack of consistency which is turning off long term viewers such as myself. As for your own lack of proficiency with a controller, why you hold that against certain games is sheer ignorance. I hope you take my critique as intended.

The original tomb raider and part 2 took probably over 100 hours. So much to explore, puzzles that didn't assume your IQ is under 110, and pressure packed moments where if you slipped and fell you felt like you plummeted to your death. And you often had to start back and re do things. It was beautifully frustrating and gratifying. Now it's just made for sheeple. So sad.

Mack, I used to think your reviews too harsh, and in some very specific places I still do, but no, your reviews are what the Gaming Industry needs to hear. I'm tired of these cookie-cutter games. As an aside, I think you were very slightly too harsh on God of War but I still respect your opinion none the less.

To this day, Tomb Raider Anniversary (from 2007) is my favorite Tomb Raider game.

I bet ign gives it a 8 or a 9

This game is made by a different studio than the last game ROTM Mack, that was made by crystal dynamics this one is made primarily by Eidos Montreal with Crystal Dynamics as a support studio.

HDR in Shadow of the Tomb Raider look amazing! On the 1X, Beautiful game.

Lmao “Betty Braithwaite’s Peruvian Adventures” was hilarious.

You know that this story is supposed to be how it all began, the first adventure of a young woman who is alone and is nearly getting killed every 5 minutes. And then you complain at the end that she is not "badass" enough...of course she isn't. And you know what, if she were, you'd probably say something like "how is it even possible for her to be this calm and focused, she is traumatized in nearly every cutscene".

Only a woman can pull a soldier by his assault rifle and expecting him not to shoot him straight in her face. Kidding, I've also seen men doing that.

That reviewer on Gamespot who gave it a 6 is getting hammered hard by comments for stating the truth. Sadly Mack, people "want" to be treated like sheep without even knowing what a good game is. As long as the game has flashy collectibles, unlockables and easy QTEs to crawl them through the game, they will worship it!

Mack, used your affiliate link for Green man. Picked up Shadow of tomb raider Definitive edition 15 bucks! Figured after watching your review,,,,,,it was probably worth about that much. Thank you sir!

Damn dude, most honest review I've seen. I played for like 10 hours and felt demotivated and uninspired. You touch ed up on how this gaming industry really is, so thanks for that because consumers dont understand

i feel the samey way. I'm about an 1 hr 20 min in and i'm cannot get into it.

What developers dont get is that jumping, swinging, climbing etc are some of the most fun mechanics in games when you are actually in control. When you run to an edge and make a jump you shouldn't magnetically attach to the 'right' ledge and climb up. Remember the old tomb raider when you could grab any edge even if you couldn't climb up on it and you had to actually be holding the grab button or you would fall? You could climb around just for shits and giggles and that led to finding secrets. Here you see a mountain and think "oh wow just think of all the ways I can scale this" but the reality is there is one path to the top. Boring.

I had this game preordered 3 months in advance seeing how its the third installment and I've played the previous two prequels. But with that being said, after the lackluster trailers and lack of a interesting story for this installment, I just knew I had to cancel my order. Now I'm glad I did.

Just was about to mention it Mack, where are her damn iconic pistols?!? I get this started as a 'how Lara became herself' series but it's now the third or what game. And not to mentions she seems to use everything BUT the kitchen sink(pistols). The first one was ok but now they are getting worse instead of improving. Just another franchise milkoff... As for the graphics in general i think you need to come down on games harder. Impressive? Nah! Crysis was 2007. THAT was impressive. Now 10+ years later games look barely better if at all when the crysis look should be a rough draft in 2018. As you said we have i7's and 1080's, what for?

the main story is 8-10 hours blind and no less than 5 hours (due to unskippable cutscenes) if know what to do

Still no dual-wielding after 3 games? What a joke!

I agree with you about this one, but the 2013 and 2015 ones are awesome, especially the first one I've played it 3 times,one of the best games ever made in my opinion

best most honest reviewer ever

Just finnished this one, i liked rise of tomb raider much more, thanks for the honest review, i will be not playing again, even there is new game plus mode, many others games to try, one time shot, thats it, but not by paying the full price !

Man i miss good games... I miss games giving me a challenge... Not these press 4 buttons to win Wheres the fucking lara croft puzzles that boggle ur mind... I buy these games at like 80% sale.. and just play through it in a very boring day

Was walking around Durham yesterday and wondered what the ringing bell noise was. Now I can see.

6:52 you're probably right about that

Anyone else think it's ironic where the only game in the new lot where she wasn't "becoming" the Tomb Raider was the first one. Tomb Raider. That's all it was lol.

I haven't watched it yet and I know it's not worthabuy

I’ll be honest I’m new to your channel and this was the first review I saw of yours couple of days ago. Heard the words “Betty Braithwaites Peruvian Adventures” ... instant subscribe!

Shame they killed such an iconic franchise that used to be about the puzzles and actual tomb raiding.

Bought the last one in the sale and it sounds like you're describing the same game Mack. The last tomb raider I think I enjoyed was way back on the ps2.

Tomb Raider Dagger of Xian Remake baby ! coming soon

Only reason I didn't play on the very hardest difficulty is that it disallows saving for the first hour of the game so make sure the game magnetises you to every ledge properly otherwise it's back to the start. Utter garbage difficulty settings.

Every words in this review is truth. Basically the only good in this game is the graphics, and the model of Lara is decent. So yes, watch a trailer and a few screenshots that is all u need to capture the essence of this game. Do not play this if u have play any old Lara game or any classic adventure game

Breaks my heart to see Tomb Raider games like this. Why oh why can't they make immersive games like the original Tomb Raider and Tomb Raider 2 on the Playstation?

You could say tomb raider.... A shadow of its own self 😉 Goodnight everybody

9:12 - the guy coming from the left stairs is the developers

I usually watch your reviews and then play the games anyway. The big titles at least. And every time I happen to have a decent time with all of them. Your reviews help me to go into these games without looking for innovation. I accept there will be bugs or broken mechanics or whatever qualm you had with a game. You help me keep my expectations low. As a result I sincerely had a fucking blast with this game. I accepted it for what it is and it proved far better than I expected. Its a video game. Thanks Mac. Keep up the great work. Looking forward to more of your content.

Such a shame. The first Tomb Raider game was the nuts man. It was more about just surviving on a ship-wreck island, using what you could find to stay alive & solve the Japanese Mystery. They should have continued with innovating the gear each time. Seriously. Don't let this put you off playing the first game. It's a solid 7/10.

I bought it for Ray Tracing. I always see the reboot franchise as home theater tech demos.

I'm pretty far in and my biggest problem has been, well a lot, but for one there was this big fight in the town and this kid got kidnapped and a bunch of people got killed and then Lara escapes. Then you can turn right back around, walk right back and the wall you just busted through about 2 seconds earlier is repaired and no one seems to be aware that they just watched their family get killed with spears. I mean in Tomb Raider 2013 escape from enemies was long and crossed long distances and was exciting and actually changed the world around you, but this game is basically just puzzles. I've been playing at least 6 hours and I think I've only used around 30 arrows and 100 bullets.

Hi Mack, thanks for the honest review :),

Well, I actually bought it today for 83 PLN (an equivalent of 17 GBP). Gotta wait to get it dowloaded from Steam, and my Internet connection is a bit on the slow side. I didn't expect it to be special, but I kinda liked the last two games, so I hoped it would be on par with them. Now, I begin to wonder if it's even worth as much money.

9:00 - IDK why exactly, but Lara Croft using shotguns seems out of place to me. I know she originally had 2 pistols though in the older games, so meh..

This is how I felt about rise of the tomb raider, souless and lack of immersion

Mack ya priiiiiick, I wish I had waited for this review before buying the game myself.

Thumbs up if you want Mack to review the new Black Ops 4!

The personality thing is what bothered me the most, same as the last one. She's so quiet, and always has long dramatic pauses while she stares at something. We get it she's beautiful, but can you give her some damn character? She's complaining all the time and is just negative. Yawn

I thought the last tomb raider was garbage, wouldn't expect this one to be any different. To think, many years ago, used to sit around with a mate playing Tomb Raider till the early hours of the morning. Another franchise truly buried.

Right. This is the reason I never preorder or buy a game that just released. Thank you Mack. Now I better get back to Tomb Raider Anniversary, Legend or even Guardian of Light. PS. Google Tomb Raider Dagger of Xian Demo. Now THAT is how a new title triple A game should be. Shame!! Shadow of the Tomb Raider. At least you got the name right!

Bettie Braithwait’s peruvian fookin’ adventures. Love it

This RU-vid channel is a gift that keeps on giving

Only the first Tomb raider game actually gives us like exploring in a enormous tomb alone... the 2, 3 4, 5 were not bad.. but slowly losing the feeling about the myth about tomb. I guess more and more human interactions in newer games kill that kind atmosphere

"Experience Lara Croft's defining moment as she becomes the Tomb Raider..." Wait, didn't that happen two games ago? But seriously, the animations of Lara interacting with the environment (swinging, grabbing, climbing, etc.) looked better in the original games back in the 90s! Maybe I'm turning into an old curmudgeon, but those games were far superior to the modern reboot.

What are the flashing white orbs on the screen? Are those water droplets? If so, why? It's 3rd person game. So the camera behind her somehow getting wet or blood spatter? WTF

It's a shame you didn't play on hard without using map. I got so immersed right away being lost in the jungle. I haven't felt so immersed in a game for a long time.

I remember when developers had to actually innovate and create new things. Now it seems they just slap in assets from other games on top of a half-assed story and rely on graphics and hype to sell it, then rake in cash with pre-order bonuses, season passes, and years worth of planned DLC that might bring the game to a halfway decent state. This is enabled by popular "games journalists" that are as worthless as they are corrupt. Growing up with reviewers like PC Gamer magazine, what's happening today makes me absolutely sick and gaming is absolutely screwed until this starts to change.

Found a game review on steam for this that I thought was pretty interesting. "I may be the only one that cares... but like they are pocketing TONS of profit by selling EVERYTHING about you I mean like WTF when you first log into the game they throw a bunch of agreements at you and say basically everything you do and who you are we will track and sell for profit. aka you just downloaded a bunch of tools to help them track you. Below are some highlights of some of their tracking services but note that they track your browser history your gender your prefrences for things etc - i dont show this below but read the agreement at first its like okayyyy then its like WTF mate. and they allow 3rd party tracking that piggy back off of their tracking and they are all like we dont know what 3rd parties take from you but they take stuff too go to their site to find out what - Game content i cant speak to obviously but What the actual hell to this agreement I know a lot of places have these agreements but a game? like wow... Ill likely change the review to recommend after playing but initial impression is not cool.. I dont like these things personally I dont even have a facebook. Tracking Technologies: We use various technologies to collect information from you, including as follows: Log Files. A log file is a file that records events that occur in connection with your use of the Services. Cookies: A cookie is a data file placed on your device when you visit the Services. Cookies may be used for many purposes, such as remembering you and your preferences, supporting our security features, and tracking your visits to and activities on and off the Services, including for purposes of bringing you relevant advertising. Some features of the Services may not function properly if you choose to disable cookies, and some types of cookies may not be disabled using browsers. In some instances, especially with respect to mobile, we may require you to uninstall/not use the Services rather than have a poor experience from disabling cookies. Please review our Square Enix, Inc. Cookie Policy for more information. Embedded Scripts: An embedded script is programming code that is designed to collect information about your interactions with the Services, such as the links you click on. The code temporarily downloaded onto your device from our web server or a third-party service provider is active only while you are connected to the Services, and is deactivated or deleted thereafter. Pixels: A pixel (also known as a web beacon) is code embedded in a website, video, email, or advertisement that sends information about your usage to a server. When you access a website, video, email, or advertisement that contains a pixel, the pixel may permit us or a third party to drop or read cookies on your browser. Pixels are used in combination with cookies to track activity by a particular browser on a particular device. We may incorporate pixels from third parties that allow us track our conversions, bring you advertising both on and off the Services, and provide you with additional functionality, such as the ability to connect our Services with your social media account. ETag, or entity tag: A feature of the cache in browsers, an ETag is an opaque identifier assigned by a web server to a specific version of a resource found at a URL. If the resource content at that URL ever changes, a new and different ETag is assigned. ETag tracking may generate unique tracking values even where the consumer blocks HTTP, Flash, and HTML5 cookies. Location-Identifying Technologies: GPS, WiFi, Bluetooth, and other location-aware technologies may be used to collect precise location data when you enable location-based services through your device. App Technologies: There are a variety of technologies that may be included in our apps that are not browser-based like cookies and cannot be controlled by browser settings. For example, our apps may include third party SDKs, which is code that sends information about your usage to a server. These SDKs allow us track our conversions, bring you advertising both on and off the Services, and provide you with additional functionality, such as the ability to connect our Services with your social media account. As noted above, third parties may also use these or other tracking technologies with our Services. We do not control those third-party tracking technologies and you should visit those third parties’ websites for information about their privacy practices."

That's what i have been saying ,New trilogy is soulless , no identity at all , they removed the focus on tombs and actually raiding them , removed Lara's signature twin pistols and badassery , removed her agility and acrobatic combat that was so satisfying , removed the monster bosses , removed the sense of isolation when you are exploring an isolated area, removed the beautiful music , even removed their theme , what kind of game removes all of what it defined it ?

As far as I'm concerned, Tomb Raider ended with Underworld. This reboot series, has been digital vomit.

White paint SERIOUSLY more god damn hand holding, are game designers the reason we had to ban conkor fights.

Quake champions review pls mack

The thing that gives me the shits about the new tomb raider games is the lack of tombs with interesting/hard puzzles in them. Rather than create complex, difficult puzzles that might require me to think, try several different solutions, experiment with the game mechanics and gear/equipment to solve them, or (god forbid) READ some of the in-game lore to figure it out, they instead just gate off the tombs through gear and call that "difficulty". I mean, at least they're better than the puzzles in Skyrim but still...

**complains about a levitating Lara and trial and error when you turn off the hints** **wants her to go back to the old days where she did a six foot high backflip while firing two pistols and no hints or tips on where to go next were given whatsoever** Yeah, so much for this "review" lol. The game is not great, but also not bad. A decent 7 to 8 out of 10, which is the user and critic rating on metacritic. Wait for sale if you're not a hardcore Tomb Raider fan who needs his fix now. But to give you an impression of what a 10/10 modern Tomb Raider game would've looked like for me before you rip me to shreds: 1. Story and setting from the 2013 Tomb Raider 2. Skill tree and AI from Rise of the Tomb Raider 3. Content amount and tomb puzzles from Shadow and Rise. For the future of the franchise, I'd like to keep this Lara (who is now the Tomb Raider as the devs say) and let her travel to different places around the world in search of an artifact, not in fight of some baddies, with each location being a small open world setting. Example: San Juan in SotTR is perfect in size and story that was told. More of that please in locations like in Tomb Raider 2 (China, Venice, ship wreck, Nepal).

I only buy these sorts of games when they're on sale at 50% or more off the original price.

They've really got to fix up the way the AI react to the player. AI saying things like 'oh, I guess it was nothing' when three of their comrades are laying dead around them was acceptable in the past. But nowadays? Come on. Surely the AI could drag their dead friends away? Call for a couple of extra soldiers? It's crazy that this hasn't been improved.

Rebind Key? Is this a feature now? What's next? LAN?

The game is just so uninspired. Does it want to be an Uncharted clone or does it want to be it's own beast? It doesn't know and neither will we.

imo they should have one upped on the boob department instead of doubling down.