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Shadow of the Tomb Raider - mini-review

Chloe Price said:
Do you others have instability with this? I had two crashes in a ~5h stream.

And a screenshot, of course :)

9C4A64272FD4EF7C9AA7BDA66E366E74D72C8823
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I didn’t have instability, other than the occasional massive lag and frame rate drop. No actual crashes.
 
I've had this on GTA V recently, but that was due to a MASSIVE CPU BOTTLENECK
(i5 2400S/E5 1607 with 1080 lulz) edit 1080 ti not 1080 so even worse
You atleast have a 4790K, which is almost directly comparable to a 6700K and a few %points behind a 8600K, so still very powerful
 
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Inferior to TR 2013 & Rise. Problems:

- Control issues when grappling upside down. Lara simply doesn't jump in the direction you need to go most of the time.

- Melee seldom works. When it does you can't kill them, only knock them down. Exception are stealth kills.

- They force you to use the bow and melee only most of the time, which is gimmicky. For some reason Lara cannot pick up enemies firearms which just feels odd.

- Because of the above, you seldom get to use your upgrades for your weapons. You don't gradually use them. Instead you use them one with no upgrades, and then towards the end of the game with all the upgrades. Just felt awkward and almost pointless.

- Important tools required to progress are locked behind an awkward, disappearing store that does not appear on the map.

- The Hidden City is a PITA to navigate. I spent almost as much time trying to figure out how to turn in a quest as actually doing the quest.

- Crashing and black screen issue. Likely will get patched.

- Hard to figure out what the game wants you to do often times.

- Horrible camera / interaction controls. Want to turn a wheel right? Press D, but depending on your camera angle it will change to A. This means you will be turning right, your camera angle will change and you will start moving left while still holding the A key. Makes no sense.

When the controls and stability issues are fixed, you have an okay game. But the gameplay pacing is off, forced and restrictive. It hurts replayability. It also makes the game feel shorter than TR 2013 or Rise, even though Shadow is just as long as Rise and longer than 2013. It still felt like the shortest entry to me due to pacing.

The setting and lighting can look amazing. When the game works, it can be fun. But there were some big gameplay design choices that can't easily be fixed that hurt the game. Overall it is a notable step down from the last two games.
 
I've yet to download SotTR, or even beat RotTR's expansions, but I hope that despite all the issues people have, my experience won't nearly be as dreadful. If its anything like the linear progression of RotTR from 2013, gameplay/mechanics and story wise, it looks like my next few weekends are going be to me glued to my laptop in bed, enjoying the highest quality settings possible
 
@Flogger23m nice overview! It looks like you encountered many of the issues I noted in my review. I’m glad it wasn’t just me. :)

@king of swag187 Glad to hear you’re about to play. In many ways it will feel like many of the same parts or premises from RoTTR are familiar, but it’s still pretty fun, despite my negative findings.

Chloe Price said:
This was posted when I asked the same on Finnish forum io-tech about crashing etc

https://steamcommunity.com/app/750920/discussions/1/1734339624807031451/

edit: Posted also on that thread as you can see :D
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It’s very strange there have been these crashes and I had none. @Flogger23m had them too. Hopefully it patches out for you.
 
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rtwjunkie said:
@Flogger23m nice overview! It looks like you encountered many of the issues I noted in my review. I’m glad it wasn’t just me. :)

@king of swag187 Glad to hear you’re about to play. In many ways it will feel like many of the same parts or premises from RoTTR are familiar, but it’s still pretty fun, despite my negative findings.


It’s very strange there have been these crashes and I had none. @Flogger23m had them too. Hopefully it patches out for you.
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Overall I'd have to say the game felt rushed. There were a lot of quirks that just hurt the experience. I'm still interested in playing another game similar to TR 2013. I hope they continue but make the game play more like that one or even Rise.
 
Flogger23m said:
Overall I'd have to say the game felt rushed. There were a lot of quirks that just hurt the experience. I'm still interested in playing another game similar to TR 2013. I hope they continue but make the game play more like that one or even Rise.
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Agreed. Interesting you wanted something more like Rise. That’s really my chief complaint, that it felt too much copy paste. It probably was necessary, though, since only 2 years ago they announced it would be on temporary hold from any new TR.
 
14 hours into the game now, not a single crash or technical issue on my very old PC (FX6300 + GTX 1080 @ 1080p). Using DX12 and High settings preset (no motion blur though).

I found the game to be much more linear than my expectation. The jungle and green scenery is a good change, also a lot more crypt and tomb, which is good even though some of it are not challenging at all (too easy even without hint).
 
okidna said:
I found the game to be much more linear than my expectation.
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Yes, very much so, that’s why I did every side mission I could at the populated areas, so I would have the illusion of it being open. :D
 
Nice, I really been thinking about buying Shadow of the Tomb Raider, since I own the Rise of the Tomb Raider Collectors Edition for PC and Tomb Raider, I really like both games.

I just think the price of €72 euros are a bit high but well Battlefield V costs €80 on EA Origin so I guess I am just being picky with the price.
 
Are there any ray-tracing settings in the graphics options? Or perhaps they are only visible on RTX cards.
 
WikiFM said:
Are there any ray-tracing settings in the graphics options? Or perhaps they are only visible on RTX cards.
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As far as I know ray tracing should be added with a patch later. That's just what I read.

EDIT:

To add more about the ray tracing I read that it should be added in like a 0day patch but if that's true or not I do not now since I don't work for Square Enix :p

Not to spam the thread but at Greenmangaming you can get The Croft Edition until the 1st of Oct. for €69.29 o_O
 
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Agreed about the melee. There are times when a good old stabbing with her climbing axe is entirely appropriate.
 
Aaaaand we saw the end credits. Damn this was short, like 10 hours :(
 
Chloe Price said:
Aaaaand we saw the end credits. Damn this was short, like 10 hours :(
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o_O:wtf: What? How? Nearly 40 for me. You don’t like exploring, I’m guessing?
 
Also, just a quick but in, but this game scales very weirdly so far with raw GPU power. My K3000M at Max OC can barely handle 720P lowest 20-30FPS. (Dell M6700) My M6100 crossfire in my P377SMA can do a mix of high-medium settings at 60-45 on a freesync display (and look beautiful) but for some reason one of the GPUs seems to want to throttle down while the other doesn't, and then it gets veryyyyyy stuttery real quick, likely due to different VBIOS. Can't wait to upgrade to MSI/Zotax 1070's lol. On my desktop, my 1080 ti decided it didn't want to boot, but my Fury X did. Then, at highest settings 1080P, while CPU bottlenecked, I easily got 30+ on 1200P
 
I was maybe half way through and just, inexplicably, lost patience with it. I uninstalled it this morning after getting bored of the formulaic approach. I think I'm getting gamers fatigue because I've done that a few times recently.
 
To be honest, it hasn't exactly grabbed me by the throat either. It looks lovely and I could stare at the scenery for hours, but the game does feel pretty much the same old, same old.
I'll probably give it a rest when I get my hands on Forza Horizon 4 on Tuesday and probably go back to Shadow later, with fewer expectations.
Here's Lara wondering the same as me about her game.
lara-pensive.jpg
 
Eh, Forza Horizon 4 seems more like Shadow vs Rise imo, but I don't own it yet so it's early to say
 
rtwjunkie said:
o_O:wtf: What? How? Nearly 40 for me. You don’t like exploring, I’m guessing?
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Streamed it, no sidequestes or anything, I'll do them on my own. :D
 
Now that I'm making some real progress without rushing, I'm really enjoying Shadow. It really is important to use those new skills that she has like hiding and camouflage. Also the new arrows that she has (without wishing to spoil here) are really nifty.
The one thing I've always liked about TR games is their re playability and this one is no exception as far as I'm concerned.
 
Game is on sale now, surprisingly at 34% off :roll:
 
I think just temporary. Most big games seem to have a short on sale period a month or two after release.
 
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