History YMMV / ShadowOfTheTombRaider

* HilariousInHindsight: The Yaaxil are not the first encounter with an army of unearthly creatures for Patricia Velasquez (Unuratu's voice actress), who previously commanded an army of undead Pygmy warriors as Anck-Su-Namun in Film/TheMummyReturns.

* ContestedSequel: While consensus is that it's a fine game on its own, opinions are mixed as to how it compares to the previous games. Some think the story has genuinely improved, with Lara having more of a character arc and Jonah being RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap. Others don't feel that it improves enough upon ''VideoGame/RiseOfTheTombRaider'', citing ItsTheSameSoItSucks and OnlyTheCreatorDoesItRight.

* GoddamnBats:

* SpecialEffectsFailure:

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: Lara is having a severe PTSD after [[VideoGame/TombRaider2013 Yamatai]], making her incapable of clear judgement. Rather than treating it in just about any fashion, she goes like a ball in a pinball machine for the next two games, only increasing her trauma. It is not helping her [[SatelliteCharacter "friends"]] vanish in the {{Interquel}} comics, and she's left alone to mounting paranoia and delusions of grandeur.

* ContestedSequel: While consensus is that it's a fine game on its own, opinions are mixed as to how it compares to the previous games. Some think the story has genuinely improved, with Lara having more of a character arc, and Jonah being RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap. Others don't feel that it improves enough upon VideoGame/RiseOfTheTombRaider, citing ItsTheSameSoItSucks and OnlyTheCreatorDoesItRight.

* Ron The Death Eater: While Lara is certainly a DestructiveSavior she does acknowledge that the Cleansing is her fault and does express guilt in her diary. She is as determined to stop Trinity as she is to get revenge, and is willing to commit a HeroicSacrifice to save the world.

** The fact that an entire vast paramilitary order of religious fanatics, who have ties so high up within the Vatican, persecutes a messianic figure in the Eastern Roman Empire ''far'' beyond the power of Rome. They have been scouring the world for artifacts that have the power to reshape the world in their image, murdering countless innocent people for ''centuries'' to hide both their own existence and erase.

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: Lara is having a severe PTSD after [[VideoGame/TombRaider2013 Yamatai]], making her incapable of clear judgement. Rather than treating it in just about any fashion, she goes like a ball in pinball machine for next two games, only increasing her trauma. It is not helping her [[SatelliteCharacter "friends"]] vanish in the {{Interquel}} comics and she's left alone to mounting paranoia and delusions of grandeur.

* ContestedSequel: While general consensus is that it's a fine game on its own, opinions are mixed as to how it compares to the previous games. Some think the story has genuinely improved, with Lara having more of a character arc, and Jonah being RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap. Others don't feel that it improves enough upon VideoGame/RiseOfTheTombRaider, citing ItsTheSameSoItSucks and OnlyTheCreatorDoesItRight.

*** The wolves, as well. Like the jaguars they're fast and can be difficult to target. [[ZergRush And they're always encountered in packs.]]
** You'll quickly come to hate the Yaaxil. These underground-dwelling creatures come in huge numbers, pack one hell of a punch at range and an even worse one in melee, sneak up on you from insane directions, are quite resilient, and they don't drop any ammo except arrows. Bows are mostly useless against their melee fighters (these guys can take a shotgun blast to the face and still ask for more), so you're essentially forced to resort to firearms, and woe betide you if you didn't fully upgrade your shotgun the moment you got it. Thankfully, enemies don't respawn in this game, so you're safe once you've cleared out a level once.
** Towards the end you will come across EliteMooks from Trinity who wear heat-vision goggles that let them see Lara in hiding spots(I.E. grass) unless you put on mud or hide behind walls, trying to take them on higher difficulties can be a nightmare.

* MagnificentBastard: [[WellIntentionedExtremist Pedro Dominguez]] is the BigBad of the final installment of Lara Croft’s Origins trilogy and the GreaterScopeVillain for its entirety. Born Amaru in the secret mayan city [[HiddenElfVillage Paititi]], he would be adopted by Trinity leader Gualtiero de Luca Dominguez who showed him life outside Paititi. Working his way up to becoming the leader of Trinity he would use their resources to make himself ruler of Paititi and the head of the Cult of Kukulkan, while removing their previous leaders from power. Befriending Richard Croft, he would have him killed when he learned of Richard Croft's intent to expose Paititi to the outside world. Learning about Key of Chak Chel and the Silver Box of Ix Chel, he would plan to use it to remake the world so that it would no longer pose a threat to Paititi having Lara Croft unknowingly retrieve both artifacts for him. Finding himself battling and losing to Lara, Dominguez uses his final moments to ask Lara to protect Paititi, showing his devotion to his beloved city to the end and gaining sympathy from the woman whose [[YouKilledMyFather father Dominguez killed]].

** In Porvenir Oil Fields [[spoiler: Rourke taunts Lara that Jonah is dead, sending her into a TranquilFury, and leading her to run straight into a Trinity trap. After an intense platforming sequence through an exploding oil platform she falls into the water and sinks, seemingly unconscious... Then [[EyeAwaken her eyes snap open]] and she rises slowly from the burning water, stalking down a wounded and [[OhCrap terrified]] Trinity grunt, who frantically tries to scramble away. She kills him, steals his LMG and then you go on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge through the oil fields blowing shit up and mowing down dozens of Trinity goons who scream in terror at the mere sight of you. Hands down the most badass moment in the trilogy, hell possibly the entire goddamn franchise]].

** [[spoiler: the final battle with Dominguez, even him becoming a god isn't enough to stop Lara from stabbing him multiple times and finishing him off]].
* {{Narm}}: For some players and [[https://www.polygon.com/reviews/2018/9/10/17838346/shadow-of-the-tomb-raider-review-xbox-one-ps4-pc at least one review]], activating immersion mode (lets natives talk in their local language instead of whatever language the game is set to) makes most of Lara's NPC conversations sound either unintentionally funny or unintentionally stupid, simply because Lara never switches to the other language herself. Especially the constant contrast between her original upper class English and Paititi's Incan is so crass that it actually breaks immersion instead of building it.

* RonTheDeathEater: While Lara is certainly a DestructiveSavior she DOES acknowledge that the Cleansing is her fault, DOES express guilt in her diary, is as determined to stop Trinity as she is to get revenge and is willing to commit a HeroicSacrifice to save the world.
* ScrappyMechanic: Inspecting artifacts in ''TR 2013'' and ''Rise'' was an easy, interesting and helpful feature; it unlocked additional background info on the artifact and gave some XP for discovering the hidden clue. ''Shadow'' turns the same feature into a chore. Background info is replaced with meaningless comments from Lara, the XP reward was scrapped, and the window you need to hit is not only unforgivingly tiny, it also doesn't trigger immediately when you get it right. There's a short delay just long enough to make you think you got it wrong, so you'll probably readjust and screw up for good in the process. The subtle bell sound when the angle is (close to) right doesn't really help, either.

* ThatOnePuzzle: The puzzle about the Stations of the Cross underneath the library in San Juan late in the game. The game hands Lara a pamphlet with hints, but it's buried deep in her long list of artifacts. And it's not exactly helpful with solving the puzzle anyway. You get ''one'' hint to the solution outside of the pamphlet, in an off-hand comment by Lara upon entering the general area. So even before you realize it might be important, you're screwed. And unless you make a secondary save ahead of time just before the conversation, there is no other way to repeat the dialogue when you eventually need the information, so you're forced to either brute-force your way through the puzzle (which requires watching Lara get gruesomely killed every time you pick the wrong answer) or consult the internet.
** It doesn't help the puzzle is based on the old order of the stations. So even if you ''are'' Catholic, the numbering is going to get you killed in a deliberate trap. Lara mentions station 6 upon entering the chapel. In the order familiar to modern Catholic this would be "Veronica wipes the face of Jesus". But for whatever reason, it asks for order out of seven, not fourteen stations, thus asking you for ''old'' No. 6 - "Jesus is nailed to the cross". Thing is - ''both'' modern and old meaning of "station 6" is present. It's perfectly possible to get killed, or at least confused thanks to the existence of both answers. And not helped by the fact the old order got discontinued before the sanctuary was built, making it all the more confusing.

** The fact that the ultimate plot of entire vast paramilitary order of religious fanatics — who have ties so high up within the Vatican they were able to [[VideoGame/RiseOfTheTombRaider persecute a messianic figure in the Eastern Roman Empire]] ''far'' beyond the power of Rome, have been scouring the world for artifacts with the power to reshape the world in their image, murdering countless innocent people for ''centuries'' to hide both their own existence and erase those very artifacts from history — ultimately ends up being to hide one small, insignificant village of relict Maya is rather anticlimactic (seeing as the entire race against the apocalypse was triggered by Lara's actions, ''not'' Trinity themselves).

* SugarWiki/VisualEffectsOfAwesome: Continuing the tradition set by the 2013 game of having breathtaking graphics, the scenery is just ''stunning'' to see, and overall has amazing graphical features and fidelity. Players on the PC platform also get the extra benefit of ''Shadow'' being one of the first games to take advantage of Nvidia's ray-traced lighting technology, providing they have the hardware to do so. To this day, this game is still used by Tech outlets as [[TechDemoGame a benchmarking tool]] due to including a built in benchmark, and being a demanding game to run, what with the aforementioned pretty graphical features.

* VindicatedByHistory: It was never a ''hated'' game, but it suffered some noticeable backlash, especially compared to ''Rise'' and especially ''TR 2013''. It debuted to a 60% approval rating. As of 2021, with some time for the backlash against the game and Lara in particular as a character to die down, and the DLC content offering AuthorsSavingThrow, reception to the game improved remarkably to an 85% approval rating - particularly after the game was given away for free via UsefulNotes/EpicGamesStore.

* AuthorsSavingThrow:
** The first two games were criticised for their heavy use of NoticeThis [[ItsEasySoItSucks a bit too much]], with grabbable ledges being clearly marked or interactable puzzle objects blatantly marked in Survival Instincts. Puzzle and exploration difficulty can now be set separately from combat difficulty (and each other), toning down this assistance or even removing it altogether.
** After its predecessors faced heavy criticism for the low number and difficulty of their puzzles/tombs, ''Shadow'' addressed both items with considerably tougher challenge tombs in the base game and almost a dozen additional tombs being announced as DLC to be released over time.
** A common criticism of the first two games was that they were too serious and grim, with Lara spending most of them either terrified, angry, stressed, or all three. In ''Shadow'', while the tone and stakes are definitely still dark and serious, there's more humor and Lara smiles and laughs more than she did in the first two, getting a few lighthearted scenes demonstrating her friendship with Jonah.
** A lot of fans were displeased at the real lack of combat compared to the first two games, leaving you with a ton of weapon upgrades and combat oriented skills and not many chances to use them. The DLC tombs released after the game's launch have their own big combat setpieces, beefing up the action considerably.
** On a minor note, after inexplicably growing a large beard and gaining curly hair in ''Rise'', Jonah is back to having a ponytail and five o'clock shadow, as per the first game.

* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: Lara's habit of [[NiceJobBreakingItHero kicking off disastrous events that cost countless lives]]is one of the main reasons ''Shadow'' received somewhat mixed reviews in comparison with the previous two games.

* CriticalResearchFailure: The puzzle related to the "Stations of the Cross" is just plain weird. It uses an ancient, long abandoned order of the stations. So old, it got ''dropped before the chapel with it was built''. This set up a SchmuckBait trap, and said bait is a go-to answer for any Catholic person, fitting the hints given in the game. So what the game considers a murderous trap should be a solution to the puzzle. And God forbids if you ain't Catholic, because then the entire thing turns into ThatOnePuzzle, as described below.

* BonusFeatureFailure: The "Survivor" outfit (Lara's design from the 2013 ''Tomb Raider'' game) is rendered very differently from the other outfits (giving her a different face, cloudy eyes, very different hair, and looks more glossy). As a result it looks plain odd next to the other outfits, to the point of being off-putting. While her retro outfits from the original series have a nostalgic StylisticSuck to them, this outfit just looks lazy in comparison to the other modern era outfits.
** Speaking of the retro outfits, they can only be worn in certain parts of the game. So if you wanted to use the ''TR 2'' skin for the whole game on your first run through, too bad.

* BonusFeatureFailure: The "Survivor" outfit (Lara's design from the 2013 ''Tomb Raider'' game) is rendered very differently from the other outfits (giving her a different face, cloudy eyes, very different hair, and looks more glossy). As a result it looks [[UncannyValley plain odd]] next to the other outfits, to the point of being off-putting. While her retro outfits from the original series have a nostalgic StylisticSuck to them, this outfit just looks lazy in comparison to the other modern era outfits.

* VindicatedByHistory: It was never a ''hated'' game, but it suffered some noticeable backlash, especially compared to ''Rise'' and especially ''TR 2013''. It debuted to a 60% approval rating. As of 2021, with some time for the backlash against the game and Lara in particular as a character to die down, and the DLC content offering AuthorsSavingThrow, reception to the game improved remarkably to an 85% approval rating.

* TooBleakStoppedCaring: A common complaint leveled at the game by critics is that it is simply ''too'' dark, even compared to the prior games in the trilogy. Lara herself is at her most brutal and most selfish yet, and with the entire plot being set off by her actions combined with the brutality of her acts against Trinity, it's difficult to care about what happens.
* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: Lara's habit of [[NiceJobBreakingItHero kicking off disastrous events that cost countless lives]] while [[NeverMyFault shifting the blame on Trinity]] is one of the main reasons the trilogy in general, and ''Shadow'' in particular, received increasingly hostile reviews from critics and players alike. That ''Shadow'' decided to throw MightyWhitey behavior into the mix and finally turned her into a completely unrepentant killer didn't exactly help her case, with a lot of people considering her to be and act more villainous than the games' actual villains.
** This becomes so apparent that it also causes UnintentionallySympathetic for the BigBad Dr. Dominguez. Its revealed that Dominguez [[spoiler: killed Lara's father because he was going to reveal the existence of the Hidden City and his people to the world as a great discovery, despite him begging Dr. Croft not to. Given that the two were supposed to be best friends also makes this an AlasPoorVillain for the BigBad. All he wanted to do was protect his people from outside invaders, who would conquer, destroy, and rob his homeland. Documents reveal that it was robbed before in the 1600s. He begs Lara throughout the game to let him protect his people, but Lara [[RevengeBeforeReason so hell bent on revenge]] doesn't listen and at most tries to guilt trip Dominguez with morality talk, despite her hands being far more dirty than his during the three games in the trilogy, which is lampshaded in-universe.]]

* LikeYouWouldReallyDoIt: Sure, you just killed [[spoiler: Jonah]] off-screen with zero fanfare or final words, right after [[spoiler: that character who was only in Act 2 had a whole cutscene and final words and 'give this to my son' thing]]. The fact that Lara has ZERO reason to trust anything the guy telling her this says pushes Lara herself straight into WhatAnIdiot territory.

* SugarWiki/VisualEffectsOfAwesome: Continuing the tradition set by the 2013 game of having breathtaking graphics, the scenery is just ''stunning'' to see. Players on the PC platform also get the extra benefit of ''Shadow'' being one of the first games to take advantage of Nvidia's ray-traced lighting technology, provide they have the hardware to do so.

* DracoInLeatherPants: While Dominguez ''is'' sympathetic, people do sometimes ignore that he was planning to unleash the apocalypse to remake the world (Lara just happened to trigger it before he was ready, but he was still planning it).

* {{Sequelitis}}: Time subverted this. Both ''Rise'' and ''Shadow'' debuted to lower overall positive reviews (85% and 60%, respectively. ''Shadow'' was also subject to a very weird and unfriendly pricing scheme, which didn't help). Time and definitive editions have greatly helped both - as of late 2021, Tomb Raider 2013 sits at 96, with Rise at 95% and Shadow at 85%.

* {{Sequelitis}}: Played straight. Both ''Rise'' and ''Shadow'' debuted to lower overall positive reviews (85% and 60%, respectively. ''Shadow'' was also subject to a very weird and unfriendly pricing scheme, which didn't help). Time and definitive editions have greatly helped both - as of late 2021, Tomb Raider 2013 sits at 96, with Rise at 95% and Shadow at 85%.

* {{Sequelitis}}: Played straight, but only slightly. Both ''Rise'' and ''Shadow'' debuted to lower overall positive reviews (85% and 60%, respectively. ''Shadow'' was also subject to a very weird and unfriendly pricing scheme, which didn't help). Time and definitive editions have greatly helped both - as of late 2021, Tomb Raider 2013 sits at 96, with Rise at 95% and Shadow at 85%.

* {{Sequelitis}}: Steam ratings kept dropping for every title that came out after the first. While ''VideoGame/TombRaider2013'' still ranked a very impressive 95% more than five years after its release, ''VideoGame/RiseOfTheTombRaider'' sat at ~85% and ''Shadow'' at ~60%. Granted, ''Shadow'' was the subject of a massive backlash due to the publisher's ill-advised pricing strategy, but it already was the lowest-rated entry in the trilogy even before that hit struck.

** When opening any crypt sarcophagus, the animations of the lid sliding open and Lara putting her weight into pushing it are out of sync by several ''seconds''. It essentially looks as if Lara starts opening the sarcophagus telekinetically before she remembers that not even her supernaturally charged world allows tricks like this, so she puts in a token physical effort to gloss over her lapse.

** This becomes so apparent that it also causes UnintentionallySympathetic for the BigBad Dr. Dominguez. Its revealed that Dominguez [[spoiler: killed Lara's father because he was going to reveal the existence of the Hidden City and his people to the world as a great discovery, despite him begging Dr.Croft not to. Given that the two were supposed to be best friends also makes this an AlasPoorVillain for the BigBad. All he wanted to do was protect his people from outside invaders, who would conquer, destroy, and rob his homeland. Documents reveal that it was robbed before in the 1600s. He begs Lara throughout the game to let him protect his people, but Lara [[RevengeBeforeReason so hell bent on revenge]] doesn't listen and at most tries to guilt trip Dominguez with morality talk, despite her hands being far more dirty than his during the three games in the trilogy, which is lampshaded in-universe.]]

* DarknessInducedAudienceApathy: A common complaint leveled at the game by critics is that it is simply ''too'' dark, even compared to the prior games in the trilogy. Lara herself is at her most brutal and most selfish yet, and with the entire plot being set off by her actions combined with the brutality of her acts against Trinity, it's difficult to care about what happens.

* HilariousInHindsight: The Yaaxil are not the first encounter with an army of unearthly creatures for Patricia Velasquez, who previously commanded an army of undead Pygmy warriors as Anck-Su-Namun in Film/TheMummyReturns.

* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: Lara's habit of [[NiceJobBreakingItHero kicking off desastrous events that cost countless lives]] while [[NeverMyFault shifting the blame on Trinity]] is one of the main reasons the trilogy in general, and ''Shadow'' in particular, received increasingly hostile reviews from critics and players alike. That ''Shadow'' decided to throw MightyWhitey behavior into the mix and finally turned her into a completely unrepentent killer didn't exactly help her case, with a lot of people considering her to be and act more villainous than the games' actual villains.
** This becomes so apparent that it also causes UnintentionallySympathetic for the BigBad Dr.Dominguez. Its revealed that Dominquez [[spoiler: killed Lara's father because he was going to reveal the existence of the Hidden City and his people to the world as a great discovery, despite him begging Dr.Croft not to. Given that the two were supposed to be best friends also makes this an AlasPoorVillain for the BigBad. All he wanted to do was protect his people from outside invaders, who would conquer, destroy, and rob his homeland. Documents reveal that it was robbed before in the 1600s. He begs Lara throughout the game to let him protect his people, but Lara [[RevengeBeforeReason so hell bent on revenge]] doesn't listen and at most tries to guilt trip Dominguez with morality talk, despite her hands being for more dirty than his during the three games in the trilogy, which is lampshaded in-universe.]]

* DracoInLeatherPants: While Dominguez is sympathetic people do sometimes ignore that he WAS Planning to unleash the apocalypse to remake the world. Lara happened to trigger it before he was ready but he was still planning it.