I personally enjoyed playing the first 2 games. I never really got into any of the characters or the storylines, though — admittedly not even Lara herself has really ever struck me as interesting.
I do think that their INTENTION with the reboot is good, though — an attempt to ground the narrative and the stakes around Lara is cool, but they seem to use Lara exclusively as the indication that these are rough and tough circumstances... She is a too-constant exposition delivery system about how exhausting and taxing everything she's going through is, and I feel like besides occasional bland imagery of scary or bad imagery, the games just kind of feel like they're selling their grit unevenly and it's focused way too hard in just specific parts of the presentation.
But, I did find exploration fun, and I am kind of a sucker for the exact kind of combat and set-piece presentation that the first two games go for.
Based on my positive experiences despite feeling a sense of unevenness from the first two games, I pre-ordered and got Shadow at its launch and almost immediately bounced off of it (well, I have only ever made it about 2 hours into the game, I guess "immediate" is a bit of an exaggeration). I've tried to go back again and it keeps happening. Even prior to entering this thread, I started downloading the game again, too — I'm gonna try again soon.
No idea why Shadow isn't doing it for me — I actually really did like 2013 and Rise.
