I'm going to quote you because I'd love a discussion about this as I totally agree with you on some points:
I just finished the story, super confused.
At what point exactly did I "become the Tomb Raider"? If anything, I became a god, was sacrificed, yet I still survived without explanation and two days later I'm ready to make some quips and restore Patiti? The closure of the parents storyline was nice but how the hell did I survive the sacrifice? Am I imbued with god-like powers now?
The post credit scene was clearly supposed to be the "I'm Lara Croft: Tomb Raider" moment but that doesn't explain how the hell I survived what I just went through. Can anyone explain that bit?
It seemed a major development for her was supposed to be the moment when she grabbed the dagger and decided not to revive her parents with the power? I was really unclear on that part.
What does come across well is the obsession Lara has for finding these artifacts and stopping Trinity. Girl was a straight up psychopath in that scene at the oil refinery, which does actually seem fitting for Lara fucking Croft. But then she cried afterwards and it seemed diminished.
As for the story itself, I didn't care much. I never felt any sense of urgency, the calamities were reduced to a couple of forced running segments (did the vulcano even erupt?) and I didn't understand what they meant by "restoring the sun" until I saw the eclipse in the final scene. The villain felt weak, and Trinity turning out to come from just Paititi felt disappointing. I thought they were gonna be some global power that seeks ancient artifacts. Ah well.
Overall I greatly enjoyed my time with it. It's the strongest of the reboot trilogy to me, and might even find a spot among my Top 3 Tomb Raider games.
That 1 thing ruined the entire game for me.
Again, overall I think this is one of the best games this year and best TR game in general but I agree with you guys on the points you have brought up and especially that whole "Become the Tomb Raider" premise. Here are my overall thoughts on the game's two weakest points.
TONE SHIFT:
Regarding the tone shift, my issues with it I think are perfectly summarized in this post:
The opening of the game perfectly established the tone and stakes. The "apocalypse set in motion". The dichotomy between Lara and the villain where her reckless actions cause these disasters to start and he's trying to stop them. The tsunami setting the tone for the harsh situations Lara's going to face here and with the other disasters to come. A real pressing sense of urgency, complete with a ticking clock laid out in mural form. We understand the stakes, the threats to come, the themes, the villain's motivations, Lara's motivations and the flaws she'll be struggling with.
And then the game just flings all of that out the window.
The game's tone and overall theme (and hell, marketing campaign!) CENTERS around "
Shadows", "
Darkness" and "
Destruction" -- this is supposed to be a very dark (as dark as TR gets, at least) entry and an exploration of Lara's character and the interpersonal conflict within her. A peak at Lara's struggles within herself, her reckless actions and deadly obsessions. All of which are relatable to every person; we all have our own demons that we have to fight and conquer, and this game had the golden opportunity to make Lara a vessel that players can see themselves in and use to eventually establish that "I am the Tomb Raider now!" vibe that the developers were going for in this game, hence the "Become the Tomb Raider" tagline.
Now, one of my absolute favorite things about this "Darkness" theme is that it's conveyed very nicely in the world in Shadow of the Tomb Raider:
"
SHADOWS":
The stealth emphasis and more expanded tools at your disposal for your stealth killing compliments this well. The enemies might remark how Lara's a "shadow"; she can't be seen but she
does exist next to them, in the darkness. To remain "in the shadows" is a reoccuring thing throughout the game: you go undercover even as part of the main-plot. It's a theme that Lara's constantly there, but not seen. This is a fantastic metaphor for what the game's intending to deliver and the foreshadowing of the impending eclipse that will destroy the world by making the world live in the sun's shadow... A sun's shadow will destroy the world. Notice the connection between being a Shadow and Destruction. Lara (a shadow) is leading herself into a path of self-destruction due to her not confronting her inner demons and come to terms with herself, who she is and her purpose in life, which I thought would happen as she decided to "become the Tomb Raider"... I was waiting for that to happen, and it ALMOST did (that fucking Oil Field section was so well done)... but the game didn't commit, in fact, it's as if they retcon that outstanding character development immediately after. In addition, the eclipse that's supposed to come and overshadow everything else is another metaphorical and narrative tool used here, but is completely underutilized.
"
DARKNESS":
This is conveyed in exploration: the tombs, the underwater swimming, and the rope descent into the underground where there is no light. The music is at most times not light at all: it's depressing, sad and emotional. Lara's also always descending in exploration, whether in exploring tombs and gathering artifacts, or swimming even further below. A good metaphor for her mental state: the girl is slowly descending into madness, which brings us to the next point...
"
DESTRUCTION":
As mentioned above, Lara's actions have caused the impending destruction of the world, but the interesting parallel here is that her actions are leading her into a path of not the destruction of the world, but the destruction of herself -- quite figuratively and literally. The end of the world means the end of her as well, but she's been on a self-destructive path and she doesn't realize it. If she doesn't recognize and resolve this soon, and continues to run away and never truly confront herself, then she might
snap and become something else that she never intended to be.... Sounds dark and grim, but that's what a
Shadow and
Destruction convey. Her "
snapping" is what I thought was finally happening when she emerges from the the fire behind her in a dark silhouette in the Oil Field section.
It's a very dark turn, but that is a metaphor for life in general -- nothing always comes out positively, we don't always win, and we don't always end up where we thought we would or wanted to. The whole segment entering the Oil Field I thought was gonna be the climax and the realization of this! "All that for another riddle..." Lara says looking down, you can tell she's fed up. The boat crashes and she's washed ashore. A trinity soldier finds her as she wakes up with the angriest facial expression Lara Croft has ever shown. "Don't try me...." in the most badass and "I've had fucking enough" tone I've heard Lara say, before fucking up poor Trinity soldier #24924. She then decides to cover herself in mud and for this section she lets her hair loose because she doesn't give a flying fuck anymore; she looks a mess. "You're fucking dead," she says as she destroys humans around her in a savage and monstrous way. Rourke tells her that Jonah's dead. Her reaction? Not a single sad tear, but a single "Fuck. You. Rourke." This is it... she has snapped.
Oh, she snapped alright: shortly after, the 'emerging from the fire' scene when she actually absolutely SNAPS.. her tone, the swearing, the psychopathic behavior... The scene was FUCKING PERFECT and screamed fitting for the character of Lara Croft. I don't know how else to describe this scene other than perfection.
However, it's ALL thrown out of the window almost immediately after (more on that later).
The moment you get to Peru (the church), literally all of what the game built up to so far in terms of tone and themes is thrown aside and never ever utilized again. Lara's "snap", interpersonal conflict, tension with the situation, and most importantly: THE FUCKING END OF THE WORLD?! Which is never emphasized from here on out. It's not about "saving the world" as much as it becomes "we must keep Paititi hidden and respect it!" and I'm like WHAT?! The world is so much bigger than a fucking hidden city with like 100 inhabitants; I think what's at stake here is MUCH larger than what the game is telling me to believe. I was so confused as the entire theme has just changed suddenly, it became more about saving Paititi and respecting culture? Like, those aren't even related themes to the ones established above. It was very jarring, it felt like I was playing a DLC or another game for that whole segment and onward...
More_Badass touches upon this briefly and I agree with their points, too:
That great sense of urgency and looming doom, a coming apocalypse? Set aside for hidden city tribal politics and another rebellion plot
The apocalyptic threat established by the opening tsunami? Oh, the town endured the storm no problem. The storm that basically happened off-screen by the way. And those apocalyptic disasters only seem to effect the immediate area/town around Lara. Definitely didn't get the sense that "apocalypse" and "save us all" was meant to only apply to Paititi in that cutscene
The clear motivations of the villain setting up a race against time to stop the apocalypse? The villain now with the duty to "save us all" from the coming doom? Wait, he's basically moonlighting as a cult leader in some secret city while also leading a massive global secret organization and the whole plot is about familial relationships and an ancient prophecy between characters we don't care about.
Overall, I found the theme and tone to be one of the best ever found in a video game in 70% of the game, but that remaining 30% is so meh it seriously drags the overall package.
ARC STRUCTURE AND PLOT PROGRESSION:
The first half of the game, this is perfect. It's super well-done, easy to follow but intricate enough to invest yourself in "what's gonna happen next?" But then structure gets incredibly strange and unusual. You never even get to experience the cataclysms of the "apocalypse", if you're gunning for something so epic but then omit the epic parts... yeah. However yhe main issue I have is the unclear mission Lara has and the inconsistencies behind where the story is supposed to go. At this point, we're intrduced to two more antagonists. Now, the antaognist's motivations and overall "villain" seemed to change, get introduced and then ended in a very anti-climactic way.
Domiguez,
Rourke and
Lopez all have weirdly paced arcs.
Dominguez: The game was doing a fantastic job of making me go "okay, I don't think he's as bad as Lara thinks he is." By showing me helping the kid in Mexico, being nice to Lara when he meets her, and the game showing me that he's the leader the Cult of Kukulkan. However, the 892472 names they keep using to refer to him are immersion breaking. When I'm following a cutscene and he's being referred to as "Kukulkan" I have to pause the cutscene and remind myself.. who the fuck was that supposed to be again? Or when two characters are discussing him and one is saying "Amaru" while the other is saying "Dominguez," I'm just like um... But that's not the part I found to be the worst about his arc; it's his character growth and the ending for him that I found so out of place. So, the game showed me he's actually a pretty chill guy, but then the game throws that away pretty OBVIOUSLY by showing he's got a "cult" mindset with a very narrow and selfish vision. This guy is /NOT/ level-headed nor smart, so all the work the game was trying to do to make me sympatheize with him is thrown out at this point... which brings us to his ending: "I'm sorry," Lara says as she holds his hand. "Protect Paititi," he says before trusting her with an amulet... Um, why the FUCK is Lara being sympathetic with him!? The /players/ were *supposed* to feel that - not Lara as she just swore she would end him 2 minutes ago. The motivations are so inconsistent for these two at this point that it was immersion-breaking. Speaking of the ending, Lara has become Kukulkan - a God - and she chooses to sacrifice herself to restore the sun. How on earth is she still alive? And if you need to sacrifice a God to remake the world, then who was Dominguez gonna sacrifice?
Rourke: Okay, so this guy's introduction was actually pretty cool. I love the fact that he's introduced as Ana's killer from Rise of the Tomb Raider and the one sniping her at the end of that game before Dominguez told him not to kill her. The conversations he has with Lara are also much more "villainy" and I loved that, he's always tempting and teasing her and trying to get her to snap (and he succeeded! lol) or maybe because he's a sadist and wants to see her suffer, but my issue with him is how LITTLE screen time he got, and that disappointing ending for him. This fucker almost killed me in Siberia and killed my stepmom before she got the chance to disclose important information, I wanted the satisfacation to kill him, in Psycho Lara mode, myself. But instead we got.... what we got.
Lopez: This fucking guy. I am still so confused? He's introduced as a guy who found the Silver Box and first, but knew that the temptations are too strong that it's dangerous to be out there in the open for anyone, so he takes it and hides it away? Uses it? I still don't really know. But then he goes out of his way to hide it and only making it accessible to people who are clever enough to follow his clues to avoid making the Silver Box fall in the wrong hands, which means he believe that only good people should use it for the greater good. Okay, a noble effort, but then Jonah's comments and Lara's explanations paint him out as a really bad guy? I'm honestly still so confused about him and how he died exactly. I kind of wish they omitted his storyline to further focus on the two above.
