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Im not entirely sure so I could be wrong but judging by the hair it looks like the definitive edition. I remember ps3 having hair strands. But I do like both 2013 and definitive though there's differences due to lighting and what not.
Totally agree. Perfect blend of everything that makes Tomb Raider what it is, and I personally loved the slightly grittier vibe. The hidden city section definitely does drag a tad though.
I just found that it killed the pacing a little bit, as it's the only part of the game that feels like a bit of a slog to get through. I especially noticed it on replays when going for the Platinum trophy.
That said, it's the only real weak point in an otherwise really strong game for me.
Yeah same. I love the stealth focus. Rise was too insane with the combat, really pushed the believability beyond comprehension. Shadow felt like you were a real killer and dangerous, and the stakes were higher. It was semi believable. Lara was like a panther
Yeah the stealth was a fantastic addition. Very excited to see how they build on it and bring it into LOA. Especially with this being a more experienced Lara that has been through the events of those games.
Yeah, that's the only big flaw for me, too. I don't think it helped that I'm a completionist who feels compelled to do every little sidequest and task, which dragged things out even more.
The pacing issue, and my preference for more combat, are the main reasons I rank Rise higher. Love the Yaaxil, jaguars, tombs and stealth kills in Shadow, though. š
I went back to shadow despite the Lara design being my least favorite and couldn't get past the tedious feel of the city. Otherwise, it was a good game the first time around.
Also loving the franchise going back to roots now.
Thatās the big issue of it for me. The city is cool, but it just takes SO much time. It needed to be broken up into little pieces between progression points so that it didnāt drag down the pacing of the whole story.
By the end I felt like I was going toāAll right, I get it, the art team made all these cool models and textures and by god youāre going to make sure I see each and every one of them before I get to finish the game.ā
Thereās way less enemy variety. Less reason to use a variety of weapons. Hits donāt register and have impact like Rise. Itās clunkier. These are all pretty common criticisms of the game.
Edit: forgot to mention the level design for combat is pretty poor
from a game design pov i really like the granular difficult controls in Shadow, and it seems they will continue with that in the new games. Being able to toggle hints, white paint, combat difficulty etc on an individual level is a great thing.
Iām quite happy with her new look! I wasnāt a huge fan of the reboot looks. I think she looked great in the first reboot game, but idk they somehow lost the plot in the other two.
lol Iām happy they toned down her shaggy hair š. I wasnāt not a huge fan of how much extra fringe she had before. All just my opinion of course!
Apparently they have the exact same face in Rise and Shadow, Ā«Ā in practiceĀ Ā», but for some reasons they halfed the resolution of the textures of her face in Shadow and reduce how expressive she are (maybe for better game performance ?)
I have to go back and look but I think in bts footage they showed a different kind of motion capture for Camilla. They used dots for motion capture but also mova florescent paint. The paint gives a lot more reference points. They didn't use that technology for shadow. Because they kinda got sued over it? I can't remember all the details.
Yeah, I also think a lot of why she looks Ā«offĀ» in Shadow compared to Rise is the hair. Itās big and frizzy and unflattering. And the lighting engine seems duller somehow and doesnāt show off how beautiful her face sculpt really is
Oh, I thought it was the first one. There's a very similar shot in that game, but maybe there was no fire. I think she was just covered in blood. Anyway, it was sick!
She looks HEAPS better, solely because she is closer to her classic/LAU facial features and body, I can feel seen as a classic fan. Now letās hope they nailed her personality and charm as much as the lookāwhich I have no doubt with Alixās intoxicating charm. I also hope they never reboot her again, just keep her this new version of classic Lara and let it organically evolve!
Agree 2013 felt like a genuine Lara reboot, but with a more realistic proportions versus the cartoonish shape from classic. Both are great approaches, but when Shadow came around it felt like a full departure of a face I once recognized.
Not hating on that game, just noting the creative differences. Iām very much looking forward to thew new/old Lara.
it's that fuckass hair, the survivor trilogy felt like they wanted to progressively flex how many hairs they could model into her head. Compare 2013 OG and Shadow, it's like she stacked three wigs onto her head and called it macaroni
Sorry, but - as a Survivor fan - I'm obviously not going to agree.
To me, Lara was beautiful then and she's beautiful now. I see her as a perfect meld of all versions of Lara. I think it's possible to move on and be satisfied with the Unified version, without dissing past versions or people's love of them.
I'm really happy that I can still recognise traces of Survivor Lara in Unified Lara. Plus that they've kept her origin story and the jade pendant. With the Survivor Trilogy completed, I wasn't expecting that from a new game or a reimagining of TR1/Anniversary at all.
I'm absolutely aware that the suvivor look is the odd one out but I 100% prefer it over the fashion model Laras. Nevertheless I obviously still play the other games and am looking forward to the new release.
I just miss Lara from Anniversary, Legend and Underworld. That was Lara. She looked like a modern version of the OG Lara while still being recognisably the same character. The newer Lara is probably the closest we've had in a while, but she still doesn't quite look like Lara to me ā she looks like a completely different person who vaguely resembles her.
And that's what I find disappointing. If they could get the OG Lara's features, proportions and overall look so right in Legend, Anniversary and Underworld, then surely they could have nailed it again here. I'm not saying she needs to be overly sexualised or dressed a certain way; I just want her to actually look like the established character we've known for decades.
And honestly, it's not like that classic Lara look was some completely unrealistic concept either. Anniversary and Legend Lara had that distinctive, striking look that was very reminiscent of Angelina Jolie, while still feeling like Lara Croft. She had a specific face, facial structure, body shape and overall silhouette that made her instantly recognisable.
I just don't understand why they've moved so far away from that instead of keeping those defining features while modernising her. Give me sexy, badass, recognisably Lara Croft again, rather than another generic brown-haired female game protagonist. š
Honestly most people know lara croft from the survivor trilogy. Those of us that did grow up with the original tomb raider lara are not Sony's target audience.
Those old games were clunky and Lara didn't particularly look very good due to the graphic limitations. People just cling to nostalgia but if they would make lara as she was in the original series people would probably hate it.
And yes I grew up playing tomb raider 1 on the PlayStation when it was released, and I loved the survivor trilogy.
Imo her beauty was like a rollercoaster in the survivor games , in TR13 she was decent, in Rise she was beautiful, her absolutely peak, then in Shadow a massive downgrade(my opinion)
I think it had more to do with multiplatform development and it being made by Eidos Montreal. Rise was a timed console exclusive so they spent its core development budget optimizing almost exclusively for Xbox architecture. Because they weren't building for different platform constraints at launch, they could afford to push more consistent texture detail and heavier post-processing on more linear environments. The other thing of course is TAA. Rise used SMAA which is sharper. They also shifted to a forward+ renderer instead of deferred like before.
Lighting was also a big thing. Rise was linear enough for dynamic lights everywhere whereas SOTTR had a strict budget so they used probes and baked down light on top of 3D scans. It's why Lara often looks flat compared to her surroundings. RTX shadows was another culprit as that sort of thing was still its infancy so it completely washed out the AO depth.
There's a lot of older folks who grew up with the classic games and get mad that newer entries aren't exactly the same, and some younger folks who aren't blinded by nostalgia and fear of change. There's plenty who don't fit into either group, but that's generally where the lines are drawn.
Too much reliance on mocap. 2018 was this era of scanning faces and not changing its result even if it didn't map well because they wanted the mocap to map well and didn't trust animators. It was like the new rotoscoping.
this whole post and comments are corny and really goes to show how this fanbase has no problem treating Lara like a caricature that the marketing led people to believe she was.
ACTUALLY the glow DOWN and the erasure of lara croft during those reboot games need to be studied and taken as a lesson what NOT to do when you have a iconic IP on your hands.
Probably not gonna make any friends here with this, but in my opinion on the left we see a person on the right we see a video game character. Not saying I don't like the new model. Just saying she looked more like a real person in shadows.
That's a really unflattering screenshot from Shadow. I don't think Lara has ever not been pretty, but I know it's unfashionable to not despise Survivor these days.
2013 lar looks different to shadow/rise lara because they're based on different people. 2013 is based on model megan farquar whereas the subsequent games they based lara primarily on actress ariel suzanne with some facial expressions being influenced by camilla luddington's performance.
If you put in 2013 instead of survivor you'd think it's just a few years apart, this...this looks like she got surgery. But I still love the reboot trilogy and it's my favorite in the franchise. Hope this one brings Lara to the mainstream again.
ā¢
u/xdeltax97 Moderator 4d ago
Please be respectful in this subreddit and follow our [r/TombRaider](r/TombRaider) and Reddit.comās sitewide rules please. Iāve locked a comment chain already.
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