Shadow of the Tomb Raider closes the Survivor trilogy in the jungle. Lara Croft races a paramilitary group called Trinity to a hidden city named Paititi, trying to stop a Mayan apocalypse she set off herself. It is the twelfth mainline Tomb Raider game and the final installment of the Survivor trilogy. Eidos-Montréal took over as lead developer because Crystal Dynamics shifted focus to Marvel’s Avengers (2020), and the game was developed by Eidos-Montréal with Crystal Dynamics. Development began in 2015 after Rise of the Tomb Raider and lasted until July 2018. Camilla Luddington returned to voice Lara.
The Dagger of Chak Chel
The story opens in Cozumel, Mexico, where Lara and her friend Jonah Maiava track a Trinity cell led by Pedro Dominguez. Inside a tomb she finds the Dagger of Chak Chel and murals warning of “the Cleansing,” an apocalypse ending in a permanent solar eclipse. She takes the Dagger. Dominguez tells her that taking it triggered the Cleansing, then takes it from her.
What follows is a chase through the Amazon, a plane crash, and a massive storm. Lara and Jonah reach Paititi, where Trinity soldiers are being killed by humanoid monsters called the Yaaxil. The city’s queen, Unuratu, reveals that Dominguez is her brother-in-law Amaru, taken by Trinity as a child.
Paititi and the Cult of Kukulkan
Lara learns the ritual does not simply grant Kukulkan’s power — it sacrifices that power to stop the Cleansing. Amaru does not understand this. Unuratu is shot by Commander Rourke before she can finish the thought, and she dies telling Lara to complete the ritual and warning her not to let the Box influence her.
Lara believes Jonah is dead and destroys an oil refinery, killing everyone there except Rourke. Jonah is alive. He calms her.
Tombs, Hubs, and the Descent
The theme is descent — into the jungle’s physical depths and into the darker parts of Lara’s character. The team consulted historians to authentically depict the architecture and people of Paititi, and conducted field trips to Machu Picchu and the Yucatán. You feel it in Paititi’s semi-open hubs, where you raid challenge tombs for rewards, run side missions, and scavenge for resources to craft gear.
The game prioritized stealth over direct combat with enemies.
Amaru, Crimson Fire, and the Eclipse
The finale sends Lara into an underground temple complex while a volcanic eruption threatens Paititi. She convinces the Yaaxil and their leader Crimson Fire to help. Lara takes on the symbolic role of Ix Chel while Crimson Fire becomes Chak Chel, and the Yaaxil kill Rourke and the Trinity High Council. Lara reaches the temple summit and fights Amaru as an eclipse blocks the sun. She overpowers him. He transfers Kukulkan’s power to her as he dies.
She is tempted to use the Box to revive her parents. She lets Crimson Fire symbolically stab her instead, sacrificing Kukulkan’s spirit and stopping the Cleansing.
The game’s biggest flaw is that Amaru’s plan and Lara’s guilt never quite fuse into one idea. The plot is dense, sometimes to its cost. But the post-credits scene — Lara at Croft Manor, acknowledging her role is to protect the world’s mysteries, not solve them — is the right note to close on.
Numbers and dates
- Score: 8.1/10
- Release: 2018
- Developer: Eidos-Montréal, with Crystal Dynamics
- Publisher: Square Enix
- Platforms: Google Stadia, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, Linux, PC (Microsoft Windows), PlayStation 5, Mac, Xbox One
- Modes: Single player, co-operative
- Perspective: Third person
- Genres: Shooter, puzzle, adventure
| Date | Platform |
|---|---|
| 2018 | PC (Microsoft Windows), PlayStation 4, Xbox One |
| Later | Google Stadia, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X |
Shadow of the Tomb Raider is not the cleanest game in the trilogy. The tombs and hubs are built around specific mechanics — challenge tombs for rewards, side missions, resource scavenging — and those systems are where the game holds up.
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