The Humble Monthly Bundle was a subscription service with a mystery twist: For $12 a month, subscribers got a mix of games ranging from high-profile big-budget releases to obscure indie stuff nobody's every heard of. The catch was that you didn't know what most of them would be before you paid. It was still often a good way to pick up games on the cheap because there was no term commitment required, so you could, as in April, grab Assassin's Creed: Origins for $12 (one game, usually a big one, was always revealed early), and then be on your way.

I say "was," because the Humble Monthly is now officially done and gone—replaced, as announced in October, with Humble Choice. Like its predecessor, it's a subscription-based service, but there's no surprise involved. Instead, the Humble Store will put together a list of ten or more games each month, from which subscribers can choose up to nine to keep.

The debut bundle includes:

• Shadow of the Tomb Raider
• Blasphemous
• Ancestors: Legacy
• Phantom Doctrine
• Dead in Vinland
• Horizon Chase Turbo
• Dark Future: Blood Red States
• Desert Child
• Aegis Defenders
• X-Morph: Defense

How much you can keep depends on the plan you sign up for. The basic tier, for $15 per month or $135 per year, enables you to select any three games on the list, while the $20 monthly/$180 annually premium tier is good for nine. Both tiers also offer access to the Humble Trove, a collection of more than 90 games for active subscribers, plus discounts on Humble Store purchases—ten percent for basic subscribers, 20 percent for premium—and unlimited access to Humble Originals and betas. For people who want Humble Trove access without the free-for-keepsies games, a "lite" option is available for $5 per month or $45 per year.

Like its Humble Monthly predecessor, Humble Choice does not require a term commitment, so if you see a particularly good deal you can pop in, grab it, and then dodge back out. (Subscribing for a year will get you a discount on the month-by-month rate, though: A year at the premium tier works out to $15 per month, for instance.) Details, signup links, and other relevant stuff is up at humblebundle.com.

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E3 2019 begins this weekend, technically, although it feels like it's been going on for a while. Last week, for example, a new Call of Duty game was announced, details arrived a little earlier than expected for the Avengers game from Square Enix, and hints that Larian might be working on something other than Divinity: Original Sin 3 were uncovered. And that was all in one day. In May! By 2025, E3 will probably begin in February, then finish the following January, so E3 can begin anew. There will be no escape. 

Below, we decided to take a 'health check' of the major publishers ahead of E3. We examine the recent games they've brought to the table, the headlines they've generated, how they performed at E3 2018, and what we expect from them at E3 2019. We've covered everyone with a major press conference, and touch upon some of the others, too. 

You should also check out our E3 2019 predictions, as well as our round-up of rumours and list of games that have been MIA since E3 last year. Plus, get an early look at who'll be taking the stage at the PC Gaming Show on June 10th. 

Bethesda

How did it do at E3 2018?   

Pretty well, though the most exciting games we know about—Starfield and The Elder Scrolls 6—are still years off. 

What has it got right lately?

Doom Eternal is a somewhat dependable beacon of hope after a middling year, and a new Wolfenstein game will help see us through the summer. 

What has it got wrong lately?

Fallout 76 was a bit of a disaster for Bethesda. Largely panned by critics, it launched as a buggy, aimless live service game. Rage 2 was a great shooter in a shallow open world, which hasn’t helped or hindered Bethesda’s reputation.

What do we expect from it at E3?

Expect plenty of Doom Eternal and Wolfenstein: Youngblood, the two games it has on the slate this year. Beyond that, it’s anyone’s guess. With its biggest games used up in last year’s conference, there’s no telling what, if any, surprises Bethesda has in store. Just be sure that Starfield and Elder Scrolls 6 won't be there. 

EA

How did it do at E3 2018?   

Not too bad. Anthem played well in extremely short form, Battlefield 5's multiplayer was shown off, and a battle royale mode for DICE's FPS was confirmed, which would eventually become Firestorm. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order was revealed in the softest way possible, with a name, tentative release date and confirmation it'll be a full-fat Star Wars singleplayer game. A Premier version of the EA Access service was announced, which would include brand new games, but for more money.   

What has it got right lately?

EA Access regularly expands its library, for those interested in the service—Into the Breach and FTL are recent additions. Respawn's Apex Legends, released in January, was a perfect surprise. The Sims 4 was given away for free in May, which is fantastic. Another Dragon Age exists, if in a very early form, though it's hard to get too excited about that after playing Anthem. 

What has it got wrong lately?

The release of Anthem was a disaster—the game was barely in a release-ready state and there was no hiding it. It mirrored the release of Mass Effect Andromeda in some ways, except it was an inferior game, and it means BioWare has had two major disappointments in a row. Battlefield 5 continues to grow in content, but it launched in a fairly light state, and sold below expectations. Another Star Wars game, the open world project that followed the cancellation of Visceral's Ragtag, was reportedly cancelled earlier this year. As EA laid off around 350 people, CEO Andrew Wilson said this: "As we look across a changing world around us, it’s clear that we must change with it."

What do we expect from it at E3?

EA seems to be having a quiet, transitional year, with no major FPS out this holiday season for the first time in a while. We don't expect many major announcements. Instead, EA's E3 schedule sets aside a whole lot of time for a proper showing of Jedi: Fallen Order, which deserves its opportunity to shine, as well as updates to existing games like Apex Legends and The Sims 4. 

Activision Blizzard

How did it do at E3 2018?   

Black Ops 4's reveal came before E3, but Activision did reveal Sekiro at the Microsoft conference. Blizzard tends to use Blizzcon to tease updates.

How is it doing right now?

Hearthstone, World of Warcraft, and Overwatch are ticking along as usual but Blizzard isn’t planning on releasing anything else anytime soon. 

What has it got right lately?

Sekiro is a massive game of the year contender, a 50-hour ninja epic from the creators of Dark Souls. As other big publishers try to launch new service games, Activision has put out a peerless singleplayer experience. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is returning to the series’ highest point later this year.

What has it got wrong lately?

The Activision Blizzard layoffs went down terribly in a year of record profits. 

What do we expect from it at E3?

Expect some flashy Call of Duty: Modern Warfare trailers. The publisher has 'very large ambitions for the Overwatch universe' but it's unlikely we'll see anything concrete at E3 this year. Blizzard is skipping Gamescom as well to focus on development, so don’t expect much from the conference this year.

Microsoft

How did it do at E3 2018?   

Microsoft's conference was fantastic, but mostly for major reveals of multiformat games, like Cyberpunk 2077 and Sekiro. Halo Infinite broke cover, though, as did Gears 5. The other big news item was its list of developer acquisitions: Playground Games, Ninja Theory, Undead Labs and Compulsion Games, plus the founding of one other new studio, The Initiative. This suggested a real desire for Microsoft to finally increase its game output. 

How is it doing right now?

Microsoft has basically spent this entire console generation trying to reverse out of the large disaster zone created by the terrible reveal and flawed launch of the Xbox One. It's getting there, but an ongoing software drought hasn't looked good next to Sony's volley of popular open world games. On PC, the Microsoft Store is still bad, but we've had some decent games come across, like Sea of Thieves, which is continually improving, and Forza Horizon 4. In addition to the acquisitions announced at E3 2018, Microsoft bought RPG specialists Obsidian and InXile in late 2018, too. 

What has it got right lately?

Just last week, Microsoft confirmed it's bringing Game Pass to PC, with over 100 games in tow as part of an on-demand service. More exciting, though, is that it's bringing more of its games to Steam, with Gears 5 among those making the leap. The Halo: Master Chief Collection is rolling out on Valve's platform, too, starting with Halo Reach. Xbox seems very eager to please PC players, and it seems to be working in our favour. 

What has it got wrong lately?

Crackdown 3 should've been a top-tier open world game like its predecessors, but it felt like old hat, and was mostly ignored. Microsoft needs better games—it's that simple. 

What do we expect from it at E3?

It seems likely Microsoft will be focused on its next-gen console offering, but we know there'll be 14 first-party Xbox games at E3 this year, which will come out on PC too. We can predict a few of those: Gears 5, Halo Infinite, Gears Tactics, and the Ori sequel. It's probably too early for most of its new acquisitions to show off their projects, but one or two of them might pop up during its conference. A new Forza Motorsport entry seems like a dead cert: they've released every two years for a long time. Hopefully Age of Empires 4 reappears, too. Expect a lot more information on Game Pass for PC. 

Capcom

How did it do at E3 2018?

Capcom announced both Resident Evil 2 Remake and Devil May Cry 5 at the Sony and Microsoft conferences respectively. It was a strong showing. 

How is it doing right now?

Both Resi 2 Remake and DMC5 lived up to expectations, and earlier this year Capcom posted record high profits. Seems like it's doing well. 

What has it got right lately?

Capcom's been on a hot streak for a little while. Resident Evil 7 was a solid reinvention of that series, Monster Hunter: World dragged the series away from Nintendo handhelds, and its last two games suggests Capcom has rediscovered its old form from the mid-'00s. The publisher has also made a good fist of bringing its old games to PC, from obscure favourites to outright classics. 

What has it got wrong lately?

You have to go back to Marvel Vs Capcom Infinite in 2017 to find the last real example of a Capcom dud. Monster Hunter World took a lot longer to come to PC than we'd have liked. 

What do we expect from it at E3?

Expansion Monster Hunter Iceborne is pretty much the only thing on its schedule right now—after a busy couple of years, this might be a quiet one for Capcom. Perhaps Phoenix Wright will pop up again, although we've only just received the first three entries on PC. 

Valve

How did it do at E3 2018?   

Valve tends to skip E3 and do its announcements elsewhere. Artifact was announced at the Dota 2 International. At trade shows Valve seems more interested in showing off new VR hardware that might have a few Valve minigames attached. We’re a long way away from the era when Valve would demo new engine tech and show new games.

What has it got right lately?

Steam is still far and away the most popular digital store. Competition from Epic has applied some pressure, but Valve is still dominant in this space. Valve’s VR headsets, while expensive, are the highest quality gear in the market.

What has it got wrong lately?

Artifact clearly hasn’t done well. The original designers have left and Valve plans to rework the game, and possibly relaunch it at some point. 

What do we expect from it at E3?

Valve is making an official version of Dota Auto Chess and recently trademarked 'Dota Underworlds'. We'd be surprised if any of this turned up at E3 this year. Valve is likely to have a quiet show and show new games on its own terms, hopefully in the next year or so. Don't hold your breath, though.

Ubisoft

How did it do at E3 2018?

Ubisoft properly revealed Assassin's Creed Odyssey at 2018's show, and followed its fairly regular pattern of dropping one heavy hitter at a time. A nice Beyond Good and Evil 2 cinematic trailer popped up. Skull and Bones, a PvP pirate game we first played at E3 2017 which still doesn't have a release date, made an appearance. Trials Rising was confirmed. Joseph Gordon-Levitt was there for some reason. 

How is it doing right now?

Ubisoft's PC business had a massive 58.1 percent over the last financial year, suggesting the platform is more important to the publisher now than it's ever been. Generally speaking, the publisher has been making some decent games of late. 

What has it got right lately?

The Division 2 launched in a strong state, which is a hard thing for a live service game to do. Assassin's Creed Odyssey offered a big, chunky blockbuster with BioWare-style choices, as BioWare itself has seemingly stopped making games like that. Rainbow Six Siege continues to tick along with new operators and important changes to its fundamental systems. Assassin's Creed Unity was given away for free, with a big donation to the rebuilding of Notre-Dame. 

What has it got wrong lately?

Assassin's Creed Odyssey had a pretty poor experience point boost microtransaction, despite being an otherwise great game. Its PC version was also incredibly demanding in terms of hardware, too. Splinter Cell still seems to be dead. 

What do we expect from it at E3?

Rumours are doing the rounds about a PC-focused EA Access-style service from Ubisoft. That makes perfect sense to us, with the quality and depth of its library—expect to hear more at E3. With no Assassin's Creed this year, a new Watch Dogs seems likely (rumours suggest it's set in London). You'll almost certainly see Ghost Recon Breakpoint in action, too. 

We predict there will be one major reveal of something brand new, too, tied in with the likely reveal of brand new console hardware (similar to how the original Watch Dogs was revealed in 2012). Beyond Good and Evil 2 won't be there, it's been confirmed, but there will be a separate livestream this week. Rumours suggest a roller derby-type game is in the works from Ubisoft, too. 

Square Enix

How did it do at E3 2018?   

Square Enix's 2018 livestream—it wasn't a conference, as such—was a definite disappointment in terms of announcements. But hey, they did have The Quiet Man, which we called the worst E3 trailer last year. People wanted The Avengers, and it didn't deliver that, probably because it was too early. That won't be a problem this year.

How is it doing right now?

Square Enix has had a slightly quieter 2019 on the PC front so far—its big release was Kingdom Hearts 3 on consoles. A new expansion for FF14 is on its way. The publisher is definitely overdue some bigger, exciting multiformat releases on the horizon.

What has it got right lately?

Andy very much enjoyed Shadow of the Tomb Raider's focus on actual tomb raiding and puzzles last year. Life is Strange 2 hasn't generated the chatter the first one did—which was always going to be tough—but it's made a solid impression so far, even if the episodes are taking a while to come out. 

What has it got wrong lately?

Just Cause 4 didn't make a great case for keeping the open world series around—it's in real need of reinvention. Cancelling a pretty exciting-sounding bunch of FF15 DLC was a disappointing move, but hey, maybe interest in the ageing singleplayer game was waning. Left Alive, the Front Mission shooter spin-off, seemed to get ignored almost entirely. 

What do we expect from it at E3?

We know The Avengers game from Crystal Dynamics will be there, which is really exciting. A leaked E3 listing suggests it'll be a mix of co-op and singleplayer, with customisable elements for your superheroes. Square Enix has a whole conference to fill this year—it feels like more is going to be put on the table than just that one game, but it's likely to be the centrepiece of its Monday 10th June presentation. The Final Fantasy 7 Remake will likely be part of E3, too, as the last trailer promised 'more in June'. The problem is, that last one isn't coming to PC—not yet, anyway. A mysterious game called Outriders will also be at Square Enix's show this year. 

Other publishers and their E3 prospects

Does Konami make games that aren't PES anymore? Hopefully we'll find out at this E3. It would suck if Silent Hill and Metal Gear were just left on the shelf. 2K Games is almost certainly going to bring Borderlands 3, though it feels too early for an XCOM or Civ. Could we possibly see that rumoured new BioShock game make an appearance, though? It might be too early for that. Bandai Namco is rumoured to be bringing a George RR Martin-consulted From Software game to Microsoft's show, which could end up being the biggest announcement of this E3. Sega hasn't said what it's bringing to E3 yet, but expect a quiet one for Total War specifically, given that Three Kingdoms just came out. 

Green Man Gaming is celebrating its ninth birthday by releasing a batch of new deals every day—and right now you can grab games such as Shadow of the Tomb Raider, RPG Kingdom Come: Deliverance and shop sim Moonlighter at their lowest-ever prices.

In today's selection of deals, Shadow the Tomb Raider is 60% off at $24/£18 for the next 48 hours. Hitman 2 is also on sale at a low price—57% off, $24/£19—and My Time at Portia is discounted too.

Yesterday's deals are still available until Sunday, and they include Kingdom Come Deliverance for $24/£19, indie shop sim Moonlighter for $11/£8.50 and co-op cooking game Overcooked 2 for $13.60/£11, which are all historic lows according to deal site IsThereAnyDeal.

If you browse the home page you'll also find solid deals on Middle Earth: Shadow of War (less than $15/£10), ARK: Survival Evolved and Rise of the Tomb Raider.

It's worth checking the page tomorrow to see what the new deals are: the next batch will be released at 11am ET/4pm BST Sunday.

2018’s gruelling release schedule means that I completely forgot that Shadow of the Tomb Raider had even come out, let alone that it was just a few months ago. If you forgot about it, too, or you’ve just been putting it off, then good news! You can play its opening levels in a free trial for PC and consoles. 

The demo is expected to pop into existence in the next hour, and you'll be able to download it from the Steam page. You’ll have complete access to the opening levels, and if you choose to buy the game, your progress will carry over, including achievements. 

Andy Kelly’s Shadow of the Tomb Raider review certainly makes it sound worth taking for a spin, especially if you feel like Lara should be doing more raiding of tombs and less murdering of dudes. 

Shadow shows impressive restraint, rarely using combat as a crutch and focusing more on what makes this series special: namely, raiding tombs. And the tombs here are undoubtedly the star of the show, and some of the best in the series. The feeling of trespassing in an ancient, cursed place is palpable, and hearing the stone door scrape open when you finally solve that puzzle is always a satisfying feeling. And it’s these moments, not the exploding refineries, helicopter battles, or expensive cinematic set-pieces, that make this worth playing.

It's the photo mode (as always) that I want to really play around with, which Andy used to image what Lara's Instagram might look like. 

I think I’ll save this for the weekend, but what about you lot?

Andy called Shadow of the Tomb Raider "one of Lara Croft's best modern adventures" in his review last month and, up until this week, fans seemed to generally agree, giving it mostly positive reviews on Steam. But then it was review bombed, with most disgruntled fans citing a 34% week-long sale, which ends tomorrow, as the reason for criticism.

From reading some of the 600+ reviews since the sale went live (66% of those reviews are negative), the main line of reasoning is that it's unfair to have paid full price for the game, either as a pre-order or at launch, only to see it heavily discounted so soon after. 

Most don't seem concerned about whether the game is any good or not, and many don't even comment on it. "Feel like a fool to have pre-ordered," one simply says. Another negative review reads: "Game is good btw...but never pre-ordering a Square Enix game ever again." 

While I can understand the frustration, I wouldn't have it any other way—the fact that games go on sale so quickly, and regularly, is one of the things I like best about PC gaming. It's yet another reason why you should be cautious about pre-ordering anything. 

There is, of course, some legitimate criticism to be found in the reviews, with some pointing to audio and visual bugs, while others simply didn't get on with the story or combat. But, on balance, I still think it's worth playing, and if you're quick you can grab it with that 34% discount. It's $39.59/£29.69 on Steam.

Thanks, PCGamesN.

Interestingly, Shadow of the Tomb Raider launched with a different ending that was patched out on day one. Frustratingly, it also arrived with a bug that prevented some players from achieving 100 percent completion. That's now been fixed universally, as have a number of other issues in the wake of its fourth PC patch. 

Collectable stats are no longer misrepresented in the UI, for example, and Dolby Atmos should now always launch without a hitch. Likewise, a number of "smaller" stability and functionality fixes have been applied; and players using Steam Input will now be shown appropriate icons for all supported controller types—in the same way this is displayed for native input players.  

"While we expect this patch to be an improvement for everyone," says developer Eidos Montreal in this Steam Community post. "If you do have trouble with this patch and prefer to stay on the old version we have made a Beta available on Steam, Build 234.2, that can be used to switch back to the previous version.

"This patch will be applied by Steam automatically when you next start the game. If your game does not update, please restart the Steam client. If your game does not start properly after downloading this update, please verify the integrity of your Steam game files."

Andy seemed to enjoy Shadow of the Tomb Raider in his 84-scored review, and I guarantee you'll laugh your way through his feature on turning a grim nightmare into an awkward vacation with Shadow of the Tomb Raider's photo mode. 

The Forge is the first of seven DLC packs coming down the pipe for Shadow of the Tomb Raider. The Forge adds a challenge tomb playable solo and co-op. Completing the DLC will unlock a 'grenadier' skill, an outfit and the Umbrage 3-80 weapon.

According to Square Enix Lara "must brave the lava-flooded Forge of the fallen gods to uncover the secrets of Kuwaq Yaku."

"Throughout her journey, Lara will uncover details about a friend’s ancient legacy, and overcome a danger long thought to be lost in flame." Hopefully it's the Tomb Raider 1 T-Rex, back for revenge.

The Forge is due out on November 13, and it will cost $4.99. To be honest we will mainly use this as an excuse to take more awkward vacation photos using Tomb Raider's photo mode. Here are some screenshots to set the scene.

If you played Shadow of the Tomb Raider all the way to the end, then you know how it ends. (Obviously.) But as Kotaku reported today, the game shipped with a very different ending, one that referenced a significant character from Core Design's original 1996 Tomb Raider. That ending was changed in a day-one patch, so most players would never see it, or even realize it ever existed.

There are, of course, major spoilers below.   

The fun began when Tomb Raider forum user Tombstone asked why, in all the discussions about Shadow of the Tomb Raider, nobody had mentioned the letter that Lara gets from Natla—that would be villain Jacqueline Natla—at the end of the game. After all, the obvious implication that she would return as the villain for the next Tomb Raider, whatever it might be, is pretty huge.   

Responses insisted that she did not receive a letter at all, and that Tombstone was either wrong or messing with people. The conversation went back and forth, with plenty of ribbing, until Tombstone finally ran out of patience. 

"I had to replay the whole damn game again so I hope you cows calling me a troll and liar eat some humble crow pie," they wrote in a message that also included a video of the game's ending, which included the letter he'd said was there all along. 

Square Enix confirmed that Tombstone was correct in a message shared through Tomb Raider's Official Fansite Program. "During the course of development on Shadow of the Tomb Raider, multiple post-credits scenes were explored. Unfortunately one of the directions that was considered, but not chosen, was mistakenly included in the game," it said. 

"The Day One patch fixes this error, along with many other improvements. As always, we highly recommend that our players install the patch to enjoy the complete and most up-to-date experience." 

Even though that "direction" wasn't chosen, I have to wonder whether this is a major (and majorly early) spoiler for what's coming in the next Tomb Raider game. Natla hasn't turned up in the rebooted Tomb Raider universe yet, so a surprise reappearance would be a big bone to toss to fans, and an easy PR win. Maybe the plan was to start that talk early? As Kotaku pointed out, it's not unusual for unused content to be left buried in the code, but this is a case of a game literally shipping with the wrong ending. How do you even do that? 

The Shadow of the Tomb Raider ending with the Natla letter, courtesy of Daft Raider (Tombstone's video looks like he recorded the screen with his phone), can be seen below.  

AMD doesn't have a new generation of graphics cards like Nvidia does, but for its existing lineup, the driver train keeps on rolling. The latest Radeon Software Adrenalin Edition to pull into the station is 18.9.2, and it brings with it performance tweaks for several games.

According to the release notes, installing the 18.9.2 driver release can yield up to a 5 percent performance gain in Fortnite on the Radeon RX Vega 64 at 1920x1080, compared to the 18.8.2 driver package.

AMD makes three other performance claims, all pertaining to the Radeon RX Vega 64. In Shadow of the Tomb Raider, AMD says performance gains check in at up to 4 percent at 2560x1440. If you're playing F1 2018, AMD claims up to a 3 percent jump, also at 2560x1440. And finally, AMD says its 18.9.2 driver package can deliver up to 17 percent faster performance in Star Control: Origins when running the game at 4K.

Not only does Star Control: Origins purportedly see the biggest performance jump, it's also the recipient of the sole bug fix. The new driver is supposed to get rid of particle corruption on some cloud textures.

There are a few known issues, one of which is that Radeon RX Vega cards could see elevated memory clocks when the system is at idle. AMD also warns that configurations with 16 or more CPU cores might experience a random reboot when upgrading from a driver release older than 18.8.1. If that applies to you, AMD recommends performing a clean install with this latest release.

Go here to download the new driver package.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider marks the end of Lara Croft’s ‘origin trilogy’, which began with Crystal Dynamics’ dramatic reboot back in 2013. Over the course of three games she’s grown from a starry-eyed rookie to a seasoned adventurer, and it’s been an interesting journey indeed. In some ways this has been a successful modern reboot of a beloved series; in others it’s frustrating, inconsistent, and occasionally just plain bad. So let’s take a look back at the three games in the trilogy—Tomb Raider, Rise of the Tomb Raider, and Shadow of the Tomb Raider—and delve into their respective highs and lows.

The tone

Just under six minutes into 2013’s Tomb Raider reboot, Lara says “This is gonna hurt!” before being impaled on a rusty spike: a moment that neatly establishes the relentlessly grim tone of the trilogy. Across these three games Lara is constantly covered in blood, yelping in pain, and being brutalised by wild animals and mercenaries. And, honestly, it’s a bit much.

Crystal Dynamics were clearly trying to make Lara less like Indiana Jones and more of a real, fragile human. But the abundance of graphic imagery just comes across as gratuitous. Shadow of the Tomb Raider does ease off on this a little, at least until the human sacrifices start happening, but in general the origin trilogy is a festival of extreme gore and unnecessarily vivid violence.

The tone also feels contradictory at times. Early in the reboot, Lara laments having to hunt a deer for food: then just a few hours later she’s merrily machine-gunning dozens of pirates to death, spattered with blood, seemingly transformed into a hardened, emotionless killer. Yet despite the gauntlet of death and misery she’s forced to wade through, in cutscenes she’s almost like a different person: quiet, thoughtful, kind, and very posh.

Plenty of other games suffer from this, but in Tomb Raider it’s especially pronounced. It feels like Crystal Dynamics (and later Eidos Montreal) couldn’t decide whether they wanted her to be a deadly predator who skulks around in the shadows snapping necks like Solid Snake, or a real person on a journey of growth and discovery. The two just don’t sit well together and it’s a dissonance that ultimately makes her difficult to empathise with.

The tombs

I love the tombs in these games. The puzzle solutions are relatively obvious compared to the much more challenging originals, but there’s something immensely satisfying about solving giant, room-sized brain-teasers. And they’re brilliantly atmospheric too, particularly in Shadow, giving you a palpable feeling of being an intruder in some forgotten, forbidden, ancient place. It’s that romanticised Indiana Jones vision of history, where traps lie around every corner and mysterious glowing artifacts are waiting as a reward for anyone capable, or foolish, enough to make it through alive.

But it took them a while to get going. The tombs in the first game seemed apologetic and tacked on rather than an integral part of it. For a game called ‘Tomb Raider’ there sure was a lot of boring third-person shooting in that reboot. But the developers eventually seemed to realise that diving into ancient ruins and uncovering their secrets shouldn’t be an optional extra, but part of the critical path. This comes to a head in Shadow, which is the tomb raidiest Tomb Raider in years, with more time spent puzzling through crypts, caverns, and temples than shooting reams of anonymous bad guys.

Of course, action has always been a big part of the Tomb Raider experience. Let’s not forget that Lara fought a dinosaur in her first adventure. But I think they went slightly too far with it in the origin trilogy, perhaps in an attempt to keep up with the intensely combat-focused Uncharted series. For me, Tomb Raider is best when it’s just Lara, an ancient temple, and some puzzles to solve, and maybe the odd wild animal to spice things up. But I really don’t think we need to see her scrabbling between cover, setting pirates on fire with Molotov cocktails, and brutally shotgunning mercenaries to pieces.

The world

But swinging back to a positive, I do love the semi-open structure of the origin trilogy. Rather than a series of levels, locations are connected and can be returned to at any time. I’m a sucker for games that tease you with places you can’t access until you unlock a particular item or ability later down the line, and these games are full of that kind of design. Connecting locations like this makes the world feel more convincing and natural, although it does limit the globe-hopping aspect that made Tomb Raider 2 so exciting.

There’s a distinctive visual language in all three games that helps you find the right place to be, or right thing to interact with, in those dense, cluttered environments. When you see a rope tied around something you instinctively reach for your bow to fire another rope at it. When there’s a smudge of white paint on something you know you can scramble up it. But the more I played the games and became familiar with them, these would shatter my immersion. Highlighting things like this makes exploration feel inorganic and overly telegraphed, although you can diminish or disable some of these visual cues with Shadow’s clever customisable difficulty settings.

I don’t know what direction future Tomb Raider games will take, but I would like to see this open structure return. I don’t think Tomb Raider should ever be an open world game—there are far too many of those around at the moment—but it would be cool to have a greater sense of travelling across large distances, into thick, isolated jungles, across raging rivers. I want to feel like Lara is on a real expedition. But I’d be happy with the same structure and maybe a few larger locations. Of the many things this trilogy brought to the Tomb Raider series, this sense of a consistent, interconnected world is probably my favourite.

The systems

I’m not a fan of the series’ survival and crafting elements. For one they feel half-baked, like an attempt to jump on the survival game bandwagon rather than something connected to the game in any meaningful way. Having to break saplings apart to craft arrows, or snatch up herbs to make medicine, doesn’t make me feel like a survivor on the edge: it’s just busywork. It’s a superficial layer added to the game to make it seem like more than just another third-person action game, and I never really bought into it.

I do like some of the features these games introduced, such as learning languages to decipher monoliths. That reinforces the idea that Lara is an archaeologist and a scholar in a way shooting people with a big gun does not. I’d like to see more of that in future games, because Lara’s USP as a videogame hero—being an enlightened, educated historian—is massively underused in these new games, and in the series in general. I’d like to see her getting a bit more intellectual, solving puzzles using her knowledge of history rather than just finding the right lever to pull or mirror to rotate.

The future

Despite the flaws outlined above, I enjoyed all three of these games. Rise was the low point thanks mainly to its abundance of tedious firefights, but Shadow excels by making the stealth deeper and more interesting, and giving it priority over regular combat. I think I only had a handful of firefights in the third game, and it was all the better for it. But where should Square Enix take the series next? This being the end of the origin trilogy, or the ‘survivor timeline’ as some fans call it, means it’s the perfect time for another reboot.

They’d never do it, but I’d love to see a Tomb Raider game focused entirely around puzzles. Something like The Talos Principle, but with the series’ trademark climbing thrown in. I’d also love to see Lara return to Egypt, because venturing into the pyramids in Assassin’s Creed Origins gave me a taste for that setting. But who knows what they’ll do, and who will develop it? Crystal Dynamics have been making Tomb Raider games for ages, and is now working on The Avengers, so I’d like to see someone else take a shot. My gut says the next one will be open world, and I’ll be referring back to this to gloat when I’m proved right.

Lara Croft might not have the same cultural influence she had back in the ‘90s when she would appear in Lucozade adverts and on the cover of The Face, but it’s nice that she’s still around, and starring in some decent games. The origin trilogy dragged Lara down to the deepest, murkiest depths of hell, so maybe next time the series should bring back some of the pulpy, adventurous, comic book spirit of the original games. I don’t know if I can face another 25 hours of her wading through pools of blood, dragging herself through caves stuffed with severed body parts, or getting herself impaled on rusty spikes.