Shadow of the Tomb Raider: The Forge Review

"Streams of Fire"

Campaign

Shadow of the Tomb Raider: The Forge is the first DLC released for the game that continues the adventures of Lara Croft's latest release. This is a side mission that's activated through a connection to Abby's family and their history. It takes about an hour to play through depending on how well acquainted you are with the main puzzle challenge. I mention this aspect, as the section is part of the Challenge Tomb option in the main menu. You can tackle this challenge by yourself or with another player in coop.

There's matchmaking and leaderboards that are part of this mode within the game. There are two options for the challenge as well, either working for the fastest speed or attempting to gather points. It works well and it's a welcomed addition to the formula. Back to the campaign you'll be following an old map to learn about the lore of the starting village you come across during the regular campaign.

It's an interesting one that's less story heavy and more about exploration mixed with some puzzles. It really is just more of the game, but that's fine as this is a wonderful entry in the franchise. It delivers a fine side adventure with a neat fire theme and it presents a good amount of difficulty for even veteran players.

The Conclusion

Shadow of the Tomb Raider: The Forge is a solid addition to the experience providing a challenging tomb to tackle within the narrative or in a competitive mode. I liked how they split this up providing a new competitive area to experience while also building upon the story within the regular game.

It has the full quality usual cinematics, an expansion on the characters and of course more raiding adventures to take part in. It provides a decent amount of extra gameplay, this is of course based on well you move through it. I found the core puzzle to be well done, it certainly looked neat and had layers of complexity to it while still being easy enough to work through. It's great to jump back into the game and hopefully the rest of the releases follow a similar layout of adding to this great Lara Croft adventure.

Read our Shadow of the Tomb Raider Review
View our Tomb Raider Hub

Shadow of the Tomb Raider Review on Xbox One X
Review Code Provided by Square Enix

Rating Overall: 7.8