Shadow of the Tomb Raider (2018)

Shadow of the Tomb Raider is an action-adventure game from developer Eidos-Montréal and publisher Square Enix. It follows Rise of the Tomb Raider as the twelfth main game in the Tomb Raider series, and it closes out the Survivor trilogy. PlayStation 4, Windows and Xbox One players got it on September 14, 2018, with Nixxes Software handling the Windows version. Linux, macOS and Stadia versions arrived in November 2019, and a Nintendo Switch 2 version came out on October 22, 2026.

Lara Croft and her friend Jonah Maiava spend the story chasing the paramilitary group Trinity across Mexico and the jungles of Peru. When Lara removes the Dagger of Chak Chel from a temple on Cozumel, she sets off the Cleansing, a Mayan apocalypse that ends in a permanent solar eclipse. Her search to stop it leads her to Paititi, a hidden city whose queen, Unuratu, helps her look for the Silver Box of Ix Chel while Trinity leader Pedro Dominguez hunts for it too.

The game is played in third person, and stealth takes priority over open fighting. Lara can cover herself in mud, hide in foliage or behind vine walls, scan the area with Survival Instinct, and fall back on bows and firearms when a fight cannot be avoided. She climbs with a pickaxe, crosses gaps with a grappling hook, and abseils down cliffs. Several large hubs offer side quests, merchants and characters to talk to, along with resources for crafting. Experience points earn Skill Points for three skill trees, and optional challenge tombs and crypts hold physics-based puzzles. Players can set exploration, puzzle and combat difficulty separately, and an Immersion mode lets locals speak in their native languages.

Beyond the standard release, Square Enix sold a Croft Steelbook Edition and an Ultimate Edition with extra in-game items and physical extras. A season pass added seven downloadable packs with new side missions, tombs, weapons, outfits and skills but no new story, and it also introduced two-player cooperative play in challenge tombs. The Definitive Edition combines the base game with that content, and a 2021 update allowed 4K at 60 frames per second on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S.

Eidos-Montréal led development because Crystal Dynamics had moved on to Marvel’s Avengers, with work running from 2015 to July 2018. The team drew on Mayan, Incan and Aztec mythology, consulted historians, and visited Machu Picchu and the Yucatán. Camilla Luddington again voiced and performed Lara. Metacritic rated the reviews generally favorable, though the game was received less warmly than its predecessors, and it eventually sold more than 8.9 million copies.