So, this year I did something that I normally don’t do. I actually watch television shows. That’s an exaggeration of course but ever since I worked my way into college and grown accustomed to the internet, I normally don’t watch as many shows as I used to when I was kid. Outside of your casual Marvel and Star Wars shows on Disney Plus or your typical big hit series on Netflix such as Stranger Things, I hadn’t been that compelled to keep up with any new streaming series. That was until this year!
With how iffy film medium has been for the past couple of years, that has encouraged me to go to other resources for high quality entertainment. Those mediums that I’ve turned to have been video games and streaming shows. Because of my increase on the latter, I have worked my way to find the high quality shows that I heard so many good things about and see if they’ve lived up to the hype. And in 2025, I was able to find six distinct shows that were able to meet those expectations.
Keep in mind, these are my personal favorite shows of 2024. I didn’t have time to view every single hit show of the year and there are some that I liked but didn’t like well enough to where it deserved to be mention in my top lists. Regardless, here are my lists of my top 6 favorite shows of 2024.
6.) Terminator: Zero
People have gone back and forth in what should be considered the #3 best Terminator medium. Some favor the bonkers Rise of the Machines with it’s ballsy as hell ending, some favor the appropriately grim departure of the series known as Salvation, some prefer grandma Linda Hamilton and grandpa Arnold coming back to kick ass with Dark Fate, and of course there are those fortunate that was able to witness The Sarah Connor Chronicles in it’s entirety as the real proper continuation of the first two masterpieces in the franchise. However, we know have a new anime series that might just put every single film released between Judgement Day and Dark Fate to shame with Terminator: Zero.
Instead of relying on nostalgia and callbacks, Terminator: Zero actually dares to tell a fresh and unique story with new and engaging characters and adding new mythos to the lore. There’s no Connors or Arnold presence here, just a new conflict told through a different set of humans and machines. The animation style is incredibly fitting for what it’s going for, this is easily the most intense Terminator medium since the original film, the new characters that are introduced are able to hold their own, and it’s able to look at a much broader scope of the relationship between humanity and A.I. in ways that feels new and timely appropriate.
I don’t know if this series will appeal to those that aren’t fans of Terminator or anime but if you are a fan of either one of them, this Netflix exclusive is a must see. If anything, this proof that the Terminator brand can in fact endure with it’s own identity without the need to constantly bring a Linda Hamilton and Arnold into the mix.
5.) Arcane (Season 2)
The first season of Arcane was perhaps one of the greatest seasons of an animated series I have ever seen. Not only did it work near flawlessly as an adaption of it’s source material but it worked as it’s own series itself. It introduced some of the grandest worldbuilding, engaging characters, and superb animation of modern times, tackling serious subject matter involving tragedy and conflict. Because of that, expectations were over the ROOF for it’s second season. And while it’s still great, it can’t quite capture that lightning in a bottle that the first one did.
This perhaps has to do with the fact that Netflix decided that the second season should act as the final season and save any remaining stories set in this universe as individual spin-offs. Because of that, you got a third act, while well made and engaging, can’t help but feel overstuffed and crammed together just to get to the ending that the creators wanted for this series. While the first two/thirds of the show are able to be as compelling and intriguing as Season 1, the last third falters with trying to type up so much material in so little time.
Even so, I will still take a flawed masterpiece such as Arcane Season 2 than around 90% of most entertainment that I watched this year. The animation and world building is expanded upon even further with most impressive achievements, Vi and Jinx still remains the most compelling sisterhood relationship I’ve seen to date, the action is still grand and epic in scale, and the entire cast is still able to get a moment of their own to shine. Season 2 may not have been the perfection that Season 1 was but in this case, I’ll still take imperfection if it means I get to spend more time in this world and it’s characters.
4.) Fallout
Last year’s Amazon smash hit managed to be one of the most surprising new series to come out in 2024. Despite having all odds against them, Fallout was able to work greatly as an adaption that honored the source material is was based on (despite some potential retcons here and there) while expanding the overall world to new audience members all around the world.
Aided by an INCREDIBLY likable and talented cast with Ella Purnell’s Lucy (I NEVER get tired of her saying “ookie-dookie”), Walton Goggin’s Cooper Howard, and Aaron Clifton Moten’s Maximus, this series puts the focus on a handful of scrappy survivors fighting their way through a nuclear apocalypse in different parts of a retro-futuristic America. Even with it’s rather serious stakes throughout, the show never forgets to be lighthearted and fun when the moments require it. Show creator Jonathan Nolan clearly understood the assignment here and we all ended up the better for it.
Although the ending left quite a bit to be desired (which is apparently the case with most Fallout games), this video game show was an absolute blast regardless of whether you are a fan of the games or not. With a perfectly balanced tone, engaging protagonists, and top notch production values, Fallout earns itself a spot as a new gold standard for video game adaptions and shows.
3.) X-Men ’97
In an era where it seems like the hype around superheroes and revivals have died down, here comes in X-Men 97 that was able to swipe on it’s way to Disney Plus and show everyone how these things are suppose to be done. This was about as good of a revival as it could get, perfectly translate the traditional values and roots that the X-Men are known for in modern times while still being able to capture that Saturday morning cartoon vibe.
The 2D animation is stunning and feels perfectly in line with it’s 96′ series counter part, the action sequences are filled with energy and excitement, and there is plenty of time given to each cast member of the X-Men to shine, rarely suffering from the problem of the films where a certain group of characters manages to completely overshadow the other. And it was SUPER nice to see my boy Scott and my girl Rogue being done justice for once. Oh, and the glimmers of seeing 94′ Spider-Man back again brought a tear to my eye!
No offense to Deadpool & Wolverine but I think most would agree that X-Men 97 was far in a way the best Marvel-related thing to come out in 2024. It’s able to capture the spirit of it’s 90s counterpart as well as just the X-Men in general! It’s so good that I would love to see more Marvel revivals of beloved shows done in a similar matter. Come on, Disney! Greenlight Spider-Man 98 already! You know you want to!
2.) The Penguin
With there being so many “Who asked for this?!” spin-offs of existing IPs out lately, The Penguin was able to step up to the plate and hit an absolute grand slam of a spin-off series. Matt Reeves and Lauren Lefranc is able to expand upon the crime lord of Gotham in fascinating ways here, showcasing a perfect example on how to do these “grounded” superhero stories correctly.
The production values are fantastic, Gotham has never been this intriguing to explore in live-action, the characters are all engaging, the plot is intriguing, and the performance are stellar from top to bottom, aided greatly by the central performance by Colin Farrell (who is still unrecognizable as the Penguin) and the scene stealing turn by Cristin Milioti as Sofia Falcone. It’s also incredibly refreshing to have a villain led-story where we actually get to see the main lead be a villain all the way through, with ZERO need to make them an anti-hero or the good guy in the end. Also, take notes, The Acolyte! THIS is how you do flashbacks in episodes!
Even if this kind of series wasn’t necessarily “needed”, The Penguin is proof if the talent and craft is there, you can make great art out of anything. Although the recent delays of The Batman: Part II is unfortunate, I will still be first in line to see what awaits for the next installment of the now-called The Batman Epic Crime Saga. I BETTER see Robert Pattinson beat the shit out of Oz in the first five minutes or else!
1.) Shogun
Of course, the one series that has received the most awards and acclaim turned out to be my favorite show of 2024. There was no other show in 2024 that was able to shock and astonish the entertainment world than Shogun. It rivals Game of Thrones in it’s prime in terms of quality, able to expand upon it’s periodic times to perfection while examining complicated themes surrounding war, culture, and religion.
The writing is excellent, the characters are very well developed, the story is rich and full of intrigue, the production design is off the charts all around, there’s not a single actor or actress that phones it in, and it’s able to showcase themes that feel modern to our times but also culturally appropriate in the setting that the series is set in. You even got some incredibly impressive action sequences that feel grounded and expertly choreographed, emotional beats that are always properly build up and earned, and able to find a satisfying pay off to nearly every single main thing it sets ups. And as everyone has pointed out, Anna Sawai gives the standout performance of 2024 as Toda Mariko, stealing every scene that she’s in for the better.
There are many shows that get hyped up nowadays but very few are able to truly live up to it for me. Shogun is surely one of those exceptions. It’s exceptionally made, exceptionally written, exceptionally acted, exceptionally directed, and exceptionally entertaining. If there is any show from 2024 that deserves to be studied and examined on how to make a proper streaming series set in a period time and setting, look no further than Shogun.
Throughout history, video games have had the reputation of being a market exclusivity to boys or strictly a male dominated audience. Despite initially gender-neutral marketing and multiple women having key roles in major games, the gaming marketing crash of 1983 had companies move to marketing video games strictly towards boys, believing that would be the logical move for the industry to survive going forward. Because of that, the majority of video games released back then would often center around male heroes or strong male protagonists.
That’s not to say that EVERY single video game out there had a male protagonist. There have been a handful of successful female protagonists in video games such as Lara Croft from Tomb Raider and Samus Aran from Metroid. But for the most part, video games for the longest of time would have a male protagonist front and center more often than not, with female protagonists acting as a side playable character at best or NPC at worst. And even when the women were playable, they were mostly design with a clear sex appeal and male gaze in mind that was also clearly targeted towards boys and men. However, that has changed dramatically for the better course of a decade.
Recent studies have shown that women are playing a much bigger role in the video game industry than ever before. Women are increasingly represented in the gaming industry, including in senior management and developers. There are more organizations out there than before that provide resources and mentorship to help women succeed in the industry. Best of all, studies have shown that by June 2024, 49% of gamers in the United States were female, an increase from nearly a decade ago when female gamers averaged around 41 to 42%. Needless to say, gaming is much more than just a boy brand now and companies are clearly starting to take notice of it.
And I don’t think there is a more prime example of women having a more dominant presence in video games than seeing the phenomenal lineup of upcoming releases, both mainstream and indie, that is excepted to come out in 2025 and beyond, with a good portion of them either being female led or have a strong female protagonist that is playable. Because of that, I don’t have a choice but to admit it: women are now becoming the face of gaming now and possible for the foreseeable future.
If you don’t believe me, just check out this list of the number of women-led video games that are set to come out in 2025 and beyond.
Eternal Stands
Developer: Yellow Brick Games
Playable Female Character: A Warrior Named Brynn
Release Date: January 28th, 2025
Civilization 7
Developer: Firaxis Games
Playable Female Characters: Amina, Himiko, And Hatshepsut
Release Date: February 11th, 2025
Assassin’s Creed Shadow
Developer: Ubisoft
Female Playable Character: A Shinobi Named Naoe
Release Date: February 14th, 2025
Judas
Developer: Ken Levine (Bioshock)
Playable Female Character: A Young Female Rebel Named Judas
Release Date: March 1st, 2025
Split Fiction
Developer: Hazelight Studios
Playable Female Characters: Mio and Zoey
Release Date: March 6th, 2025
Fable (2025)
Developer: Playground Games
Playable Female Character: Unnamed At This Time
Release Date: 2025
Perfect Dark (2025)
Developer: The Initiative
Playable Female Character: Joanna Dark
Release Date: 2025
Metroid Prime 4: Beyond
Developer: Retro Studios
Playable Female Character: The Legend Herself, Samus Aran
Release Date: TBD
South of Midnight
Developer: Complusion Games
Female Playable Character: Unnamed At This Time
Release Date: TBD
Wuchang: Fallen Feathers
Developer: Leenzee
Female Playable Character: Wuchang
Release Date: TBD
Retrieval
Developer: 333 Studios
Female Playable Character: Hana Losche
Release Date: TBD
Okami 2
Developer: Clover Studio
Female Playable Character: The Japanese Goddess Known As Ameraterasu
Release Date: TBD
Untitled Tomb Raider Game
Developer: Embracer Group
Female Playable Character: The G.O.A.T. Lara Croft
Playable Female Character: A Female Ronin Named Atsu
Release Date: 2025
Grand Theft Auto VI
Developer: Rockstar
Playable Female Character: Lucia
Release Date: 2025
Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet
Developer: Naughty Dog
Playable Female Character: A Bounty Hunter Named Jordan A. Mun
Release Date: TBD
And there’s plenty more that I’m sure I’m missing!
It goes to show just how bolder and more confident gaming studios are getting when it comes to releasing more gaming titles with playable female protagonists. This is the type of progress that you wouldn’t imagine seeing several decades ago because it was mostly the boys that dominated the marketing and demographic. Could you imagine seeing that many upcoming female-led games 10 to 20 years ago?
Could you imagine Rockstar taking a chance with a female protagonist front and center for GTA V in the hopes that it wouldn’t affect sales? Would Sucker Punch have been bold enough to change up the protagonists from male lead Sakai to female led Yotei? Imagine Naughty Dog having the balls to make back-to-back games where the only playable characters were women? If that’s not the sign how times have changed when it comes to demographics for video games, then I don’t know what does.
If even a handful of the titles I suggested are successful, this will no doubt push boundaries and make room for even more women in the industry than before. If Wonder Woman, Tomb Raider, and Metroid can continue to honor the legacy of their beloved female leads, then those IPs can continue to expand even more. If Fable, Ghost of Yotei, and The Witcher 4 is able to prove that their female leads can be just as acclaim and successful as their male leads in their own respective franchises, then that will undoubtedly lead to more female-centric games in the future. If original projects like Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet can sell enough copies on their own, then more original female-led games will be surely to come. And of course, if GTA VI is able to gain even an ounce of the success of GTA V, that act alone will make female characters more playable in games than ever before. The future of gaming is looking female…….and it feels just right.
Before I get anyone outrage over this, there will certainly be many male-led games as well for the future. There is too many successful male-led gaming IPs such as Mario, Sonic, Zelda, Halo, Call of Duty, Resident Evil, Final Fantasy, Fallout, and Pokémon that will continue to be mostly male-centric in terms of narrative and/or will always give you the option to play as a male character. It’s just that there will now be just as much gaming options for female gamers as there always has been for male gamers.
And if this momentum continues, there’s no doubt come this time come 2028, the percentage of male and female gamers will be at a complete 50%, proving that video games belong just as much to girls as it does to boys. It’s only then will the gender balance be completed and there will be room for video games for just about anyone, regardless of your gender. Perhaps then we can put this discussion of needed progression and pushing boundaries aside and just treat any game with a female protagonist as we would with a male protagonist. If that is the true goal, then it’s on the verge of being complete.
Regardless of what your stance is in all of this, there is plenty of evidence to suggest that women are leading gaming in 2025 and beyond. There are more women creators and gamers than ever before and the next main lineup of games for the next few years will clearly have plenty of playable female characters and then some. If it’s all done well and is even remotely successful, this will only be the beginning.
And speaking as a male gamer who has always loved playing as female characters and has a good handful of female-led games that are among my most favorites of all time, I can not wait!
Lara Croft was given her next entry in 2018 with the release of Shadow of the Tomb Raider. This acted as a sequel to 2015’s Rise of the Tomb Raider and the 12th main installment in the Tomb Raider franchise, as well as the third and final entry of the Survivor trilogy. However, this time around, the game would NOT be made by Crystal Dynamics, in large part due to their commitment to Marvel’s Avengers. It would be Eidos-Montreal taking over developing duties with Square Enix Europe publishing the game. Crystal Dynamics did offer full support during the making of the game.
Development for Shadow of the Tomb Raider began shortly after the completion of Rise of the Tomb Raider, lasting until July 2018. It was designed to be the conclusion to Lara’s journey that started with the 2013 reboot, with a key theme being descent both through the jungle environment and into her personality. The setting and narrative was based on Mayan and Aztec mythologies, with the team consulting historians to create the architecture and accurately portray the people of Paititi. The gameplay was adjusted based on both fan feedback from the previous two games and the additions that Eidos-Montreal wanted to incorporate, most notably swimming and grappling while increasing difficulty tailoring. The game cost an estimated of 110 to 135 million dollars to make, making it one of the most expensive games ever made.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider released on the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Windows on September 14th, 2018, later releasing on the Linux, macOs, and Stadia in November 2018. The game did receive generally positive reviews but not nearly on the same level as the previous two games. While it was praised for putting more emphasis on the challenge tombs and puzzles, others have felt that the gameplay for this rebooted set of games had gotten stale and no longer have any innovation to boot. Despite the initial slow sales, the game would eventually sell nearly nine million copies worldwide, a total of 8.9 million to be exact.
When it comes to the three games of the Survivor trilogy, Shadow is probably the one that I remember the least. At the time it came out, I was still on cloud nine with Marvel’s Spider-Man and didn’t pay much attention to this game, despite being a big fan of the first two games. I did Redbox the game back when they still had games you could rent and never went back to it after that. I was able to get the game for free when it came out for the PlayStation Plus. For what I recall, I was rather lukewarm against the game. I enjoyed it well enough but felt it didn’t hold a candle to it’s predecessors.
Now that plenty of time has passed and I’ve gone back to the game since, how does Shadow of the Tomb Raider hold up now? Let’s find out!
Story:
Taking places months after the events of Rise of the Tomb Raider, Lara Croft and her friend Jonah have dedicated themselves to stop the Trinity from doing any possible damage to the world. The two track trinity to the city of Cozumel, Mexico, uncovering an operation that was led by the head of Trinity’s High Council, Pedro Dominguez. Upon investigating the city’s tombs, Lara uncovers a dagger, which references a hidden city and a “silver box”. Despite the dagger being accompanied by murals portraying a Mayan apocalypse, Lara ignores the warnings and takes the dagger. However, she is captured by Dominguez and takes the dagger, informing Lara that her actions have triggered a series of events that will to the Mayan apocalypse that is referred to as “The Cleansing”. An apocalypse that Trinity believes would bring an end to the Sun. Dominguez states that he will bring a stop to The Cleansing and remake the world in his image with the power of the dagger and silver box.
The first strike with this upcoming apocalypse starts with a tsunami that destroys Cozumel. Lara and Jonah are able to survive but their actions cost the homes and lives of the townspeople. Tensions rises between the pair which Lara insists on going after Trinity and the box on her own. Jonah, however, refuses, and demands that they stay to help the townspeople. The first cataclysm of the apocalypse begins with a tsunami destroying Cozumel. Lara and Jonah are able to escape, but tensions between the pair rise as Lara insists on going after Trinity and the box, versus Jonah’s desire to help the townspeople. Despite the pair on the verge of breaking, the two track down Dominguez to the Amazon.
It’s then that the mission with Lara and Jonah is clear: stop Dominguez and Trinity from trying to rebuild the world or all of their missions against the trinity will be for nothing. As the journey goes on, Lara becomes more unhinged as she discovers more about the Trinity and the ties to her past. If her mission is successful, Lara Croft will at long last become known as the definite Tomb Raider.
When looking at the story for Shadow of the Tomb Raider as a whole, it’s a frustratingly mixed bag. It contains both the very best and very worst plot aspects of the rebooted Tomb Raider franchise. Shadow is confirmed to have different writers compared to the previous two games and it’s clear as daylight, much like how it was noticeable that Arkham Knight had different writers compared to Arkham Asylum and Arkham City. While this story might have worked strongly as it’s own thing, it’s biggest downfall is trying to tie it in to previous two games, making the entire foundation of the Survivor trilogy collapses within itself.
Remember that James Bond film that came out a number of years ago called Spectre? Much like Shadow, that was an entry into the franchise that tried to tie everything together from the previous Daniel Craig films, to have the film acted as some sort of culmination of the rebooted 007 films thus year. However, because it was obvious this was not planned out from day one, it didn’t work in the slightest because of how little the connections made any sense in the grand scheme of things. Instead of expanding upon the world of James Bond, it just made that world feel much smaller and carry less weight than before.
That’s something that the story of Shadow of the Tomb Raider unfortunately falls victim too. In it’s attempt to tie the villain clan of The Trinity to the previous two games, making it feel like they were the ones behind the troubles that Lara has gone through during this entire trilogy, it makes everything the game attempts to expand upon feel very contrived and unnatural in every way. Not only introducing a number of retcons to the previous games in an attempt to connect what was previously interconnective plotlines, but it makes The Trinity as a whole comes across as rather stupid and not as threatening as before.
The only real moments that work with The Trinity is when they try to guilt trip Lara into the troubles she caused up to this point. The fact that she has killed and slaughtered so many people and found herself chasing her own footsteps basically makes her no different to her enemy counterpart. That in of itself plays a role in Lara’s arc where she is much more unhinged than rather before, making her feel a bit like a villain in some cases. While that might put off die hard fans that always see Lara as a hero who rarely does much evil, Shadow of the Tomb Raider is actually able to make that story aspect work more than it should.
Speaking of which, if there is one thing that the story of Shadow does rather well, it’s wrapping up the story arc of Lara Croft respectively. If you take away the rather forced connections with the previous two games regarding The Trinity, the main development for how main character feels rather whole by the end of the game, making it really feel like Lara at long last has become the true Tomb Raider. It’s a similar fashion as to how satisfying it felt for Peter Parker to finally become the true Spider-Man by the end of Spider-Man: No Way Home. Even if the overall arc was a slow burn and occasionally rather muddled, it all feels worth it by the end with the way we see our main protagonist develop and changed throughout the course of three installments.
It’s especially interesting to see Lara be more expressive and unhinged this time around, sometimes letting her emotions get the better of here. You really get the sense that Lara has all the pressure in the world on her shoulders here and can not afford any more screw ups. There is no effort to paint Lara Croft as a flawless goddess who can do no wrong. Even if she is given as much plot armor as a video game could provide, she does still have her faults and obstacles that she must overcome. If there is one saving grace to the overall story, it is exactly what is done with Lara Croft herself here.
I still can’t help but wish they just brought back Rhianna Pratchett to write the story as she did with previous games. At least then, the story would have felt more cohesive and you likely wouldn’t have these forced tie-ins and unneeded retcons to make the story work. If this was it’s own thing or even the first chapter of the trilogy, it would have fared much better. But to have a climax which feels the needed to introduce several things, disregarded several things from the previous installments, and then tries to tie all of those things at once, it makes the storytelling feel rather clunky and just messy all around. While Shadow deserves credit for bringing it’s main iconic gaming heroine to the finish line by the end, there are PLENTY of trips and falls along the way that make the whole ride feel more bumpy than it should have been.
Gameplay:
As with the previous two games, Shadow of the Tomb Raider is a third person action-adventure game where you take control of Lara Croft as she explore environments across Mexico and Peru. There is also a large hub in the hidden city of Paititi, In these hubs, Lara can raid challenge tombs to unlock new rewards, complete side missions, and scavenge for resources which can be used to craft useful materials.
The gameplay have been giving numerous adjustments along with a few new features. Like it’s predecessors, the game allows players to hunts wild animals, craft materials using resources collected, solves puzzles, and seek out optional tombs and side guests. Shadow in particular features large tombs and more complex puzzles than before in this reboot series. The kind of tombs and puzzles you will have to think for yourself in order to solve it or just cop out and watch a YouTube video on it. That in of itself should make Shadow of the Tomb Raider the most faithful of the new rebooted Tomb Raider games by design. However, there is definitely more to it.
The controls for swimming have been revised, as Lara is able to hold her breath underwater for a longer period of time thanks to the inclusion of air pockets. She has the ability to rappel down a cliff using her climbing axe and rope. Stealth is more important here than before, as Lara is able to disengage from combat when she escapes from enemies’ line of sight by camouflaging herself in mud, hiding in bushes, or blending into densely vegetated surfaces. There’s also a new barter system that allows players to trade and sell various resources gathered from the areas surrounding Paititi. It’s these kind of adjustments and additions that make Shadow of the Tomb Raider stand out in the best and worst ways possible.
Players have the option to tailor their gameplay experience in combat, puzzles, and exploration with their own difficulty settings. An Immersion Mode enables players to hear the background conversations of the locals in their native languages, when turned off the conversations are heard in the players’ chosen voice over language.
Concept wise, the gameplay should stand out as the very best of the rebooted trilogy. The combat is much more toned down compared to the previous two games, there has been much extra time giving to the puzzle solving and exploration, and there are more challenge tombs to raid then ever before. Yet, there is something that feels a bit off about it.
There is certainly nothing here that is inherently broken or even bad. The controls work exactly the way they are suppose to, the combat is fun during the moments you are encountering enemies, it’s nice to see Lara exploring these multiple different cults and regions, and solving puzzle and tomb certainly require strategy which you would have to think the tactics instead of just mindlessly running and jumping your way through. Oddly enough, it’s the new adjustments that Eidos-Montreal makes here that kinda hinders the game rather than expanding upon it.
You have the upgrade system that is more convoluted than before, taking forever for certain systems to upgrade and feeling way too scattershot. You have a combat and stealth system that are way too tweaked to the point of it feeling rather dumbed down instead of feeling like a legit progression from the previous two games. You have platforming segments and set pieces that are competently put together but lack the cinematic and shock factor of the previous two games. You are given more challenge tombs but they can really muddled with the pacing of beating the main campaign, to the point where going after them feels like a slog and will just slow you down entirely. And you have action sequences that feel too restricted for the first two thirds of the game and only really deliver fully until the last third of the game. For every step forward that the gameplay of Shadow of the Tomb Raider takes, it then takes an immediate step backward.
You really do get a sense that the Crystal Dynamics that made the previous two games were not fully in charge with Shadow of the Tomb Raider. It’s clear that Eidos-Montreal wanted to put their own stamp on the series while embracing many aspects of the first two games. However, just like the story, it feels more like they have to disregarded certain aspects to make that happen, making the experience feel much more muddled than what obviously was attended. If this had been the first game in the reboot series, these flaws might be more acceptable. But after two fantastic games where the gameplay was as smooth and polished as it were, the standards have been held so high that Shadow just can’t reach it.
That’s not to say the gameplay of Shadow of the Tomb Raider is bad in general. It’s definitely competent, playable, and even fun in most areas. However, after the previous two games were able to deliver all of that and more, there is something that leaves much more to be desired here. While certain above average for a main triple A modern game, Shadow of the Tomb Raider definitely feels much more average to below average compared to Tomb Raider (2013) to Rise of the Tomb Raider.
Graphics:
Graphically, the game is just as impressive as it’s predecessors, if not more so in a number of areas. This is probably one of the best looking games of the generation. The attention to texture is on full display, especially with how realistic the mud looks on Lara. The way that the mud moves and leaves trails whenever Lara looks is as convincing as a mud trail has ever looked in a video game. I didn’t think anything could top the snow and water looks of Rise of the Tomb Raider but I was dead wrong.
The motion capture work is very strong as well, clearly being as up to date with technology as you could imagine, helping making the characters movements and animations look as realistic as possible. Although, I kinda wish they didn’t change Lara’s facial expressions and models that much. She looks good but feel more pale and average looking compared to the first two games, almost what you would expect her to look back in 2013 but NOT in 2018. I still think that Lara’s model in Rise of the Tomb Raider was the way to go.
Sound:
Similar to the first two games, Shadow of the Tomb Raider had a different composer at the helm in Brian D’Oliveria. I guess the approach for the Survivor trilogy was to bring in multiple composers that could bring their own voice to the score with each individual installment. Sadly, Shadow has probably the weakest soundtrack of the three games. There was hardly any track that stood out in the ways that they did with the first two games. Not even familiar tracks from the previous two games make a presence here. Instead of the music pumping me way and giving me a much needed energy boost along the way, it does nothing more than just create sound during sequences that need it.
The voice acting and motion capture performances, on the other hand, is terrific. Camilla Luddington gives perhaps her best performance to date as Lara Croft. Thanks to the script giving her more emotional and dramatic moments to act out and the motion capture being as good as they ever been, you can feel Camilla’s facial expressions, emotions, and presence throughout every scene that she is in. Earl Babylon as Jonah also stands out much better here than in the previous game, especially how his character is given more depth and moments where he has to snap Lara out of putting the entire world on her shoulders. The final installment of a trilogy should give plenty of opportunities for the actors to deliver their best and most vulnerable performances to date and everyone did just that.
Downloadable Content:
Shadow of the Tomb Raider released several chapters of DLC that expanded upon the game’s narrative. Each one of these chapters run parallel to the main storyline and the focus on an additional tomb. This is where Lara discovers the source of Mayan influence in Peru, solving the mystery of a missing oil worker, locates an artefact to bolster Unuratu’s rebellion, and then finds a secret that could threaten it. Lara then confronts her own fears as searches for a weapon, leading her to learn of the tragedy that shaped Amaru’s decision to join Trinity. She aids a group of rebels taken by the Cult of Kukulkan, investiage a disturbance at a local temple that turns into a trap laid by Trinity, and learns the fate of the Yaaxil that survived the battle with Trinity.
A season pass was available that gave players access to seven paths of DLC, which included new narratives, missions, tombs, weapons, outfits, and skills. A version bundling together the main game and DLC, Shadow of the Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition, releasing on November 4th, 2019.
Personally, I found the DLC for Rise of the Tomb Raider to be much more satisfying than this one. Whereas those put more focus on providing extra characterization to Lara Croft, Shadow puts more emphasis on the main villains which I never really cared for in the main series and just adds more convoluted lore to the franchise. If you picked up the Definitive Edition at a reasonable price, then it’s worth a go. However, if you missed out on it back when the game first came out, you didn’t miss out on much.
Conclusion:
Despite the majority of the review being constructive criticism, Shadow of the Tomb Raider is NOT a bad game. It still does have enough what you would want for a quality Tomb Raider experience. It provides the right mix of combat, platforming and puzzle solving, there are more challenge tombs than ever before, it looks stunning, the voice action is top notch, and it does bring a nice logical end to Lara’s arc of her early days as a Tomb Raider. However, it just can’t seem to quite escape those it’s own “going through the motions” feel to it and the story basically gives hindered by trying to tie itself to the previous two games instead of feeling enhanced.
The combat, platforming, and puzzle solving are fine but they don’t feel evaluated to the next level like the previous two games. There are more challenge tombs than ever but you don’t feel as eager to go out of your own way and find them yourself. It concludes Lara’s own arc in a meaningful way but everything around here, from the villains to retcons of the lore, are rather half assed and certainly doesn’t add to the foundation of the first two games. I don’t know if this is because Crystal Dynamics didn’t return this time nor did Rhianna Pratchett return to write the script this time around but Shadow of the Tomb Raider just lacks that overall “WOW!” factor that Tomb Raider (2013) and Rise of the Tomb Raider had.
I would still recommend the game to fans of the series and gamers alike for the right price, especially for those that just want to see how Lara’s overall story wraps up for the Survivor trilogy. However, I just can’t help that the game didn’t live up to it’s fullest potential. There are definitely glimmers here and there for this to be the absolute best and most faithful Tomb Raider game ever made but it can just never quite reach the heights of it’s ambition, instead feeling like it’s get bogged down by them.
Still, I did have fun going back to these games and taking a little trip down memory lane. The newest Tomb Raider Netflix series, Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft, is set to premiere on October 10th! Let us all wish nothing for the best for the Tomb Raider we all know and love!
Thank you so much to all of those that tuned in for this marathon! Please follow and keep up to date on future content on his blog!
Not gonna lie, I can’t decide if I should call this a “retrospective” or “perspective”. That is mostly because a lot of time has passed since this game came out but not quite enough to where it can be considered “retro” or “nostalgic”. Because of that, I’m gonna have my cake and eat it too and call it both a retrospective and perspective. I guess you could call this a PER-RETRO-SPECTIVE! I don’t really know and care but hey, for those that do care, there you go!
2015 saw the arrival of the next installment with Lara Croft known as Rise of the Tomb Raider, once again developed by Crystal Dynamics and published by Square Enix. This acted as the sequel to Tomb Raider (2013), the middle chapter of the Survivor trilogy, and the 11th entry in the Tomb Raider franchise.
Development of Rise of the Tomb Raider began shortly after the development of Tomb Raider (2013) concluded. Crystal Dynamics wanted to take the next big step forward with Lara Croft while also addressing player feedback from the previous installment. This included an emphasis on more puzzle and challenge tombs while reducing the number of quick time events. The development team traveled to several locations in Turkey, including Cappadocia, Istanbul, and Ephesus, in order to faithfully design Kitezh. Powered by the Foundation engine, the game was also developed by Eidos-Montreal and Nixxes Software, certainly contributing to the stronger engine of the game, that saw much stronger graphics, presentation, and an incredibly smooth 60 FPS.
During E3 2014, Rise of the Tomb Raider was announced as an exclusive for the Xbox 360 and Xbox One. This sparked quite amount of controversy among gamers and fans alike. It was shortly after the backlash ensued that Square Enix confirmed it would only be a TIMED exclusive for the Xbox 360 and Xbox One and would later make it’s way to the PlayStation 4 several months later. Microsoft paid for the game to be a timed exclusive in the hopes that it would pushed for more Xbox One sales during the holiday season of 2015. The Xbox 360 and Xbox One versions came out on November 10th, 2015, with the Windows version releasing just three months later on January 28th, 2016, and finally released on the PlayStation 4 on October 11th, 2016.
There were big concerns about the sale numbers for Rise of the Tomb Raider from several game journalists. Not only because it would be a timed exclusive for the Xbox consoles but it would also be released on the same day as Fallout 4. Despite the concerns, both Microsoft and Square Enix were reportedly very satisfied with the games sales at it’s initial launch, with the latter likely being more satisfied with the sales as the game would be ported to other consoles. As of November 2021, it has been reported that the game has sold nearly 12 million copies worldwide, with the estimated number being around 11.8 million.
Like it’s predecessor, the game received strong reviews and critical acclaim. The majority of the praise was giving to the beautiful graphics, the polished gameplay, the characterization of Lara Croft, and offering much more variety of content than the previous game. However, some felt that the game lacked innovation and didn’t take nearly as much risks as it should. With Rise of the Tomb Raider approaching ten years old, let’s see how the middle chapter of Lara’s prequel origin story holds up!
Story:
Taking place one year after the events of Tomb Raider (2013), we follow archaeologist Lara Croft, who is suffering from PTSD from her experience with the supernatural on Yamatai, struggling to explain such experience to those around her. Desperate for answers, she turns to her late father Lord Croft’s research on the lost city of Kitezh, which promises the power of immorality. Lord Croft’s partner, Ana, arrives and warns Lara to not pursue that Lost City, as that drove her father to ruin and suicide. Now understanding the obsession her father had as an archaeologist, Lara ignores her warning and makes way to the Forgotten Cities in Syria, hoping to uncover the tomb of the Prophet of Constantinople, a key figure in the Kitezh legend.
However, once Lara arrives to claim the tomb, it’s empty. Her arrival is interrupted by a new deadly force known as Trinity, an ancient order of knights turned paramilitary organization investigating the supernatural, and their leader, Konstantin. After Lara is able to escape, she discovers a symbol etched into the tomb, which she links to a book on Russian religious history that was a part of her father’s studies at Croft Manor. She learns of an artifact called the Divine Source, said to be capable of granting that immorality that Lara is seeking from the legendary city of Kitezh.
As Lara goes on a new journey, she teams up with her old friend Jonah to retrieve the artifact while also running into a handful of allies/rivals new and old. There’s Jacob, the leader of its inhabitants, the Remnants, and part of the descendants of the Prophet’s followers. There’s Sophia, a female village warrior who has a hard time in trusting Lara, believing her to be no different than the Trinity. And there’s Ana, Lord Croft’s Partner, who happens to be caught in the middle of the search for immorality in ways that will make Lara turned here worldview on her.
Finding herself in the middle of a dangerous adventure yet again, Lara Croft must search for the legendary city of Kitezh, find the artifact that holds that key to immorality, and stop the Trinity from possessing this unspeakable power before it places herself and her friends of old and new in great danger.
It’s also worth noting that there are actually story DLC packs this time around, adding to the campaign experience of Rise of the Tomb Raider. These story packs are titled: Baby Yaga: The Temple of the Witch, Cold Darkness Awakened, Blood Ties, and Lara’s Nightmare. I won’t go into these one-by-one here because there is not a ton here that’s important to the overall story here. However, they certainly do a solid job at expanding the origins of Lara’s bond with her father along with seeing her slowly starting to embody the Lara Croft of old. I will give a brief description of them over at the Downloadable Content section.
The overall story for Rise of the Tomb Raider plays like a classic Tomb Raider adventure with sprinkles of Indiana Jones and Uncharted 2. With Tomb Raider (2013) getting the origins of an early Lara Croft out of the way, Rise is able to jump right into the next stage of Lara’s early development by going on a massive scaled, global adventure. Her, we see Lara looking to retrieve an incredibly rare artifact that promises a certain power never before seen, with her also questioning her allegiance, her father’s legacy, and her overall commitment to archaeology along the way.
It’s really interesting to see Lara caught in the same shadow as her father once did. Just like her daddy, Lara is at her place where she has given her life to adventure and discovery, gaining such an obsession for it that it starts to affect the people she cares about him the most. The main difference though is that Lara is closer than her father ever was to achieving the unachievable, having the whole world see the Croft family for who they really are. Not just to convince the world that the Crofts were NEVER crazy but they were ALWAYS right to commit their life to archeology.
The only downside of the story compared to the previous installment is that it does provide less banter and quippy moments with the crew that Lara was with on her first adventure. It’s only Jonah this time around that makes a grand return and even then, he spends a good majority of the game separated from Lara as she spends more time with the new players added to the roster than her old allies. Also, while the Tyranny and the leader Konstantin are a definite improvement over the villains of the last game, they still come across as yet another one-note cult and are still the least interesting parts of the game.
Writer Rhianna Pratchett has gone on record in saying she wanted to create a more personal journey for Lara Croft this time around and in my mind, she definitely succeeded. This definitely felt like the next possible step in Lara’s overall arc to becoming the tomb raider. Not only with the fact that discovering tombs plays a much more important role to the overall story but also to have it tie back to her family’s legacy and her overall purpose as an adventure. It’s not just about Lara discovering a sacred power of immorality but also an immorality of her own. That immorality being that she will always be an adventure, archeologist, and tomb raider by heart. Even if it comes at the expense of her friends and loved ones, there is nothing that Lara is more romantic about than being the tomb raider.
Gameplay:
Once again, Rise of the Tomb Raider is a third-person action adventure game where you take control of Lara Croft. Lara is given a large variety of weapons at her disposal, from bows and arrows to knifes to her ice axe to pistols to shotguns to assault rifles. You use these weapons to take out enemies in order to progress through the game.
Stealth also plays a major factor to the gameplay, where you take out enemies one-by-one, create distractions to draw enemies away from Lara, and hiding in bushes to evade enemies. Lara can use the environment to fight enemies, shooting explosive barrels, tear down rope-wrapped structures with rope arrows, or ambush enemies from the high ground (Somewhere, Obi-Wan Kenobi is smiling!) This stealth and combat was a big factor in Tomb Raider (2013) and it continues to be a big factor in Rise of the Tomb Raider.
Accomplishing objectives, completing side content, and eliminating enemies give players experience points. A.K.A. XP. When players collect XP, they level up and receive a skill point, which can be spend to upgrade the game’s three skill trees: Brawler, Hunter, and Survivor. Brawler helps with Lara’s efficiency with weapons, giving her abilities and boosting her resilience against attack along with unlocking new combat skills. Hunter helps with Lara dealing with the environments and animals. Survivor covers a wide range of skills such as creating bombs and setting up booby traps. Lara can learn new languages, enabling her to discover relics, which can be traded in exchange for new equipment.
Rise of the Tomb Raider also offers semi-open hubs to explore. While far from the level of say Grand Theft Auto V or even Gotham City from Batman: Arkham Knight, these sections do offer hub worlds for those that want to relax for a moment and see what’s going on with the other villages. In the hubs are items for Lara to collect, including crafting materials and survival caches. These items and collectibles, such as relics and docs that can be revealed to players using Survival Instinct, a vision mode which once again can highlight items of interest along with enemies during combat sections. By collecting these items, players can craft items with the game’s own crafting menu. Lara can craft ammo, poisoned arrows, and Molotov cocktails and hand grenades from cans and bottles.
The open areas are also filled with wildlife, which can be hunted to collect more resources. These are also main areas where you can find new side missions and discover/explore challenge tombs for new skills, outfits, and equipment. You can do this by talking to a certain villager which can guide you on a specific side mission or finding a hidden area which reveals a secret challenge tomb. The majority of these are not required to be the main campaign but you will likely find yourself wanting to complete one on the way as the side mission might just be right in front of you for you to complete.
A main big addition that Crystal Dynamics chose to put more focus on is the puzzle solving. Throughout the game, players will find themselves solving puzzles to progress through the game, in both the main campaign and side missions. The puzzles, based on in-game physics, are often connected and lead to a larger one later on down the road. During these sections, you will find yourself solving smaller, connective puzzles in order to solve a much larger one. These sections were clearly done as a response from the fans feedback from the previous game with wanting to add more elements from the classic Tomb Raider games, such as challenge tombs and puzzle solving. If you were one of these people, then you certainly get your wish with this game.
Unlike the previous game, Rise of the Tomb Raider does not have a multiplayer mode, also likely due to the lackluster response that the previous game’s multiplayer received. Instead, it introduces Expeditions, which allows players to replay the game with new constraints and requirements. This aligns with the game’s four modes: Chapter Replay, Chapter Replay Elite, Score Attack, and Remnant Resistance. Chapter Replay and Replay Elite allows players to replay any level and bring already-acquired skills and weapons to the level, Score Attack introduces score combo chains and Remnant Resistance allows to create custom scenarios, which can be shared with other players. By completing Expeditions, you earn credits which can then be used to purchase digital collectible cards to modify the gameplay. For those that are into the card collection of say MLB: The Show will certainly get a huge kick out of this.
When it comes to the overall gameplay, there is very little of me to talk negatively about. Crystal Dynamics clearly took the fan criticisms of the previous game to heart and looked to find that right balance to make Rise of the Tomb Raider a game made for both longtime and casual fans alike. In my mind, they succeed greatly at that. By improving upon the combat, stealth, and platforming of the previous game and also trimming down on QTE sections in favor of the more traditional puzzle solving and challenge tombs, there is something for any kind of Tomb Raider fan here.
I love taking control of Lara as she is going on this Nathan Drake-like adventure where she searches for the lost city of Kitezh. I love how tighter and more polished the overall gameplay felt, with making Lara control just about as well as she possibly ever could. I love being able to explore mini hub worlds this time around, which allows to interact with the other characters and villagers of the game, along with unlocking secret side missions. I love the addition of more puzzle solving missions like the original Tomb Raider games and even wanting to go more out of my way this time around to solve the challenge tombs. I love how it’s able to learn the right lessons from the likes of Uncharted while still standing strong on it’s own foundation. I just love the gameplay of Rise of the Tomb Raider overall.
Granted, if we are being totally honest, there’s isn’t too much here that wasn’t already presented in Tomb Raider (2013). Yes, there are certainly features and more expansive content this time around but the overall formula and engine remains the same. It’s clear Crystal Dynamics wasn’t looking to reinvent the wheel here and just wanted to deliver the same things that fans loved about the previous games while also incorporating elements from the classic Tomb Raider games that had become a staple of the franchise back then. While those looking for more innovation might be slight disappointed, those that just wanted more of what they got last time, mixed in with the things they got with the original games, and a couple of extras throughout should not be disappointed in the slightest.
I guess if I have a gripe, it would be that the boss fights still range from weak to practically non-existence. While there are certainly still action sequences and cinematic set pieces that will give you the impression that you are about to encounter something intense and heart bumping, the individual boss fights themselves are nothing to write home about. It still feels like you are just fighting some random enemy and beating them doesn’t feel very rewarding or satisfying.
Aside from that, the gameplay for Rise of the Tomb Raider is incredibly polished and incredibly fun. It’s able to improve on any potential shortcomings that the previous game had while also incorporating and mixing in new elements that feel organic and adds to the overall experience. You can still argue this is more of the same has before but hey, if that more of the same is done better and still fun to play, I’ll definitely take it.
Graphics:
Graphically, this game is ASTONISHING! This is easily one of the best and most impressive looking games ever released! The opening sequence in the snowy mountains alone showcases the massive power in graphics engine that Eidos-Montreal and Nixxes Software provided with the game. The textures is clear cut, the presentation is near flawless, and the 60 FPS is the pure icing on the cake. It’s one of the few examples of a “realistic” looking video game being an actual complaint. A single screenshot of this game makes it feel like the game is actually in real life and NOT from a video game.
The animation and motion capture is incredibly well done as well. This is probably the best that Lara Croft has ever looked, with face animation that even rival the king of motion capture performances in Naughty Dog. While these technical achievements were impressive in Tomb Raider (2013), there were a handful of instances of graphical errors and a cutscene or two that a character is moving like an animatronic. However, just about 99.99% of that is wiped out ENTIRELY in Rise of the Tomb Raider, making it graphically and presentation wise a visually pleasing masterpiece.
There’s not enough praise I can give to the graphics engine and production values for Rise of the Tomb Raider, probably the best and most polished aspect of the entire game. Even those that don’t like this game can’t deny how much time and effort went into making this game look as amazing and convincing as it could possibly be. Whether it’s because of a bigger budget or the involvement of Eidos-Montreal and Nixxes Software, Rise of the Tomb Raider is a technical marvel that has no business being as well made and pleasing to the eyes as it should.
Sound:
Jason Graves, the composer of Tomb Raider (2013) didn’t return this time around to the score for Rise of the Tomb Raider. The man doing that is no other than Bobby Tahouri. Thankfully, Tahouri is able to pick off exactly where Graves left off, delivering a score that works perfectly as not just an action-adventure game but a Tomb Raider game at heart. The music is once again able to fit the mood and tone of just about every single sequence in the game, from every intense action set piece to every slow breathing dramatic moment.
Once again, the voice acting is top notch all around and once again, the real main standout is Camilla Luddington as Lara Croft herself. She perfectly embodies this early years version of Lara Croft, taking baby steps into becoming the Tomb Raider we all know and love. Her tremendous line delivery and nearly flawlessly motion capture performance just feels appropriately like Lara Croft, helping greatly to match the characterization through performance with the writing.
There was clearly just as much effort put into the audio and sound design as the graphical engine and presentation. There’s not a single track or performance that feels wasted or half assed. It all looks and sounds wonderful.
Downloadable Content:
Rise of the Tomb Raider received plenty of DLC support, much more than the first game. It’s first post-launch game update released on December 4th, about a month after the game’s release. It introduced an endurance mode, as Lara hunts and crafts items while facing hidden dangers and environmental hazards. The real main standouts of the DLC came from the additional story add-ons.
Unlike the first game, Rise offered multiple story DLCs. The titles for these story DLCs being Baba Yaga: The Temple of the Witch, Cold Darkness Awakened, Blood Ties, and Lara’s Nightmare. Baby Yaga: The Temple of the Witch sees Lara investigating a disturbance in the Soviet mine, where she meets a young girl named Nadia and fights against a new foe known as Baby Yaga. Cold Darkness Awakened has Lara enter a decommissioned Soviet weapons bunker, which has been breached by a Trinity patrol, which also includes a horde mode in which Lara fights waves of infected enemies. Blood Ties has Lara explore Croft Manor, which introduces a combat-free mode while doing so. Lara’s Nightmare, which is like a mix of Cold Darkness Awakened and Blood Ties has Lara once again coming up against infected enemies that have infiltrated the Manor. This DLC was free of charge to season-pass holders and would be further expanded upon with plenty of new additions in the Rise of the Tomb Raider: 20 Year Celebration edition, which released around the same time as the PlayStation 4 version of the main game.
When looking at these DLC packs, it was clear that Crystal Dynamics wanted to provided extra content that would give the players a full money’s worth of content. Unlike Tomb Raider (2013), where most of the DLC just felt like random add-ons that were removed from the game at the last second just for the sake of squeezing extra dollars, these DLC story packs do feel like they are worth the extra few bucks for players that are curious.
I wouldn’t say you are required to play them if you don’t want to be lost in Shadow of the Tomb Raider, as they mostly feel more episodic to the main game and just random side adventures for Lara Croft. However, they certainly do help to add more expansive content to the main game and does give players more to do after completing the main campaign. These are far from the greatest DLC packs ever but it is nice to see Crystal Dynamics put extra care into the expansive content than before.
Conclusion:
The question most likely had going into if Rise of the Tomb Raider is better than Tomb Raider (2013)? Technically speaking, I would argue Yes! The production values are incredibly top notch, the gameplay is much smoother and more refined, there’s more puzzles and challenge tombs this time around, there’s much more expansive content, the story feels deeper and more personal, and of course, the graphical engine is COMPLETELY off the charts! However, Tomb Raider (2013) set the foundation, novelty and groundwork of this Survivor trilogy, the kind of foundation, novelty, and groundwork that Rise of the Tomb Raider never is able to replicate on it’s own terms. It certainly builds upon it as good and organically as it can but not to the extent that original game did. You can go back-and-forth between the two games but if I had to chose just one to play, I might be more incline to go with Rise of the Tomb Raider. However, if only one of these games had to exist, then I might go with Tomb Raider (2013), if that makes sense.
Even so, despite the unavoidable comparisons to it’s predecessor and falling a tad short of being the Uncharted 2 level masterpiece that it’s aiming for (and taking obvious inspiration from), Rise of the Tomb Raider is still a fantastic game all around and one definitely worth playing.
Would Crystal Dynamics be able to continue their momentum and save their best for last? Find out next time!
It boggles my mind that I have to use the word “retrospective” when describing the 2013 reboot of Tomb Raider. However, considering it’s been over a decade since that game’s release, I can’t help but feel like that is a proper term to describe just how much time has flown by since this game. Because of that, yeah! Welcome to my retrospective of Tomb Raider (2013).
Tomb Raider (2013) is an action-adventure game that was developed by Crystal Dynamics and published by Square Enix. This made for the 10th entry and acted as a reboot for the Tomb Raider franchise, acting as the first installment of the so-called “Survivor” trilogy, which put a big focus on retelling the origin story of Lara Croft, exploring the character in her early adventures.
Crystal Dynamics began development soon after the release of Tomb Raider: Underworld in 2008. Rather than a sequel to that, the team chose to reboot the series yet again, re-establishing the origins of Lara Croft for the second time, which they also did with Tomb Raider: Legend, and wanted to expand upon the character even further than they have had in their prior history. Camilla Luddington was hired to voice and do motion-capture performance as Lara Croft, replacing Keeley Hawes respectively.
Tomb Raider (2013) released on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Windows on March 5th, 2013, later being ported to other consoles such as Xbox One, PlayStation 4, OS X, Linux, Shield TV, and Stadia, with extended editions of the game such as Game of the Year Edition and Definitive Edition. The game received universal acclaim from critics and gamers alike, with huge praise giving to the graphics, gameplay, and the development and characterization of Lara Croft herself. However, certain creative decisions such as making the actual tomb raiding mostly to optional side quests draw some criticism among the fanbase, with Crystal Dynamics putting more focus on action and stealth combat with the tomb raiding coming second. The game sold over 14.5 million copies by October 2021, making it the best-selling Tomb Raider game to date.
With the newest Netflix anime, Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft, set to come out next month, I went and took a look back at the recent reboot trilogy of Tomb Raider. After all, the series is confirmed to be set between the Survivor trilogy and the original series of games. Because of that, my next marathon will be to look back at Tomb Raider (2013), Rise of the Tomb Raider, and Shadow of the Tomb Raider to see how they have all held up years later.
Plot:
Set on Yamatai, a fictional lost island in the Dragon’s Triangle off the coast of Japan, we follow Lara Croft on her first ever adventure aboard the ship known as Endurance. Lara is a young woman that is looking to follow in her father’s footsteps in becoming an adventure, making discoveries and collecting hidden artifacts. Her first main objective is to find that lost kingdom hidden on Yamatai.
The Endurance is hit by a giant rain storm, causing the boat to sink completely. While Lara is able to escape from drowning to death, she is separated from her friends on the estranged island. As she searches for her friends, Lara soon discovers that the island is in fact inhabited, mostly by a violent cult named Solarii that worships Himiko, confirming the island is indeed Yamatai. Their leader is known as Mathias, who wants to everything in his power to earn the trust of Himiko.
As soon as Mathias discovers the presence of Lara and her friends, this puts them all in great danger. Lara’s best friend, Sam, is seen as great interest to the Solarii, who plans to offer her as a new host to Himiko’s spirit. As Lara meets up and reunites with other survivors, she must work with them to rescue any captured ones from the Solarii while also finding a way off the island. The crew with Lara include Whitman, Sam, Roth, Reyes, Jonah, Alex, and Grim.
As Lara Croft takes her first steps into becoming a strong adventure, she discovers that she must overcome immense adversity in order to save her friends and herself. That includes taking down enemies, using any methods of travel, using any scrap, items, or weaponry as she can, and doing everything in her power to survive against this deadly foe that is looking to wipe her out and her loved ones. It’s then that we get a first taste into Lara building a name for herself in becoming the legendary Tomb Raider.
What is most interesting about the story is that despise the game being called Tomb Raider, this is by in large an origin story of Lara Croft before getting the reputation as the Tomb Raider. Yes, the tomb raiding is in the game (which we will discuss in gameplay) but this is really a story about who Lara Croft is before that and what she is without that. While those might sound like unusual and risky ideas for a narrative on paper, Tomb Raider (2013) is able to make it work incredibly well.
The reason it all works is because of how well developed and characterized Lara Croft is as a character. This is arguably the most fleshed out version of the character throughout the character’s history. Seeing Lara go from being a fearful Curious George to a badass adventure is very exciting to see play out. The story really makes Lara Croft go through absolute hell and requires her to make the toughest choices imaginable in the means of surviving.
I especially like how, unlike most action heroes in games and movies, when Lara gets injured, she doesn’t just make a light grunt, shake it off, and get right back in the game. She clearly gets hurt and feels pain. Whenever she takes damage, she feels every bit of it. There are plenty of instances in the stories where you follow Lara while she is grunting in pain and needing to find a way to patch it up before it’s too late. It helps add to the human nature of the character and increases the stakes of the story to a near perfect degree.
Sure, there are definitely PLENTY of moments where it feels like Lara should have died and probably would have in real life but at the end of the day, it is a video game and Ms. Croft is able to make the best use of the traditional gaming plot armor. Even so, I do feel like Crystal Dynamics could have tone down the violence a little bit and not having it gain close to the violent “torture porn”.
When it comes to the supporting cast, it’s a mixed bag. Lara’s friends and crew are fun if not a bit basic. Outside of Whitman, none of them really change and grow throughout the game, really only showing up when the plot requires and to give Lara’s moments of optimism during her mission to save them and escape the island. They are likable enough where I did find myself wanting them all to survive to the end but most of their characters can be read like a book with not a single one of them being much of a page turner.
The main antagonists on the other hand, are quite weak. While having Lara going up against a violent cult is fitting for her first adventure, the bad guys she is forced to go up against could not be more bland and forgettable. There’s not much motivation or characterization behind them other than wanting to make their god/goddess happy and believing in certain morals that they think their ancestors would be proud off. I barely remember their names or any line of dialogue that stands out greater than these villainous religious cults in any games.
Aside from some minor issues with the supporting cast and villains, the narrative for Tomb Raider (2013) is very strong. You really feel the character development of Lara Croft the whole way through and seeing it all unfold is really satisfying to see. Lara is given the kind of arc that by the end, you almost can’t believe this is the same protagonist that we have been following all along. If that is not the sign of a really strong character arc, then I don’t know what is. Lara Croft’s journey along is enough to recommend at least watching all the cutscenes throughout the entire game but of course, the important part of a video game is in fact the gameplay.
Gameplay:
Tomb Raider (2013) is an action-adventure game played through a third person’s perspective. Players take control of Lara Croft herself, using an interconnected formula that combines action, adventure, exploration, stealth and survival elements. Players can traverse between the camps and across the entire island using footpaths, ziplines, and climbable tracks and walls. Many of Lara’s moves from prior games are carried over here with some minor tweaks added to it. Quick time events occur at regular intervals throughout the game, appearing at crucial points in the game’s plot where you are on the run, such as extracting a shard of metal and escaping a cave.
In terms of combat, the inspiration from Naughty Dog’s Uncharted series is clear as daylight but the game still does plenty of it’s own things to stand strong on it’s own two feet. The players have the ability to free-aim with Lara’s bow and the guns she collects. You will engage in close-quarter combat and perform stealth kills when coming up against enemies. The most helpful addition to this is Survival Instinct, an ability in which the presence of enemies, collectables, and objects to environmental puzzles will be highlighted and easy to spot. So even if you are familiar with Uncharted, Tomb Raider (2013) makes many tweaks and revisions to that combat formula which you will need to get the hang off in a way that you couldn’t with Uncharted.
The game incorporates role-playing elements that help with the progression of the game. As you go through the whole game, you earn experience points from performing certain actions and complete in-game challenges involving hunting, exploring and combat. This helps the skills and abilities to be upgrade in specific ways, such as giving Lara more storage capacity for arrows and ammo. You can also upgrade and customize weapons using scarps and materials that you collect across the island. The character progression system in the game helps with gaining better items, weapons, and equipment as you progress through the game. Even if certain items and weaponry can only be unlocked once you get to certain points of the story, there is not a single moment of this game where you should not have access to enough of them to progress through the game.
As for the actual tomb raiding itself, it’s mostly optional and only appear during side quests that don’t impact the main campaign. Player can complete multiple side quests as they explore the island and revisit certain locations. It’s only during these side mission which the challenge tombs can be searched for. There is more than enough of challenge tombs for any longtime fan of the series but these sections are NOT required to be played through in order to be the main story. It’s odd how a game called Tomb Raider, the actual tomb raiding itself plays secondary to the overall gameplay experience.
Even if the actual title of the game itself might be a bit misleading, the gameplay of Tomb Raider (2013) is absolutely top notch. I loved being in the shoes of Lara Croft in ways that I couldn’t have with any other prior Tomb Raider game. Lara has never felt more comfortable to control and more fun to play in terms of the game’s combat, platforming, and exploration. Seeing the character develop and unlocking many different skills along the way always made the gameplay stand out without feeling too repetitive or irritating. There is plenty of variety in terms of the items you use, the weapons you upgrade, and the costumes you are able to unlock. It helps enhance the replay value and motivates you to play through the whole game. I constantly found myself eager to unlock every single skill point that I possibly could because I wanted to unlock all the weapons and costumes that were available.
I loved going through every single set piece moment of the entire game, having that perfect feeling of cinematic escapism while also remembering that this is still an actual game. These sections feel right at home with an Indiana Jones adventure while still feeling proper for the adventure that we go with Lara Croft. If it wasn’t an intense stealth section that kept me on the edge of my seat, it was these jaw dropping sequences where our main female hero is pushed beyond her limits to survive.
If there is any mixed to weak aspects to the gameplay, that would mostly be the boss fights. They don’t play much differently than fighting regular enemies other than needing a few more hits to kill and another required automated section to give the impression it’s more different than it really is. It doesn’t help that the main villain is very weak and forgettable but the final showdown with him is rather anticlimactic in terms of gameplay. It misses that one last powerful punch that’s able to evaluate the game at the last possible moment.
I should also mention that there is also a multiplayer mode with this game. In each multiplayer match, there are two enemy teams: four survivors and four scavengers. And there are three different types of games for multiplayer with five different maps. These modes are Team Deathmatch, Private Rescue, and Cry for Help.
The first mode is a player vs player combat scenario, where teams are pitted against each other and whoever kills the opposing team in three separate matches is the winner. In the second mode, the “survivors” team must take medical supplies to a specific point on the map, while the scavengers must reach a certain number of kills, both within a time limit of ten minutes. The third mode, Cry for Help, involves the survivors for exploring the maps and retrieving batteries for defended radio beacons while being hunted by scavengers. Across all three modes, weapons and destroyable environments from the single-player mode are carried over.
Ngl, the multiplayer mode didn’t do anything for me. It feels like it tries to incorporate elements from other shooters out there such as Call of Duty and Battlefield along with trying to copy the multiplayer modes from Uncharted. However, there is just not as much polish put into this mode as with the single player mode and mostly comes across as a last minute addition, feeling like it was just thrown in there just for the sake of trying to give gamers more bank with their buck. I appreciate variety in video games but not when it feels like it’s something that the developers themselves really didn’t care to make. This did receive plenty of DLC which I will discuss later on in the review.
Aside from the tacked-on multiplayer mode and lackluster boss fights, I adore the gameplay of Tomb Raider (2013) to bits. It really felt nice and refreshing back in 2013 to put you in the hands of a female video game protagonist but also making her very satisfying to play as. The special abilities that Lara is giving and the maneuvers you are able to use with her makes her super convincing as a gaming action hero, constantly finding her own ways to take down enemies in ways that actually work for her character. Lara plays in a way that only she herself can stand out and not in the same ways of say…..Nathan Drake.
Yes, the challenge tombs not playing first and foremost to the gameplay might be infuriating to some but the combat, stealth, and exploration are all so well done that it’s genuinely hard to care. Power that along with a trophy/achievement system that will make you EARN every single award you get, Tomb Raider (2013) holds up greatly in terms of gameplay and delivers plenty of replay value, even after beating the main campaign.
Graphics:
Graphically, this game is FANTASTIC for a 2013 released game and still looks strong on the Definitive Edition many years later. It’s able to capture that realistic vibes that many games were starting to aim for back in the 2010s and makes you almost believe you are there with Lara on her journey. The rain and water effects looks about as convincing as it should, the characters move naturally and is certainly aided by top-notch motion capture, and it has a great, enhanced engine that helped make this game stand out not just back in 2013 but even now. While some might think the game looks too bleak, it fits for the tone that the game is going with along with the rather bleakness that Lara goes throughout the game.
It’s also refreshing to see Lara Croft herself actually look like a real woman instead of a plastic dog back in the original games. I get the developers back then were going for a more cartoon vibes with the original games but Lara’s more human and realistic design works perfectly for the rebooted games that are clearly for a much darker and realistic vibe. In that accounts, her design along with the designs for the rest of the characters are able to stand out about as well as they could.
Sound:
The voice work is absolutely outstanding overall. There’s not a single bad performance to be found here in terms of line delivery and motion capture but the real MVP is of course no other than Lara Croft herself, Camilla Luddington. Luddington really captures the younger side of Lara Croft perfectly, blending her vocal range and motion capture movements in the most convincing way imaginable. All respect to the other previous actresses for Lara respectively (ESPEICALLY by girl Angelina Jolie) but there’s something about Camilla Ludington that makes her the best Lara Croft to date imo. She’s able to capture that charm, energy, and depth of the character better than anyone ever has. I love me some Hayley Atwell but she’s got her work cut out for herself for The Legend of Lara Croft.
The soundtrack done by Jason Graves is remarkable all around. It has the exact time of music that can get your heart pumping and have you on the edge of your seat the whole way through. It feels like the type of soundtrack you would hear in any action movie, particularly Indiana Jones. My favorite track in particular is the one track that plays when you stop at a checkpoint next to the fire. It’s a nice little moving track that allows you to breathe for a split second before getting straight back into all of the intense action. With a score that is about as fist pumping and intense, having a track like that helps make it stand out greatly.
Downloadable Content:
Various amounts of small DLC were released with the game. At the game’s launch, Xbox Live users would get early access to the map pack titled “Caves and Cliffs”. The maps themselves contained the three new Tomb Raider multiplayer maps, entitled “Scavenger Caverns”, “Cliff Shantytown” and “Burning Village”. That pack would later become available for PSN and Steam users just a month later.
Other packs included, the “1939” multiplayer map pack that consists of two new multiplayer maps called “Dogfight” and “Forest Meadow”, a Japanese Language Pack on Steam, a multiplayer DLC pack called “Shipwrecked” that offered two additional maps in “Lost Fleet” and Himiko’s Cradle”, a single player outfit pack was released on Xbox Live, containing the Demolition, Sure-Shot and Mountaineer outfits.
Two versions that contained all the DLC were released in 2014. Those included the Game of the Year: Edition for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC and Definitive Edition for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One along with receiving an eventual release for Window in April 2024, exclusively on the Microsoft Store.
All of the DLC for Tomb Raider (2013) were strictly for multiplayer maps and player outfits. There was no story DLC or exclusive single player content. They were all mostly additions to add to one of the weaker aspects of the games in hopes of improving it. Considering I didn’t care for the multiplayer mode back then and now, I can’t say these DLC packs did anything for me. There’s nothing here that will enhance the gaming experience for supporters of the game nor is there anything that win any naysayers of it.
If you are curious to check the DLC out, the Game of the Year and Extended Editions should be much cheaper to buy than it was a decade ago. However, for me, it just seems like useless extras to justify pre-order/console exclusives and just random content made back when single player games felt the need to tack on a multiplayer mode, even if the game itself didn’t really acquire it.
Conclusion:
Tomb Raider (2013) is essentially a textbook example of a reboot done right! While it undoubtedly takes inspirations from the likes of Uncharted, the modern update of Lara Croft is able to embrace everything that fans have loved about Lara Croft over the years while also being able to stand by itself perfectly as it’s own unique thing. The graphics are breathtaking, the gameplay contains the perfect mix of combat, platforming, stealth, and exploration, the set pieces are terrific and genuinely cinematic in the best of ways, Camilla Luddington is perfect as the main video game heroine, and Lara herself has never a more compelling or engaging character than she has been here. While some might bark at certain aspects like the actual tomb raiding being secondary and being too overly violent just for the sake of it, the actual game itself has so much love, passion, and effort put into it that the game comes across as genuine and NOT neglect.
Opinions may vary on if the follow-ups were better than this one but this is definitely the most fresh, exciting, and action-packed that the Tomb Raider franchise has ever been. You would be hard pressed to find that freshness and novelty that 2013 has and the foundation it leaves perfectly for it’s future that you will just never find in any other adventure with Lara Croft. Whether one is a longtime fan of Tomb Raider or a newcomer to the series like I was back in 2013, I highly recommend Tomb Raider (2013) to fans and gamers alike.
With Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League now out, why not rank it among the other installments in the Batman: Arkham gaming series, since it has been confirmed canon to that same universe whether we all like it or not.
I don’t think it’s hyperbole to say that this is probably considering the best superhero gaming franchise out there with the possible exception being Insomniac’s Spider-Man series. This is a series that not just revolutionized the character of Batman to a new generation but superhero triple A games in general. And the fact that these games are still being talked about and played to this very day despite beginning 15 years ago, with the latest installment coming nine years after the previous one, just goes to show you the impact and pure staying power that these games have had.
A big disclaimer here, I’m only doing games that were released on the main consoles and are generally considered the main series installments. I was considering trying to secure a copy of Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate and Batman Arkham VR before doing this list but a.) I couldn’t find the charger for my Nintendo 3DS and b.) I couldn’t find a PlayStation VR that was super cheap. So because of that, those games will be off the list.
This will cover the four main series Batman: Arkham games along with the newest addition, Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League. Let’s get right down to it!
5.) Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League
Do I have the hate boner for this game that the majority of the internet has? Not really. Does that mean this game was worth the near decade long wait from Rocksteady? Again, not really. Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League feels like a game that was basically doomed from the start. Not just because this was a game nearly a decade in the making and following Rocksteady’s previous track record with their successful Batman: Arkham games but it was basically by design made to chase the worst kind of trends in modern gaming imaginable. It certainly does it better than most (at least compared to the likes of say Marvel’s Avengers) but like most, it’s own restrictions holds it back for it’s true potential.
It may get the job done by offering a typical action and shoot-them-up game for the Overwatch and Fortnite crowd, and at least has the decency to make the majority of content free (if not free to use offline) but it really doesn’t bother to be anything much else, which goes against what Rocksteady had stood for years now. The plot feels more like a 12-year old’s “What if?” edge lord fan-fiction than it does as being a true continuation of the Arkhamverse, giving the clear indication that this is only in the Arkham name for the sake of boosting sales rather than because anyone thought this truly belong in the same canon.
Yes, the upcoming seasonal content could fix the majority of the complaints and have this game get a resurgence later on down the road (similar to EA’s Star Wars Battlefront 2) but the fact we might have to wait over a year to get all of that says more about this game chasing trends for the sake of chasing trends and not much else. I don’t know whether this was Rocksteady or Warner Bro’s doing but both are capable of much more than this. Is it at least a playable game? Sure! Is it the weakest of this entire series? Without a shadow of a doubt!
4.) Batman: Arkham Origins
For years, Batman: Arkham Origins had the reputation of being the black sheep of the Arkham games. Nothing but the forgotten step child of the bunch and some even like to pretend doesn’t exist. On the surface, it’s easy to see why. This is the only one of the main four Arkham games to NOT be developed by Rocksteady, it doesn’t have the legendary Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill in their roles as Batman and Joker respectively, and was basically the one that acted the most as a “filler” game that was basically made to buy time between the releases of Arkham City and Arkham Knight. There were also multiple reports of bugs and glitches that plagued the game for most people, which I was NOT one of them. However, when looking at the game itself now time has past and updates of the game have been made, Arkham Origins is actually a really damn good game in it’s own right and is highly underrated.
The gameplay is as fluid and fun as it is in the other Arkham games, the addition of the shock gloves is a neat one, seeing Bruce Wayne in his younger, more reckless stage as Batman is engaging and perhaps the most interesting in the entire series, the voice work from Roger Craig Smith’s Batman and Troy Baker’s Joker is great, and it has hands down has the best boss fights in the entire Arkham franchise, with the Deathstroke one in particular being an all-timer. Not to mention, even Alfred gets his time to shine here, including that great scene where he tries to stop Bruce from going out as Batman, showing he truly sees Bruce as his son and not just as his butler. Sure, it does feel like a pre-heated meal compared to the three Rocksteady Batman games and it did suck to see them pull a switch-a-roo with Black Mask not being the actual villain to make room for the Joker but those flaws are no where near a deal breaker for this game.
While not the best, Arkham Origins easily remains the most underappreciated game in the Arkhamverse. To this day, I don’t understand the scorn that fans have with this game or even why both Rocksteady and WB Games Montreal feels so obligated to pretend this game never happened. I understand being critical of this game when looking at it from a business and commercial standpoint (with it being a “filler” game and all) but looking at it’s own thing and the limited amount of time that WB Games Montreal was given, Arkham Origins is a really solid game with gameplay features and story elements that are among the very best of the Arkham games. I remember playing the hell out of this game when I got in on Christmas Day back in 2013 and enjoying it all the same and still do this very day.
3.) Batman: Arkham Knight
The (original) ending of the Arkhamverse divided Batman’s fans everywhere when it arrived in 2015. While plenty found it to be a worthy send-off for this iteration of Batman, others were frustrated by it due to the new elements that the game itself included. However, as the dust settles and in the wake of lesser superhero games that are somewhat Arkham related such as Gotham Knights and Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League, there seems to be more appraisal towards it. While I did feel a bit cold of this game upon my first playthrough of it, Batman: Arkham Knight has only gotten better with age and easily grows on me each time that I play it.
Yes, there’s too much of the Batmobile that gets more tedious the more the game progresses. Yes, the Arkham Knight reveal is very obvious if you know the Batman lore. Yes, the final showdown with Deadshot is underwhelming. And yes, those goddamn Riddler trophies can go to hell! However, there’s plenty of greatness to be found here! We finally have a fully realized Gotham world that’s fun to explore, the gameplay is the best and more polished than ever before, the voice work is superb, the story is the most stake-heavy with resonating themes that feel very Batman appropriate, the graphics is some of the best in any video game, and is able to find a fitting end to a character that isn’t very well known for having definite endings. Yes, the flaws are still presented and prevent it from being as good as it’s main predecessors from Rocksteady but so are the overall strengths for it.
Do I think Arkham Knight is as good as Asylum or City? Not quite but I do feel there are plenty of instances where it comes pretty darn close. So much so that I wouldn’t be surprised if one day, it would surpass at least Asylum for me. Regardless of the quality of the new Suicide Squad game, I do love how it has encourages fans to look back on this series and see the amazing accomplishments that these games have turned out to be. Showcasing how superhero and license video games don’t have to suck. When you have the right amount of right people who want to create something special, it’s then you will have a gaming series as successful as the Batman Arkham series. Had this been the last true game we got in this universe, I would have been more than okay for how satisfying of a game it truly is.
2.) Batman: Arkham Asylum
You would be hard pressed to find a superhero or even licensed game that was able to define the seventh generation of consoles than Batman: Arkham Asylum. After so many Batman games have come and gone with mixed results, this was the first one that just perfectly capture the distinct feeling of being the Caped Crusader himself. Coming off the year after the release of The Dark Knight which helped set the golden standard for superhero movies, DC and Rocksteady was able to follow the success of that greatly with Batman:Arkham Asylum, the game which helped set the golden standard for superhero licensed games.
Batman: Arkham Asylum is ever bit as awesome as you remembered it was back in 2009. While the boss fights are still rather weak and I don’t fully buy Joker’s “let’s create an army of Banes” master plan, nearly everything else is done rather flawlessly that it’s hard to let those minor gripes bring down the entire game. The combat is absolutely fun with plenty of inventive ways to beat your opponents, the gadgets always come in handy, the detective aspects add a ton to the experience and character of Batman, the entire Arkham island itself is cool to explore, the unlockables are so eager to collect, the voice acting is incredibly stellar, and there’s never a second which you don’t feel like you are in control of The Dark Knight himself.
This is a game that has continued to stand the test time, even 14 years later. For a studio that was relatively unknown before Arkham Asylum came out, there was no better way for Rocksteady to put themselves on the map for gamers all around after crafting this absolute achievement of a video game. If you are a Batman fan and somehow still have not checked this game out, I highly recommend it. Even if you are not a Batman fan and want a really fun action packed game, then I recommend it too. Perhaps it might even turn you into a Batman fan yourself just like I imagine it did for gamers everywhere back in 2009. If 2008 showed how good superhero films can get with The Dark Knight, then 2009 showed how good superhero games can get with Batman: Arkham Asylum! Even to this day, the Caped Crusader remains the standard!
1.) Batman: Arkham City
If you want to talk about a quintessential Batman game, look no further than this masterpiece! After the critical success of Arkham Asylum, Rocksteady knew exactly the direction where to go to top themselves and it perfectly shows throughout the game. Not only does Batman: Arkham City act as a perfect sequel to Arkham Asylum but it also acts as a perfect Batman game and just a perfect superhero game in general. It takes everything you loved by Arkham Asylum, tweaks some of the things that didn’t work about it, throws in some new elements, and is able to off a much grander and wide open world where you truly feel like Batman. If that is not the signs of a great follow-up, then I don’t know what can.
The combat is improved in every way and offers more unique and inventive ways to take down criminals, seeing Batman pushed beyond his limits is always fascinating to see, Arkham City is incredibly fun to explore, Catwoman is a great new addition, the missions from both the main and side stories are all interesting, it’s paced extremely well, the story is the best in the series, the music and voice work are outstanding, and the ending with the death of the Joker will always be an all-timer. This is a game that’s so good that even the little things you can nitpick at (such as Hugo Strange being reduced to being a background villain despite teasing to be the main driving force of the game) aren’t worth mentioning because it doesn’t feel like flaws in any way but more of a tiny little blemish you find on a flawless face. Not to say this game is 100% flawless because no game is but it just feels like that whenever you are playing it.
I don’t think Rocksteady could have followed up Arkham Asylum any better than they did here. If anything, one could make the strong argument that Batman: Arkham City basically acts as to date Rocksteady’s Magnum Opus, a marvelous achievement that every cast and crew apart of this game should be extremely proud of, even 13 years later. Batman: Arkham City is not only the best game in the Arkhamverse for me but it’s one of my all-time favorite games period. I’ve played through this game so many times and I wouldn’t be surprised if I have several more playthroughs with it in the future. As much as I love Spider-Man, when it comes to pure superhero gaming entertainment, Batman: Arkham City still remains on top!
*Warning! This article contains MAJOR spoilers for Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League! If you haven’t played the game yet and/or don’t want anything spoiled for you, then you might want to click off the article right now! You have been warned!*
Oh, boy! Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League is perhaps the hottest and most controversial game at the moment! Even before it’s release, there has been plenty of things that have inspired it’s controversy. From the required online services to it’s obsessed looter-shooter mechanics to this not being a Superman or Batman Beyond game, things were not looking too bright for Rocksteady’s first console game since the mid 2010s. And the fact that it was delayed numerous times didn’t seem to help much either! However, there is certainly not been a bigger controversy of this game than that of Batman’s role. Before we dive deep into why people are angry about how Batman was handled in Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League and whether or not it’s justified, let’s go back a bit to see what happened with the Caped Crusader between Arkham Knight and into this game.
As we all know, Batman: Arkham Knight for a while was considered the definite conclusion to the Arkhamverse. After all, the game ended with Bruce’s identity being revealed to the world by Scarecrow, which gave the orphan playboy billionaire the impression that his time as Batman in Gotham has come to an end. By installing an emergency protocol he activated in case his true self ever got exposed, formerly known as the Knightfall protocol, that led Bruce to faking the death of himself and (presumably) Alfred to have the world think he is dead and hopefully keep those he cares about out of harm’s way. Despite everyone else in Gotham believing he is dead, it’s revealed in the very last scene of the game where two muggers attack a family in an alley that Bruce might in fact still be alive but cosplaying as a nightmarish figure resembling Batman, using the fear toxin from Scarecrow to make that happen.
Even though Arkham Knight was designed to be the true endgame for this iteration of Batman, it still had such an open ending that could open the door to pretty much anything if this series would ever be continued. For a while, there were rumors and speculations that suggested this would lead to the likes of a Damian Wayne-lead Batman game which would have Bruce Wayne in his “Batman Beyond” phase. This game was confirmed by voice actor Josh Keaton to be true and he would have been the voice of Damian Wayne himself. However, due to leaks and potentially WB Games Montreal (the studio that was developing the game) having cold feet on having a game focused on Damian Wayne taking on the Bat mantle, that project never came to pass.
It was then that project would later turn into Gotham Knights, putting the focus on the other members of the Bat family with Robin, Nightwing, Red Hood, and Batgirl after Bruce Wayne’s supposed death. Despite being a reasonable thematic follow-up to Arkham Knight, that game was not considered part of the Arkham canon and stood alone as it’s own game. After several years of rumors of a potential Superman game set in the Arkham universe along with the un-canon release of Gotham Knights, the true continuation of the Arkham canon came with Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League, which the version of Batman would be the same one as we’ve been following in Arkham Asylum, City, Origins, and Knight.
The game states that after Arkham Knight, Bruce disappeared for several years until Superman found him. After he found Bruce, Superman asked for him to come back as Batman and join the Justice League. An offer which Bruce accepted. So now, Bruce as a new home in Metropolis and a new purpose as Batman in the form of the Justice League. Because of all that, the story of Bruce Wayne as Batman continues….even though everyone in the world knows his true identity.
And…that is literally all the context that the game gives us. There have been a few expansion novelization that suggest that post-Arkham Knight, Bruce was depressed and felt his live was ruined after Scarecrow revealed his identity, with the mindset that joining the Justice League would cure him of his depression and allow him to continue his crime fighting persona. But other than that, just about everything that has gone on with Batman between games happened offscreen with major important context being completely handwaved.
When you view that status quo with the little context the game offers us, that basically renders the ending of Arkham Knight rather meaningless. Why did Bruce go through all that trouble in faking his death to protect his friends if he was just going to come back in another city as Batman? By that point, criminals were no longer afraid of him and the world knowing his identity would put his friends in graver danger than ever before. Did Bruce just assume he trained his companions hard enough where they could handle any danger by themselves without his presence, even though Arkham Knight showed us they clearly can NOT?! And what happened with Alfred? Did he die with Knightfall Protocol or was he presumably killed offscreen by evil Batman like his other companions have been (We’ll go into THAT soon enough!)? The game doesn’t really give us any answers to those questions. While that is understandable from a narrative standpoint because this is suppose to be a Suicide Squad game first, it just makes it all the more clear that this could not have been a worse game to continue the plot threads of the Arkhamverse. Instead of getting a Superman or Justice League game first that might expand on that status quo and even justify it, it’s thrown to the wayside where you basically have to fill in the blanks yourself.
When it comes to Batman’s role in the game, he is basically in his pure evil form the whole way through due to being mind controlled by Brainiac. So much so, that he does what normal Batman would not do….kill people. This is shown in the very first sequence with him when he encounters the Suicide Squad. He blatantly uses his batarang to murder security guards and comes close to beating mind-controlled Barry Allen to death until he is ordered by Brainiac to keep him alive. Although, as usual in mediums where Batman breaks his “no kill” policy, it’s incredibly inconsistent. Like, he has no problem wiping out security guards and even the freaking FLASH but when he has the squad pinned down, he just screws off because otherwise….the game would be over in an hour.
However, as someone who tries to overprepare for EVERYTHING in his life, Batman even offered preparations in case something like himself and the Justice League being mind controlled by Brainiac happened. This is revealed in a recorded message once the Suicide Squad breaks into the Batcave. This was a message intended for his companions: Robin, Nightwing, and Oracle (which I guess answers one of those questions I stated before) as a guide on how to stop the Justice League if the group became compromised. Unfortunately, it’s revealed that Robin got taken out by evil Batman with the fates of the other two, Jason, and Alfred being unknown (which proves how dumb of a decision it was for Bruce to come back as Batman leaving his companions defenseless).
It’s then you fight Batman in his nightmare form he had been fighting in since Arkham Knight. After a rather intense sequence where you have to spread the Bat lab with fear toxin gas, you confront the nightmare fueled caped crusader head on until you’ve shoot at him enough times to beat him. The end results leaves Bats badly wounded and bleeding everywhere. The squad takes him to Lex Luthor’s lab, who uses Batman to develop golden kryptonite weapons to kill Superman. In comes the most talked about scene of the game!
In order to lore Superman out of hiding, the squad takes Batman out in the open to execute him. After Harley gives a speech about the history the two have shared throughout this series of games and Batman calling the speech s*it, Harley shoots Batman blank in the face and kills him. Supposedly putting an end to the Arkham Batman as we know it and possibly the last time we will ever hear Kevin Conroy’s voice as Batman.
To say this has pissed people off would be an understatement! To take a version of the character that is considered to be the definite Batman medium in terms of video games and possibly all forms of entertainment and kill him off in such an unceremonious way is guarantee backlash from day one! However, there may be something here that we are NOT aware off and will have to await for seasonal content to determine the true outcome.
First off, I will say right off the bat! DO NOT USE KEVIN CONROY’S DEATH TO DRAG BATMAN’S TREATMENT OF THIS GAME THROUGH THE MUD! THAT IS DISGRACEFUL AND UNCALLED FOR!
No one at Rocksteady could have predicted his death and I’m fairly certain his voice work was recorded at least a few years before his untimely passing. Let’s also not forget that Kevin Conroy himself DID agree to do the voice work for Batman in this game and (if sources close to him are any indication) was perfectly okay with what was done with Batman in this game. It’s not like this is some A.I.-generated voice or anything, this was in fact all Kevin Conroy. The man NEVER once stated that Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League would be his final time voicing the character. It was just unfortunate this had to be one of the very last times for him to do it!
Secondly, let’s not act like Harley Quinn or anyone else is incompetent or isn’t capable of taking the Bats down. After all, this was the same Harley Quinn that was able to capture Batman in her DLC for Arkham City and would have in fact killed him due to lack of oxygen if it wasn’t for Robin saving his life. And if you continue to treat this game as canon to the Arkhamverse, it does tie back to Arkham City and Arkham Knight of Harley Quinn seeking vengeance against Batman for the death of her pudding. Yes, it seems like little HQ is over her pudding’s passing throughout the game, but it does thematically feel natural to her character.
Thirdly, and I’m pretty sure this has basically been confirmed through leaks, this is NOT the same Batman as the one we’ve been following since the Arkham games. What I mean by that is I’m fairly certain that upcoming DLC will reveal that the evil Batman presented throughout the game is not the real Batman but a clone made from the same DNA by Brainiac. The evil Batman that is presented throughout feels so out of left fired compared to the prior Arkham games that I would be shocked if it was not revealed that the Batman in this game is a fake and the real one is still out there somewhere.
If you don’t believe me, there are plenty of hints throughout the game that give the indication that the Justice League presented in the game are in fact not the real ones. You have the Flash that was able to regrow his finger after it got cut off, there’s Green Lantern whose ring doesn’t act the way it normally does, Superman surviving the kryptonite from Wonder Woman, all of the bodies of the JL after their “death” being teleported back to Brainiac’s ship, and even just the fact Brainiac refers to the Justice League at the final battle as MY Justice League and not THE Justice League. Not to mention, this is literally the same game where you have to go to another world to find another Lex Luthor after the one in this universe was killed off by The Flash. It’s time travel at will!
And if you are wondering about the hints of Batman’s potential resurrection, a recent video by the GOAT Batman Arkham Videos, found a hidden easter egg that teases that exact possible outcome for the future. There’s a hidden message in the forms of calendars scattered throughout Metropolis, each highlight a specific date, which the one from December has the bat symbol labeled on the date of the 14th. These calendars serve as a nod to Calendar Man, a villain from Arkham City, and spells out a message in twelve letters that makes sense once you crack the code. That message states, “He will return!” If that’s not a sign that Rocksteady is not done with their version of Batman yet, then I don’t know what is.
I’m sure there will be PLENTY of folks that will claim that Rocksteady would only resurrect Batman and the other previously fallen Justice League members due to the massive backlash of the game but if the hints, easter eggs, and leaked audio of the upcoming DLC is any indication, it’s clear this was planned from the very beginning. Plus, as we should all know now the old saying of comic book storylines, no one ever stays dead except for Uncle Ben and the Waynes.
The bigger question isn’t so much about if Rocksteady plans to revive Batman and the rest of the Justice League but more of when and how? Will they stick to their guns and release the seasonal content when they originally planned to? Will they release ASAP in response to the negative reception of the game? Were they able to get voice recordings of Kevin Conroy’s Batman for this DLC before his death or would they need to recast in order to do so? I’m sure those questions will be answered as 2024 goes around but I’m fairly certain that this will be the final outcome for the Arkham Batman.
Although this is the main problem with live-services games that rely on seasonal content to determine the final outcome of the game but the only thing we can all do is wait and see. While Batman’s resurrection will not solve all of the problems with his inclusion in this game, I am hopeful Rocksteady is able to find some alternative that can either continue his story in this universe or find a real proper ending for the character.
Even if Batman is getting much proper treatment in the upcoming DLC, I still consider Arkham Knight to be the true definite send-off for this iteration of Batman. Anything afterwards to me is basically a “What If?” scenario and nothing else. If it’s done well, I can be like “Yeah, I guess that would be cool!” If it’s not done well, I can then be like, “Well, at least it ended with the last game for me!” I have my Batman games to look back upon fondly and nothing this game does can take that away from me!
Regardless, I’m grateful we got to hear Kevin Conroy voice Batman at least one more time for a big major title! And as I said in my main review, he sounded just as good there as he did when he first put the cape and cowl on back in the 90s with Batman: The Animated Series!
After a near decade long wait, Rocksteady has FINALLY return to the scene with Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League, the studio’s first console game since Batman: Arkham Knight. After the massive success and acclaim of the Batman: Arkham series, I’m pretty sure everyone and their mother had been wondering what this studio would tackle next after such an impressive achievement with that beloved franchise of games. Would they continue that timeline with a Batman Beyond game with a big focus on Damien Wayne? Would they do a modern Superman game running on the same Arkham engine? Would they do a full-on Justice League game? Or would they do something completely original that doesn’t involve DC superheroes? While all of those development cycles had been rumored or speculated for years now, none of those ended up being the case whatsoever. Instead what we have is a brand new Suicide Squad game with the subtitled Kill The Justice League.
Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League takes place in that same Arkhamverse as the Rocksteady Batman games and the one from WB Games Montreal, that puts an emphasis on third-person shooting, exploring an open world, and (at least at the time of writing) requires your service online to be able to experience the game fully. The game was announced in August 2020 was set for a 2022 release date until that got delayed multiple times to improve the overall quality of the game. More DLC in season passes is expected to arrive over the course of the year and possibly even more depending on how the services are later on down the road.
I can’t speak for everyone but I really don’t think a Suicide Squad game was the follow-up of Batman: Arkham Knight from Rocksteady that we all expected or even wanted. Perhaps had there been a few games before this on, such as the previously mention Batman Beyond,Superman and/or Justice League game, it would feel more welcome. But, for a game that has been reported to be in development since at least 2017 and coming from a successful studio who hasn’t released a full game since 2015 (Batman Arkham VR does NOT count!), Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League acting as the first blimp in the radar in what seems like forever doesn’t really inspire much courage.
However, at the end of the day, you can only judge a game based off the final product. And considering I already promised I would do a review for this game when it came out as a means to include my Batman: Arkham marathon, I have no choice to do just that. Is Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League able to make the best out of the worst possible situation or does it really deserve to be dragged through the mud like it has been by the majority of the internet? Let’s start off by talking about perhaps the most conversational aspect of the game, the story!
Story:
First off, I will say I will try my very best to avoid major spoilers. However, considering the fact that the actual premise of the game could be considered a giant spoiler with itself along with the actual subtitle of the game, I can’t make any promises that you won’t at least read between the lines with what I’m about to talk off. And that’s not even mentioning the leaks to the upcoming DLC that basically confirms that events of this game will be retconned or at least the supposed body count will likely not lead to having to carve headstones after all. Either way, if by some chance, you have NOT been spoiled by Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League in ANY way, I would advise skipping this part of the review. There is your warning!
Taking place five years after the events of Arkham Knight, we turn our focus of the series to a group of criminals imprisoned in the Arkham Asylum assembled by A.R.G.U.S. director Amanda Waller. This group is known as Task Force X, A.K.A. the Suicide Squad. The members of the Suicide Squad include Harley Quinn, Deadshoot, Captain Boomerang, and King Shark, who are all forced to fight against their will by Amanda Waller because of little bombs that are implemented inside their head, which Waller can activate at any given moment.
Waller sends the team of Arkham misfits to Metropolis, which is under attack by an all-powerful villain known as Brainiac. It’s discovered that Brainiac has took control over the minds of four of the five members of the Justice League, which includes Superman, Batman, Flash, and Green Lantern, with Wonder Woman being the only member free from his clutches. At first, the team is instructed to find a way to free the male league members from Brainiac’s control and save them all from their evil form. However, after encounters with a brainwashed Green Lantern and Batman along with butting heads with a brainwashed Flash, Waller and the Task Force team soon come to realize that saving them can no longer be an option. The only way to save Metropolis now is by killing the Justice League members all together with Brainiac along with them.
But because most of the Justice League consists of all-powerful superheroes that have special powers that no ordinary living being does, they can’t take beat them with their normal wits and weaponry but need knowledge and resources from a special someone to unlock the secrets to murdering each Justice League member one-by-one. That special someone is no other than Lex Luthor.
However, after something happens to the Arkhamverse Lex Luthor that makes him no longer available, the squad teleported themselves into the elseworlds (basically the DC equivalent of the multiverse) to find a Lex Luthor from another world. The elseworld Lex Luthor confirms to Task Force X that he had worked with the Lex Luthor from their world to prepare for Brainiac’s invasion after he failed to do so in his world. He agrees to go to the world of the Suicide Squad and help them find a way to stop Brainiac and the evil Justice League before Metropolis is completely destroyed.
Commanded by Amanda Waller and assistance from the likes of Lex Luthor and a still-good Wonder Woman, the Suicide Squad must risk their neck and lives to wipe out the members of the corrupted Justice League and Brainiac before even more damage is done in Metropolis and possibly the entire Arkhamverse and elseworlds.
Okay, before I got into how much this story just does not work in the context of being set in the same universe as the prior Batman: Arkham games, I feel like it’s only fair to discuss why this story just doesn’t work on it’s own terms. It starts off decent, with solid introductions to the squad, a fun tour of the Hall of Justice and viewing the status quo of the Arkhamverse, and a tense boss sequence once you come up against Evil Batman for the first time. However, after a somewhat promising start, it falls off the rails completely once it really gets going.
You have ideas and concepts that are barely explored, a pace that seems rushed and all over the place, outcomes of major characters that are handwaved and/or treated as edgy jokes, and an ending that makes it feel like nothing much was accomplished. It’s baffling after making fine use of it at the start that the story seems to lose interest in it’s own concept, trying way too hard to make the Suicide Squad the REAL heroes of the story and not act as the criminal freaks that they are.
The idea of the plot itself could make for a fun spoof of a comic book game storyline with such a ridiculously unapologetic “I don’t give a f*ck! We’re playing by our own rules!”, mirroring the likes of Deadpool, Metal Gear Rising Revengeance, and Sunset Overdrive. However, where as those games at least have a self aware charm to it that lets it’s audience in for such a crazy ride, Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League comes across as more crude and mean spirited than anything else.
That’s not even going in how distractingly similar this is to the plot of Marvel’s Avengers (2020), which this game falls to many of similar trappings with but with different results. Just replace the Avengers with the Justice League, M.O.D.O.K. with Brainiac, and instead of saving the heroic team, you have to kill them, and it’s basically the same plot at it’s core. It’s so familiar that it makes me wonder if this was originally suppose to be a full-on Justice League game but decided it against after seeing the backlash that Marvel’s Avengers got.
When talking about this plot within the context of the Arkhamverse, it’s even worse. This doesn’t so much feel like a continuation of the Arkham canon but more as a 12 year old “What If?” edge lord fanfiction that has only slightly more thought put into it than that Death of Batman fan film. The characters brought back from the prior Arkham games don’t feel even remotely like their previous versions.
Harley seems to have long forgotten about her pudding (Which she doesn’t even say in the game btw!) and feels more in line with the Harley Quinn from the Max animated series than she does of her Arkham counterpart, and that’s not just because she revealed to have actually been in a relationship between Poison Ivy, despite them never EVER being a thing in the previous Arkham games. Riddler and Penguin feel like they were shoehorned in with not much explanation as to why they are no longer in Gotham. And I would say something about Batman’s characterization but I’m saving an entire piece for that.
It’s not that this story couldn’t work within the Arkhamverse but this just seemed like the very wrong game to continue that story with. It’s because having to focus on the Suicide Squad themselves that big questions that people have had since Arkham Knight such as why Bruce came back as Batman and when did the Justice League assemble are given the most “hand-wavey” answers imaginable that gloss over big important context. It only seems like Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League was included in the Arkham canon just for the sake of boosting sales and NOT for the sake of expanding the world even further. When even Gotham Knights feels more like a thematically worthy follow-up to Arkham Knight, you have a big problem on your hand.
The only time the story itself shines is within the characterization of it’s main cast and a handful of interactions. The entire sequence in the first hour where you tour the Hall of Justice and see the way the Justice League team in this universe is characterized within recorded hologram messages is very satisfying to see. It really felt like the writers did their homework when it came to realizing the true appeal of these characters. So much so, it makes you wonder why they went through the trouble of making them feel likable when we are going to have to kill them anyway. The main standouts here involve Superman and Wonder Woman, who basically acts as the protagonist of the story and a guide for Task Force X themselves. It only makes you wish you were playing a Superman or Justice League game instead of this one.
The Suicide Squad members do get some fun moments to themselves as well. Even within the rather crude and tryhard like tone, there’s a few times where most of the jokes and banter pays off. The back-and-forth between the squad and the Flash is fun, it’s cute to see Harley being a Wonder Woman fangirl all of a sudden (even if it makes zero sense in the context of the Arkhamverse), Boomerang gets the most hilarious lines in the game and there’s one sequence which Amanda Waller goes batshit crazy that’s actually satisfying to watch. It sucks that most of the characters are as enjoyable as they are and makes you wish more effort was put into the actual plot itself.
The story itself is possibly the worst thing about this game. It doesn’t work as it’s own thing and it most CERTAINLY doesn’t work as a continuation of the Arkhamverse. Even if there were ideas that might have been interesting on paper, the execution could not be anything less than before. It’s clear that the story took a backseat for everything else about this game and it clearly shows.
However, considering this is intended to be a live service game first, the gameplay is what matters the most. Does that fare any better? Kind of, but not really.
Gameplay:
Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League is an action-adventure game that is set in the open world of Metropolis. It features four playable characters which are no other than the Suicide Squad members themselves. There’s Harley Quinn, Deadshot, Captain Boomerang, and King Shark.
Despite all four characters controlling similarly, each of them has their own kind of weapons, melee combat style, and traversal method for them to chose from. When it comes to weaponry, it involves each class being shared by two of the four characters that are available at the time of release. When it comes to unique move sets and ways to travel, each of the them has a feature that stands out. You have Harley Quinn that has a baseball bat and travel using Batman’s grapple gun, you have Deadshot that has his own guns and can jetpack his way throughout Metropolis, you have Captain Boomerang that can you his boomerang to teleport to where ever it goes and his own gun, and you have King Shark that can jump high and far and his own lovely machine gun. Despite having similar controls, they all are designed to feel differently from one another, making certain missions feel like you should play as one specific character over the other three.
There is also a progression skill tree that is included here. It allows for player to level up to stronger and different skill sets at any point of the game. The more enemies you kill and more missions you complete throughout the game, the higher your ranking will go for ever character. However, each character can only level up individually and is not something you can do with the whole group at one time. The only exception is if you playing through multiplayer mode.
And speaking of multiplayer, while the entire game can be played solo, it does include a four-player co-op multiplayer mode, that can be play with someone you are playing with in person or through online. When playing solo, players can switch between any characters while the other characters are controlled by the game’s AI. However, you aren’t allowed to switch between different characters during a certain mission and can only do that again once you have completed that mission or die before switching up again.
When it comes to the missions themselves, there is literally about three different types that are introduced here. All of them are ones you can beat with the most mindless button mashing and straight forward objectives imaginable for a loot box filled, third-person shooter. You have missions where it involves taking control of enemy bases, there are missions where you have to protect enemies from your allies, and missions where you have to escort someone in a big truck. And that’s basically it when it terms to variety with the missions.
None of them play differently than the other, there’s no interesting mix thrown in between each one, they don’t seem to get much harder or easier as it goes on, and it involves accomplishing the exact same objective over and over and over again. Sure, playing the missions as each individual character can make the experience slightly more different but once you beat each one of these missions with all four members of The Suicide Squad, you have basically seen everything that the missions in these games provide.
I wish I could say more but that’s just about how the mission structure is laid out throughout the entirety of the game. It’s the same rinse and repeat formula that makes each objective clear as daylight without much new added to it except you are playing as DC bad guys now instead of super heroes. It’s certainly functional and works the way it was programmed but there’s very little variety here and that makes it feel like the same loot box, third-person shooter but with a different coat of paint.
The only other exception for the variety of missions are the sections with The Riddler. Yes, The Riddler has returned in the Arkhamverse and is now in Metropolis instead of Gotham for some odd reason that is never explained. As with the prior Batman: Arkham games, there are side quests and missions where you can go out of your way to collect Riddler trophies that are scattered throughout the open world, solve puzzles that have been laid out in the map, and designed obstacle courses that you are given a star rating on depending on how fast you are able to complete each course.
Even taking out the fact that The Riddler’s return here makes ZERO sense in terms of story, I really don’t see the point of these side missions existing. There’s nothing creative or inventive about any of the courses and you never feel the strong desire to take time out of the main story to collect these trophies and solve the puzzles. At least in the prior Arkham games, doing all of The Riddler’s work felt rewarding by the end of it and made beating him all the more satisfying. Unless you are an achievement/trophy whore, you will not feel any obligation to want to play these side missions. I never even bother looking up to see what happens when you get everything or if there is a cutscene with him because I was so uninterest in his presence here.
Just like the story itself, it only feels like The Riddler’s missions are here because they were a staple of the previous Batman: Arkham games and Rocksteady hoped it would help with sales by banking on that Arkham nostalgia. Also, apparently, The Riddler also took time out of its day in the actual ELSEWORLD to laid out trophies to find and puzzles for you to solve. Can this guy just go away please?!?! I NEVER want to see his face ever again!
And of course, there’s the main selling point of the game, the boss fights with the evil corporate versions of the Justice League and eventually Brainiac himself. Throughout the game, you will eventually find yourself encountering with one member of the Justice League, aside from Wonder Woman, and you will have to face off against them. What should be the best part of the game is unfortunately no different than the missions you are already playing.
Sure, some of the earlier boss fights in the game are somewhat different and even fun to play. However, after the first two, it’s like the developers either ran out of money or simply stopped caring because it soon revolves to the same rinse and repeat formula. Even the final boss with Brainiac, is largely just the EXACT SAME BOSS as the very first one in the game. I’m not even joking! He even transforms in that EXACT SAME CHARACTER! How lazy can the developers possibly be!
All these fights come up to is shooting the enemy with one gun, shooting the enemy with another gun, and tossing a few grenades to increase the damage. All you have to do is perform these move sets multiple different times without too many hits and you’ll eventually get them. It’s odd how the story implies that there are only certain ways to beat the Justice League but when you can confront them, it mostly involves just doing the exact same move set you were doing when fighting previous enemies. If this is not the most washed up Justice League that’s ever existed, then I don’t know what is.
When describing the gameplay overall, it’s functional and competent but there’s no variety here whatsoever. There’s nothing here that’s aggressively glitchy, impossible to control, or inherently broken. Aside from having to get used to the different ways certain characters control along with the occasional times I would have to restart the game because my internet disconnected for a split second (Again, WHY is this live-service?!?!), there was nothing here I found inherently difficult to play or get used to. As a matter of fact, once you start to get the hang of it, there is some MILD enjoyment to be had here.
The real main issue here is it’s overall lack of innovation. It’s very clear that someone at Rocksteady and Warner Bros Games had a simple desire of wanting to match with the current trends of games that has grown accustom in the mid 2010s to now mid 2020s. The way the missions, open worlds, and amount of content both at launch and post-launch was clearly inspired by games hot at the moment such as Overwatch and Fortnite. However, where as those games were able to thrive off on unique character designs, creative mission and objective structures, and live-service elements that actually ADDED to the game rather than hinder it, Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League plays off more like if you just took these characters and plunged them into one of these worlds but remove any of the fresh and uniqueness of those games.
Once you really get the hang of the formula of the game, there’s not much here that hasn’t been done in literally every other live-action service game. Once you played all four of these different kinds of mission I mention earlier, you have basically seen everything that the game itself has to provide.
On one hand, that might be a welcome thing to certain folks. After all, in an age where Generation Z tends to have a much shorter attention span than before (and I say this as someone that is in fact part of that Generation), this kind of game is always welcome. It’s basically the perfect game to play while listening to a podcast and watch YouTube too. This was clearly aimed to cater to a certain ground that enjoys those “turn your brain off” games that involves simple button mashing.
If you are part of that group (and again no judgement here), you might enjoy this game. However, for those that were expecting even the tiniest bit of innovation on part with Rocksteady’s previous work and to not fall into the trappings that took down previous live-service superhero games such as Marvel’s Avengers and Gotham Knights, you will likely find yourself disappointed.
Of course, there is also the mention of the confirmed post-launch content (which I go into more in the Upcoming DLC section) that the game itself will provide in the form of seasons throughout the year. There has been confirmation of what Season 1 will include along with teases of what Seasons 2 through 4 will have. There’s even been leaked audio recording of certain characters that could make a surprise return or appearance.
For a while, this was the most controversial aspect of the game. Yet again, here we have a game with required online services with developers that have a hard-on for season passes and loot boxes. Much like Marvel’s Avengers, it feels as if the main full game had only scratch the surface of the main gameplay because it’s saving the extra content for the future. However, if there is one thing that Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League has over Marvel’s Avengers, it’s that that content has been confirmed to be free and you can unlock certain loot boxes and items WITHOUT having to pay more money out of your wallet.
While there are definitely loot boxes and special items that should have been unlocked at the start of the game, these are all still free and things that can be unlocked the further you play along in the game. It might take a little extra work but it’s not more work you are forced to spend a few extra dollars on, unlike say Star Wars: Battlefront II. And as I just said, the seasonal content that will be included with the game’s frequent updates is said to be completely free. No need to charge extra for the game, even if you have to wait a little longer than you should. Considering this game from the same studio that was charging a full season pass for the DLC for Batman: Arkham Knight, the fact they are allowing this all for free is quite surprising and even refreshing. Too bad we have to wait until then to see if ANY of those factors come with the seasonal content!
While certainly not as lackluster as the main story itself, the gameplay of Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League leaves PLENTY to be desired. It’s playable, functional, has and/or will have free extra content, and once you get the hang of way each character’s control and their playset, it can be enjoyable at times. The problem is that we have seen this done with MULTIPLE other games and done MUCH better in other live-service games. There’s no variety in the missions, no progression system that makes you eager to level up your characters to the highest degree, and the boss fights with the Justice League could not be more underwhelming.
It’s an absolute shame that the game itself doesn’t even bother to hide the fact that it’s basically chasing trends and Rocksteady isn’t trying to be as inventive as it once was. Whether this is their doing or Warner Bro Games’ doing is beyond me but it still stinks regardless. If the main objective of Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League was to prove that live-service superhero games can in fact work, it failed spectacularly.
Graphics:
Normally, I would say the graphics for Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League are about as good as it can be for a next-gen 2024 game. After all, the environments look good, the models for the characters fit their designs incredibly well, the cutscenes are delivered at top notch, high quality, and the fact I’m able to see Metropolis exist in the Arkhamverse makes it itself a treat for the eyes. However, following Batman: Arkham Knight, which set a high standard for quality in terms of graphics that still hold up SPECTACUARLY nine years later, I can help but see it as quite a downgrade. Expectations on that front was always gonna be near impossible to match but it really doesn’t seem like anyone at Rocksteady even attempted to top or at least match it, which is the most unfortunate.
I understand that perhaps Rocksteady was wanting to go with more of a cartoon or comic book-like style considering this was meant to be a more gloriously excessive game that didn’t take itself as seriously as the other Batman: Arkham games but I kinda expected the next best thing to come in terms of the advanced technology they have worked on since 2015 and it doesn’t really show here. The game itself looks, sounds, and moves just fine (at least when your internet doesn’t disappear for a split second or later), but for those expecting the next best looking thing after Arkham Knight will likely be disappointed.
Sound:
The score for this game was done by composers Nick Arundel and Rupert Cross. Arundel returns here after doing prior gaming scores with Rocksteady with Arkham Asylum, City, and Knight. Cross, on the other hand, had done prior works in other entertainment medium such as theater (Hamlet, Frozen, Macbeth), television (101 Dalmatian Street, Everything Now), and film (Thor, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Brave,Cinderella (2015), and Beauty of the Beast (2017)). Kill The Justice League marks only the second score for a video game he’s ever done, with his first being 2013’s Puppeteer. Despite having proven talent to do the score, I couldn’t help but feel the score was lacking.
While it does it’s job as delivering a more rock-and-funk feel to the whole game, I can’t recall very many tracks that stuck with me or made me want to go out of my way on my own time to listen to them on YouTube. The main track that stood out for me was Batman’s theme when he first appeared in the Suicide Squad’s first encounter, even if it felt like an unuse track in one of the Christopher Nolan’s Batman movie. There are also a couple of decent tracks with the Justice League themselves but aside from that, the score is serviceable at best and forgettable at the worst.
I knew this would have a different style of music compared to the prior Batman: Arkham games but it’s baffling how not one track stuck with me the way the best tracks of those games were able to stick with me and even the not-so-great tracks did.
The voice work in this game is very strong. Nearly every actor and actress notable here are able to fit their role perfectly and have their voices completely match the designs of the characters and the dialogue given to them. With at least one notable exception (which I will get into), almost every voice actor suits their role very well. The biggest standouts come from the Justice League themselves, so much so that it makes you wish you were playing a full game with them.
Nolan North is able to be as perfect as Superman as he is as Nathan Drake, Deadpool, and the Penguin (which he also returns as). He perfectly captures that sense of hope and optimism that the Superman character always stands for and even works when presented as evil superman. Scott Porter is able to get the game’s best laughs as The Flash, Dan White fits well as the John Stewart version of Green Lantern, and Zehra Fazal brings such raw charisma as Wonder Woman. And of course, even though having an evil Batman presence could not have come at a worse time, Kevin Conroy gave it his all as this more twisted version of Batman, clearly having an absolute blast in the role the whole way through. The Suicide Squad team along with the rest of the cast don’t measure as high as the Justice League members but they all do fine work (Even though I wish folks would bother to redesign video game characters played by Debra Wilson), with one notable exception.
That exception is no other than Tara Strong as Harley Quinn. I’m just gonna come out and say it….I can’t stand her as Harley Quinn. I’ve tried given her the benefit of the doubt many times in the past when voicing this character but I can no longer do that. Her HQ’s voice is just way too raspy, ridiculously high pitched, and sounds more like she’s trying to impersonate a cartoon character rather than just sounding like…..a person. And no, the fact that Mrs. Strong has revealed herself to be not so bright doesn’t factor into my opinion on her as the Joker’s pudding, she is simply not a good Harley Quinn whatsoever. Arleen Sorkin (May that angel RIP!), Margot Robbie, and Kaley Cuoco are the real trio of the Harley Quinn Hall of Fame!
Upcoming DLC:
As previously mentioned, Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League will be provided with plenty of additional content that will expand the overall gameplay of the regular game. This will come in the form of seasonal passes that will be updated as the year goes on. All of these will be divided into four separate seasons that will unlockable new playable characters, new playable environments, new boss fights, new weaponry, new missions and activities, and even *shivers* new Riddler content because….why not.
Season 1 in particular has been confirmed to have a Joker from another elseworld as a playable character, new boss fights with the likes of Green Lantern and Superman, new playable environments, new dc villain themed weapons, new activities/strongholds, new Riddler content, and even two episodes with fan-favorite villains such as Two-Face and Scarecrow. Seasons 2 to 4 have not had much detail of it’s content just yet aside from most of the kind of content already mentioned but I wouldn’t be surprised to see us back in the Arkham Gotham that we all know and love.
Like with Marvel’s Avengers and even EA’s Star Wars: Battlefront 2, I’m sure this expansion of content might be good enough to improve the quality of the game for a good number of folks. Especially since, in this case, this is all said to be completely free content with no need to buy multiple passes or loot boxes.
On one hand, credit for Rocksteady to be able to avoid that trapping of trying to needlessly squeeze more money out of consumers, even if they couldn’t avoid the other ones. But considering the way that these along with other leaks gives confirmation that certain events from the game might be undone or rewritten entirely, it might just make the overall point of this game feel pointless. Even if those that hated the game will find themselves won over after certain characters are confirmed to be not dead after all, even they will wonder why this was made as DLC or seasonal content and not for say….it’s own actual game.
I don’t know if I will make a piece in the future once all this content is made available but considering it’s suppose to be free, I will certainly tried them out once they are released. Even if Rocksteady was basically forced by Warner Bros Games to make a game that rely heavily on live services and online action to chase the trends of Overwatch and Fortnite, this might’ve been the best results of this we could possibly get given the dire circumstances that surrounded it all.
Conclusion:
Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League feels like a game that was basically doomed from the start. Not just because this was a game nearly a decade in the making and following Rocksteady’s previous track record with their successful Batman: Arkham games but it was basically by design made to chase the worst kind of trends in modern gaming imaginable. It does some of those trends better than most but like most, it’s own restrictions holds it back from its true potential.
It may get the job done by offering a typical action and shoot-them-up game for those that crave for it but it really doesn’t bother to be anything much else than that and basically hopes the upcoming seasonal content will be enough to save the day. And considering the vital reaction this game has gotten online, it will take a LOT of convincing for folks to get this game another chance once the expansion of content have arrived.
If Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League is the DC equivalent of Marvel’s Avengers, then we can only hope that Monolith’s Wonder Woman will be the DC equivalent of Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, a superhero licensed game that ends up being a pleasant surprise following a previous underwhelming superhero licensed game.
That being said, I sure can’t wait until Marvel responds to this game by making the game, Thunderbolts: Kill The Avengers game. That will SURELY be a banger!
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