Talk:Shadow of the Tomb Raider/@comment-1500935-20181019090047/@comment-2038153-20181019231410

I respectfully disagree as the story is what got me into the series as the first game had a solid plot and characters I cared about. Rise and Shadow being more about gameplay with a plot that was just a retread of the first game and less interesting supporting characters has hurt the overall experience for me.

Case in point, The Empire Strikes Back is often considered the best of the Star Wars movies and it's more character focused then any other SW film and is often considered The sequel to which all sequels are compared to.

By contrast The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi are focused more on action with plots that are just retreading the original trilogy with less interesting characters. And in regards to Uncharted the series does have characters dealing with their own personal problems. U2 is all about Nate trying to sort his love life out, U3 is about the father/son relationship between Nate and Sully, U4 is Nate trying to save his marriage while also reconnecting with his long lost brother and UTLL is about Chloe and Nadine becoming friends.

Sure they have fun gameplay but that's only part of the reason people love this series. TR is more interested in just cashing in on the series popularity instead of telling a ongoing story and as a whole the series has suffered for it.

Case in point, the Oil Refinery mission in Shadow. It's a fun mission with some great cutscenes but when you get down to it it's just a retread of the burning palace mission from the first game and what's worse is that it's A) Completely pointless to the plot and the characters and can be removed without consequence.

And B) it doesn't have the same emotional power as the burning palace as Jonah is perfectly fine at the end and while the rising out the water scene is awesome Lara shouting that she's coming for all the Solarii is always going to be more awesome because it's the pay off to Lara's battle so far as she is no longer giving the Solarii any second chances and is now just going to cut through all of them to protect her loved ones.

That's why the endings of Rise and Shadow aren't as powerful as the ending of Survivor. The first game made sure to give Sam a character and a connection with Lara that made you care about her but Rise and Shadow just tell you to care about Jonah while giving them no real relationship and no real character for Jonah.

In the first game Sam Was suppose to die but test players hated the ending so it was changed for her to survive while the endings for Rise and Shadow are completely unchanged from what they were. Lara destroys the Divine Source and gives up the chance to bring her parents back because, as well written as her parents were, players just didn't connect to them as much as they did to Sam because, they're dead and have never met the woman who Lara has grown up to be.

The Lara we see as a child is not the Lara we know so there is a great disconnect between Lara and her parents because they don't know that woman. Same thing for Jonah in a way as while he has been with Lara since the start there's no real connection between the two as Jonah is more interested in complaining about Lara needing to save the world rather then doing anything to actually help.

In contrast Sam has been there with Lara throughout most of her adventure and grew alongside her. She knows as well as Lara the threats that are out there and has risked life and limb to keep the world and her loved one safe. When Sam fought against Himiko's control and won it is as powerful as Lara's fight through the Solarii palace because it's the pay off to all her character development and shows just how far she's come.

Meanwhile Jonah is still calling Lara selfish for wanting to stop Trinity from destroying the world and still makes Lara's life harder because all he does is get captured and make the situation worse.

One of the reasons I want Sam back is that she is Lara's equal much like Elena and Sully are Nate's equals in Uncharted. Sam can challenge Lara on a emotional level and make her look at herself in the mirror while still supporting her when she needs her to and manages this while being a great character in her own right.

While all Jonah does is stand around and talk about how awesome Lara is until the plot says that he needs to call her a self centered person for wanting to fix her mistakes.

And from a gameplay stand point as TR does borrow a lot from Uncharted, and visa versa, Sam can fight alongside Lara like what we get in Uncharted and I don't mean Shadow's so scripted events that if you go off the rails you will get killed and Jonah will just sit around and do nothing to help you bits.

At the very least I hope that Jonah leaves the series after this and I would like the series to go back to China and personally I would love for Lara to look for the Temples/Kingdom of the Four Dragon Kings of Chinese lore and for Lara to fight a dragon because Awesome.