izigame.me

TL;DR: Much like the later entries in certain other franchises, it's a better-looking, but less enjoyable version of earlier titles. Only worth buying if you want another rehash of the same formula and don't expect much.
The first and sadly, for me at least, only positive aspect of this game were the absolutely gorgeous graphics. It's quite impressive how much visual fidelity has improved in a mere five years, and the performance is good as well.
Otherwise though, I really didn't enjoy 'Shadow'. Aside from a few new climbing mechanics it's basically the same game as the last two, but they somehow managed to make everything feel worse.
For one, not only is the story forgettable, which is to be expected, the narration (the overall way in which the story is conveyed), which was excellent in the first 'Tomb Raider', is complete garbage here. Like in many blockbuster movies, things happen more or less randomly all over the place without any coherence or emotional urgency and even though the scope is supposed to be grander, it never feels like there is much at stake without any personal investment from Lara, who is really just a tourist who happens to be nearby when the locals do things. The completely unnecessary side-quests added for padding are also insultingly nonsensical, such as when a guy from an isolated village in the middle of the jungle asks Lara to find an artifact the queen tasked him to acquire as proof of his worth, because he 'doesn't have the time'. This might be par for the course in MMOs, but at least a little better should be expected from a story-focused first-person game such as this, especially when between the many lengthy (often unskippable) cutscenes and annoyingly long animations for everything from sitting down at a fire to wiggling through a crevice during which you lose control of Lara, large portions of the game are non-gameplay.
Combat encounters have also been trimmed significantly, both overall and in terms of number of enemies, which leaves puzzles and traversal for the majority of what you actually do. While there are fewer, but much larger world areas, both mandatory as well as optional puzzles (crypts and tombs, which are much more hidden and out of the way now), are more numerous and notably larger than before.
Now, the reason I didn't enjoy these activities in 'Shadow' may be considered questionable, since it is unfortunately related to the (still fantastic) graphical quality and environmental design, which makes gameplay conflict jarringly with appearance. Thanks to expansive vistas and excessive (but realistic) amounts of clutter everywhere, areas seem much less linear than they actually are. On the surface, this might sound nice, and could have been an improvement if it didn't actually reduce player freedom by preventing you from going anywhere you are not absolutely supposed to go. In the first 'Tomb Raider', the area borders were very obvious, which is admittedly clunky, but in exchange everything inside was traversible, whereas in 'Shadow' you can't even jump on the roofs of houses. Moreover, I found this made figuring out where you are allowed to go very frustrating, because a large portion of areas that really should be accessible actually aren't. You have to jump/grab/aim in/at the exact right place or it won't work and even then Lara is often moved in mid-air as if pulled by a magnet. This can go so far that you cannot even shoot an enemy from a position you are not supposed to be in for that encounter.
Think you can jump this knee-high fence? Nope. Walk on that log directly in front of you to cross the gap? Slip off and fall. Need to go around. Lower yourself to that clearly visible ledge? Nope, was just part of the scenery, not walkable terrain. Drop down to the bridge maybe three meters below? Instant death. Even though it will be safe to walk on later when you go there the 'right way'. Instead jump five meters backwards while hanging from a wall to an area that didn't look accessible. Similarly, puzzles have to be solved in the one intended way, even if there is an easier and more obvious solution that should plausibly work (barring glitches of course).
In conclusion, I simply didn't enjoy it and that's all that counts in the end.