Uncharted 4: A Thief's End Vs. Shadow of the Tomb Raider - Who Did It Better?

The final installment in Lara Croft's rebooted adventure, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, released with mostly positive reviews. It gave players more of what is expected from this popular franchise with more tombs and opportunities for exploration than previous games. But how does it compare to Nathan Drake's final adventure? Who ended on a higher note, Uncharted 4: A Thief's End or Shadow of the Tomb Raider?

One Final Treasure Hunt

Both Nathan Drake and Lara Croft are hurled into another massive treasure hunt for a legendary treasure. For Lara it's about saving the world from Trinity and for Nathan, it's about saving his brother Sam's life. Both narratives focus on widely different situations, with Lara's tale emphasized the importance her journey could have on the world and Nathan's taking a more personal route.

Lara's selfishness and bloodthirsty nature offer some great emotional moments, especially when she's forced to confront everything she's done. But Naughty Dog's personal tale of Nathan attempting to move on from the treasure hunting lifestyle provides a more relatable story for incredibly tense situations. Whether it's Elena finding out that Nathan has been lying to her or Sam attempting to reconnect with his brother after his reported death. Something that Lara's adventure doesn't truly capture.

Lara is faced with equally traumatic situations but she's able to get over these with relative ease. While this complements the narrative, with Lara becoming more violent and comfortable seeing those she cares about dies, it doesn't deliver the same impact as similar situations in Uncharted 4.

Winner: Uncharted 4: A Thief's End

Exploration And Combat

Shadow of the Tomb Raider is absolutely teeming with optional content. In fact, I tested this and completed the core campaign with the bare minimum of side objectives and treasures collected to which the game stated that only 47% of the game was completed. Uncharted 4 is much more of a closed and linear experience but focuses on the quality of the overall adventure than replayability.

For Shadow of the Tomb Raider, the focus is mainly placed on exploration and discovery, with combat being an afterthought. This works in favor of the narrative but it also means that much of the game feels lopsided. With way too much climbing, swimming, and jumping than the previous games combined.

Uncharted 4: A Thief's End never has this problem. Exploration and combat are evenly spaced, giving players ample opportunity to gather optional treasure, shoot enemies in outrageous situations, and solve basic puzzles. The even pacing ensures that nothing lingers too long or comes up too much to become repetitive.

Winner: Uncharted 4: A Thief's End

Ready for More?

Both Shadow of the Tomb Raider and Uncharted 4: A Thief's End has ample reasons to return and keep playing. For Lara's final adventure there's plenty of treasure to unlock, side missions to complete, and challenge tombs to finish. Uncharted 4's campaign alone is worth experiencing multiple times but the multiplayer has enough depth that it still has an active community despite being over 2 years old.

The multiple challenge tombs, optional side missions, and treasures provide hours of challenges for Lara to overcome. Some are missies, such as the murder investigation mission, but some provide excellent distractions that take Lara to new locations. The challenge tombs alone provide intense platforming trials, full of difficult puzzles.

Much of Uncharted 4's campaign, with the exception of specific dialogue options, are linear. Giving the player little deviation from the core path. However, the multiplayer is one of the strongest aspects. With weeks worth of cooperative and competitive options for players to enjoy. Both games offer a lot of reasons to keep playing and it ultimately matters to whether you prefer single-player content found in Shadow of the Tomb Raider or multiplayer found in  Uncharted 4: A Thief's End.

Winner: Tie

Winner: Uncharted 4: A Thief's End

The pacing and writing of Uncharted 4 outclass Shadow of the Tomb Raider's heavy exploration and save-the-world tale. The equal pacing of combat and exploration means that nothing in Uncharted 4 lingers too long whereas Shadow of the Tomb Raider, delivering many unique settings and challenging platforming puzzles, relies too heavily on exploration and not enough on combat or standout moments. 

Adam Siddiqui, NoobFeed
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