Reveal Demo

The Reveal Event demo of Shadow of the Tomb Raider was playable during the Reveal Events at London, Montreal, and LA that were held on 26 April 2018.

A shorter version, starting after leaving the city of Cozumel, was available at E3 and several other trade shows like GamesCom. This version is generally called the E3 Demo.

Content of Demo

Note: For a more complete review, see tombraidergirl's blog.

The demo consisted of several locations from the beginning of the game and featured Lara first wandering the town of Cozumel during Día de Muertos, the Day of the Dead, a traditional feast in many Latin American countries. Here she has to follow Dr. Dominguez, who she suspects to be the leader of Trinity, and find out more about an archaeological dig at the edge of town. After entering the site, Lara discovers that Trinity has taken over and that she has to hurry if she wants to reach the artefact, the Key of Chak Chel, an ancient Maya Dagger before them. She succeeds after defeating many traps and solving puzzles along the way, but ignores the warnings of the murals on the walls of the main chamber - because she wants to hide the key from Trinity. By taking it from the cave she inadvertently sets in motion the very thing she has been trying to prevent. After escaping the dig site and some Trinity mercenaries but losing the dagger along the way to Dr. Dominguez, she has to witness a huge Tsunami hitting the town, killing many of the people she only hours before saw celebrating in the streets. The demo ends with an argument between Jonah and Lara about her priorities: She wants to go after the second artefact, the Silver Box of Ix Chel hidden in Peru right away to prevent Trinity from finding it first, while he wants her to help the survivors of the tsunami first.

New Moves Revealed

Lara can now use her Climbing Axe to rappel down cliff sides. Also, she swing wile doing so and perform Wall Runs. Furthermore the Swimming controls have been enhanced, so that she can now dive in deep water and collect and operate objects there. Also, Lara can now hide herself not only in tall grass or other vegetation, but also on overgrown walls. Her Combat Instincts have also been improved, allowing her to better predict enemy movements.

Reception

During the Reveal Event the demo was received positively by almost everyone attending, stating that if it truly represents what is to come during the rest of the game it might be the best of the Reboot games so far.