Shadow of the Tomb Raider sees Lara at the conclusion of her origin story with her fully embracing her role as the Tomb Raider and the solution to Trinity’s potentially devastating plans. This adventure takes her to South America in search of a solution to a catastrophe that she caused. With that adventure comes some big changes to what we’ve seen from Lara’s capabilities in the past two Tomb Raider games.

Exploration in a 3D Space

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Ramp Up the Difficulty (Or Tone It Down)

On Easy, there’s bright white paint to guide Lara’s path, she has a longer window for the “grab timer,” and Base Camps are lit.

On Normal, the white paint isn’t as obvious, Base Camps are unlit, and Lara has a normal window for the “grab timer.”

On Hard, the white paint is completely gone, there’s a shortened “grab timer,” Base Camps are unlit, and Survival Instincts don’t work for exploration unless enabled through skills. Enemies will still be shown in Survival Instincts unless combat difficulty is on Hard.

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On Easy, Lara explains how to solve the step of the puzzle your on when in Survival Instincts, and the item you need to interact with is highlighted in blue. There’s also more time given for timed mechanics.

On Normal, Lara gives general hints for the next step of the puzzle and objects are highlighted like normal in Survival Instincts. There’s a regular window for timed mechanics.

On Hard, Lara doesn’t give any hints nor are puzzle items in the environment shown through Survival Instincts. There’s also a shorter window for timed mechanics.

An Upgraded Arsenal

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Customize Lara Even More

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While Crystal Dynamics led development on Tomb Raider (2013) and Rise of the Tomb Raider with support from Eidos Montreal, the roles flip for Shadow of the Tomb Raider with Eidos Montreal taking as the lead studio with support from Crystal Dynamics. We sat down with Daniel Chayer-Bisson, Shadow of the Tomb Raider’s game director who worked on the previous two Tomb Raiders, and other team members from Eidos Montreal to talk about some of the biggest gameplay changes you can expect to see to see in Lara’s next adventure.According to Chayer-Bisson, the main hub in Shadow of the Tomb Raider is about three time the size of Rise’s hub with a lot more depth and space to make it feel like a real city.“And then we had the jungle and the underwater, and then because of the rappel and [other mechanics] we had crazy verticality, so it became something that was way bigger than anything we’ve seen from the reboot,” Chayer-Bisson said. “It’s up and it’s down and it’s very far and you can interact with the human dimension of it, which is adding a lot more to what we did before.”In the main hub area of Paititi and in other hubs, Lara can find and talk to “storytellers” or mission givers. These people can give Lara side missions and information about things in the area, like a nearby tomb, crypt, or an item of interest. Chayer-Bisson said while NPCs in Rise were mostly only offering fetch quests, these people offer more. The side missions are meant to have multiple parts too and should offer more context about the people and area.With Shadow presenting a more experienced Lara, Chayer-Bisson said they wanted her tools and abilities to reflect that. For instance, she can now rappel from higher spots instead of dropping down or falling. There’s also a mechanic to overhang over ledges and ceilings.When she’s not high up, Lara can also go further below with updates to underwater exploration. Tomb Raider (2013) didn’t have any underwater swimming and Lara could only go just below the surface in Rise, but in Shadow, Lara can explore the depths of just about any underwater area. There are plants that Lara can consume to extend how long she can hold her breath which further encourages pushing Lara’s limits. Dangers and treasures await underwater too.Shadow of the Tomb Raider introduces individual difficulties settings for combat, puzzles, and exploration. While combat difficult isn’t all that different from what you’d expect, the puzzle and exploration settings change a lot about Lara’s behaviors that reveal more or less about the challenge at hand.Exploration difficulty works like this:Puzzle difficulty works like this:Each of the difficulties can be changed separately at just about any time from the Options menu.With a new adventure come new weapons and weapon attachments. While the team wouldn't go into specifics about Lara's expanded arsenal, Chayer-Bisson said there's a new weapon attachment that is supposed to make the pistol a more viable weapon. The combat arsenal also provides more options for stealth, including a mechanic where Lara can cover herself in mud to reduce enemy visibility of her sneaking around. Lara can also hide in vine walls and hide defeated enemies in trees. There are also new stealth takedown animations.Lara also gets into psychological warfare with Fear Arrows that drive enemies crazy and slowly poisons them. As the enemy is driven mad, they attack their comrades and die of poison not long after. It's brutal, but it won't alert the enemy of Lara's presence.Lara can also craft items from three plants that allow her to increase her abilities. Focus mode slows down time when she aims, endurance mode makes it so that she takes less damage in combat, and perception mode is like an amplified Survival Instincts that doesn't fade when Lara moves.The skill tree is changed too. Survivor, Hunter, and Brawler skill groups are gone in favor of three new categories that are "much more dynamic" and include basic damage resistance skill automatically to further reflect Lara's growth, Chayer-Bisson said. In Shadow of the Tomb Raider Seeker skills are all about exploration, Warrior skills improve combat capabilities and weapon handling and upgrades, and Scavenger skills offer more stealth and crafting options. Like in Rise, some skills are only unlocked after progressing through certain points in the story or are rewards for completing Challenge Tombs.In Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Lara can buy, craft, and earn new costume parts that can be mixed and matched, you're no longer locked into full outfits for her. Each part has its own stats too, so you can optimize her outfit to improve the stats you need for your playstyle. Or, like me, you can choose whichever combination makes her looks coolest.

These are only the biggest gameplay changes you’ll see in Lara’s new adventure, but there are plenty of mysteries and challenges in store for the Tomb Raider. Stay tuned for more on Shadow of the Tomb Raider as the IGN First continues with new content throughout August.

Miranda Sanchez is a senior editor at IGN. You can chat with her about video games and anime on Twitter