I'll echo what I once said before about what Tomb Raider needs to be.
The series could really benefit from taking the "Dark Souls" approach, at least in terms of it's design philosophy when it comes to exploration, atmosphere, discovery, and being cryptic. I don't think the majority of TR fans want a cinematic storytelling experience, with heavy third person shooting elements. Fans want to explore Tombs. They want dark creepy atmospheres, a sense of wonder and discovery, and they don't want shit to be explained to them. Give the player a simple goal, drop Lara off at the entrance of a tomb, and just let them go. Don't constantly interrupt the pacing of the gameplay with a bunch of bullshit cutscenes. Of course you can have cutscenes, and of course there should be gunplay. But the keyword here is exploration. Let players discover things themselves. Allow a sense of excitement when they stumble upon a secret room, or a horrifying monster they stumble across in a dark lit hall.
It's called Tomb Raider. The series hasn't lived up to that name in a long time. Elden Ring should've taught the game industry that players are starved for games that don't hold their hand and want the world itself to tell them the story.
Also imagine if the game had Rogue-like elements. Lara stumbles upon an artifact that turns back time when she dies. The game can be heavy on survival, gunplay, exploration, and platforming elements where you can die easily from a fall or traps. Of course you can unlock upgrades and shortcuts in the tomb so the game wouldn't be terribly hard. But the point is there's so many directions you could take Tomb Raider, instead of just being an Uncharted clone. I did love Tomb Raider 2013, but the rest of the Reboot Trilogy never lived up to the potential that game created.
