CCRB RECORD No. 0035
Shadow of the Tomb Raider
Determination: Explicit — Corruption 3, Blasphemy 2
Trinity is written as a paramilitary arm of the Vatican, and the game builds a sequence around the Stations of the Cross.
This record reverses an earlier withdrawal. When the combined Tomb Raider entry was split, Shadow was held back on the assumption that its Mesoamerican setting left the Christian material behind. That was wrong. Trinity's Catholic identity is stated rather than implied across the trilogy: a cabal older than the birth of Jesus that became associated with the Roman Catholic Church, with a Bishop among its leadership by 978 AD, funded from Rome, and several of its historical members holding Church office. Critics writing from a Christian perspective describe it plainly as a secretive paramilitary branch of the Vatican, and note that the connections are made in-game rather than inferred. Shadow adds devotional material of its own: the Stations of the Cross are built into its level design, and Lara descends from a church into a dark undercroft filled with the bodies of acolytes.