I'm a bit unconvinced by these "paths".  Playing on "One With The Jungle" I've really not found the combat a challenge and none of the other aspects of the game are that challenging either.  When I started the New Game Plus, then, I wondered what was going to happen.  I was able to kill the enemies just as easily without the new skills, and so on, the bow seems barely any better than the one I used in the main game if it's better at all, I don't use the gun (which doesn't really look special) and the knife actually looks worse than the "finely crafted knife" as it doesn't carry the "extra resources" description so I haven't even bothered selecting it.  You can buy all the other "path" skills for Lara anyway (I had 20 skill points by the time I could buy skills in NG+).  When in Tupac Shakur, fairly early, she can buy all the extra equipment.  Resources are so easy to come by that upgrading everything is no problem at all.  As stated, though, what actual advantage did I get for the "Path" extras?

Perhaps it's my "completionist" attitude to the game or maybe I'm just miserable - what does anyone else think?

Just so they could add incentive to try or play a NG+

I suppose I should clarify my ability to do combat!  I do try to do "stealthy" and sometimes get away with it - but I'm not very good - just make sure I have lots of medicine before starting a fight!