Considering that Tomb Raider: Underworld was meant to be a reboot of sorts for Lara Croft and her exotic adventures, it did come as a surprise when Crystal Dynamics announced that it was set to reboot the franchise once again… especially when Underworld was a pretty decent game. While Underworld fleshed out the Lara Croft experience and took her back to her tomb raiding roots – something the franchise had lost – the new Tomb Raider is officially a reboot. A new game. A reimagining where we see Lara as we’ve never seen her before: vulnerable, young, impressionable and fighting for her life.
Taking place off the coast of Japan, Lara and her group of intrepid explorers find themselves stranded and quickly thrust into an unimaginable nightmare. Instead of focusing too much on the part of the demo that Square Enix showed off in Microsoft’s press conference, the majority of this preview will focus on the aspects that were only available to the press behind closed doors. Of course, we’ll touch upon a few key tenements of that first though, as they’re hugely appropriate for the new Tomb Raider itself and it’ll allow others who missed the live feed to catch up.
Unlike Tomb Raider games in years gone by, the emphasis for Crystal Dynamics’ latest outing is very much survival, turning Lara from the predator into the prey. Tomb Raider is a game rooted in physics conundrums and huge multi-staged puzzles that captures the imagination of the player, posing the question, “If this was you and you had to survive with whatever’s at your disposal, what would you do?” With a context sensitive UI, a few Quick Time Events that can have some brutal outcomes if you don’t react in time, cinematic camera angles in some tense chase scenes and an emphasis on making use of the environment to solve puzzles – fire being a major one of those – Tomb Raider isn’t just your usual platformer with elements of aggression. It’s about surviving with what you have and taking advantage of a “smart resourceful Lara.”
The Microsoft press conference section aside, we picked up with Lara Croft a few days after the events there, in day 4 specifically, where Lara has traversed her way to a mountain village and catches up with another survivor: Conrad Roth, who’s in a bit of a bad way. With rain beating down all around her and a storm raging overhead, the young inexperienced explorer has no other choice than to advance further into the mountains to get Roth’s kit back to ensure his and her survival.
Using the new Survival Instinct, which highlights things that normal folks like us may not have noticed, Lara is able to follow a set of wolf tracks into a mountain village. The wolves, who had been the sneaky thieves of Roth’s kit, have made it further up into the mines and as Miss Croft enters a huge desolate village, her only way is up. Crystal Dynamics tells us that Lara’s way to the top is not linear, and that dynamic traversal – i.e. a multi-path freedom of control – has been made use of to allow the player to have a greater degree of control.
The platforming sections, although seemingly inspired by the classic Tomb Raider games, seem to draw more inspiration from Uncharted rather than any other game. With falling platforms, abandoned airplanes that tip on a pivot acting as a walkway and lightning hitting trees and affecting Lara’s path, it’s clear that this is not your traditional Tomb Raiding experience and it looks all the better for it. There’s now a certain level of flow and freedom of movement that allows the player to steer Lara in the air, meaning the 8-directional jump paths of Tomb Raiders of yesteryear is but a distant thought.
Seeing as Lara is now a survivor, as opposed to an aggressor, killing for Lara is no longer a sport and she only does so to survive. Into the mine at the top of the platforming section Lara goes, grabbing the goods from the backpack whilst inside, but moments later a couple of planks of wood nearby break and a couple of skulls roll down into path signalling that Lara’s in for a bit of trouble. A solitary wolf dashes out, grappling with Miss Croft and attempting to rip her a new one, but a short QTE scene later and a knife to the wolf’s throat and our fearless – or fearful! – intrepid is apologising to the wounded corpse of the wolf. You have to remember, killing anything is new and unique to this Miss Croft.
After that Lara escapes and falls through a dilapidated wooden bridge into the water at the base of a waterfall down below. Following a lengthy exchange with a newly healed Roth, Lara is given a climbing axe from the once-circling-the-drain Roth and the sequence ends.
It’s actually the final exchange between Roth and Lara – where we get to see the full body and facial capture in action with a ton of emotion throughout – that gives us a lot of hope that not only will Tomb Raider deliver from a game perspective, but from a story perspective as well. It’s a sombre and moody game, and even a little sadistic at times, but seeing the darker and more survival-orientated gameplay has actually got us excited about a Tomb Raider game again. That said we were equally as excited about Underworld when we first saw it, so let’s hope Crystal Dynamics can push forward with the reboot and put Lara Croft back on that throne of hers. She deserves it, she’s had a rollercoaster ride up until now!
Tomb Raider is scheduled for a 2012 release.
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