14 DAY TRIAL // Brian Horton, the senior game director working on the reboot of Tomb Raider at Crystal Dynamics, believes that the new game can impose a modern filter on the classic franchise because it shows the first adventure that Lara Croft went through.
The developer tells AusGamer that, “There’s been hints at her past in other games, but this is the first game that really explores that first adventure, that path that she was going to take to become a tomb raider, and that was one of our mandates: let’s re-imagine this franchise through a modern filter.”
The fact that this is the first adventure that the character goes through means that there’s more vulnerability to her on-screen presence at the start of the game and that players will be direct witnesses to her evolution.
Horton adds, “So the essence of that game actually had a mature flavour to it, and I think we brought it a little bit back to that Tomb Raider One flavour, versus the more storybook flavour that it achieved as it progressed as a game.”
Crystal Dynamics also used inspiration sources other than old Tomb Raider games, including the war epic Apocalypse Now, in order to design the game world and create a compelling experience that explores mature themes.
The game will also include a bow as the main weapon for the first time, in order to show how Lara Croft comes to grips gradually with the need to kill other humans in order to ensure her own survival.
Recently, the team also gave fans a glimpse into the structure of the game world via a new To Be a Survivor trailer.
Some gamers have criticized the new Tomb Raider because they saw one early scene that focused on sexual assault as exploitative.
The game will be launched on the PC, the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360 on March 5, 2013.