Game Preview: Tomb Raider

“Tomb Raider“

Tomb Raider is an upcoming action-adventure game and the ninth pillar instalment of the Tomb Raider series, published by Square Enix and developed by Crystal Dynamics as their fifth related franchise title. Regardless of how many Tomb Raider games there are, this is a completely new reboot that explores the origins of Lara Croft.

It is darker, gritter and much more dangerous. The game will sometimes feel like a survival horror as apposed to an adventure.

Fresh from academy and in search of lost relics, a 21-year-old Lara Croft journeys to an island off the coast of Japan aboard the Endurance, a salvage vessel helmed by Captain Conrad Roth. Before anchoring at bay, the ship is cleaved in two by an unforeseen storm leaving Croft separated from any other survivors and washed ashore. She must endure physical and emotional torture in order to survive the island.

Much like Resident Evil 4 or Dead Space, Lara can be killed in a variety of gruesome, scripted ways. During a battle with a wolf that has her pinned down, if you don’t fight it off, the beast will chomp her jugular and snap her neck.

Tomb Raider will use a base camp system as Lara’s home base or hub world. Here she can upgrade and build new gear, as well as purchase new survival skills (although I’m not yet sure what she’ll use for currency). From her base camp, she can revisit previous levels to look for items and reach areas previously inaccessible, much like Metroid or Batman Arkum Asylum.

Tomb raider will be available on XBOX 360, PC and PS3 but won’t release until late 2012.

Play my outro….

- Jon Duryea (Follow @Artifact911 on Twitter)