The next Lara Croft Tomb Raider game will be a reboot much like Christopher Nolan's Batman movies, going back to the character's roots and adding a lot more grit and grime.
Speaking at Bafta this week, representatives from game developer Crystal Dynamics went into detail about their plans for the next Tomb Raider game, according to Wired.co.uk. According to studio head Darren Gallagher, creative director Noah Hughs, and scriptwriter Rhianna Pratchett, the next Tomb Raider will be a prequel that re-imagines Lara Croft at the start of her tomb raiding career.
"We had to move Lara forward someway," said Gallagher during the presentation in London. Their idea is to go back to Lara's origins, stripping the new game of some of the baggage that has built up over the game franchise's 17 year run, and getting back to the core of who the character is. In doing so, the new Tomb Raider should be "retaining enough of the game's DNA that it feels familiar, but putting something fresh" back into the next installment.
Much like Nolan's Batman series, Crystal Dynamics will try to get back to the essence of Lara Croft, and they found the best way to do it was to go back to a 21-year-old Croft, fresh out of college, and give the game a new, elemental, pressing concern: survival. With a gritty aesthetic, the new game will have a young, bruised and bloodied Croft developing her later Tomb Raider persona through a trial by fire.
Some elements of the Tomb Raider series will still be present despite the reimagined reboot. For example, the new Lara Croft will lose the two big pistols while retaining her other famously popular large pair, as well as the iconic ponytail. The gameplay will remain familiar, too, as the new game will feature exploration, action, and puzzle-solving elements as Croft struggles to survive.
The game will launch on March 5 for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC, with the tagline "a survivor is born."