Shadow of the Tomb Raider is an upcoming action-adventure video game developed by Eidos Montréal in conjunction with Crystal Dynamics and published by Square Enix.
The first day of Montreal Comiccon ended for TMI’s Game Warp with a panel by Eidos Montreal on the upcoming Tomb Raider game, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, the third game of the rebooted trilogy, focusing on the origin story of Lara Croft.
With the lead-up to E3 and the actual conference showing off a lot of footage, this panel showed off a montaged gameplay segment derived and cut from a chunk in whole that would take 2 hours originally (If you’re in Montreal and fancy giving the demo a try for yourself, it’s available on the exhibition floor).
Before the demo started, the creative director shared the journey of Lara Croft in the first two games of this origin story reboot. As a quick recap, he explains that 2013’s Tomb Raider took a fresh out of university Lara Croft who was hopeful about her future but ended up into a shipwreck that led her to a deserted island. It was about survival and at the end of that journey, she learned what it was to be Lara as the creative director calls it “adventure has found me”. The second game of the trilogy in 2015, Rise of the Tomb Raider, took her only another survival adventure but as a more mature character hardened from the adventure in the first game as she went to learn about her father.
SHADOW OF THE TOMB RAIDER NEW FEATURE
Customize your experience: Set hard puzzles, normal exploration and easy combat to gear towards different player’s skills and gaming style
This journey lead to her to learn what it meant to be a Croft. Now in their originally-planned concept trilogy, the end is in Shadow of the Tomb Raider. This Lara Croft is now capable both of great intelligence and impressive physicality. This game is much less about survival elements than leading her back to the essence of tomb raiding set in the Mayan jungle landscape and here she learns that her actions have consequences … and that she will have to take responsibility for her choices.
The 10-minute demo commentated by the creative director and two other members of the development team looked at this upcoming title, which will take Lara Croft on her final journey to become the femme fatale that everyone knows. The demo takes us onto a montage of the first 2 hours of the game through different segments filled with cinematic cutscenes which tell the story of Lara Croft diving and exploring the underground of the Mayan pyramids as she finds a dagger that she takes which carries a warning to not be removed or else it could cause the apocalypse. Through some underwater areas and the tomb arena, we see the details of the game and the different environments as well as the essence of the adventure and the tomb raiding focus while honing back into the puzzle elements.
A fun fact here is that Shadow of the Tomb Raider is a customizable experience in that the player can control the difficulty of exploration, combat and puzzle (for example, you can set hard puzzles, normal exploration and easy combat) to gear towards different player’s fortes and gaming style. The puzzles and mechanics are well researched and are based on real physics therefore it will avoid the suspension of belief. Another focus of the game (as seen in the E3 demo as well) is that Lara uses her environment to her advantage. While she may have been vulnerable in previous games, Shadow of the Tomb Raider changes her into the predator instead of the prey. Her character is now confident and competent in her abilities. Another important part of this gaming experience is the emotional growth Lara Croft in this game that we can see by the end of this demo.
This demo presented at this panel was a great look at the set up for the beginning parts of this upcoming game. The detail and the different game mechanics as well as the new tools that Lara Croft has is introduced gradually. With the customizable elements to gear towards different players and the beautiful environment they have chosen to set it in plus the survival and becoming one with the jungle as well as the idea that the tomb is alive makes for some intriguing elements to look forward to. For those new to this game, the creative director does say that this is a standalone game (despite it being in a trilogy), however for those who have played the previous games, there will be a deeper link to the story and the character development of Lara Croft.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider is set for release on September 14, 2018.