iGR One Sheet Preview - Tomb Raider

Tomb Raider has seen it’s fair share of ups and downs over the years. It’s spawned ten video games, two movies, comic books, and amusement park rides. Hopefully with Square Enix rebooting the series here in 2013 it will be a return to glory for Lara Croft.

We’ll see the makings of the treasure hunter we know from past iterations first hand as she’s marooned on an isolated tropical island in the Dragon’s Triangle. Crystal Dynamics have sought to create a grittier Lara Croft shaped by tragedy and survival against ruthless mercenaries that inhabit the island of which she intends to escape.

Lara will have to find food, shelter, and rescue her friends from the bloodthirsty inhabitants of the island. Her first adventure will harden her into the brash, cavern exploring, artifact hunting character we know, and mostly love.

Crystal Dyanmics and Square Enix came under heavy fire during their initial marketing campaign for Tomb Raider by showing scenes of Lara nearly being physically abused. Square Enix smartly, and truthfully explained this scene as a means of portraying the many hardships Lara will encounter while trying to survive, thrive, and escape the island in one piece.

Tomb Raider also came under file when it was announced online multiplayer was being added. The concern with a series that’s been consistently single player fare adding multiplayer this late in the game is: why? There’s never been a demand for it, nor has there been reason for it in the past. So why now? Many people (including myself) believe that many developers choose not to snub the multiplayer aspect because of heavy influences from the likes of Call of Duty. Is Tomb Raider’s multiplayer suite going to be ‘phoned in?’ or will Crystal Dynamics create a truly original experience? I guess we won’t know until we try it out for ourselves.

From interviews and early reviews it seems we’ll be looking at anywhere between 12-20 hours of game play. That’s depending upon how much exploring you decide to delve into. Speaking of early reviews it looks like Square is going to let the review embargo expire a week before Tomb Raider’s release. Which is typically a sign of confidence in the title. The first review that hit the nets for Tomb Raider gave it a 9/10 so we may have something fantastic to look forward to.