Square Enix has finally lifted the curtain on the long rumoured Tomb Raider reboot. The upcoming game will cast aside the already once-restarted franchise's 14 year history, in favour of a new, redefined Lara Croft.
The Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC game, simply titled "Tomb Raider", starts the renewed canon near the beginning, when a fresh-faced, 21-year-old Lara first discovers her knack for leaping over ancient monuments and shooting tigers in the face. She's left abandoned on a giant island after a shipwreck and has to use her instincts and survival techniques to stay alive.
Information from the game's debut article in Game Informer paints the new outing as a rather dark, gritty and grisly affair, inspired by new, 21st century-appropriate depictions of characters like James Bond and Batman. She'll apparently have her most gruesome death animations yet, you'll need to find food and water to avoid starvation, and the cover image has a battered and bruised Lara covered in blood.
"Forget everything you know about Tomb Raider, we are exploring things that have never been done before in this game," claims Darrell Gallagher, head of studio at Crystal Dynamics.
In pictures: The evolution of Lara Croft, 1996 - 2011
The concept is very similar to details and art that were allegedly leaked from then-publisher Eidos last year. The shots showed a younger Lara stranded on a spooky island, but we don't know if the previously seen images of limbless zombified foes will make it into the final game.
The game will be created by Crystal Dynamics, the San Francisco based developer responsible for Lara's last reboot with Tomb Raider: Legend, and all her most recent games. Dynamics was brought in to rethink Ms. Croft after the series' original developer, Core Design, ran the series into the ground culminating in the abhorrent Angel of Darkness in 2003.
Sadly, the game will also mark the end of the long line of models, actresses and gymnasts that have paraded around game shows, in costume, and appeared on GMTV to big up the latest
Raider game. Gymnast Alison Carroll will be the last real life recreation of Lara for the time being.
Tomb Raider has no confirmed date yet, but it will likely be released in 2011.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
