Tomb Raider - More tombs, less torture please

Ah, E3, that wonderful time of year when developers and publishers trip over themselves to announce their newest games or showcase the newest trailers for games they’ve already gushed over.

This year we’ve had a glut of hugely-exciting trailers already – and E3 proper hasn’t even begun yet (take a look at what we’re expecting from Microsoft and Nintendo at E3 2012). While we’re sure we’ll have a comment or opinion for all of them before the week is done, the one that caught our attention immediately is this one for Crystal Dynamics’ and Square-Enix’s Tomb Raider reboot.

While the trailer is certainly shiny and exhilarating, promising set-pieces and explosions and high-speed chases galore, we’re not sure how “Tomb Raidery” it actually is. For a start, there’re no actual tombs on display, no puzzles involving dragging blocks around, no dual-wielded pistols with which to annihilate endangered species of wildlife.

Also, we can’t shake the slightly-unsettling “gore-porn” feel, or the fact that a lot of the trailer shows the charismatic Ms. Croft being roughhoused by various burly, grease-covered bad guy types. We’re all for realism in games, but is this really the franchise for it? A franchise that, in ages past, has pitted its disproportionate heroine against Atlanteans, dinosaurs and actual magic? Also, it's an 18. That just doesn't feel right...

Heading in a vaguely (read: hugely) Uncharted-esque direction is a good move, we’ll agree; combining large-scale platforming with breathtaking cinematics and light QTEs is all good, but – and we anticipate flack for this – how much of a Tomb Raider game is it? Really? Change the heroine’s name and nationality and it could have been a brand new IP – something we had a chunter about recently in our article about videogame franchises. Hell, switch the perspective and it could double as Far Cry 3.

But we’re not saying it doesn’t look incredible; it definitely has the potential to blow us all away and, arguably, it’s actually a brave move for Crystal Dynamics to take an established series down such a different path – but we’re not entirely sure it deserves to be called Tomb Raider.

But what do you think?

Tomb Raider is developed by Crystal Dynamics and published by Square-Enix. It is currently due for release in March 2013

Words by Mick Fraser (Twitter: @Jedi_Beats_Tank)

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