Crystal Dynamics are continuing the trends established in “Tomb Raider”, the game that rebooted the iconic franchise. The release was initially highly controversial among fans of the original games due to the different approach that it took to pretty much everything from the setting, to storytelling and gameplay. The game became much more realistic and grittier, and while some players enjoyed the new style, others claimed that it took away the charm of the old games.
The community is still divided over this, although the negative voices have become quieter lately. And whether people like it or not, the new style is here to stay – a new game is coming up as a sequel to “Tomb Raider”, and it will bring even more exciting additions to the formula that should keep fans glued to the screen for another few hours.
“Rise of the Tomb Raider” was just recently previewed with a gameplay trailer that showed off some new moves that Lara will be capable of, as well as the kinds of environments that players will have to navigate through. It looks like the developers have made the game even more dangerous and tricky to move through, as the world will be even more hostile towards the player. But on the other hand, the game’s protagonist, Lara Croft, will still have a good array of skills in her arsenal to get from one point to another.
However, the game is still maintaining the realistic appearance and gameplay style of its predecessor, which means that we aren’t going to get any of the wacky acrobatics of the previous titles. Some players have been displeased with this new direction that the franchise has taken, but it’s here to stay at this point, and for what it’s worth Crystal Dynamics have been putting a lot of effort into making it work and pleasing as many people as they can.
The game is currently scheduled for release in about two months for the Xbox One and Xbox 360, arriving in November. On the other hand, those playing on a PC or PlayStation 4 will have to wait a bit longer as the release on other platforms is currently set for 2016. This exclusivity deal has been slightly annoying to some players, but in the end the gaming industry has a lot of business underlining the moves that various companies perform.
It would be interesting to see how this type of gameplay is going to evolve and move forward. As much as some player who’ve been with the franchise since the beginning love to look down on it, it’s true that it addressed some of the more notable issues of the old style, namely the storytelling. “Tomb Raider” as a franchise has never had a very strong story, even though it had a good potential for that. The primary focus has always been on the gameplay, with the story as a bit of an afterthought.
Now this changed in the newest installment, and it looks like this trend will continue in the next games as well. Some players are definitely happy that the game is paying so much more attention to its plot, but on the other hand some have been claiming that the game now feels like an “on rails” shooter, with predefined sequences making up a lot of the gameplay. There does seem to be some truth to that, but the game is also still very dynamic.