!!!Warning: Potential Spoiler Alert!!!
Aside from a small community of post-apocalyptic potato farmers, I don’t know many people who outwardly dislike the Tomb Raider games. While the debate regarding Lara Croft’s character still rages on, like a hormonal teenager undergoing a poster-ban in their room, the question remains: is Lara an exploitative fantasy of the male gamer’s wants, or is she a strong, multifaceted character unbound by societal constraints? One thing I know for certain: the Tomb Raider franchise serves as an iconoclastic beacon of happiness for several generational one-liners (Millennials, Gen-X, X-Men). I’ve played Tomb Raider since the era of “Moses and the iPads on the mountain”.
Lara’s choice of tombs has been questionable over the years, but there’s no denying that such an icon deserves to continue her existence as a fictional character for the world to enjoy forever.
According to recent rumors, notably from V Scooper a bona fide scoop finding scooper person, the new entry into the Lara Croft Tomb Raider franchise—allegedly being published by Amazon with Crystal Works still at the helm—will allow players to experience an “open world”. Open. Like. Really. Open.
Unlike the tantalizing exploration of an open world where everything can and will happen, mantra of the open world genre, we all know full well that it’s never that open, is it? There are exceptions like Skyrim and The Witcher 3 though.
According to the X post by V Scooper:
Next TOMB RAIDER game will be fully open world and set in India. Featuring vast sceneries, free use of the motorcycle, parachute, and common Lara’s traversal methods to unrestrictedly navigate across a big map and its challenges
Lara’s been roaming around several open worlds until now, but the thought that one would be able to experience this massive place, without restrictions or boundaries set by tech and devs, makes me more excited than when I met a haunted mannequin back in the day. I can imagine myself driving around town on a sexy motorcycle or jumping from the skies like Just Cause and Fortnite’s lovechild…
We learned from the rebooted series that the open world, as dedicated as it was to being an open world, still felt flat and hollow, like my soul. Yeah, I love jumping to my death on Yamatai and all, but there were obvious (buggy) limitations.
The plot, according to our friend V Scooper, seems in line with what we’ve become accustomed to: Lara murders a clandestine cabal and saves the world in the process. Now, in my opinion, the greatest intro of any Tomb Raider game (or any game for that matter) was in Shadow of The Tomb Raider, when Lara took the knife thingy in the temple and a tsunami hit a small town in Mexico and the waves went woosh and Lara died, because, you know, “PRESS X TO JUMP!” It was epic!
And it seems the new plot might follow the same trend:
“A natural disaster strikes northern India, revealing ancient emperor Ashoka’s ruins and artifacts. Lara strategically races against a Society of Raiders and other rivals for these powerful relics. The Society of Raiders are inspired by Lara yet unaffiliated and might have some opposite agendas.”
See? Told you.
There’s also allegedly “…a new feature based on recruiting teams and allies to strategically aid you in missions and defeating rivals” with an emphasis on non-lethal methods. (Yeah. I know, but they also offered non-lethal options in previous iterations and I still murdered)
And so the cookie crumbles with one small caveat…
If Amazon publishes the game, I doubt we’d ever play it on any cloud gaming platform except for Luna.
Guess we’ll just have to wait and see.
Or press the button to jump.
Or die in a tomb.
Either way, I am excited.
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