Tomb Raider E3 Trailer Gets Down and Dirty

[Andy Chalk]

Tomb Raider E3 Trailer Gets Down and Dirty

Square Enix wants to make it very clear that the new Tomb Raider is very different from the old Tomb Raider.

The upcoming Tomb Raider may offer gameplay similar to that of earlier entries in the series, but it's painfully obvious that the light-hearted, happy-go-lucky attitude of the old Lara is a distant, fading memory. In fact, it almost looks like she's being punished for all the fun she had during those glory years: The tombs plundered, the treasures looted and the escapes unscathed are clearly a thing of the past - or, I suppose, the future.

[video=5792]

The trailer tries awfully hard to establish that the new Lara isn't the smooth operator portrayed in the original games. Lara 2.0 starts her day hanging upside in some cannibal cave, then sets herself on fire, gets a quick rebar appendectomy and makes good her escape, after which things really start to go wrong.

I don't care much for either the silly exposition - "I need to find a way out!" - or the tired presence of Inception-esque mini-bwaaams, but the video certainly makes a deep, dark-and-gritty impression. If it plays as good as it looks, this might just be the game that finally brings the old girl - the franchise, not the character - back to relevance.

The all-new, considerably-less-pleasant Tomb Raider [http://www.amazon.com/Tomb-Raider-Playstation-3/dp/B004FS8LYK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1338572721&sr=8-1] is scheduled to come out on March 5, 2013, for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC.


Permalink

 

[Cowabungaa]

Actually it isn't Lara 2.0, it's suppose to be Lara Beta Edition; this is Lara before she became the badass we know, and supposedly this game tells how she became that badass.

That is, supposedly. This trailer sure has a lot of Lara being a wreck, and not much of Lara showing her game face. At least the last bit spoken by, I guess, her father hints at her changing.

 

[RoyalWelsh]

I think it looks pretty promising. Looks more like an Uncharted game than a typical Lara Croft game and that's not a bad thing.

...But I still have this nagging feeling that it won't be as good as it looks so far, hope i'm wrong though.

 

[LiquidGrape]

Going down the route of blatant victimisation, eh Square Enix?

Great.

Not interested.

 

[Hashbrick]

I'm not really sure how a fan of the series would not be excited about this. It's a series grown up, away with the look good while adventuring and into the raw emotion that would come from someone who is lost and stranded trying to successfully escape the challenges that come before them. It might be a play off uncharted but that makes the story telling that much better I'm really excited for it and I think they will deliver.

 

[WickedFire]

I think it looks pretty good, granted there was no proper hint of how well it plays, but the story side seems promising. I'm so glad they kept her English. I was worried that with the reboot they might make her American (not that I have anything against most Americans, just that it wouldn't be Lara Croft if she wasn't English).

 

[Kojiro ftt]

But, but, where are the dinosaurs?!

 

[Zoe Castillo]

--

 

[Kahunaburger]

It's a series grown up, away with the look good while adventuring and into the raw emotion that would come from someone who is lost and stranded trying to successfully escape the challenges that come before them.

Grittiness isn't "grown up" - it's just a slightly more irritating kind of immaturity. Keep in mind that this is a game that involves stuff like cannibals and (presumably) raiding tombs.

In unrelated news,

granted there was no proper hint of how well it plays

This is everything that is wrong with E3 in a nutshell.

 

[Gabanuka]

Well, this looks like a welcome change. I'm sorry but old Tomb raider sucked at least this looks like It might be an ok game.

 

[TheBelgianGuy]

Looks like this game will be 90% QTEs.

 

[StriderShinryu]

As a long time fan of the series, I'm.. not sure. I think it looks good and I'm eager to try it out, but it also doesn't really feel like Tomb Raider to me. My Tomb Raider is one of open areas and exploration. The quiet moments mixed with tension mixed with awe. This Tomb Raider, at least as presented in this trailer, looks like constant in your face action and endless set pieces. While I'd much rather be playing as Lara than Nathan Drake, I'm still not sure that I want that.

 

[jFr[e]ak93]

I think it looks pretty promising. Looks more like an Uncharted game than a typical Lara Croft game and that's not a bad thing.

...But I still have this nagging feeling that it won't be as good as it looks so far, hope i'm wrong though.

I have the same feeling. It looks awesome. Let's hope Square can pull it off.

This may get me interested in Tomb Raider.

 

[BrotherRool]

I'm really excited about this game now. It's probably the game I am most interested in this year -> . <- This Lara also seems interesting and she even looks nicer, she's not a joke but a person here and this is probably the least non-cookie-cutter story from a game for a long time. In fact this is one of the first times they've made it look like they want to tell a story rather than smear a story on top of a game. Even with games I like, with stories I like haven't been quite like this.

Shame it's just a trailer and not the actual game yet. The last franchise that tried to do Uncharted but with a different story was Enslaved and it just showed that to do it right you have to do it perfectly, else it doesn't work at all

Looks like this game will be 90% QTEs.

I'm not sure, I saw a lot of Uncharted gameplay in that trailer, in fact I'm pretty sure there was a surprising amount of non-cutscene/non-QTE footage in that

 

[TWEWER]

She's totally different. Now she's covered in poop.

 

[antipunt]

She's totally different. Now she's covered in poop.

As opposed to glistening sweat or some other thing that makes her looks 'shinier', if you know what I mean

~

I'm really getting this 'so much potential BUT' feeling with this. I feel like this'd be an awesome concept for a game, given a few caveats

a) Don't call this Tomb Raider. Maybe if it were a prequel or something. It's a great concept of being stranded on an island, and being inexperienced etc., but the name seems to lead you to believe it's more of a 'bad ass Lara kicking butt from the start' kind of affair, like Indiana Jones, but that's not the vibe I'm getting at all. Also, that leads to #2 -->

b) become a badass. We need character development and growth; if Lara learns from all this and becomes an ultimate 133t by its end, then I'm all in. If she remains kind of clueless and scrambling for her life from start to finish...ehh... Not really into that idea, it'd just be...'off'..

 

[Bradeck]

Hell with you other people, I think it looks AWESOME. Just mute the game whenever there is dialogue. Otherwise, it looks like it's a female version of Uncharted, which is a good thing. Love the gameplay of Uncharted.

 

[00slash00]

this was my favorite game at e3 last year and my excitement has only grown. this is, by far, my most anticipated game

 

[dyre]

Well, I guess that raised my interested in the Tomb Raider series from 0% (after a few tries to get into some of the games) to about 10%. At least it looks more storyline driven, and the protagonist seems to have gotten slightly less annoying (not as cocky, more interested in survival than destroying historical relics).