Tomb Raider (2013)

TOMB RAIDER
Tomb Raider (2013)
Release Date	March 5th 2013
Platforms	PC, PS3, Xbox 360, PS4, Xbox One
Secrets	169 Relics: 40 Documents: 54 GPS Caches: 75
Developer	Crystal Dynamics
Publisher	Eidos Interactive (Square Enix)
Rating	M PEGI 18+
Game Chronology:
Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light	TOMB RAIDER	Rise of the Tomb Raider

Tomb Raider (2013), which is officially just called Tomb Raider, is the newest title in the Tomb Raider Series. The game is a reboot and does not carry on the storylines established in previous Tomb Raiders. Further Lara Croft's background story will be slightly rewritten to make it more consistent.

The game includes a Multiplayer mode developed by Eidos Montreal, while the game itself is developed by Crystal Dynamics.

The game goes back to the beginnings of Lara Croft and shows her as an inexperienced raider who learns and grows during the adventure awaiting her. Her motivation is not (yet) the same as it was in previous game, as she is thrown into the situation involuntarily. In the words of Crystal Dynamics' Karl Stewart: "Unlike before, when she used to go in on purpose, now it's all about getting the hell out."

Tomb Raider is rated "M" (Mature) for the showing of violence.

Release Dates & Platforms

Main article: Tomb Raider (2013) Release Dates

The game was released on PC, Playstation 3, and Xbox 360 on March 5th 2013. Prior to the official release date though the game was reported available at many local stores.

Downloadable content is also planned and will be first available exclusively on Xbox 360 with other versions to follow at a later date.

The reworked Xbox One and PlayStation 4 version called Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition will be released on January, 29th 2014 (US), or January, 31st 2014, respectively.

Demo

Tomb Raider does not have a demo available for downloading. Karl Stewart from Crystal Dynamics posted on Twitter on 17th of January 2013 that there won't be a demo because they don't want to spoil the story of the game.

However, there were publicly playable demos at gaming conventions:

• At the E3 2011 there was a demo showing the Scavenger Den
• At the E3 2012 there was a demo known as the Hunting demo

Storyline

Main articles: Tomb Raider 2013 (Story) and Tomb Raider (2013) Locations

When a sudden storm destroys her research vessel, a young and inexperienced Lara Croft finds herself stranded on a mysterious and remote island hidden off the shores of Japan. Despite several signs of various inhabitants the island is oddly deserted, and an uneasy feeling settles in as strange sounds emerge from the shadows. With only her determination, inner strength, and resourcefulness to help her, Lara must overcome the challenges of a harsh and unforgiving journey that will take her across a vast island wilderness and deep into the claustrophobic and menacing underground tombs from the island's past. As she struggles to prevail through brutal combat encounters and treacherous exploration, Lara will be pushed to her limits and forced to adapt to her situation in order to survive and escape from the lethal predators that stalk her every move.

Official Storyline

Lara spends much of her childhood visiting archaeological sites around the globe. She later decides against studying at Cambridge University, picking a low-profile college instead.

After finishing her education at the age of 21, Lara joins an expedition on the research vessel Endurance under Captain Conrad Roth, an ex-marine, who is willing to do anything to claim a treasure. When they are scouting the coast of Japan for lost treasures, the ship is caught in a storm and shipwrecks. Lara, stranded on the island Yamatai, is forced to survive on her own.

(This new storyline resembles to pre-Legend storyline where Lara, at the age of 21, survives a plane wreck on her own.)

Sections (Levels)

Main articles: Tomb Raider (2013) Levels and Base Camps

• Force of Will
• Signs of Life
• Woman versus Wild
• Just Keep Moving
• At an Impasse
• Mountain Rendezvous
• Cry for Help
• A Road Less Traveled
• Guilty Conscience
• Another Fine Mess
• A Friend in Need
• Open Wounds
• Highway to Hell
• Liberator
• No One Left Behind
• Into the Fire
• Get to the Chopper
• Some Time Alone
• The Fast Way Down
• A Pirate's Life
• Gone Missing

Characters

Main article: Tomb Raider (2013) Characters

Endurance's survivors

There are basically two groups of human characters on the island, the Endurance survivors and the scavengers.

Endurance Survivors

Main article: Endurance#Crew

• Lara Croft
• Conrad Roth - Captain of the Endurance
• Samantha Nishimura - A female crewmember of the Endurance and Lara's close friend. Taken hostage by the scavengers early on.
• Dr. Whitman - A scientist on board the Endurance, strangely fascinated with the scavengers culture.
• Alex Weiss - Endurance's technician
• Angus Grimaldi‎ - Helmsman and first aid officer of the Endurance
• Jonah Maiava - Ship's cook
• Joslin Reyes - The mechanic of the ship

Scavengers

• Mathias - A scavenger who pretends to be not one of the group, he takes Sam captive.
• Vlad - A Russian scavenger who assaults Lara and becomes her first kill.

Features & Gameplay

• XP

• Skill Points to upgrade Lara's abilities in three different categories of upgrades:

• Survivor Upgrades
• Hunter Upgrades
• Brawler Upgrades

• Salvage

Pick-up element that's found throughout the island. Used for upgrading weapons and collecting it is occasionally a task that must be completed before the player is able to proceed in the adventure

• Base Camps

Locations, that enable Lara to rest during her adventure, Fast Travel between camps and upgrade her skills and weapons

• Survival Instinct

When used, the Survival Instinct highlights important puzzle elements and pickups in the environment to help the player to figure out what to do

• Challenges

Side missions that reward the player with addtional XP when completed

• Quick Time Events

• Hunt or Be Hunted: Evade, outsmart, track, and kill the mysterious enemies that hunt you as prey.
• Survival Action: Brutally attack and defend yourself as you fight to survive through visceral one-on-one melee combat.
• Strategic Weapons: Gain an advantage in combat by finding an array of different melee and ranged weapons including a variety of guns and the hunter's ultimate weapon, the bow.
• Creative Survival: React and adapt to the island by using only that which you can salvage from the environment like climbing axes, rope, and machetes that can be used to unlock new traversal and combat gameplay options.
• Free Movement: Scramble up a vertical cliff, sprint and leap across a huge chasm, steer mid-air to land a misdirected jump. There is no right way to traverse, survive, and explore the harsh environment of the island.
• One Cohesive World: The diverse multi-region island is an open playground alive with creatures, weather, and natural events.
• Origin Story: This new Tomb Raider concept reboots the franchise by exploring the origins of Lara Croft's transformation into a hardened adventurer as you unravel the story behind the island's mysterious past.

Official

Enemies

• The mysterious Scavengers inhabiting the island.
• Russian speaking scavenger - Some kind of leader of the scavengers.
• Wolves - Wild wolves roam the island and attack at any chance.

Tools & Weapons

Main article: Tomb Raider (2013) Gear

• Torch
• Bow
• Axe
• Pistol
• Shotgun

Outfits

There is one basic outfit to be worn throughout the entire game. In addition to it, the player can purchase more outfits. The outfits are changed during gameplay at Base Camps

• Default

The basic outfit

Downloadable Outfits

• Aviatrix

"This outfit dresses Lara up as a classic 1930s adventurer, bomber jacket and all."

In addition for being purchaseable, the Aviatrix was part of an exclusive pre-order deal alongside with Hunter

• Hunter

"This outfit camouflages Lara in a heavy coating of mud, action movie-style."

In addition for being purchaseable, the Hunter was part of an exclusive pre-order deal alongside with Aviatrix

• Guerilla

"This outfit makes Lara look like a jungle warfare guerilla."

• Sure-Shot

"With the Sure-Shot outfit, Lara wears a competition style archery suit with high boots and forearm guards."

• Mountaineer

"The Mountaineer outfit features the padded vest, grapples, and harness of an expert climber."

• Demolition

"Outfit Lara with the Demolition gear, featuring an engineering jumpsuit and belt pack."

Trophies / Achievements

• Tomb Raider (2013) Trophies
• Tomb Raider (2013) Achievements

Development and Publications

Camilla Luddington has been revealed as motion capture and voice actress and Rhianna Pratchett as the main writer of the project.

To date two mayor trailers have been released for the upcoming Tomb Raider.

• Turning Point
• Crossroads

Additionally a web series called The Final Hours of Tomb Raider has been released to promote the new game. It mainly consists of interviews with the staff of Crystal Dynamics and contains interesting background information.

System Requirements

The system requirements of the PC version were revealed on 22nd of February 2013. They are the following:

Minimum

• Windows XP Service Pack 3, Windows Vista,7,8 (32bit/64bit)
• DirectX 9 graphics card with 512Mb Video RAM:

• AMD Radeon HD 2600 XT
• nVidia 8600

• Dual core CPU:

• AMD Athlon64 X2 2.1 Ghz (4050+)
• Intel Core2 Duo 1.86 Ghz (E6300)

• 1GB Memory (2GB on Vista)

Recommended

• Windows Vista, Windows 7 or Windows 8
• DirectX 11 graphics card with 1GB Video RAM:

• AMD Radeon HD 4870
• nVidia GTX 480

• Quad core CPU:

• AMD Phenom II X2 565
• Intel Core i5-750

• 4GB Memory

Ratings

• Gameinformer.com - 9.25/10
• Gamerankings.com - 86.69%
• Metacritic.com - 86/100 (average of the metascores of the PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 versions)

Sales

Tomb Raider sold 3,4 million copies in four weeks, but it failed to hit the expectations made for its sales. Square Enix thought that the game could double its 3,4 million first month sales, selling at least 5-6 million units.

On the Square Enix's financial statement, the comapny states that the fiscal year of 2013 was their "first big attempt to release hallmark Western titles, such as Hitman and Tomb Raider, without releasing a blockbuster title in Japan". Regarding the high scores that their games receive not translating into sales numbers, Square Enix states the following:

We put considerable amount of effort in polishing and perfecting the game content for these titles, receiving extremely high Metacritic scores. However, we were very disappointed to see that the high scores did not translate to actual sales performance, which is where we see the substantial variance in operation profit/loss against the forecast.

Square Enix

However, Darrell Gallagher from Crystal Dynamics defended the sales numbers of Tomb Raider with the following statement on the 29th of March 2013:

It's been the biggest week one sales in franchise history, and we're only a few weeks into that launch right now, and it's been the biggest opening so far in 2013. So, we're happy with the outcome. It's certainly in a place where we feel like we're on the road to achieving everything we wanted to.

Darrel Gallagher on Joystiq.com

Concept Art

• 

  Lara's new appearance

• 

  Cave interior

• 

  Lara's axe (tool & weapon)

Links

• Images
• Concept Arts