Players have been raiding tombs as Lara Croft for decades. Her backstory throughout the years has typically iterated from the original basic premise: The daughter of wealthy parents, Croft opted to reject aristocracy in favor of an education in archaeology, pursuing a passion for adventure and a fascination with the world’s ancient, buried secrets. It’s saying something, then, that the Croft featured in Crystal Dynamics’ most recent reboot trilogy — starting with 2013’s Tomb Raider — is arguably the most “mature,” hardened Croft to grace the franchise, having lost her mother and father to a plane crash and apparent suicide, respectively. Shadow of the Tomb Raider, the latest and final game in Tomb Raider’s most recent origin story, is unapologetically gritty, putting players in control of a Croft who has fully come into her own as a seasoned survivor and accomplished adventurer. World-class developer Eidos-Montréal lead the development of Shadow of the Tomb Raider, in collaboration with Crystal Dynamics, and has been part of the adventure since the 2013 game, delivering a unique edge to the series.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider takes place two months after the events of its predecessor, Rise of the Tomb Raider. Croft is on the hunt for a Maya artifact that’s connected to her late father, hoping to find it before it falls into the hands of an organization named Trinity that wishes to use it for their own grand, cosmological schemes. By now, Croft has traveled to a remote island off the coast of Japan and the snowy Siberian tundra during her archaeological escapades — she’s seen her fair share of struggles and deaths.
The game doesn’t waste any time before letting you know how dark it’s willing to be. For example, the opening sequence sees Croft traveling to Cozumel, Mexico in search of the Maya relic — subsequently making a disastrous, life-endangering mistake that results in a heavy burden on her shoulders.
The game moves through the events that follow with a cinematic grace and attention to detail. It’s an experiential approach to storytelling that employs as many sensory devices as possible. “You really have to use every element of the game to tell the story,” Jill Murray, Shadow of the Tomb Raider’s lead writer, said. She noted that the development team tried their best to take advantage of all the tools at their disposal; everything, from the game’s environment to its mechanics to the voice acting and dialogue, all had to be in service of immersiveness. “Even though it's not a role-playing game, there is a fair amount of role-playing that we ask the player to take on so that they really feel like it's them in this world going through these things,” Murray explained.
This initial catastrophic event sets the stage for the rest of the game. “The game is not only dark,” Murray said. “There’s a lot of balance in the game. But I think that a lot of it is driven just by her guilt and her need to redefine herself as a hero after she makes this mistake.”
Croft, of course, is adaptable, equipped to make the best of a difficult situation. Her prowess as an adventurer is best showcased through her relationship to her environment. Most of the game takes place in the jungles of Peru, and players will quickly learn that the jungle itself can function as a living weapon, a valuable asset to Lara as she evades enemies and hunts for artifacts — once she learns to cohabit with it. “It had to be something that at the beginning would feel threatening, cold... a character that doesn’t want Lara there,” creative director Daniel Chayer-Bisson said of designing the jungle.
But as Croft continues to spend more time in the jungle and understand its rules, she learns how to use the jungle to her benefit, eating herbs to augment her perception or smearing her body with mud to camouflage herself. “This is our climax. This is the moment when she is much more capable [than she was in previous games],” Chayer-Bisson said.
The jungle itself is, in many ways, the pride and joy of the game. It’s rich with aural and visual detail and feels completely alive. “When you’re in the jungle, every single thing moves,” Chayer-Bisson said. “Nothing is static. Everything is physics-based, which was very hard to develop.” The hard work, however, paid off: The result is a dynamic environment that inspires an authentic desire to explore.
The team behind Shadow of the Tomb Raider worked hard to ensure that the last game of the trilogy would be its most immersive and compelling yet. “We wanted it to feel real as possible so when you visit these places, you believe it,” Chayer-Bisson said. “You believe that you're the first one to experience [what Croft experiences]. That was very important for us.”
Shadow of the Tomb Raider will be released Sept. 14 on PC and you can pre-order it now.