The next game in the Tomb Raider franchise is in development, but will not be announced in the near future. Square Enix plans to celebrate the series’ 25th anniversary all year with retrospectives, “nostalgic content”, and more, while Crystal Dynamics begins work on Lara Croft’s next big adventure. According to franchise game director Will Kerslake, this project will unify the ideas of the original PS1 games with the more recent reboot trilogy.
“We envision the future of Tomb Raider unfolding after [the rebooted trilogy], telling stories that build upon both the breadth of Core Design and Crystal Dynamics’ games, looking to unify these timelines,” he said as part of a social media puff piece. “With Tomb Raider’s extensive history, this is not an easy task, and we ask for patience as we go through the process.”
As already noted, there’ll be no major game announcements in 2021, although Netflix has announced that it’s partnering with Legendary to bring a new Tomb Raider anime series to its streaming platform. This will continue the story of the reboot trilogy, and will follow the adventures of Lara Croft as she scours the globe, uncovering long lost treasures. There’s no release date attached to the show right now, but expect to learn more later in the year.
[source twitter.com, via twitter.com]
Comments 50
Awesome! Cannot wait for more details. The reboot trilogy are some of my favorite games of all time.
Interested to see what they do with the next games. I like the reboot trilogy but my favorite era of Tomb Raider games is Legend, Anniversary, Underworld.
Hope they keep Camilla's version of Lara. It's my favourite, she does a great job.
The first games in the new trilogy is great but the one after that keeps bigger and bigger and more like uncharted rather than tomb raider. I hope the new one can keeps the feeling of loneliness when exploring new ancient city like the very first game in the psone. Maybe make most enemies animals instead of humans.
Oh and make lara fun again, she was fine in the first reboot, afterall she still new in this adventure stuff, but it's puzzling why she's still whining in the next 2 games, when she's going to become "tomb raider"? 😅
Next game could be excellent if they can successfully combine the best elements from each era of Tomb Raider. Personally my favourites are the old Core Design games. They were tricky and often bewildering, but also very satisfying once you figured out how to proceed.
I thought maybe they were done with these for awhile so hearing this is great news. I've no problem waiting. I enjoyed these way more than I thought I would. Also hope they keep Camilla Luddington on board.
Fantastic news, I was worried this series would be put on ice for another few years before they'd take another crack at it. I loved Shadow of the Tomb Raider but it seems it didn't really find much of an audience.
God the first reboot game was so good and then they made it mediocre in the next two games.
Hearing they are working on another game is enough for me. I absolutely loved Shadow of the Tomb Raider, but was worried the game had fallen short of Square's expectations for the title.
Interesting that the announcement is coming from Crystal Dynamics. Suggests they will return to the franchise after their diversion on to avengers. Wonder if that means there is scope for Eidos Montreal to finally finish off their own Deus Ex trilogy, which was left hanging with that cliff hanger at the end of the second game.
YES!! The original games were the best!! This news made my year!
That did seem to be where the series was aimed to head to next, going by the post-credits scene in SotTR, but having a confirmation is great to hear. The previous game made efforts to push the emphasis more on puzzles, so it'll be interesting to see how they go about bringing in more old-school elements into this new series.
I'm glad Crystal Dynamics will go back to making high quality games again, I don't mind pretending Rise of the Tomb raider was their last fully developed game. I wouldn't mind a full remake of the first PS1 tomb Raider.
Just give me a remastered collection of the Legends Trilogy and i am happy, for me that's when the series peaked.
I'm in. I enjoy the Tomb Raider games, both old and new.
While the reboot was ok with the first game being the better of the 3. Hopefully we can have some more of the original Lara back the one that has a gymnastics/military background and yes dual pistols i didn't even bother using the bow unless it was required of me to do so SoTR. If I had to choose my favs would be Legends, Underworld was pretty good to.
Reboot trilogy was okay. The first game was brilliant and a breath of much needed fresh air for the franchise. The second was more of the same... not bad, but by the third the whole thing had gotten stale.
At this point the best thing they can do is mix it up and draw from the the nostalgia of the old games. Which is what it sounds like they're doing. Cautiously optimistic.
Loved the first two games in the reboot Trilogy. Rise was probably my favorite. Unfortunately Crystal Dynamics went to work on Avengers and that ended up hurting the series (and Avengers was a mess). Hope they get back on track with their next game.
It’s kinda sad, and a little unsettling, when the developer asks for “patience as we go through the process.”
That means either A) that they are very far from anything remotely ready to reveal, or B) that they know no matter what great ideas they come up with to mesh the two TR eras together is going to inevitably tick people off and gamers will be sending them hate mail and threats.
Maybe both A & B.
Playing raise of the tomb raider at the moment but I'm not really feeling it compared to the old ones. All the tomb raiding seems to be optional and I'm not interested in the crafting aspect
I hope Tomb Raiding, loneliness and puzzle solving are the main concept for the games again. It would be great to have a natural evolution for the old Tomb Raider style, say that Zelda has had over the years, rather than the big budget brainlessness of the main section of the reboot games.
TR2013 was a great game. The other were... more of the same, but bigger, and felt a lot more drawn out as a result; they dragged on a little bit too long. I never even finished Shadow. Too many collectibles.
I liked the reboot trilogy a lot, I know they weren't nowhere near perfect, but I'm always up for a Croft adventure.
Looking forward to that new Tomb Raider game. Congrats to its 25th anniversary.
Just needs the duel wielding pistols and shorts then.
Hoping for a new voice actress.
They need another reboot to make the Lara character more likeable. For me the latest reboot introduced nothing good to the lore.
I’d be up for a remaster of the ps1 games in a collection with NOTHING removed or “updated”.
Personally, I wouldn't mind at all if they decided to make Lara sexy again. Call me politically incorrect, but if I'm staring at bum for 100+ hours, I would prefer it be a nice one.
I'm glad they're not carrying on with the reboot. Those games were fine, I liked them all, but Lara is so insufferable, and the writing is all over the shop. I personally would like to see them remake the first game - mainly because my fiancée loves it and she'd be thrilled - or make a new game that's more in that spirit. Make Lara fun, and have her raid some tombs.
i hope they keep it all the same, add stuff but dont take stuff out. looking forward to this.
@Gamer83 I was listing to the Legend Soundtrack in the car the other day and forgot how amazing it was. Love the Nepal themes. Best in the series after the original game music.
Love Tomb Raider - the original 2 were my first 2 games on PS1(though 3 was my favourite). Glad to hear something is being worked on. I would like a more fun, witty Lara from before the reboot as others have mentioned. The reboot trilogy is enjoyable for what it is but it never felt much like the spirit of Tomb Raider to me - if I never heard Lara say "Jonah" again I wouldn't be upset
@Matej Totally agree. No disrespect to Camilla Luddington but she delivered her lines in the reboot trilogy with all the grace of the Onion Knight learning to read in the Game of Thrones.
Bring back Keeley Hawes I say.
@WallyWest Crazy to think Legends was a PS2 game.
Still holds up today, some 15 (!?!?) years later.
Please re-make tomb raider 2. PLEASE.
Hopefully the 9 mainline games prior to the reboot trilogy (TR1996, TR2, TR3, TR Last Revelation, TR Chronicles, TR Angel of Darkness, TR Legend, TR Anniversary, TR Underworld) make the jump to current gen and hence next gen via backwards compatibility.
Stock issues are so bad with PS5/Series X that I'm not sure whether they really count as current gen yet so using current gen to mean PS4/XB1/Switch.
I wasn't digging Camilla Luddington's performance as Lara although she seemed okay in SotTR. Keeley Hawes was my fave.
Keeley Hawes was my favourite Lara Croft! Bring her back!
I did like the reboot trilogy (Shadow surprisingly was my fave in terms of gameplay with more puzzle solving and exploration and less waves of enemies gunplay... story was a bit of a mess though!)
Very Intrigued what the new game will bring.
And it seems to be Crystal Dynamics and not Eidos Montreal! Thought CD would be still in deep with Avengers.... maybe not!
@fR_eeBritney I really didn't like her performance as Lara, also characters generally and dialogs were awful.
@TheIdleCritic "but by the third the whole thing had gotten stale"
Agreed. I don't think it helped that the game was built around a series of dull hubs built for both DLC and had become a collectathon. The core main story set pieces were tired but good enough. It was all the needless grind around it and lack of meaningful evolution.
@fR_eeBritney First one I thought Camilla Luddington was excellent and showed a real raw and unexperienced side that was needed for the character at that point. Keeley Hawes, as good an actress as she is, would have struggled to pull that off with her commanding tone and cadence.
2/Rise I honestly don't remember either way, but 3/Shadow felt dialled in (in general not just her).
Now we've passed the reboot/origin trilogy would love to see Keeley Hawes return.
Could we also see some anniversary collections?
I just want the original PS1 game to be done again But make it as near to the original as possible. I would LOVE that
I'm really happy to hear that Square Enix hasn't abandoned the franchise after the last games didn't meet their (exaggerated) expectations. I absolutely adore "Tomb Raider" 2013 and also liked the (inferior) sequels.
That said, merging the original- and reboot-timeline (Is it a reboot anymore, then?) together is going to be a complete mess and pretty unnecessary at that.
From a gameplay perspective combining both styles can surely be for the better, potentially meaning more and most of all more challenging exploration, climbing and puzzles from the old games, but with the smooth playability and some of the spectacular action of the new ones.
Hopefully I can keep my beloved bow and the climbing axes.
And Camilla Luddington has to return to her role. I don't think, I could accept another voice actor as Lara.
But please, don't make this a service-game.
I'm also mildly excited for the Netflix series. Usually their animated output fares better than their notoriously lousy self-produced live-action efforts.
Tomb Raider 1-3 full remakes would be immense. Chances are it will just be another Sotr game with DLC dual pistols though
The first game for me was quite unique. The 3D space seemed essentially grid based, so take tiny steps to the edge, jump step back, run, jump, then grab. It seems complex, but it was very precise once you learned the game (I completed it on the Saturn). The sparse environments and minimal use of ochestral music really created a unique atmosphere at the time. The Crystal Dymanics games were fun and I felt the most recent reboot trilogy really followed down the Uncharted route. Making the 3D exploration really streamlined and automated and shifting the focus away from platform exploration to 3rd person shooter, which was ok, but I got tired about mid way through the second one. Be interested to see where they go next.
This is good news. As others have said, I really like Uncharted: The Lara Croft Collection, they're really good games. But they're not really Tomb Raider at all. Uncharted makes a better Tomb Raider than Tomb Raider. And 2013 had way too much shooty shooty pow pow for a Tomb Raider game.
Lara was a product of her time, and wasn't politically correct, but at the end of the day she was the female counterpart of Duke Nukem, and her ballsy, brassy, dodge a bullet and flip off the thugs while jumping off a train and laying down cover fire personality is what made the thing fun. Chloe Frazer is much more "Lara Croft" than 2013 Lara Croft onward, who's just a damaged human being in a bad place rather than the "chew bubblegum and take names" persona Lara is supposed to be.
I'd love to see them bring that back into the mix with the gameplay direction of the new games but the "attitude" of the old games.
Just finished TR definitive edition last night and really liked it. I played the original games on PS1 back in the day but none since then - I skipped from PS1 to PS4 due to living life
The presentation and graphics are great, normally I try to just finish games and would never consider myself a completionist, but i found it was was fun getting all the artifacts, documents etc.and probably added 10 hours doing all that.
It's nice to back to classic characters and see how they work in modern games.
@wiiware This! Give us a more isolated and atmospheric game. Sometimes less music is more. Dont give us an army of people to kill, give us wildlife to kill. Bears, wolves, mountain lions, rats, bats, dinosaurs! This isnt uncharted.
I enjoyed the reboot trilogy but they werent really globetrotty enough for me. Unlike the original trilogy. TR1 was peru, greece, egypt, atlantis. TR2 was Tibet, China, Venice, Sunken Ship. TR3 was South Pacific, Antarctica, Area 51, London, India. The reboots are all basically in a single place; island, siberia, and jungle. I want more globetrotting, more wildlife enemies and less mercenaries, and a more isolated feel. Less music. I dont really like the huge openworldness in a TR game if im honest.
I still prefer the original era more but am enjoying what I have experienced of the reboot trilogy so far.
Excited to see what this new Tomb Raider game will be like, and definitely plan to watch the NetFlix series!
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