Survival can take on many shapes and forms. Thus far, for instance, Tomb Raider‘s demonstrated it through climbing, hunting, resting, and fleeing from deranged cultists – so, you know, the usual stuff. But this is an ultra-budget prequel to a series that once featured DINO-BATTLES. In other words, it’s not a slow-paced sink-or-swim sim.
Lara has to acquire skills and character traits that will eventually allow her to – again, let me emphasize this – bring down a Tyrannosaurus Rex. Those abilities, it turns out, aren’t often found in the realm of possibility. So then, here’s Lara running, gunning, hacking, slashing, and just generally trying to cope with a world in which the walls, ground, and most aircraft are made entirely of light-breeze-sensitive explosives.
Admittedly, this is the elongated version of a VGA trailer, so the focus on shameless manshootery isn’t entirely unsurprising. But even then, there’s always the chance that Tomb Raider could quickly morph into a standard kaboom-leaper along the lines of Uncharted (though I suppose there are worse places to draw inspiration from). Meanwhile, items like that bow-and-arrow/rope combo could make for some pretty unique combat and puzzle solving bits, so hopefully they won’t just devolve into the boogiemen implausibly rickety towers speak of to their children in whispered, fearful tones.
Obviously, though, people are expecting a lot out of Tomb Raider both narratively and mechanically. So what if it just turned out to be a really solid action game? As in, strong, but hardly revolutionary? Would you be upset?