Tomb Raider News for PC

Lara Croft unable to swim in 2013 reboot

NewsPublish Date 26/11/2012 - 3:28pm GMT

New game will take 12-15 hours to complete.

Next year's Tomb Raider reboot will do more than restart the story of the video game icon, it will also take away Lara Croft's ability to swim, Crystal Dynamics global brand manager Karl Stewart has said.

Taking to Twitter for a Q&A session with fans, Stewart revealed a few morsels of information.

"Is it true that Lara Can't swim in the new game, and why?" asked one fan, to which Stewart replied: "Lara can swim, but just not in this game."

"Lara gradually recover life or have to use items for this?" asked a Lara fan. "Regenerative. No need for items," said Stewart.

"Can we expect a twist or two in the storyline?" asked another Tweeter. "Plenty of twists. We love twists here at Crystal D," replied Stewart.

"How long will the game be??" posed another fan. "12 to 15 + depending on your play style," said Stewart.

And finally. "Will the story have a sequel if this game is successful?"

"why of course," said Stewart.

Tomb Raider launches on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC on March 5, 2013.

Source: @tombraider

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User Comments

Grammartron

No swimming sounds slightly prohibitive in an island-based game (!), and could possibly point to being funnelled down linear paths more than I'd like.

I agree with FantasyMeister, insta-death these days in these sort of games is pretty inexcusable, there have to be smarter ways to deal with these things. Batman's solution to this was pretty good, with the automatic rapelling back out of water to a safe point.

Still think TR looks great though, and I'll definitely be picking it up. As an Xbox owner I've had Uncharted envy for years, so this still looks like it'll tick that box nicely, even if the traditional TR elements of puzzles and platforming are a smaller part of this game than previous ones.

Posted 13:43 on 29 November 2012

FantasyMeister

One of the biggest complaints about Assassin's Creed was the insta-death when falling into water. Fortunately there were only two 'platforming' sections where you had to deliberately concentrate to avoid failure in this manner.

Hopefully games designers have learned from this, but the fact that Lara can't swim is slightly troubling. If she falls into water and dies simply because she can't swim (as opposed to the water being crocodile-infested or otherwise hazardous) it'll be a major fail in game design.

Posted 11:02 on 29 November 2012

BC_Animus

Add in a nude patch and the game will sell regardless of features. Ha!

Anyways it would be interesting to see if the game still feel like a TR game. I'd be very disappointed if this turns into a Resident Evil or Gears of War knock off.

As for health regen, I'd rather have health that regen over time, then to have to crawl around hunting for small animals to eat to be honest.

Posted 10:46 on 29 November 2012

DancingRhino

Health regen doesn't bother me that much, although it's probably aiming to appeal to the cross-eyed, backward-thumbed casuals. It's mainly a puzzle game anyway. I've still got a good feeling about this game.

Posted 18:27 on 26 November 2012

tvr77

Unable to swim? Does that mean if she falls into water its gameover! or does the game just avoid water all together. I thought Lara could do everything, either way its an odd choice but not a deal breaker. I'm still lookin forward to this one.

Posted 18:00 on 26 November 2012

rbevanx@ Clockpunk

I don't know...

I remember in the first Tomb Raiders I would just purposly kill myself sometime when messing up on a part of the game in case I went up against animals or enemies later.

The removing of swiming though is like removing flying from a Superman film to me. It's part of what makes that franchise in my eyes but I will see what they do with the reboot :)

Posted 16:33 on 26 November 2012

Clockpunk

I really dislike the prospect of health regen - especially if they are going for the 'protect a vulnerable Lara' angle. Here's hoping that it is limited, at least (as in chunks of health, each with own negative status modifiers - such as speed, dexterity, and all that - with the regen only occurring within the lowest affected portion). But then, if there are no health-related pickups, I doubt this will be the case.

The lack of swimming is also annoying, given that it is supposedly a semi-open island setting.

Do not screw this one up, Eidos, but I fear the rot could already be set in before it has even opened...

Posted 16:29 on 26 November 2012