New Tomb Raider is ‘fertile ground’ for many adventures

New Tomb Raider is ‘fertile ground’ for many adventures
James Orry Updated on by

Video Gamer is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Prices subject to change. Learn more

The iconic Lara Craft was “losing some relevance in the gaming world,” making now the perfect time to reboot the franchise and open up a host of new possibilities, the game’s global brand manager, Karl Stewart has told Rock Paper Shotgun.

“I think Lara’s a beloved character and Crystal has really enjoyed their time they’ve been able to spend with her,” said Stewart. “We felt she was losing some relevance in the gaming world, that she was a little too hard and removed. We wanted to make her more approachable and relatable.

“I think this was a perfect time for us to re-imagine the franchise, taking Lara back to her roots. I think it’s growing to be a great way for players to learn to re-know who Lara is, retell her story.”

Stewart believes it was Lara’s iconic status which made her hard difficult to relate to.

“I think she became an icon. When you do, you remove yourself from relatability. We wanted to bring her to a place where she didn’t have all those skills, she wasn’t perfect. The modern gamer can relate to that, they want a complex hero.”

And thanks to the reboot the future now looks much more fertile, says Stewart.

“I think Lara had done all the growing she could. We’d taken her to a great place, to somewhere she had some closure. There weren’t really many more stories we could have told. So we feel like with this new place we have fertile ground and there’s a lot of places we can go.”

Tomb Raider will be released for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC in autumn 2012. Emily offered her thoughts on the game after a brief encounter with Lara Croft at E3.