Shadow Of The Tomb Raider coming in September
Out September
The next Lara Croft adventure will be Shadow Of The Tomb Raider and it's coming on September 14th, with no period of console exclusivity this time round. Square Enix have been bunging corks into their leaky reveal barge over the last couple of days, but now the teaser trailer is officially here. It contains all of your expected Lara action: she climbs a vertical cliff-face, falls down and slams into a wall, and looks at a sunset above some ancient buildings. But wait! That's no sunset at all. It's an eclipse. Everyone knows eclipses are prime ingredients in Top Archaeology. You can raid a tomb in the morning, you can raid a tomb at night. But raid one during an eclipse and you'll find some proper mysteries.
Here's what we know:
"Experience Lara Croft's defining moment as she becomes the Tomb Raider."
That's less than I expected. So here's some speculation:
1) The game will contain at least four tombs.
2) Some locals will get caught up in Lara's efforts to retrieve/destroy an artifact in whatever corner of the world she falls out of a plane into this time around. Lara will befriend them but when a mercenary organisation sets fire to their homes and siblings, she'll toddle off to become the Tomb Raider while they sit and contemplate the wreckage of their lives.
3) The bodycount will be in the thousands.
4) Lara's shadow is an actual player character and the entire game can be played cooperatively, with some very clever light-based puzzles requiring the shadow and Lara to work together as they make their way across giant rooms full of traps and treasure.
5) You'll get a grenade launcher about two-thirds of the way through.
If all of those things don't turn out to be true, I'll retreat into my own tomb and wait until somebody retrieves me and puts me in a museum. We'll find out more on April 27th, when Square Enix promise a full reveal. There's a countdown for that, in case you don't own a calendar, and the site also says there's a puzzle coming on Monday at 9am PDT. Enjoy that, shadow fans.