On day two of E3 2012, I walked over to the Square Enix booth to check out the Tomb Raider reboot demonstration. After about 20 minutes of an incredible demo that showcased Lara Croft’s first human kill and the tension building up to it, I was impressed with the game despite my opinions about the Microsoft Press Conference demo.
My initial worry came about when I saw Lara Croft shooting bad guys like Hawkeye from The Avengers and becoming much more adept at combat, an almost completely opposite character from her initial appearance in the game.
In an interview with Noah Hughes, creative director of the Tomb Raider reboot, I asked if the demo of the game shown during the press conference showed gameplay from later in the game, allowing Lara’s character time to progress in her abilities. He said, among other things, that they were following a “zero to hero” character progression for Lara.
Maroon and Gamer: Now, what I like about the Tomb Raider reboot is that Lara Croft isn’t a buxom, short-short wearing female protagonist. She’s more grounded, she’s more real and more human. Can you talk about how you developed her character into being like that?
NH: One of the things we wanted to do with this reboot is take on a fresh outlook for the franchise. Part of doing that, for me, was… she had really become an icon and she became less human in the process. So what we did is that we went back to her humble origins, and part of that was to ground her and make her more relatable and more like a real person. That went anywhere from the visual design to the world and things like that. I mean we have a mature rating as well, so in the hard parts of the demo where Lara has to kill someone or she takes damage, we wanted that to be very visceral.
M&G: Yeah, I had just come out of the gameplay demo and the tension of one kill, one human kill, was astounding. I also saw, during the demo, a little experience indicator on the screen. Like a +10 popped up. Can you tell me how that fits into the game?
NH: Both of those things are related in a way because as Lara’s origin story, she has to do extraordinary things to survive. The first human kill is an important part of her narrative but as you mentioned, the experience points are important to me because I want the player to feel, from a gameplay perspective, becoming more powerful as well. We were just giving a sneak peak at the experience system. She’ll be able to go to base camps and tailor the Lara Croft that you want a little bit. Also you can salvage things in the world to make better and sturdier pieces of gear. You can upgrade your gear; you can customize your weapons and things like that.
M&G: I noticed that during the demo, Lara went out and replaced her stick with a knife in it and upgraded to a steel ice axe.
NH: Exactly. We’re not making an open world game. It has a hub system and you can access new gear and that allows you to access new areas, like you’re growing as a character.
M&G: Is Tomb Raider a singleplayer-only game?
NH: Yes.
M&G: Well thank you so much for your time. I am really excited for Tomb Raider especially after that gameplay demo. When is it getting released?
NH: Tomb Raider releases on March 5th, 2013 for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.
Reach the reporter at shfawcet@asu.edu or on Twitter @MaroonandGamer.
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