In the critically acclaimed Tomb Raider, Lara Croft was forged into a true survivor, but she glimpsed a deeper, secret world. Now, after uncovering an ancient mystery, Lara must explore the most treacherous and remote regions of Siberia to find the secret of immortality before a ruthless organization known as Trinity. Lara must use her wits and survival skills, form new alliances, and ultimately embrace her destiny as the Tomb Raider. Experience high-octane action moments, conquer beautifully hostile environments, engage in brutal guerilla combat, and explore awe-inspiring deadly tombs in the evolution of survival action. In Rise of the Tomb Raider, Lara becomes more than a survivor as she embarks on her first great Tomb Raiding expedition.
Game Information
Lara’s Journey – Lara uncovers an ancient mystery that places her in the cross-hairs of a ruthless organization known as Trinity. As she races to find the secret before Trinity, the trail leads to a myth about the Lost City of Kitezh. Lara knows she must reach the Lost City and its hidden secrets before Trinity. With that, she sets out for Siberia on her first great Tomb Raiding expedition.
Woman vs. Wild – In “Rise of the Tomb Raider,” Lara battles with not only enemies from around the world, but the world itself. Hunt animals to craft weapons and scavenge for rare resources in densely populated ecosystems. You’ll encounter beautifully hostile environments, full of treacherous conditions and unstable landscapes that will require Lara to push her limits to the very edge.
Guerilla Combat – Use the environment to your advantage, scale trees and dive underwater to avoid or takedown enemies, configure Lara’s gear, weapons, and ammo to suit your play style from stealth to guns blazing, craft explosives on the fly to sow chaos, and wield Lara’s signature combat bows and climbing axe.
Return to Tomb Raiding – Tombs are back, and they’re bigger and better than ever. In “Rise of the Tomb Raider” you’ll explore huge, awe-inspiring ancient spaces littered with deadly traps, solve dramatic environmental puzzles, and decipher ancient texts to reveal crypts as you take on a world filled with secrets to discover.
Cutting Edge Technology – Utilizing the full power of the Xbox One, the world of “Rise of the Tomb Raider” comes alive with interactive exploration spaces two to three times larger than the “Tomb Raider” reboot in 2013. Featuring real-time cloth and body physics, full performance capture, a new lighting model that allows for richer materials, and new and improved hair tech for highlighting each individual strand of hair, Lara is brought to life like never before. Built on Crystal Dynamics’ Foundation Engine, “Rise of the Tomb Raider” was designed to become one of the best looking games on Xbox One.
The Apex Predator Pack (GameStop Exclusive in North America)
The all-new Apex Predator outfit for Lara, with patchwork clothing made of bear fur, animal claws, and scraps of cloth. A dried bloody hand print across Lara’s face completes this intimidating look. The Apex Predator outfit also reduces damage inflicted by animals
The upgradeable Python Hand Cannon, which offers incredible stopping power
A Card Pack including the rare Holy Fire card, which causes enemies killed with melee to burst into flames, damaging and igniting other enemies nearby
The Hope’s Bastion Pack (Amazon)
The all-new Hope’s Bastion outfit for Lara, with ancient byzantine era chainmail, armor, and tough leather she has gathered from hidden tombs. The Hope’s Bastion outfit also boosts Lara’s charged bow shots
The Wreckoner Battle Axe Skin
A Card Pack including the rare Juggernaut foil card, which gives Lara additional armor with each kill for a limited time
The Sparrowhawk Pack (Best Buy)
The all-new Sparrowhawk outfit for Lara, crafted from the furs and hides of animals she has hunted. The Sparrowhawk outfit also boosts Lara’s hunting ability
The White Wood Recurve Bow Skin
A Card Pack including the rare Master Hunter foil card, which deals double damage on animals and yields double the resources when hunting
Remnant Resistance Pack (Participating Retailers)
The all-new Remnant outfit for Lara, which is a collection of animal skins and ancient byzantine armor. The outfit gives Lara a chance to bandage without using her resources.
The Matte Ebony Magnum Skin
The Bullet Resistance foil card, which gives Lara extra damage resistance to gunfire
BONUS: Game UK Steelbook Special
UK retailer Game is offering up a sweet bonus for fans who preorder – a Steelbook Case is included in their Rise of the Tomb Raider Apex Predator Pack, showcased above.
Full retail copy of Rise of the Tomb Raider for the Xbox One
An exclusive 12”-tall statue of Lara Croft, which depicts her searching for answers on her first great Tomb Raiding expedition
Collectible steelbook
A replica of Lara’s leather in-game journal
A model of Lara’s Jade Necklace, including the pendant that was her first archeological discovery, and the strap that was given to her by Conrad Roth, her late mentor
What does exclusive to Xbox mean?
It means that Rise of the Tomb Raider is coming Holiday 2015 exclusively on Xbox One and Xbox 360.
Does the exclusive to Xbox have a duration? Is it timed? How long is the duration? Can we expect a PlayStation 4 or PC release in the future?
Yes, our deal with Microsoft has a duration. We aren’t discussing details of the deal, and are focused on delivering a great game on Xbox One and Xbox 360.
Did Crystal Dynamics know about this deal?
Yes, Crystal Dynamics is excited to be partnering with Microsoft to make the best game possible. As Darrell mentioned in his message, we have a long history with Microsoft and they have been a very strong supporter of the franchise. They will help us grow and nurture the Tomb Raider franchise more than ever before.
Were the fans considered when making this decision? Are Crystal Dynamics and Square Enix aware of the franchise history with PlayStation and on PC?
Of course. We did not make this decision lightly. Our goal is to build the best game that we possibly can, and our relationship with Microsoft will help us realize our vision for the game.
Why didn’t Microsoft, Square Enix or Crystal Dynamics say upfront it was a timed exclusive? Why all the indirect language?
We certainly didn’t intend to cause any confusion with the announcement. The Microsoft Gamescom stage was a great place to make the initial announcement, but not necessarily to go into details.
February 2015 Q & A From TR Forum
1) Will there be references to the events/characters of the comics and the novel in the game?
Noah Hughes (Franchise Creative Director): This story picks up at the point of Lara’s life just following those events of the comics and novel. While it follows naturally on those events, there’s not a lot of references directly back to it in the main story of Rise of the Tomb Raider. As people dig into the secondary narrative, they may find some fun crossover but it is important to us that people who may just be joining us in the second game of the franchise don’t feel lost or confused by things that they may not have read in the comics or the books. We may try to look for some smaller references or Easter eggs, though.
2) The legend of Kitezh appears to be a rather obscure story, how did the writing team come into contact with it? How did the dev-team come up with some of the new area's in the next TR game, did they find inspiration from locations over the world by previous visits, or did the development team plan some expeditions to feel the vibe of some areas?
Noah Hughes (Franchise Creative Director): When we start with the pre-production of the game, we research a lot of myths. We read books and we search on the web and sift through any myths we can get our hands on. Generally, we’re looking for things that sound exciting to discover. In this case, we knew we wanted Lara to go on a major Tomb Raiding expedition, and having something as important as the secret of immortality hidden in a city lost in time seemed like a good promise.
We were also thinking in terms of what locations she would be traveling to. As we had mentioned, there’s at least 2 locations. One of them being the wilds of Siberia was exciting to us and it caters well to our survival themes. But also there’s something else – the first TR opens with Lara in a snowy environment. There’s something nostalgic and classic about going into the mountains and the snow and it helps deliver on that sense of hard journeys to far flown locations looking for lost secrets.
3) Will Lara talk or /learn Russian?
Noah Hughes (Franchise Creative Director): Lara isn’t just a survivor; she’s a scholar and archaeologist. She brings with her a rich understanding of the culture, anthropology and the language of the locations that she studies. She does have an understanding and awareness and some familiarity with the Russian language. That’s still an important part of what makes her able to unlock the secrets of this place – not just being able to survive the harsh climates but being able to take that culture and language understanding and use it to decipher the mysteries of the past that maybe other people couldn’t. It’s part of showcasing her character that this background of the culture and language exists.
Languages is a system in the game and she becomes more proficient, not necessarily in speaking fluently, but in deciphering the texts in that language.
4) In the last TR(2013) water and sand had a lot of influence on Lara her appearance and we also seen some sort of day/night cycling. IMO it would be great to see this expanded in the next TR game with more Day/Night and weather cycling. Can you tell us some more if this will be expanded in the next game and if this will have any influences on Lara, the environment or mission-events?
Noah Hughes (Franchise Creative Director): The day/night cycle will work similar to the last game in that it will click through primary times of day based on story progression and then during re-traversal, you can revisit places in new times of day and a different weather state. You may return to a previously explored location, and find that it’s a time of day or weather state that you haven’t seen yet in that area. The change generally works similarly to how we handled it in Tomb Raider 2013.
Having said that, we’re trying to push some of its effects on the world. So some things that affect gameplay might be what missions are available in a region or what animals – we have rare animals. You might have something like the alpha wolf that only comes out at night. We also have enemy AI responsive to the weather. They might be out patrolling if the weather’s good or clustered inside if the weather is bad. We have various instances in which time of day and weather affect the ecosystems and what missions are available in the space.
5) What unique mechanics/general aspects of ROTTR do you think will keep the game not only grounded to what the franchise is at its core, but also successfully compete in the adventure genre of modern gaming?
Noah Hughes (Franchise Creative Director): One of the things that’s exciting about focusing in on the tomb raiding promise and having Lara’s main mission be about discovering these ancient secrets is that, as a franchise, we own that space. It’s as core to the franchise as anything gets. For me, it is exciting that this time around, tomb raiding really takes some of these new flavors we introduced in 2013, like the bow and the climbing axe, and overlays them back onto some of the more unique aspects of this franchise like our ancient spaces and puzzle solving, and all of the great things we get out of tombs. Also, placing those tombs in a world that caters to player exploration is an exciting step forward for the franchise by allowing players to explore the world, discover things on their own, and gain access to things through gear that they’ve earned. I think that some of that non-linear structure, some of those open hub spaces, our enemy and animal populations, and those type of things that bring those spaces to life, all create a great setting for the tombs and essentially create a more modern adventure game structure and present within that our crown jewel – the tomb raiding experience.
6) It has been mentioned that we can craft different bows. Can we craft different arrows too?
Noah Hughes (Franchise Creative Director): We talked about a lot of ways that things like hunting and gathering resources would play into real gameplay systems. Weapons are one of the systems that we had supported prior and now there are more things that feed into that. Crafting can be used for custom grenades like the Molotov, and for healing.
To the specific point about arrows, they are one of the new craft-able additions that I am most excited about – being able to craft custom arrows such as the poison arrow.
Without listing all the ones we’re doing, it’s worth saying that we are bringing back some old favorites and adding some new additions that we are not sharing yet.
7) Will the game include more stealth elements than the last one?
Noah Hughes (Franchise Creative Director): There are more combat situations that give players the opportunity to initiate combat on their own terms. We give players more tools to use to both distract and take advantage of enemy awareness. Enemy awareness systems themselves have gotten more robust to cater to more sneaking and “cat and mouse” style gameplay. We have put a focus on supporting stealth and making stealth more interesting. Having said that, there is plenty of combat that can’t be avoided. Your stealth opportunities are to pick how you want to initiate combat rather than to avoid it entirely.
8) Will the cloth and herb system mentioned be an addition to health regen or move healing back to a 'medi pack' style system?
Noah Hughes (Franchise Creative Director): It is different. It isn’t a classic system with a health bar, but you may often find yourself in moment-to-moment situations where the healing system will become important. We’ll announce more info on the health system at a later date.
Another Tomb Raider domain was also registered. One called Rise of The Tomb Raider and the other Lara Croft And The Temple Of Osiris. Which could be a sequel to the Guardian of Light game. Tomb Raider overload.
Game Information
