Tomb Raider shocked the E3 audience this year with what appeared to be a gripping, emotional experience with none other than everyone’s favorite heroine, Lara Croft. Trailers depicted the lovely Lara in dangerous territory, having to conquer difficult physical and emotional challenges in a high-quality visual environment unlike we’ve seen before from the series. We didn’t hesitate to award Tomb Raider one of our ten best of E3 awards, and many have compared what was shown to the critically-acclaimed Uncharted series. While that’s a huge compliment, the developer contests that the game will be much different than Naughty Dog’s creations.
In the latest issue of PSM3, Crystal Dynamics shared their thoughts on whether or not Tomb Raider will mimic what Uncharted has provided over the years:
They’re out this year, and we’ve already announced we’re not coming out in 2011, so it’s not like we’ll be going head to head. And [Uncharted] is a different experience where you’re… more drawn through the story than the elements of choice we’re going to give. We’ll be a very different experience to that.
From a gameplay perspective, both Uncharted and Tomb Raider share some qualities; yes, they both use the same style of platforming, and are based around a strong adventure narrative, but many of the similarities end there. Tomb Raider looks much more dark and mature. Uncharted might have combat down to a science, but Tomb Raider looks like it’ll make every step through its journey as impactful as possible. Quite frankly, we’re very excited to see what Crystal Dynamics is able to do with this multi-million selling IP, and much of what was shown at E3 substantiated any argument that Lara Croft versus Nathan Drake is really just apples versus oranges.
