Tomb Raider's New Lara Croft Design Is Just "A Vision"

Earlier this month, a new image of a “unified” Lara Croft was released on the officialTomb Raiderwebsite, merging classic and reboot Lara Croft into one new design. Given how little we’ve seen from Crystal Dynamics or Amazon regarding the new Tomb Raider game we know is in development, this image was seen by many as the design for Lara Croft that the developers were intending to go with for her next game.

However, it appears as though this may not actually be the case. According to Spanish news outletVandal(translated byGamesRadar), several sources at Crystal Dynamic currently working on the next Tomb Raider have stated that the new design revealed on the official website “does not correspond” with how she will actually look in the game, and that the design shared earlier this month was just a “unified vision” of the character.

It’s a little odd that Crystal Dynamics would release a new design for Lara Croft and then immediately tell fans it’s not what they’re going with for the next game, so it seems that we’re now back to square one and still waiting to see what Lara Croft will actually look like, seeing as though this “unified vision” doesn’t really represent her.

While we haven’t heard anything official from Crystal Dynamics, it’s widely expected that we’ll see some kind of proper reveal at some point this year, mostly because it’s been almost six years since the last Tomb Raider game. That’ll be the longest stretch of time in the history of the series without some kind of new Tomb Raider release, and reports from the beginning of 2023 suggested thatthe next game has been in “full-scale development” for quite some time.

For now, we’ll have to settle for going back to Tomb Raider’s roots with the recently released remastered trilogy. It’s proven a treat for veteran Tomb Raider fans and those jumping in for the first time, though there are someconflicted over the addition of a modern controls scheme. Tomb Raider’s tank controls can be slightly unwieldy for players not used to the old-school way of doing things, but some players argue that modern controls make some of the tighter platforming sections a lot trickier than they originally were.