The 2013 Tomb Raider reboot didn’t have much in the way of puzzles, which had been a series staple for as long as Lara Croft called herself an adventurer. Thankfully, they’ll be making their way back into the series in the upcoming Rise of the Tomb Raider.
A new interview with GameInformer, which has been doing nothing but pumping out feature after feature about the upcoming game from Crystal Dynamics, talks about how the sequel will have a larger focus on tombs and puzzles, just as the gaming gods intended.
“Puzzles are an important part of the Tomb formula, so we’re excited to have more tombs in the game, featuring more puzzles,” said the game’s creative director Noah Hughes (via Eurogamer).
“You’ll still see a spectrum of difficulty for puzzles, so some of the secret tombs are larger and in some cases might have more difficult puzzles, but we’re trying to put them in the game in a ramped kind of way.”
Puzzles will be physics-based, and will involve multiple layers so players will have more to do than just shooting bad guys.
“Our intent is to challenge the player but we don’t want average players getting into stalemates. So one of the things we’re doing to push the level of accomplishment with these tombs is something we call nested puzzles, which were actually common in classic Tomb Raider games.
“It’s where you have multiple sides to a room or multiple things you have to do to solve the main puzzle. And this really allows you to actively tinker with these different elements rather than just standing there, face-to-face [with a puzzle] and scratching your head.
“These tombs will take you longer to solve but it’s still an interesting combination of physics and cause-and-effect systems that add up to that grand finale of getting through that door at the end of the room.”
The game is slated for a Holiday 2015 release on the Xbox One and Xbox 360.
