Amazon Games is teaming with Crystal Dynamics to publish the next game in the Tomb Raider franchise. Tomb Raider has been one of the gaming industry's biggest franchises for decades, with Crystal Dynamics successfully rebooting Lara Croft's story in 2013. But with Square Enix selling off Crystal Dynamics to Embracer Group, many were concerned about the franchise's future.Some of those concerns were laid to rest earlier this year when Crystal Dynamics announced that it was making a new Tomb Raider game using Unreal Engine 5. Details on the new Tomb Raider game remain scarce at the time of this writing, but the announcement that Amazon is publishing the next Tomb Raider game has revealed some more, albeit vague, information on the project and what it will entail.According to Amazon and Crystal Dynamics, the new Tomb Raider game will be a single-player game and "continues Lara Croft's story." Reading between the lines, this seems to suggest that the game will be set in the Tomb Raider reboot timeline, following up where Shadow of the Tomb Raider left off, but that still has yet to be official confirmed. The game will feature a "confident and multidimensional" take on Lara Croft, "exploration and creative pathfinding," "mind-bending puzzles," and "a wide variety of enemies to face and overcome." The game is also being described as the "biggest, most expansive" Tomb Raider game made so far.
Previous leaks have suggested that the new Tomb Raider game will recast the role of Lara Croft. Camilla Luddington has earned a great deal of acclaim for her portrayal of Lara Croft in the reboot trilogy, so it would be somewhat strange for Crystal Dynamics to go with a different actress, especially if the intent is for this new game to be set in the same universe as the most recent games. But again, clarification on these matters will have to wait until a later date.
It's interesting that "wide variety of enemies" to face was mentioned. The Tomb Raider reboot games have primarily had Lara Croft facing off against human enemies, but the older games in the series featured more fantastical foes and a collection of dangerous animals for Croft to face. Maybe this is a sign that the new game will have more in common with the original game as opposed to the newer entries in terms of enemies, but that's just speculation at this time. Rumor has it that more information on the new Tomb Raider will come next year, so fans will have to stand by for more information.
Tomb Raider is in development.