With Crystal Dynamics' Marvel Avengers now out in the wild, the developer's recent focus has no doubt been very much directed towards getting that triple-A title done and dusted.
However, some of us are here in the background twiddling our thumbs while we wait patiently for some kind of update on the series that has been its other baby for many years now - Tomb Raider. We're left wondering what's next for everyone's favorite video game heroine Lara Croft, when we could expect the next game to pop up, and whether or not the folks at Crystal Dynamics will be the ones to head up that ship.
Crystal Clear
Crystal Dynamics had been at the helm of the series' development since 2006, until Lara's most recent endeavor - Shadow of the Tomb Raider - which landed two years ago. For this game, Crystal Dynamics took more of a backseat to its development, whilst Eidos-Montréal took up the driver's seat.
The general consensus is that Crystal Dynamics has done a great job of intermittently sprucing up the classic action-adventure series which began an incredible 24 years ago. It first entered the Tomb Raider scene around 2006, and was tasked with picking up the pieces left behind after the dismal Angel of Darkness situation. They also invited the game's original character designer Toby Gard back on board for good measure, and the result was the superb Tomb Raider: Legend.
A Legend Is (Re)born
Tomb Raider: Legend was exactly what the series needed to get back on track. By that stage, the series was suffering heavily under the weight of a conglomeration of over-ambition, too much pressure, and not enough time. Things were lackluster at best, and completely broken at worst, then Legend came in to save the series from itself as Tomb Raider's first successful reboot.
Three Tomb Raiders later, Crystal Dynamics and Square Enix teamed up to deliver the second major reboot for the series in the form of 2013's Tomb Raider. That, too, was a glorious revamp which took on a different feel as it delved into the hardy heroine's origin story. This led to two more games - Rise of the Tomb Raider in 2015, and Shadow of the Tomb Raider in 2018, with the latter completing the reboot trilogy started in 2013.
A Dozen Tomb Raiders
As it stands, we are left with 12 Tomb Raider games. And yes, while I'm aware there are more than that if you include such games as Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light or Temple of Osiris, I'm inclined not to count them and stick to the series' main titles for now (what can I say? I'm a bit of a Tomb Raider purist). What a nice round number! All bundled together in groups of three.
But now we're getting hungry again. With her latest trilogy all rounded off, many of us are no doubt expecting rumblings of a new reboot - or a fresh new story arc, at the very least - to start emerging some time soon. Especially seeing as we're used to having a two-to-three-year gap between our Tomb Raiders since 2013.
We got out hopes up for a second when a leaked image cropped up in July advertising something called the Tomb Raider Ultimate Experience to be released on August 27, 2020. But we still don't know what that is, seeing as August 27 came and went without so much as a whisper of it.
So things have been quiet, and as I said, that's obviously because of Crystal Dynamics's (and Eidos-Montréal's) recent and current Avengers frenzy. Although of course, that's assuming that they're the ones still wearing the Tomb Raider Developer Hats. For all we know, they might remain in said frenzy for a good while as they help carry Marvel's Avengers through its post-release phase and beyond. Is Tomb Raider even on the companies' minds?
Us thumb-twiddlers at the back here are certainly hoping it is. Oh, and while you're taking suggestions, Tomb Raider Developers, the Angel of Darkness storyline could use some further exploration.