Rise of the Tomb Raider Features More Tombs & Puzzles

The reboot of Tomb Raider in 2013 was an amazing action adventure title all things considered but there wasn’t as much raiding of the tombs as one would expect from the Lara Croft origins story. Crystal Dynamics will be looking to fix that in Rise of the Tomb Raider as creative director Noah Hughes told Game Informer (transcription by Eurogamer).

“Puzzles are an important part of the Tomb formula, so we’re excited to have more tombs in the game, featuring more puzzles. 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.”

The scant few tombs we saw in the 2013 title relied on physics-based puzzles that had certain mechanics and systems that had to be triggered. Hughes says the team is looking at a similar style for Rise of the Tomb Raider.

“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.”

Rise of the Tomb Raider will be out this Holiday season for Xbox One and Xbox 360. Does it sound exciting to you? Let us know in the comments.