New Tomb Raider details arrive

New details on the upcoming Tomb Raider have arrived via the latest issue of gaming mag Game Informer. They certainly look interesting. Have a look at them below (via GAF):

– Don’t expect much of the old linear platforming formula. “We’re now giving the player the opportunity to go into a space and choose their own path. Where we take you across the ledge of the B-52 bomber, that’s a tutorial. Once you move away from the plane, everything is basically open, dynamic traversal where the player has the freedom to roam around a jump from location to location with ease…”

– You’ll be able to air steer, direction control, speed her up/down during jumps

– The game has an XP system. You’ll be able to use this for upgrading Lara’s abilities. You’ll also have to scavenge for materials to upgrade Lara’s equipment

– The base camps will allow you to upgrade Lara’s abilities, improve your equipment and fast travel to other base camps that you’ve visited on the island

– Early on you’ll only have a few options to upgrade Lara, such as giving her the ability to carry additional arrows for her bow or increasing the speed that she’s able to shoot the arrows. As you continue the system will open up and allow you to shape her abilities to your playstyle.

– The context-sensitive actions are one-off sequences. For example, the scene with Lara stabbing the wolf is only going to happen once in the game. They say that if you do it right the first time it’ll have an impact.

– “There is linearity to the story – you have to go from point A to point B – but there’s junctions in between where we want the player to feel like they’re real explorers.” These are described as non-linear hub spaces that you can come back to at different times of day.

Tomb Raider comes out next year. Tell us what you think in the comments section below.

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