Now, for 2023, or whenever the next Tomb Raider game comes out, it appears that Crystal Dynamics plans to remake the 1996 title - again. The rumor comes courtesy of eagle-eyed observers who noticed that the official Tomb Raider account on Twitter changed its head photo to feature a reimagined artwork of the classic 1996 title.
— Tomb Raider (@tombraider) April 5, 2022 The only thing confirmed so far is that Crystal Dynamics is working on a new Tomb Raider game made in Unreal Engine 5, and we don’t know if it’s a remake of the original. But, it appears that fans aren’t exactly against such an idea. The 1996 original is a fan favorite and many consider Jacqueline Natla, the game’s protagonist, one of the best villains in the series. Not to mention, the first game was pretty scary for an action-adventure game. The combination of the limited hardware capabilities of the original PlayStation, which, at the time was already groundbreaking, meant that the developers had to find creative ways to introduce some of the creatures that players would encounter in the game. The short draw distance, in particular, resulted in players seeing total darkness and made every appearing animal look that much more dangerous. If Crystal Dynamics can capture that seem feeling of dread and horror, then a remake in Unreal Engine 5 would make the dinosaurs, among many others, look far more real and scary. Story-wise, the pseudo-remake route isn’t the worst idea for a new Tomb Raider game. The original ending for 2018’s Shadow of the Tomb Raider made, more or less, a direct connection to the first Tomb Raider, but for some reason, Eidos-Montréal changed it with the day one patch. The prevailing theory is that Netflix’s anime series will explore that particular ending and that the next game will feature a Lara that has somehow retained all of the experiences from her previous adventures, which would tie into Crystal Dynamics’ previous plans for a unified timeline. How Crystal Dynamics will pull that off, if true, will be a sight to behold, but the studio very much deserves the benefit of the doubt. Hopefully, we’ll start hearing more about the in-development Tomb Raider project in Unreal Engine 5 soon.
