Rise of the Tomb Raider Will Arrive in 2015, But Only on Xbox
Rise of the Tomb Raider, the sequel to the 2013 reboot of the Tomb Raider franchise from developer Crystal Dynamics and publisher Square Enix,"wil launch in holiday 2015, exclusively on Xbox," according to Microsoft. However, Xbox's Phil Spencer later revealed to Eurogamer that Microsoft's controversial exclusivity deal for Rise of the Tomb Raider is not indefinite. "Yes, the deal has a duration. I didn't buy it. I don't own the franchise.... Obviously the deal does have a duration. I didn't buy the IP in perpetuity." But he won't say when it will end. "There are certain things I'm just not going to talk about because it's a business deal between us and them," Spencer said.
Anyway, Rise of the Tomb Raider is set following the events on Yamatai as seen in the last Tomb Raider game. Lara now grown into a capable adventure seeker will next be shown in the frozen wilds of Siberia on a hunt for the lost secrets of immortality. She will have to hunt and craft new survival gear in order to take on larger puzzle tombs and a deadly new enemy, a secret society that has been lying in the shadows since the last game. Lara will traipse across two global locations, and the main antagonist of the game will be the environment more than anything else, partially due to the weather system which causes reactions from both humans and animals. Animals will also react to the time of day, which suggests a day and night cycle.
According to leaks gathered by VG247, players will be able to use various tools to distract enemies and lure them to a particular location. There will be a variety of bows with various attributes, and more than one of each weapon type. Crafting will play a role again, with Lara creating cloth and herbs to heal wounds, and puzzles will have a greater emphasis. There will be multi-stage puzzles and "nested puzzles" similar to previous game in the franchise, and combat and other challenges will be integrated into the puzzle mechanics, but each will make sense for the setting. Hub areas will be two to three times larger this time out, and Jonah is back.