How would you design a new Tomb Raider game?

SinDelta

Member
Globe trotting adventure, exotic locations, fun level traversal, tombs, more tombs, loot, magic, curses, ect.

Edit - Oh and a story that is not medicore at best.
 
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I would bring back the Grid Engine and hire level designers who actually understand the gameplay of the classics.

The graphics would be stylized,Lara would be a badass,sarcastic Brit (with posh accent) again,and the story wouldn't take itself so seriously as the last TR games.
 
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More actual Tomb Raiding. So a focus on interesting and engaging level design and challenging puzzles.
Better physics for rope climbing/swing and climbing traversal. Physics based puzzles would be pretty cool imo.
 
I think taking a page out of Death Stranding's book would be the right move. Make traversal the main game mechanic alongside some shooting. That'll probably sell less, but it would probably be a better game. Choose your adventuring loadout before heading to a location to explore.
 
Do a soft reboot by keeping the same Lara but set it ten years later when she's grown up a bit and developed a personality (a new VA would help).

As for gameplay they should look to the original 1996 game for inspiration. Lonely tombs and unexplored ruins, no crappy sidekicks to ruin the mood.
 
Totally drop the Uncharted model. Forget the narrative, focus on isolation and multi-level puzzles. Go back to the roots. 90% environmental puzzles, 10% combat. Stop the torture porn. Make Lara confident and sarcastic again.

It's been painful to witness what they've done to these games.
 
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Borrow all the gameplay features of Batman Arkham Knight, invest in facial animations like Resident Evil 8 quality


that's all
 
Like the first. Exploring, finding secrets, killing only a handful of enemies. No towns, no NPCs, close to no story.
 
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I'd bring back the grid system. I miss the tight precision of the controls and how gracefully you could navigate traps and difficult terrain by stacking combinations like, hop one grid back, run forward and jump, hold grip, climb up, backwards somersault onto a platform above, quickly side jump out of the way of a moving boulder behind you. Damn I miss those games.
 
You guys all have terrible ideas.

Open world with RPG elements and levelling system, tons of fetch quests and useless collectibles. 🧠
 
Needs more Gorillas.

Gorilla.jpg
 
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I think they could do something similar as Breath of the Wild in the way forces of nature work and can be used in puzzles and possibly in combat.
 
Most of what I think has already been said further up, but just get rid of all other humans on the map as a start.

Make seeing another person a wtf moment, like, "I thought I was alone this whole time!"

Borrow all the gameplay features of Batman Arkham Knight, invest in facial animations like Resident Evil 8 quality

So you mean an open map, with a vehicle to travel around it, and instanced side quests (tombs I guess) hidden in the world that you naturally come across, collectibles with small puzzles to get them like the riddler trophies (similar to the jade, silver and gold dragons in TRII?) and the world changes based on your actions?
 
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Back to basics as a seasoned Tomb Raider exploring ancient cities and pyramids.

None of this "survival in the wilderness" bullshit.
 
Most of what I think has already been said further up, but just get rid of all other humans on the map as a start.

Make seeing another person a wtf moment, like, "I thought I was alone this whole time!"



So you mean an open map, with a vehicle to travel around it, and instanced side quests (tombs I guess) hidden in the world that you naturally come across, collectibles with small puzzles to get them like the riddler trophies (similar to the jade, silver and gold dragons in TRII?) and the world changes based on your actions?

Hell yeah baby, that jungle can have you tripping balls from jaguars sneaking up on you
 
my biggest issue with tomb raider (and uncharted) is the boring predictable story line. protagonist goes to search for a lost artifact/city but oh no some bad guy/organisation/paramilitary wants to find it too!

come up with something original and i'll happily play it. the gameplay of the Tomb Raider(and Uncharted) is great but you play one and you've played them all as far as story goes. i played Tomb Raider + Rise but never bothered with Shadow cause it's basically just the same game.

Tomb Raider toyed with it a bit and so did Uncharted Lost Legacy but I'd love a fully open world game and not a linear story driven game. Give me something like BOTW but instead of shrines make it tombs and maybe instead of focusing on a story just fill it with lore you discover or that is told through minimal cut scenes.
 
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my biggest issue with tomb raider (and uncharted) is the boring predictable story line. protagonist goes to search for a lost artifact/city but oh no some bad guy/organisation/paramilitary wants to find it too!

come up with something original and i'll happily play it. the gameplay of the Tomb Raider(and Uncharted) is great but you play one and you've played them all as far as story goes. i played Tomb Raider + Rise but never bothered with Shadow cause it's basically just the same game.

Tomb Raider toyed with it a bit and so did Uncharted Lost Legacy but I'd love a fully open world game and not a linear story driven game. Give me something like BOTW but instead of shrines make it tombs and maybe instead of focusing on a story just fill it with lore you discover or that is told through minimal cut scenes.

Your first mistake is expecting most game's story to be not a pile of shite.

Seriously though its because they mostly write the minutiae of them after most of the game content is made, so they don't have a lot of leeway in how it goes, so it ends but veing contrived as hell. They can fix it though, hopefully they will put more importance on story going forward though.

I'm with you, I too would prefer a heavily curated small-medium sized open world.
 
It all fell apart after 2013 version. The pointless open world hubs ground it to a halt instead of the pacing required by a rip roaring adventure
 
Hell yeah baby, that jungle can have you tripping balls from jaguars sneaking up on you

The equivalent of the bit where the manbat scares the shit out of you but in this hypothetical TR game you catch glimpses of something stalking you as you play through, like literally hours of tension building from this sleek beast following you!

Now I'm imagining Lara on a quadbike or in a jeep just smashing through the brush, that would be so fucking ace.
 
Realism, tomb exploring/raiding and puzzles.

Enough of the supernatural crap and ridiculous, over the top action. I'm so tired of Michael Bay'esque explosions and constant scenes where Laura (Drake as well) where they fall 3 stories through a building and then 20 minutes later, something even crazier happens. Enough. You don't need all of that. Also, the supernatural angle is just lazy. You can tell a good story without supernatural powers, demons, etc.
 
It all fell apart after 2013 version. The pointless open world hubs ground it to a halt instead of the pacing required by a rip roaring adventure

I know... I keep wanting to start Shadow but then I see another person saying something negative about it. I'm at a ratio of about 1:5 on people saying its a great game vs its average/not worth your time because there's too much rubbish like the side quests.

Its literally sitting on the PS5 right now. I should just try it really.
 
The equivalent of the bit where the manbat scares the shit out of you but in this hypothetical TR game you catch glimpses of something stalking you as you play through, like literally hours of tension building from this sleek beast following you!

Now I'm imagining Lara on a quadbike or in a jeep just smashing through the brush, that would be so fucking ace.
Uncharted 2 has that moment where part of a large part occupying the screen moves and you realize it's something stalking Nathan. Really freaky moment.

Still the absolute fucking worst is going into the abandoned base in 1.
 
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I know... I keep wanting to start Shadow but then I see another person saying something negative about it. I'm at a ratio of about 1:5 on people saying its a great game vs its average/not worth your time because there's too much rubbish like the side quests.

Its literally sitting on the PS5 right now. I should just try it really.
Always need to make up ones own mind in the end
 
Uncharted 2 has that moment where part of a large part occupying the screen moves and you realize it's something stalking Nathan. Really freaky moment.

Absolute fucking worst is going into the abandoned base in 1.

I know exactly the bit you mean, still gets me every time ha. I played 1 for the first time last year in the ND collection and I barely remember anything except the jetski bit, the submarine and the end boss.

By "base" do you mean that submarine bit? Or a different bit I've forgotten about.
 
Always need to make up ones own mind in the end

Indeed, I was really let down by Rise so I'm reluctant, I was doing side quests around the Geothermal Valley and kept sliding down this slope in a really goofy way and I just decided I wasn't getting much out of it and turned it off forever.
 
I know exactly the bit you mean, still gets me every time ha. I played 1 for the first time last year in the ND collection and I barely remember anything except the jetski bit, the submarine and the end boss.

By "base" do you mean that submarine bit? Or a different bit I've forgotten about.
The dark creepy base filled with the undead cannibal things.
 
The thing that I love so much about Tomb Raider is it's puzzle and platforming. I play in a way where I want to jump onto everything and explore everything! When I first played Tomb Raider 2 back in 1997 I instantly fallen in love with this franchise because of this!

From the next Tomb Raider I want many more Tombs filled with puzzles, open ended exploration on every location, so much more platforming than even Shadow of the Tomb Raider and less actions!
 
Legends/Anniversary/Underworld > Reboot trilogy.
Give me more of the former and less of the mediocre latter.
 
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Remake the first game and keep it EXACTLY the same with only an improvement to graphical fidelity, animations, audio, draw distance, etc. Maybe update the controls as well to be palatable to modern gamers, but that is all. NO OTHER UPDATES OR IMPROVEMENTS.

Also release it for $30.
 
Realism, tomb exploring/raiding and puzzles.

Enough of the supernatural crap and ridiculous, over the top action. I'm so tired of Michael Bay'esque explosions and constant scenes where Laura (Drake as well) where they fall 3 stories through a building and then 20 minutes later, something even crazier happens. Enough. You don't need all of that. Also, the supernatural angle is just lazy. You can tell a good story without supernatural powers, demons, etc.
They are obsessed with WTF moments!
 
Remake the first game and keep it EXACTLY the same with only an improvement to graphical fidelity, animations, audio, draw distance, etc. Maybe update the controls as well to be palatable to modern gamers, but that is all. NO OTHER UPDATES OR IMPROVEMENTS.

Also release it for $30.
I like this. I would say give it to Bluepoint but then I remember what they did to Demon's Souls soundtrack and the thought of them doing the same to Tomb Raider's original soundtrack creeps me out. Still annoyed that there's no toggle to hear the original music in the DS Remake.
 
The equivalent of the bit where the manbat scares the shit out of you but in this hypothetical TR game you catch glimpses of something stalking you as you play through, like literally hours of tension building from this sleek beast following you!

Now I'm imagining Lara on a quadbike or in a jeep just smashing through the brush, that would be so fucking ace.

Yeah i agree, TR games reboot took off and became very special from being an Uncharted clone, they topped Uncharted with the 3rd game by 1000 miles in all aspects, now the new TR reboot should have more intense world that can kill you without direct confrontation like a poisonous bug or a Fucking Lion

Hopefully they'll skip old gen consoles and make a full next-gen experience
 
Huge complex temples/ tombs with loads of puzzles and booby traps.
Dangerous wildlife as enemies only.
No ear-piece / sidekick chatter, feeling of isolation

Basically tomb raider 1
 
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Huge complex temples/ tombs with loads of puzzles and booby traps.
Dangerous wildlife as enemies only.
No ear-piece / sidekick chatter, feeling of isolation

Basically tomb raider 1
Yup! 😏

And dual pistols! That's a must imo. I would actually take auto aiming as well, TR was more fun when it was a dodging game than a shooting game.
 
Sounds like most people just want Shadow of the Tomb Raider 🤷‍♀️
Nah. Some parts of it were great but some were plain horrible. I've never liked when they try turning it into Resident Evil or Crash Bandicoot but the tombs and climbing and some of the puzzles were almost old school Tomb Raider.
 
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Pretty much leave gameplay intact but entirely rewrite the lead character. Gameplay and level design are all pretty amazing. Even the tombs, which were lacking in the first reboot entry, were all over the third.

It's the story that is garbage. Replace scared and unproven Lara that you don't care about with a confident rich globe trotter who is iconic. Replace the faceless generic paramilitary with a charismatic rival archeologist to Lara.
 
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You guys all have terrible ideas.

Open world with RPG elements and levelling system, tons of fetch quests and useless collectibles. 🧠
It should also include a scene where you see Lara being shocked after killing a man, only to see her killing the remaining population on Earth with head-shots for the duration of the game.
 
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First thing I'd do is revert back to bad ass, super confident Lara. This new meek and insecure version is rubbish.

Secondly I'd drop the linear scripted corridor gameplay. Open it up way more.
Get back to raiding tombs ffs. Proper tombs. Big underground caverns and cities. Puzzles and exploration. Add some detective mechanics in there to bring out the historian.

make a completely new bad guy or group. The ones in the new trilogy were really poor.
Sprinkle a massive dose of ancient myth is and conspiracy theories. Really da Vinci code up the story. Make it an intriguing, mysterious suspense thriller with high stakes. But not 'save the world' bollocks. More along the lines of historical truth being protected by those in power.

I would keep the gun play from the new trilogy though. That was pretty good. But put it in more open environments.
 
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