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Tomb Raider: Catalyst Will Continue "Legends" Trilogy - Set After TR: Underworld's Ending

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Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?

www.gamesradar.com

Tomb Raider: Catalyst picks up "years after" 2008's Underworld, finally continuing Lara Croft's story from the Legend trilogy after almost two decades

Don't worry though, it's designed "for everyone"
www.gamesradar.com www.gamesradar.com


Ever the abundance of riches, The Game Awards gave us not one but two bits of Tomb Raider announcements. We've got Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis, a full reimagining of the first PS1 game, and Tomb Raider: Catalyst, a more forward-looking entry in the franchise that picks up the timeline where the Legend trilogy left off.

Before 2013's Tomb Raider rebooted Lara Croft's story, Underworld in 2008 capped off a three-game arc for the intrepid adventurer. The 2013 entry's success led to a full trilogy of prequels, leaving Lara's more contemporaneous happenings to fall by the wayside.

Crystal Dynamics is finally picking up the threads of Tomb Raider's latter-day happenings. "From a timeline perspective, Tomb Raider: Catalyst is set years after the events of Tomb Raider: Underworld," Will Kerslake, game director at developer Crystal Dynamics, told GamesRadar+, "with the reboot trilogy serving as her origin story, so we're seeing a more experienced Lara Croft."
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Despite following up a game that'll be 19 years old by the time Catalyst is out (sorry), Kerslake is keen to point out fans won't need to dig out their Xbox 360s for a refresher. "What's important to know is that this is a new chapter in Tomb Raider," he states. "So whether you followed Lara from the start, or this is your first Tomb Raider game, Tomb Raider: Catalyst is designed to stand on its own as an adventure that can be enjoyed by everyone."

The setup is classic Lara: she's called to Northern India, where some long-hidden architecture has been uncovered, and she has to deal with some rival relic hunters while trying to figure out the significance of these ruins herself.

There'll be puzzles, gunplay, and plenty of ledge-jumping, in what looks like a stunning environment, going by the first trailer. Tomb Raider: Catalyst arrives in 2027, while Legacy of Atlantis can keep you busy in 2026.
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Say Word Wow GIF by Justin


That's interesting, I liked Shadow (best TR since... well Underworld) but I'm glad they took this decision.
Can't wait.
 
This is a good direction for the franchise. I was really worried about the tone and approach of this new Tom Raider beforehand. Lara has her classic look back, and dual-wielding is returning!
 
I think this and the TR1 remake is the best we could've hoped for really, consign the 2013 trilogy to the annals of history and forget about it, it started off decent-good then went sharply downhill, then slightly uphill again but not even as good as 2013 for me.

I would've preferred a TR2 remake personally, because thats what I've started with and never actually played the original, I've only played Anniversary in that regard. I'm going to play them all via the recent remasters before these new ones come out though, plenty of time for that it seems.
 
KyoZz said:
Say Word Wow GIF by Justin


That's interesting, I liked Shadow (best TR since... well Underworld) but I'm glad they took this decision.
Can't wait.
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The latest trilogy was interesting until Shadow releases for me. They literally screwed whatever was good about the narrative lore of the reboot with an oversemplify story, mostly pointless and very disappointing; also the gameplay was barely fun and particularly dull in the secondaries missions with an opinable attempt to return of the platforming origins really bad executed. The first 2 games weren't absolutely bad for me, but Shadow definitely destroyed everything I remind of good the series 😑 real a pity and probably the reason why they want forget completely this trilogy.
 
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'"with the reboot trilogy serving as her origin story, so we're seeing a more experienced Lara Croft."

Great to see the Survivor Trilogy not being tossed aside like some folks here would like as i loved those games.

I predict the remake of the first game will re-tell some of the story to make the Survivor Trilogy fit better.
 
Magic Carpet said:
Whats the difference between this game and the Atlantis game? I need to be edumacated. Why are there 2 Tomb raider games?
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Atlantis it's the second remake attempt of the first Tomb Raider. Where the other it's a new chapter with the same narrative lore of Legend (which is deeply connected of the original story of the first Tomb Raider).
 
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Magic Carpet said:
Whats the difference between this game and the Atlantis game? I need to be edumacated. Why are there 2 Tomb raider games?
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Atlantis is a reboot of the original (very first) Tomb Raider.

Legends trilogy was 7-9.

  • Tomb Raider: Legend (2006): The first game in the trilogy, it reboots the series with a new storyline and gameplay mechanics.
  • Tomb Raider: Anniversary (2007): A remake of the original 1996 game, which is integrated into the Legend trilogy's timeline. (prequel to Legend)
  • Tomb Raider: Underworld (2008): A direct sequel to Legend that continues the story and also ties into the events of Anniversary.
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Basically this will be a sequel to Underworld, where Atlantis is a remake to the original (1996) and Anniversary (2007).

Confusing, I know.

Which explains the aging of the character model between the two games shown yesterday, and where I likened it to Nathan Drake aging from Uncharted 1-4.
 
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Karim said:
Atlantis it's the second remake attempt of the first Tomb Raider. Where the other it's a new chapter with the same narrative lore of Legend (which is deeply connected of the original story of the first Tomb Raider).
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DeepEnigma said:
Atlantis is a reboot of the original (very first) Tomb Raider.

Legends trilogy was 7-9.



Basically this will be a sequel to Underworld, where Atlantis is a remake to the original (1996) and Anniversary.

Confusing, I know.
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Thanks, you guys, I hate that I needed this explained to me. :(
 
Cool. Underworld is often considered the dark sheep of the TR family, I thought it was excellent. The levels set in Thailand were gorgeous, particularly the coastal section.
 
Anything that completely erases the philosophy, history, and Lara herself that we got with Rise and Shadow seems absolutely perfect to me. Bury the toxic Lara from the last Tomb Raider games!!
 
That's interesting, actually. That was my favorite iteration of Lara because she was just a badass the whole time.

I really hope they stick the landing with this and hope they learned the lesson that people do not want whatever the fuck that Netflix show was to bleed into the games.
 
Okay now that my positive comment is out of the way:

I wish her boobs were just a little big bigger, crazy I know, but just seems like the model wouldn't have looked stupid with a slight increase and would be more in line with how she looked in Underworld:

screen-shot-11-20-20-at-05-25-pm_orig.png


Look, at the end of the day it will not affect my enjoyment of the game if its good, I won't even think about it... but still theres this niggling question of why if you're going to go back to the old design in all other regards.

Even if there hadn't been the wide-spread collective change in industry designs of women/their bodies in games since around 2012 I believe I would still think it was a strange choice to make her chest smaller, its just immediately notable to me when I compare to the older designs from the CGI of the first games to the most proportionally realistic models in Underworld.

The only way we can settle this is find a group of 100 people who've been frozen in time between when Underworld came out and now and show them the new design and ask what they think. People whose judgement can't be clouded by the changing industry trends of the last decade.
 
So one game will be 20 year-old Lara and then the other will be 30/40-year-old Lara. Maybe they can find a way to have them meet.
 
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Good idea. Honestly I think cd was way too cocky handling their trilogy. "Oh, we've been entrusted with one of the all-time classic characters. We can do better than all that old shit!"
 
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