Welcome To The Jungle

OXM Took an Exploratory Trip to Eidos Montreal to Get Up Close With Shadow of the Tomb Raider and Talk to the Team About Lara's New, Terrifying Adventure

- Stephen Ashby

Fear. It’s been at the core of the Tomb Raider series since the reboot in 2013, but this time, the team at Eidos Montreal are taking things up a level. Fear is at the very core of Shadow Of The Tomb Raider, and the result is a game that will not only challenge your skills—it will test your nerve.

This is the final entry in Lara’s origins trilogy, and the team plan to go out with a bang. We headed over to their Montreal studio last month to see what the team has been working on, play the game, and ask them about their vision for this explosive finale. The result is a game that will feel familiar to fans of the series, but that shows clear evolution in narrative and style.

“You’re always asked what is your game in a sentence,” explains Dan Bisson, Shadow’s creative director. “At the time, the head of Eidos Montreal and the head of Crystal Dynamics challenged me to pitch in one word. My answer was ‘fear’.” It seeps into everything—the world around you is scarier, the tombs are more terrifying, and Lara herself is a figure to dread.

That starts with Lara’s new abilities, weapons, and skills, all of which reflect the game world. This time, Miss Croft is journeying into Mexico and Peru, following clues that lead to ancient Mayan and Incan ruins buried deep in the jungles of South America. The team also teased a huge hub world—the biggest hub they’ve ever made—for Lara to explore. Everywhere you go, the world is looking to kill you; Lara and Trinity are like a virus here, and the jungle is doing its best to push them out.