Last week at Gamescom Crystal Dynamics’ global brand director Karl Stewart told Eurogamer that the second half of Tomb Raider will be less bleak and feature a “stronger” Lara Croft than what was shown in the E3 demos and trailers.
“You’ll see a side to Lara that everyone’s been waiting for. As she comes out the other side [of the game’s first section that was shown at E3] she’s stronger for it… It’s not purposefully going out of the way to break her down mentally – she’d never become the person we want her to. Every single twist or turn makes you feel like we’re setting up motivation for her to become the character we want.”
The comments were a response to the controversy surrounding the “attempted rape” scene that was demoed last June at E3, and executive producer Ron Rosenberg’s later “misstatement” that those “challenges” will make players want to “protect” Lara.
Stewart added that the studio is attempting to have the player feel the “specific emotion” in a “kill or be killed” situation. To that end, he has assured players that “nothing whatsoever” in the game was altered after the E3 controversy broke out.
By the end of the game Stewart promised that we will see Lara become more like the character that fans love, and that she “will be set up for the future”. However, Stewart warned that “she still won’t be like the Lara at the beginning of Tomb Raider 1″ and will retain the qualities that Crystal Dynamics is adding to the character in this reboot.
Tomb Raider is set to release on March 5, 2013 for the PC, PS3, and Xbox 360.
