Details may have been scarce since the game was unveiled and shown behind closed doors at E3 last year, but things are progressing well with the new Tomb Raider reboot. In fact things at Crystal Dynamics have been going so smoothly that it has been revealed that Tomb Raider has now reached the all-important Alpha stage which could mean we’ll see Lara Croft return sooner rather than later.
The Tomb Raider development update was given in the latest episode of the Crystal Dynamics podcast in which Kyle Peschel and art director Brian Horto revealed that the game had entered the Alpha stage. It may not sound like much, but when a game enters Alpha it’s a pretty big deal as that means all the key content is locked down and the game is playable start to finish, baring a few minor rough patches that need to be ironed out.
Kyle and Brian didn’t expand upon much outside of the Alpha update and mentioning that the combat will play a major role in the new E3 demo. The game is likely to enter the Beta phase in four months, which would roughly mean that development could be done by June. Tomb Raider publisher Square Enix still hasn’t given us an update as to when we’ll see Lara Croft return, though original estimates had the game dropping in the Fall given it’s a marquee title.
As of now with how development seems to be progressing it could be possible that we’ll see Tomb Raider be released in the mid-Summer/early Fall period. If Square Enix follows the same pattern that they did by releasing Deus Ex: Human Revolution in late August it could raise interest in Tomb Raider tenfold due to not having much competition and gamers being hungry for something to play.
This update on Tomb Raider may not be that epic, it would be nice to see some fresh game footage that sans Lara’s porn moans, but it at least signifies that there haven’t been any major hurdles during development. Gamers may not be entirely sold on the new direction that is being taken with Tomb Raider given some design elements that were in the E3 demo such as convenient placement of explosive barrels and quick time events, but I’m sure the overall level of quality will be good based on the previous Square Enix titles we’ve seen thus far.
