One of the Tomb Raider reboot’s most interesting decisions was to relegate many of the puzzles – and by extension, actual tomb raiding – to optional tombs, which you could just run past with no penalty for missing them. Naturally, if you were focused on completing the game and progressing the story, you might’ve just avoided them altogether.
In an interview with Game Informer, the game’s creative director Noah Hughes has stated that the team at Crystal Dynamics have been listening to the feedback, and it looks like we’ll be getting more of those “secret” tombs in the new title, although there will be even more of an incentive to complete them:
“Puzzles are an important part of the Tomb formula, so we’re excited to have more tombs in the game, featuring more puzzles,
“You’ll still see a spectrum of difficulty for puzzles, so some of the secret tombs are larger and in some cases might have more difficult puzzles, but we’re trying to put them in the game in a ramped kind of way.”
He went on to state that they “don’t want average players getting into stalemates” so are bringing back “nested puzzles” – essentially a collection of smaller puzzles across a room or area which serve to complete a larger puzzle, and that’s something that we saw in the older Tomb Raider titles.
Rise of the Tomb Raider will launch exclusively later this year for Xbox 360 and Xbox One, though will likely soon follow on PlayStation consoles and PC, after the timed exclusivity expires.
Source: Game Informer, via Eurogamer
Kennykazey
I’d love additional optional Tombs with higher difficulty puzzles.
94jdh
It needs to go back to its roots, where it was about unknown grand unexplored tombs. Walking into a vast cave/tomb where you could barely see the other side and the classical music score. It might have been quite linear and awkward in places but it kept you going back for more and was a sense of achievement when you completed the challenges.
ppchen
salomon台灣