Someone purporting to be an Eidos insider has given some details and artwork about the future of the Tomb Raider franchise to the website 4PlayerCoop, which then said that the images were taken down at the request of developer Crystal Dynamics.
The materials showed a more athletic, less buxom Lara Croft riding horseback, wielding a bow and arrows and fighting off zombie-like enemies.
According to the article, the unnamed source said that the game would be an open-world, survival-horror title, featuring a new combat system and telling the origin of the acrobatic adventurer.
Whether this particular story is real or a hoax, it wouldn't be a surprise that some kind of a reboot for the Tomb Raider franchise is in the works. The disappointing sales of 2008's Underworld, the latest title in the series, resulted in layoffs at the developer.
Eidos CFO Robert Brent had told The Times (London) earlier this year that the company was considering revising the look of the franchise to make it more "female-friendly," though it was unclear as to what he thought that might entail.
Lara Croft is one of the most renowned female protagonists in videogames, first making a splash in 1996 with the focus on her, ahem, breast size. Then again, she's also famous for her acrobatics-laden archaeological adventures, especially due to the crop of recent films starring Angelina Jolie.
But is Lara's look really the problem behind her games' flagging sales, or is it simply the gameplay?
[via Kotaku]
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