Rise Of The Tomb Raider's Setting Revealed

New details have emerged for Crystal Dynamics' upcoming third-person action-adventure title, Rise of the Tomb Raider. We get to learn about the new day and night cycle, the weather system and a bit more about the gameplay mechanics in the much-anticipated sequel to the 2013 outing.

GameSpot scoured through a recent interview on Game Informer where they managed to squeeze a bit of info out of game director Brian Horton, who explains what some of the new changes in the game will be.

Lara Croft will have access to multiple bows this time around. I'm guessing upgradeable bows might be in the cards? No complaints here about more ways to shoot arrows, or shoot arrows better.

Rise of the Tomb Raider will also sport a new day and night cycle. This means that players will have to be wary of certain ecological systems and mechanics tied to the day and night cycle, which is kind of cool, almost like Far Cry. Added to this, various animals will only come out during certain times of the day, so if you're going to be hunting an animal you'll actually have to keep track of the time to get the best vantage point.

Moreover, the animals will now leave tracks in the snow or the ground surface. I imagine it's going to be a less obvious version of the tracking done in Evolve. Players will have to use the tracks to find and kill various animals. It's further noted that some of the tracks can be obscured by weather such as snow. Although, it's also mentioned that Lara will travel to other locations, so I wonder if animals in desert areas will have their tracks covered by sand? I guess we'll find out as the game draws nearer to release.

The team is also working hard to bring avalanches and weather effects to life. I don't exactly know why, but aiming for realism is a key component to the team's developmental efforts. There's an Xbox One joke in there about the hardware and realistic graphics effects that I'll leave to others to suss out.

According to Horton...

By not going with one single look throughout the game, Horton mentions that Lara will travel to exotic locations, dense forests and “dusty sandscapes”. I do wonder if in the more arid locales, Lara will don her trademark outfit? Or would that attract one too many claims of sexism and more controversy that Crystal Dynamics and Square Enix don't need right now? I guess we'll find out how daring the team will be willing to go to resurface some of the traits that made Tomb Raider famous in the first place.

Horton also mentions that we won't be seeing a Batman-style Lara in Rise of the Tomb Raider. The team is going for a more human and broken character, with the game director saying...

Rise of the Tomb Raider will launch first on the Xbox 360 and Xbox One later this year, possibly as a contender against Naughty Dog's Uncharted 4 for the PS4.