Tomb Raider Creative Director Talks Reboot, Instinct and Changes

Noah Hughes, creative director Crystal Dynamics, talked with Simon Bramble from the Sony Playstation Blog about what changes will affect everyone’s favorite adventure archaeologist, Lara Croft.

Here’s a clip from the interview

How does it feel to be bringing Lara back in a brand new take on the Tomb Raider series?

Noah Hughes: It’s an honour really, to be able to not only work with Lara Croft and Tomb Raider, but also to be able to reboot the franchise. I’ve been at [developer] Crystal Dynamics for a while now, and we’ve had the pleasure of making a few games starring Lara. We’ve learned a lot. To be able to distil everything we want to do with the franchise into an entirely fresh take is inspiring.

So it’s a totally new direction for the series?

NH: It is. It’s a reboot and not directly related to the timeline of Lara as such, but it will touch on familiar elements of her character. You’ll see her grow into the hero figure that fans know and love.

Is it going to reference the events of past games at all?

NH: It starts a whole different timeline. There’s not necessarily an assumption it will connect directly to past events. We are projecting our own Lara, taking this origins story, recreating and her launching her off into a new adventure. We love catering to some of the fan favourites, but we’re not beholden to all of the story points within the series. We like playing with the signature Tomb Raider themes from this new angle.

I saw the use of an Instinct system in the game, similar to [fellow Square Enix title] Hitman: Absolution. Is that the result of sharing between studios?

NH: We actually share a lot of assets between studios. The guys at [Hitman: Absolution developer] IO Interactive are such a talented bunch. Having said that, the idea of the Lara’s intuition, this detective-like ability, is something we’ve admired in a number of games, but what’s important to us is the way fans play through this tale of survival. We’re really going to be selling this idea of Lara fighting and scraping through the unknown.

To Read the full interview head off to the Playstation European blog: Interview With Tomb Raider Creative Director