Coming Soon: Shadow of the Tomb Raider

It was inevtible. With Alicia Vikander respawning the Tomb Raider film franchise; out very soon; there's no timing like the present to "leak" the release of a new game. At least it doesn't look like it will be a film tie-in; instead, Shadow of the Tomb Raider will be the conclusion of Lara Croft's origin story arc.

The media coverage of this 'surprise' is... well, surprising; given that months ago, the official Tomb Raider twitter account and associated developers hinted at a new title; not withstanding a chap on a train, somewhere in the world, revealing the game's existence even earlier, in November via a power point presentation.

Given the excellence of the last two titles in the "Origin" series; the gaming community has high hopes for Shadow of the Tomb Raider; which doesn't look like it will have any competition, in its field; given its leaked release date of September 14, 2018. Hidden in the source code:

What most mainstream media missed (in copying the articles from each other), is the fact that there also seems to be a game built into the source code, with a button stating "Let's Play the Puzzle", currently unpublished.

With no Uncharted game on the release calendar for that same timeframe, and a fairly bleak September release calendar ahead of a jam-packed October in the rush to the holiday period, Shadow of the Tomb Raider should do well commercially.

Except there's one thing. The latest in the series doesn't have the same development pedigree behind it. Crystal Dynamics, developers of the Tomb Raider and Rise of the Tomb Raider titles, aren't in on the shadowy stuff. Instead, the work has been left to a far more (literally) shadowy developer, with the studio behind Thief, Deus Ex: Human Revolution and the woeful Mankind Divided to be employed in the development role.

With Mankind Divided plagued by optimisation issues (in contrast to the excellent engine, interface, and scalability of the Crystal Dynamics engine) - this poses a significant threat to the success of this final title in the series - jittery, inconsistent frame rates, strange shadows, and glitches won't cut it for a fast paced action adventure platformer that involves completing death defying jumps, grapples, and swings over otherwise fatal landscapes.

I am still keen to see what comes of the title, and from what we've got so far, it looks like it has something to do with an eclipse, shadows, and of course, Lara Croft, as the titular Tomb Raider.