Tomb Raider 2012 CGI trailer shows Lara’s survival instincts kicking in

15 June 2011

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Posted by:Josh Romero

Tomb Raider 2012‘s E3 2011 official trailer gives you one heck of a punch in the gut and showcases, in absolute CG beauty, the kind of abrasive, impactful and ultimately life-threatening situations that the new Tomb Raider plans to give gamers when it launches next year.

Developed by Crystal Dynamics and published by Square Enix (who bought the rights from the game when they bought out previous publisher Eidos in 2009), Tomb Raider (self-titled, no subtitle) seeks to rebirth the franchise in a reboot that will focus on intense, life-changing situations that see Lara Croft having to use her wits, will, intelligence and logic to survive situations that would leave others dead.

As you can see from this CG trailer for Tomb Raider 2012 from E3 2011 where we see how Lara Croft ends up stranded on an island… alone.

To that end, the focus is slanted towards extreme realism, and the high-fidelity graphics and animation allow Lara Croft to move, react and interact with her claustrophobic and deadly environments like never before. Contextual button presses allow Lara to interact with the world around her (such as using a shoulder button to hold a torch over a flame to light it); but the real centerpiece of this Tomb Raider reboot comes from the little touches. The way Lara winces in pain, huffs, puffs and yelps as she is hurt, holds her arm, stomach or side, gets visibly bruised and bloodied, and audibly talks to herself about her surroundings… Ultimately having her survival instinct kick in to lead her out of her killer situation.

It all adds up to something that’s mightily impressive. And all in all I think the game looks absolutely astounding.

Here is some gameplay footage from E3 2011.

You can see even more in-depth discussions and gameplay footage of Tomb Raider from this stage demo.