CrystalD Fansite Newsletter: 2/20/15

Weekly questions from the community.

Q: Will all abilities learned in Tomb Raider's reboot be available in the beginning of the next game?

A: Game Informer's coverage of ROTTR discusses how upgrades have been improved to deepen the survival theme and systems in our game. As with Tomb Raider (2013), you'll need to earn XP to learn new skills, and additionally find crafting ingredients of varying rarity to upgrade your weapons and tools. We'll go deeper into these systems at a later date.

Q: Will we see Lara transforming from young to adult in this game or will we start with an adult Lara, much like classic Lara?

A: The game takes place approximately one year after the events of Tomb Raider 2013. Lara Croft is a changed woman, as what she witnessed, and the actions she was forced to take to protect herself and her crewmates, has taken a toll. While she's still learning about herself and what she's capable of, she's also grown and become more confident in her abilities. She will continue to transform throughout Rise of the Tomb Raider, as she faces survival situations and scenarios that will push her limits.

Q: Will dual pistols return in Rise of the Tomb Raider or in the future?

A: Lara's new signature weapons are those that fit the survival theme and have multiple uses. Both her bow and axe can be used as a tool or a weapon, and additionally offer stealth takedowns in combat. These make them thematically a strong choice for Lara Croft. As to whether Lara's twin pistols will ever return, we never say never, but aren't providing details at this time.

Q: Are you going to use TressFX 3.0 and Direct X12 in ROTTR?

A: We haven't released details on this yet, but rest assured we're looking forward to sharing more about the tech we're using.

Q: You said Crystal have sent screenshots and artwork of the game to GI. Did they show all the images on their magazine? Or there's maybe more and they are about to show them sometime this month?

A: We can't go into details about what we've given press as the coverage is ongoing. After the month of features is complete we can provide a round-up of all assets.

Q: During the release of rebooted Tomb Raider in 2013, you told fans many times that this was a reboot and a fresh start of the series. So, where does Temple of Osiris fit in? Is Lara from LCTOO the rebooted Lara? Or classic Lara?

A: Currently we have two brands that feature Lara Croft as a character – the Tomb Raider brand, and the Lara Croft brand. Moving forward, any game titled "Tomb Raider" will star the new, rebooted Lara Croft and continue the narrative from our 2013 title. This Lara is also featured in the Dark Horse comics, and Brady Games' Ten Thousand Immortals.

With the debut of LCTOO, we cemented the Lara Croft brand as a nostalgic tribute to classic Croft and the early Tomb Raider games.

These two brands exist independent of each other, and do not take place in the same timeline. Rebooted Lara will not necessarily "grow up" to be Lara from Temple of Osiris. However, from time to time we may have some content crossovers – such as the Tomb Raider 2013 costume packs in LCTOO.

Q: Will you consider to publish GoL in box edition too? Maybe some dual pack with LCTOO? There is only one box edition of GoL in the world, the German.

A: There are no plans to do so at this time, but we always listen to our fans so if it's something that is of great interest we'll consider it.

Questions we can't answer at this time:

While we're as eager to talk about Rise of the Tomb Raider as you are to learn about it, there are some topics we're not ready to tackle just yet. If you asked one of the below, we'll keep track of your questions and revisit those we're able to.

Will there be exploration under water?

Will there be a space/ level where Lara's house appears in this game?

Is a multiplayer option coming to Rise of the Tomb Raider?

Will there be cooperative mode in story mode like Resident Evil 6?

Is Rise of the Tomb Raider being developed for any platforms other than the Xbox One and Xbox 360?

Will there be story-driven DLC for ROTTR? Will there be 20-year celebration DLC for Rise of the Tomb Raider?

We welcome you to continue sending us your Lara Croft, Tomb Raider and Crystal Dynamics related questions to community@crystald.com. We will continue to answer what we can week by week and archive what we can't answer yet for future reference.