credit: Mofobian.com

So to say that I’m a fan of Tomb Raider would be a slight understatement; owning all the games, the movies, T-shirts and even a life size Lara Croft (I wish I was joking), I may be just a little excited about the upcoming reboot!

Originally scheduled for release in Autumn this year, Tomb Raider was pushed back by Crystal Dynamics to allow for some extra development time. Now, ahead of this years E3, we have a new trailer and a confirmed release date: March 5th 2013!

The trailer reveals a little more than was seen in last years gameplay demo. We are introduced to a few more characters and some key plot lines are revealed. The game’s visuals are truly stunning, opting for a far grittier, realer Tomb Raider than has been seen before. Lara is more delicate, not the hardened stone-cold killer from Tomb Raider of old. She is faced with moral dilemmas when placed in kill or be killed scenarios with wild creatures, and perhaps more notably, with humans.

Gameplay wise, we can see the use of a cover system similar to that found in the Uncharted series. I doubt developers Crystal Dynamics will shy away from this comparison however, after all… no Tomb Raider, no Uncharted; it’s that simple.

This isn’t the first time we have seen new gameplay styles make their way into the series. The often criticised Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness introduced an RPG element to the franchise, forcing Lara to have to ‘level up’ her strength in order to progress past certain obstacles. The Harry Potter sounding Lara Croft and The Guardian of Light was pehaps the biggest departure for the series, abandoning it’s traditional platform based gameplay (and the Tomb Raider title) for top down, arcade-shooter action instead!

Excited for the new Tomb Raider? Let us know your thought in the comments below, and look out for are upcoming feature taking a look at the series over the coming weeks!