TheTomb Raiderseries first had its beginnings in October 1996 on the Sega Saturn in Europe, with the Sony PlayStation and MS-DOS versions releasing the following month. From its humble beginnings,Tomb Raiderhas seen several changes in both developers and reboots over the past several decades. The first major shift was the end of the Core Design era, withTomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness,released in 2003, being the final nail in the coffin. Three years later, Lara Croft received a make-over and retcon with the release ofTomb Raider Legend. Its sequel,Tomb Raider Underworld, was released in 2008. The third, and current, reboot in Lara’s story took place in 2013 starting with the aptly namedTomb Raider.
In 2007, players saw a re-imagining of the originalTomb RaidertitledTomb Raider Anniversaryby Crystal Dynamics. Core Design expressedinterest in remaking the originalgame back in 2005 before the studio lost the license. A few days ago, an alpha build unearthed itself to the public. While veteran fans ofTomb Raidercan appreciate the classic Core Design-basedTomb Raiderdemo complete with upgraded graphics, some fans have had their eyes set on another project that has been three years in the making.
RELATED:Pokemon Fan Shows What Diamond and Pearl Remakes Could Look Like With Unreal Engine
In 2017, fan-creator Nicobass gaveTomb Raiderfans a treat with the 1997 release,Tomb Raider 2in mind. Built from the ground up via Unreal Engine 4,Tomb Raider: Dagger of Xian, is a remake ofTomb Raider 2. It’s far more than a simple remaster, however, as the game is meant to envisionTomb Raider 2with the modern games in mind.
TheDagger of Xianfan project is nothing more than a project created with love from the franchise. Throughout the development history, Nicobass has denied donations and has even reached out to Crystal Dynamics so as to not step on any toes. News has remained stagnant since the public demo was released three years ago, with many thinking that the project was scrapped.
However, over the past several months, Nikobass shared several photos showing off the progress made within the project. A recent tweet shows off Lara’s butler, Winston, in the UE4 build. Nicobass also refers toa humorous easter egg involving the butlerin one of their tweets. InTomb Raider2,as Lara roams around her mansion, the butler can follow her wherever she went. Taking advantage of this, gamers could lure Winston inside of a freezer and lock him inside, preventing him from following Lara. This event was even referenced in modernTomb Raidergames.
With only 150 tweets on his Twitter account at the time of writing, Nicobass rarely makes appearances on social media. However, it comes as great news for fans of the project andTomb Raideralike to see that this project is being worked on. Hopefully, fans can experience another playable demo sometime in the near future. Until then, PlayStation fans still haveShadow of the Tomb Raiderto enjoy for free this month.
