Video Games

Next Tomb Raider game will be open world and set in India, claims leaker

Looks like Lara Croft's next adventure will take a desi detour

Rahul Majumdar

Crystal Dynamics

The next Tomb Raider game may be set in India if the latest rumors are to be believed. The game’s setting, which hasn’t been announced officially, will take the newly designed Lara Croft to northern India in search of Ashoka the Great’s treasures.

The information was shared by V Scooper, a leaker who has a somewhat successful track record when it comes to movies. “A natural disaster strikes northern India revealing ancient emperor Ashoka's ruins and artifacts,” wrote the scooper on X (formerly Twitter). “Lara strategically races against a Society of Raiders and other rivals for these powerful relics.”

“The Society of Raiders are inspired by Lara yet unaffiliated and might have some opposite agendas. This also relates to a new feature based on recruiting teams and allies to strategically aid you in missions and defeating rivals.”

V Scooper went on to claim that the game will feature a “non-lethal combat option.” The game will also seemingly feature a fully open-world map, with Lara's traversal tools including a motorcycle and a parachute.

Of course, the source is questionable on this one so we advise you to take it with a grain of salt. It's also not specified which cities the game will take place in. Depending on that, the experience of exploring modern India will vary as Ashoka's empire stretched across the subcontinent. The ruling capital of the Maurya Empire was in Paliputra (now Patna), located in Bihar, so that might be featured in a significant way.

We know that the next game will be set after the conclusion of Shadow of the Tomb Raider. The game is being developed by Crystal Dynamics, which is now a part of the proposed “Middle-earth Enterprises & Friends” following Embracer Group’s division. Crystal Dynamics officially confirmed that a fourth game was in development in 2021, though no specific details were revealed. It will be published by Amazon Games.

Given that it was announced over three years ago, the next Tomb Raider will likely release sooner rather than later. There's a high chance of an official reveal coming this June at the Summer Game Fest. We'll just have to wait and see. The game is being developed using Unreal Engine 5, which is a departure from the Foundation Engine that powered the latest trilogy.

If you haven’t played the reboot of the franchise, it’s currently free on Prime Gaming. All three games of the modern trilogy are also available on Xbox Game Pass for console and PC. Regardless of whether the game is announced this year or not, there are plenty of Lara Croft adventures coming our way across film, TV, and gaming.

Fleabag star Phoebe Waller-Bridge is developing a live-action Tomb Raider series, while the animated Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft series is releasing on Netflix later this year. If you prefer the classic games, Tomb Raider 1-3 Remastered just released on all platforms earlier this year.

Interestingly, dj2 Entertainment CEO Dmitri Johnson, who's also an executive producer on the upcoming live-action series, recently revealed more information about the future of the franchise.

"There's a franchise we're working on that I can't get too deep into where we are trying to do animation, live-action film, live-action TV, a trilogy of games that are being built in Unreal 5 and looking at if there's a way to use assets that are being created on the games side to maybe help expedite things on the live-action production side," said Johnson at an SXSW panel.

This is the first time that a new trilogy has been mentioned regarding the Tomb Raider franchise. Could this have been a slip up? Only time will tell.

The title and release date for the next Tomb Raider game is yet to be announced officially.

Published
Rahul Majumdar

RAHUL MAJUMDAR

Rahul is a writer and filmmaker from India, currently navigating the entertainment industry in Mumbai. With a keen interest in film, video games, and the tech that drives them, Rahul has written for multiple outlets like TechQuila, IGN India and IndiaTimes. He has also worked on some shows and films you may or may not have heard of, although he vastly prefers gaming binge-sessions. His favourite games include The Witcher 3 (how original), and Assassin's Creed games of yore, and he's trying his best to get into more Nintendo games. When not rambling about pop culture in blogs, you can usually find him doing the same in bite-sized chunks over at Twitter (or whichever platform is popular at the moment)!