Shadow of the Raider Becomes Gold

Shadow of the Tomb Raider has reached a new developmental milestone. Square Enix and developer Eidos Montreal have announced that their game has ‘gone gold’, which in their lingo means that the game has completed development.

“Shadow of the Tomb Raider has gone gold”, says the announcement, “Lara’s defining moment is out of @EidosMonetreal’s hard working hands and on its way to manufacturing.”

The official Tomb Raider Twitter handle posted a picture of the Eidos Montreal team celebrating the completion of their project. The game will now enter a new manufacturing cycle in which it will be mass-produced for the physical version.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider will launch on September 14 for PlayStation 4, PC and Xbox One. There are rumors that Eidos Montreal may still be working on content for the game’s Season Pass. They announced previously that the Season Pass will come with seven “Paths” that will include new missions, Challenge Tombs and a lot more exciting challenges.

Breaking away from the norm

It is a surprising feat for any developer to complete their game ahead of schedule. This gives Crystal Dynamics plenty of time to provide finishing touches to the game, although nothing of substance has been confirmed yet. It also stands to reason that the team will be able to spot any major bugs in their game.

About the game

The story will take place after the events of Rise of the Tomb Raider, and Lara Croft will be go on an expedition to Latin America in search for a Mayan relic which she believes has a connection to her father. During the expedition, Lara inadvertently triggers a Mayan apocalypse, and finds herself in a race to save the world.

Just like its predecessor, Rise of the Tomb raider, the new iteration will be an action adventure game played from the third person perspective of Lara Croft. The game will be set in the hidden city of Paititi. Players can participate in both the main story and side quests to learn about the city to create a richer experience.

To make the game more authentic, a new barter system will allow players to trade resources and salvage parts and weapons. A lot of adjustments and tweaks have been made to the gameplay, which is otherwise very identical to Rise. Some of the controls have been completely revamped, this is especially true for swimming where Lara will now be able to hold her breath underwater for longer durations.

Lara gains the ability to climb down a cliff using a rope. Stealth remains an important part of the game, and will require players to devise innovative strategies to get the better of enemies. There will be more tombs in the game than previous installments.

The new approach will give players unparallel options to tailor their gameplay experience, because each aspect of the game including exploration, puzzles, and combat will have their own unique difficulty settings. A new feature called “Immersion Mode” will enable players to eavesdrop on the background conversations between NPCs in their native languages.