Tomb Raider Reboot Telling Lara's Origin Story

Lara Croft's origin story is to be told by Crystal Dynamics in a reboot of the action-adventure series, announced today by publisher Square Enix, which sounds awfully like the Tomb Raider game concept leaked in July 2009.

"After a brutal storm destroys the boat she was travelling on, a frightened young woman is left washed ashore on an unknown beach," said Square Enix. "On her own but not alone she has only one goal, to survive." Very few other details were given as, thoughtfully, they're all being saved to reveal in the January issue of Game Informer magazine.

In the leaked design document, however, a young Lara was stranded on an island off the shores of Japan, where she'd have open-world adventures with survival elements, scavenging for supplies to "Evade, outsmart, track and kill the mysterious enemies that hunt you as prey." Given that what we do know seems to line up perfectly, it's surely the same game, though do bear in mind that a lot could have changed over the past year.

No mention was made of a release date for the game named simply Tomb Raider or platforms. A rumour in June this year suggested that it'd be out in the 2011 holiday season. Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 releases seem inevitable, at a bare minimum. The most recent TR title, Lara Croft on the Guardian of Light, was also released on PC, which would conveniently double up as a spot of brand-rebuilding on the platform.