As part of Tomb Raider‘s 25th anniversary celebrations, Square Enix has released footage from its cancelled game, Tomb Raider: Ascension. The horror title, which was in development at Crystal Dynamics, later became the 2013 reboot.
In addition to footage, Square Enix also released videos of Tomb Raider: Ascension‘s concept art and proposed branding. Check out all three videos along with their official descriptions below.
Check out footage from Tomb Raider: Ascension, which took Tomb Raider deep into survival horror territory during the exploratory phases of what would eventually become the 2013 reboot. It was through Ascension that the team homed in on telling an origin story through the lens of survival.
The name ‘Ascension’ stuck around for a while after Crystal narrowed in on the idea of an origin story. Here you can see some early explorations of branding and box art for the reimagining of Lara’s first adventure, paired with early exploratory VO aimed to capture the tone for the difficult journey ahead of her. Soon, a survivor would be born.
After narrowing in on the concept of a survival story on a remote island, Crystal began developing what was internally called Tomb Raider: Ascension. At one point, Ascension felt closer to a horror game than a Tomb Raider title. Eventually the concept evolved into the origin story told in the 2013 reboot, keeping the key survival components with a dash of supernatural terror. Check out some early concepts from Tomb Raider’s dark beginnings.
Tomb Raider: Ascension sought inspiration from the works of Sony’s Team Ico. At some point during development, Crystal Dynamics began to doubt the project, and ultimately decided to scrap it in favor of the reboot story, which went on to become a hit.
To learn more about Tomb Raider: Ascension, we recommend reading this detailed article published by Trusted Reviews back in 2015.
