As videogames have evolved to a point where they’re now more of a narrative-driven, interactive entertainment experience, one of the major differences between the games of today and the ones from more than a decade ago is in the area of difficulties where most titles in the current era of gaming allow for a more malleable and encouraging experience than many games that came out 15 or 20 years ago. And so when developing a remake of a much older title, one of the aspects that needs to be overhauled is the difficulty to help provide a more suitable experience to today’s players.
And according to developer Crystal Dynamics, the upcoming remake or reimagining of Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis will have it’s difficulty adjusted for modern players to ensure an overall enjoyable and satisfying experience. Crystal Dynamics’ game director Will Kerslake said to GamesRadar: “part of reimagining a game right is adjusting that game evolving for modern player tastes.”
However, he also stated that the core gameplay elements which were present in the original, will be preserved in the modernized version as well as “there are puzzles in combat and traversal and death-defying action.” Also, players will “see big rolling balls, and you know, the things that you expect in a Tomb Raider game are going to be there in spades”.
So yes, even though Tomb Raider: Legacy will have it’s difficulty toned down to suit the playstyles of most gamers today, it will not compromise on many other challenging elements of the gameplay that were present in the original title. Overall it’s a really sensible way of remaking a classic title for a whole new generation of players without taking away any of the elements that made it special back when it originally came out.
It’s important to note that the Anniversary edition of Tomb Raider had implemented a rather neat workaround for the original game’s difficulty where multiple quick-time events were added to help the players get through many insta-kill sequences.
