Tomb Raider Gameplay Teaser Channels Uncharted

Next week, a full-length gameplay trailer for Tomb Raider will be aired on GameTrailers TV. To tide us over until then, GTTV has sent out a short teaser. The video should look a bit familiar to those of you who play the Uncharted games.

In the video, Lara Croft walks across a log over a deep ravine and then climbs up the wreckage of an old airplane. The reason it reminds me of Uncharted is the platforming. It seems more, I don't know, organic than previous Tomb Raider games. In the other Tomb titles, you were just jumping from interactive ledge to interactive ledge. However, this game makes it feel like you're walking through one continuous world. There are still "rails" in this world, no doubt, but the interactive and noninteractive elements are blended more convincingly.

This trailer also demonstrates the newer, more grounded Lara of the reboot. The character was a little too perfect in other TR games: the billionaire adventurer with a supermodel physique who can gun down a pack of wolves while backflipping. The rebooted version is still quite attractive but she's more vulnerable. Here, we see her dirtied and wounded. This less idealized version of Lara seems to fit the "struggle for survival" concept of this game.

The full trailer will air during GTTV's May 31st episode. The episode will air at 10PM PST on Spike TV. Tomb Raider itself isn't due until 2013, though.