It's Not That Lara Croft Can't Swim in the New Tomb Raider, Just That She Won't

In what will surely be a shudder inducing blow to Brad's hype level for the new Tomb Raider, Crystal Dynamics Karl Stewart announced via Twitter Q&A that there will be no swimming in the newest iteration of the game. Adding later, on his own account “Just to be clear Lara hasn't FORGOTTEN how to swim! We just made the decision NOT to have her swim in this @tombraider.”

I'm not sure if that's supposed to make fans of underwater exploration feel any better, or possibly leave the option open for DLC and future games, but there you have it.

Removing underwater exploration might seem like a small thing for some, but it does remove a large facet of exploration that can go way beyond the soil-based terrain we're used to. And considering that the new game takes place in a heavily-watered area, there certainly would have been ample opportunity for it. Truly, underwater swimming when done right can add a tremendous amount of freedom to a game -even if it is only the perception of it- as we found most recently in Darksiders II. Done wrong, however, and it can also be a technical nightmare and source of supreme frustration for the gamer.

Maybe it was just too big of a chance to take.