Though it’s fairly customary for tombs to have water in which to swim, and many past Tomb Raider games have featured underwater exploration, the upcoming reboot from Crystal Dynamics will not feature any swimming.
The reason for this is more simple that it might appear at first. Rather than muck around with a historically spotty mechanic, Crystal Dynamics simply chose not to have Lara Croft swim. She didn’t forget–she just doesn’t do it. This was confirmed earlier today on the official Tomb Raider Twitter account by the Crystal Dynamics Global Brand Director Karl Stewart. Personally, I’m OK with this, since I’ve never really enjoyed swimming in games, not even in this series. Here, there was going to be a joke about wet clothes.
What about you? Is this decision going to benefit the game, or is being unable to go swimming going to break the game? Tell us in the comments, or tell us how excited you are for the game’s March release in our forums!