Lara Croft is a true icon. The best-selling heroine of video games. She has captured our imagination with her globetrotting adventures and iconic outfits for more than 20 years. But there's one thing missing from Lara throughout her many escapades: a realistic physical appearance. That changes significantly with "Tomb Raider: The Dagger of Xian," a fan remake painstakingly created by somebody named Nicobass and other fans using the Unreal Engine 4.
Somehow, The Lara We See in The Remake Reminds Us of Another Lara
The resemblance between the new Lara and the Lara we have seen in slot games is unmistakable. In fact, it's hard to discard the possibility that developers may have taken some inspiration from various casino online slots that have the Tomb Raider and Lara Croft theme embedded into their story line.
A sign of how well-made the fan remake is, Crystal Dynamics, which has been developing Tomb Raider since 2003, has given its approval for the remake as long as it is not for profit. The PC version of the game is available to download for free at this link. This is a game that will surely be worth your time if you are looking for an updated and realistic version of the classic Lara that we all know.
Lara Now Looks More Like A Human
It may be a tiny remake, but it's still worth noting how Nicobass and his team of fans managed to make Lara look so much more realistic than she was in the official games. In this fan edition, Lara wears a new outfit that looks different from her original one from the 1997 release. But it's the same Lara with the same adventures in which a mythological Chinese dagger is used to turn its bearer into a dragon.
In contrast to the original release, this remake is meant to mimic current-generation graphics to have a better aesthetic appeal. Lara's shape is slightly more lifelike in this remake, but her form may still be unrecognizable by an average person. Nicobass and his colleagues took five years to finish the partial remake. You can see they have put a lot of time into replicating Lara's enjoyable exploration experience from the original game, and it pays off in spades - for old-school Tomb Raider fans who miss watching their protagonist wade through the water while managing to avoid fish that think she looks like dinner.
The remake's tweaks include an alternative outfit for Lara and additional character models in the rewards menu. The environment also looks a little different, with the water looking bluer than the murky green of the original game. The adjustments to Lara's physique and even her swimming and walking gestures are more human-like.
With new water simulation and volumetric lighting, they all make the whole game more natural, and that looks like something that should have been made by Square Enix Europe's Crystal Dynamics. Along with a new outfit for Lara, the remake also features a white decal to highlight climbable areas. Players have the option to turn off these new features and opt for the older version. You can see a side-by-side comparison in this video.
* This is a sponsored article.
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