When it was announced that Shadow of the Tomb Raider would be revealed on April 27, everyone was expecting one thing; gameplay footage. Now we know that Shadow of the Tomb Raider gameplay won’t be shown to the public until E3 2018.
When the Shadow of the Tomb Raider website went live on April 27, we didn’t get to see any gameplay footage. We did get some nice screenshots from in-game and we learned a lot about the Season Pass and DLC, but there was no gameplay footage.
Instead, Square Enix and the developers opted to show fans a pre-rendered cinematic trailer. Sure, the trailer was pretty and full of action, but it in no way represents the final product we’ll get to play.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider Gameplay
Why Square Enix chose not to reveal gameplay at this stage is anyone’s guess. It may have been a marketing move, so it could keep something close to the chest as a second reveal. Or it may have been because the gameplay is not quite ready for public consumption.
Either way, it’s a pretty shifty move to promise a reveal and only give fans a look at a pre-rendered trailer and all the different editions they can pre-order.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m all about building hype, but announcing an announcement before showing nothing isn’t all that fair. It hurts the brand more than it does good. Fans are smarter than publishers give them credit for and they should be annoyed that the big reveal boiled down to a cutscene and an advertisement.
We know that gameplay will be revealed at E3 2018 thanks to the Shadow of the Tomb Raider roadmap. Layed out like a Mayan calendar (below) the roadmap covers the first year of Shadow of the Tomb Raider, but sadly, seven of the months are only for DLC. The remainder are for things like the April reveal, gameplay footage at E3 and the game’s launch in September.
The calendar even promises a second gameplay trailer reveal at Gamescom in August. I’m really not sure why Square Enix is so averse to showing off the Shadow of the Tomb Raider gameplay, but let’s hope we get to see a lot more at E3 2018.
For now, we’ll have to be content with looking at the screenshots and watching the pre-rendered trailer.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider launches on September 14, 2018.
