Raid tombs ’90s style with low-poly Lara

Square Enix has a special treat for classic Lara Croft fans when Shadow of the Tomb Raider launches on September 14: they’ll be able to play as the ’90s model of the classic heroine, complete with loy polygon body and spikey, protruding chest.

There are few video game characters that have come so far in visual fidelity since their earliest days. Mario is one of the most striking, but then his character was never designed to look realistic. Lara Croft was and though her pointy, blocky design from the original games may look incredibly dated now, at the time, she looked amazingly detailed.

Her debut as a strong, capable woman in games who actually looked like a real woman in a 3D world was the big takeaway. There are far more contemporaries for the character today, but there’s still something special about hearkening back to those earlier days in game development which so excited the PlayStation fanbase at the time.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider won’t be so system-constrained though and will instead be available in both high and low-poly forms on the PS4, Xbox One and PC. To access it, all you’ll need to do is buy the game (no DLC or pre-order bonus required) and select the “outfit” from within the inventory once you’ve reached the first base camp. Everyone will have it, so you don’t need to do anything special to unlock it.

This could lead to some fun snaps in the upcoming game’s photo mode.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider launches on September 14.