Coming almost 15 years after its initial release date, a brand new Tomb Raider meant for the 10th anniversary of the original game has finally been released in one way or another. This ironically comes right alongside the availability of Shadow of the Tomb Raider on PSPlus, making it the second big pseudo-release for the series within the first week of 2021.
A video of this previously unreleased version of Tomb Raider has been released alongside a new way for players to pick the game up for themselves on PC, though not exactly through legitimate means. So, players may wish to download at their own discretion when looking for copies of the game's files to continue forward with.
The game itself is actually the remnant of a Tomb Raider: 10th Anniversary Edition that was originally being developed by Core Design and intended to release back in 2006, when the original would have turned 10 years old. From the Alpha footage that has been released, it would appear that the game itself hadn't really been fully developed by the time the project was scrapped. However, some players on Tomb of Ash, the website where the current build of the Tomb Raider remake is being hosted, have been updating the newly released title with patches since its files were first archived.
From the look of the game, and judging by its intended release date, the Tomb Raider: 10th Anniversary Edition was meant to bring the game up to PS2 graphical quality. While the graphics look dated now, the comparison to the original PlayStation version of the game is impressive. A lot of the original aesthetic is still in tact, but the color pallets have been touched up, Lara Croft has been remodeled, and the overall height of characters and areas has been scaled up to be more in line with games released around the same time.
Had the game been able to release for the intended 10th anniversary, then this may have been a great way for PS2 players to be introduced to the Tomb Raider series. Considering that Core Design, the original studio that created Tomb Raider and this remake, went defunct only a few years later, this could have been a determining factor for the developer eventually losing funding. Of course, there are many factors that eventually led to the end of the series and the company that created it, but a reinvigoration brought on by this new release and the PSPlus promotion may incentivize for the series to continue again.
Tomb Raider: 10th Anniversary Edition is available on PC.