During the State of Unreal 2022 presentation, Crystal Dynamics teased us with an announcement of a new Tomb Raider game.While the developer hasn't given us anything visual to get excited about, it did drop enough information to paint a good picture of what we can expect from the new Tomb Raider game; here's what we know so far.

New Tomb Raider Announced

The latest Tomb Raider game was announced near the end of the State of Unreal 2022 presentation, teasing the use of Unreal Engine 5.

During this, the Tomb Raider franchise general manager, Dallas Dickinson, announced that the next Tomb Raider game would feature a "high-quality, cinematic, action-adventure experience".

What Can We Expect From the New Tomb Raider Game?

Undoubtedly, one of the most exciting parts of the announcement was the news that the new Tomb Raider game is being developed with Unreal Engine 5, the next version of one of the most powerful game engines on the planet.

Considering what we've already seen from Unreal Engine 4, it's hard to expect anything less than a visual masterpiece. Looking at the Unreal Engine 5 website, there are some clear advantages to UE5 that show us a little of what we can expect to see from a new Tomb Raider game.

Nanite and Lumen are two of the new features stated, which Unreal Engine claims will provide a "generational leap in visual fidelity".

Other features—like Temporal Super Resolution, which claims to increase visual fidelity without having as much impact on frames per second (FPS)—are an exciting move and could indicate the new Tomb Raider game will adopt these.

When Can We Expect the New Tomb Raider Game?

Crystal Dynamics is clearly looking to expand its team in preparation for the new Tomb Raider game, as well as recruiting for several roles.

It has recently hired Jeff Ross, the former game director for Days Gone. Could this be a move to strengthen the team and aim for a release date sooner than we might expect?

During the announcement, Dallas Dickinson stated "We are thrilled to announce today, that we have just started development of our next Tomb Raider game". Since he said that development had only just started, it's safe to say that the game is still in its very early stages.

Development for Shadow of the Tomb Raider started in 2015 and ended in 2018. So with that in mind, and the team learning a new version of the Unreal Engine, it would be right to assume it's unlikely to be released in 2022 or 2023, but hopefully, we can expect a trailer much sooner.

An Exciting Future for Tomb Raider

Although we still don't have solid information about when we can expect to see a new Tomb Raider game, the choice to move it to Unreal Engine 5 shows that Crystal Dynamics is pushing to once again evolve the Tomb Raider series.

That in itself is something worth being excited about.