'Tomb Raider' Nearly Got A Full-On Survival-Horror Makeover

If you're familiar with the Tomb Raider series, you're probably aware that it's pretty hit and miss. All of its games are either Arnold Schwarzenegger or Danny DeVito's character from Twins. However, most aren't aware of the number of game fetuses that get devoured in the womb by either of the two. While it's sad that the Tomb Raider series is full of canceled titles that once showed promise, it's rad seeing fans get the chance of donning the raider suit themselves and making the most awesome digital discovery possible: dead games.

In celebration of Tomb Raider's 25th birthday (and Lara's canonical 54th), Square Enix revealed they had canceled a Tomb Raider title that attempted something new by moving the series to full-on horror land.

It's important that you know that this isn't about that time they canceled a remake of the original game done by the original team– that's a different horror story. This one is about Tomb Raider: Ascension, the project that had Lara Croft fighting-off actual monstrosities whose cancelation eventually led to the series reboot from 2013. The series-topping sales numbers from the reboot sure do seem to indicate it was the best possible outcome, sure, but Ascension's concept art looked neat as hell.

And the game itself, despite getting canceled at an early stage, managed to look even creepier.

It also featured the ability to ride on horseback, preventing it from looking like an Uncharted series ripoff, one of the main criticisms thrown at the reboot.

You could even finally play as Nude Raider!

If the premise of Ascension, the direction that the series ended up taking, or even everything else going on in the world has you feeling like you're in the wrong universe, you could search for solace in Dagger Of Xian, a fanmade remake of the first level from Tomb Raider II, or Tomb Of Ash, the scrapped remake of the original that fans have appropriately unearthed and made available for everyone to play for free. As far as horror, we just have snippets of Ascension (and, always, the disturbing amounts of Lara Rule 34).

Top Image: Square Enix