Call of Duty Is About to Set a Very High Bar For The Next Tomb Raider

Lara Croft is coming to Call of Duty: Warzone, and it might just be the most impressive version of the character in recent memory, setting a high bar.

While crossovers are nothing new for the entertainment industry, they've become much more prevalent in the last few years, especially in the gaming landscape. Though games like Kingdom Hearts and Super Smash Bros. have been bringing together iconic franchise characters for years now, it was Fortnite that really opened the floodgates, bringing Star Wars, Marvel, DC, and countless other IPs together under one roof, and making a ridiculous profit from them. And where there's money to be made, Call of Duty: Warzone isn't too far behind.

Over the last few years, Call of Duty: Warzone has slowly been increasing its number of collaborations. Often available as cosmetic skins, Warzone's crossovers have covered a vast range of pop-culture, from action heroes like Die Hard's John McClane to horror icons like Jigsaw to even celebrities like Snoop Dogg and Nicki Minaj. And now, Call of Duty: Warzone is about to experiment with fellow video game franchise crossovers, with Tomb Raider's Lara Croft coming to Warzone on September 9, featuring a design that sets an incredibly high bar for the next Tomb Raider title.

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Put simply, Call of Duty: Warzone's Lara Croft design is practically perfect, and exactly what fans have been asking for for a while now. While Crystal Dynamics' iteration of Lara - dubbed the "Survivor" version - fit the gritty and grounded tone of the 2013 Tomb Raider reboot and its two sequels, it lacked the same iconicity that the original Lara Croft design had. Gone were her blue tank top and tan cargo shorts, replaced with a simple gray vest and green trouser combo. This version of the character also lacked her iconic dual pistols, at least for the vast majority of the series.

Back in 2021, Crystal Dynamics announced that a new Tomb Raider game was in the works, and that Lara Croft's design would "unify" all iterations of the character so far. Call of Duty: Warzone's Lara Croft skin does exactly that. While Warzone's Lara Croft has a similar face to Crystal Dynamics' version of the adventurer, as well as the green pendant from that series, her outfit is an unashamed throwback to her beloved original look.

Call of Duty: Warzone's Lara Croft has her immediately recognizable blue top, along with her tan cargo shorts. A brown backpack is visible on her back, and she's even got her absurdly long ponytail. Warzone's Lara Croft Operator bundle is also coming with unique blueprints for the new 9mm Daemon sidearm, giving the adventurer her classic dual pistols. From a visual standpoint alone, this is a perfect modernization of Lara Croft, but it doesn't end there.

Much like any other Call of Duty: Warzone Operator bundle, Lara Croft also comes with a bevy of unique voice lines. Keeley Hawes - who had previously voiced Lara in Tomb Raider: Anniversary, Underworld, Legend, and more - makes her triumphant return here, bringing back the sassy British charm that's been missing from the character for so long. In all aspects, this version of Lara Croft seems to be one of the best iterations of the character ever put to screen. It's currently unclear whether this design is all Activision's doing, or whether Crystal Dynamics played a role in its creation, but regardless it sets a very high bar for the next Tomb Raider game. Fans will now be expecting not only a Lara Croft that looks like her original iconic design, but one that sounds and acts like her as well.

Call of Duty: Warzone is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.

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From his earliest gaming memories playing Spyro 2 on the PlayStation, to being obsessed with the swing-out animations in Marvel's Spider-Man, Cameron has always been, and continues to be, in love with video games. What started as frenzied childhood discussions on Star Wars Battlefront 2 has transitioned into somewhat less frenzied breakdowns on...Star Wars Battlefront 2. It's fair to say that video games are an integral part of Cameron's life, and hopefully they'll continue to be.