Six Things You May Have Missed In The 2013 Tomb Raider Reboot

In the 2013 Tomb Raider reboot, Crystal Dynamics hid a few references to Lara's Rise of the Tomb Raider future, as well as a few other Easter Eggs. We spoke with franchise creative director Noah Hughes about what players might have missed in the first game, and learn about a Cast Away reference that didn't make the final cut.

The Trinity organization
Trinity, the organization Lara is fighting against in Rise of the Tomb Raider, is referenced in the assorted Tomb Raider reboot comics and novels, but it is also subtly referenced in the 2013 video game. In the No One Left Behind level, a static-ridden radio signal is heard saying, “Rescue chopper N888RC responding to S.O.S., inbound from freighter Trinity."

You can also find references to Trinity in a few of the documents Lara can uncover in the game. While reading one document, Lara even comments to herself as if to tease a sequel, “That name again –Trinity. Some kind of organization. But who are they? And how do they know about this island?"

The Tomb Raider wiki points out all of the references to Trinity in a page you can find here.  We asked Noah Hughes if building up Trinity as a big part of the sequel was a plan from the beginning and he said, “Yes, the plan was to begin to gesture at an organization or a faction that would operate in the same space as Lara.”

Who is FeeFee the crab?
The achievements and trophies in Tomb Raider were pretty straightforward – experience this part of the story, collect all of these, use these weapons, etc. However, there was one goofy achievement about a crab. The achievement/trophy is called Crab Cakes and the description reads, “FeeFee the crab killed.” To get it, all you have to do is kill a crab on Shipwreck Beach. We asked Noah Hughes, what or who is FeeFee the crab?

Blink and you will miss him.

The name comes from the Tomb Raider community, which names all of the assorted unnamed creatures that appear in the trailers and art promoting Tomb Raider. An octopus that appeared in a trailer for Tomb Raider Underworld was designated Underpuss. “FeeFee first appeared in our world teaser trailer on the beach,” Hughes says, “If you look close it goes past a map flapping in the wind, and there’s a little crab there on the rock.”

The player’s choice – not Lara’s
When Lara first gets her hands on a machine gun for the first time, there is a scene where she has to explode her way through a window. The explosion traps an enemy under some rubble and he asks Lara to kill him. “A lot of players characterize it as something Lara did, that she killed this guy, but she doesn’t really. You can leave him there,” Hughes says. If you don’t kill him, he will call to his friends ruining your ambush. This is something that wasn’t in the original plan for the area, but was added because it presented players with an interesting choice, rather than having them simply watch Lara make choices without their input.

Up next: The secret behind the man in the cave, the last GPS cache, and Tomb Hanks.

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Who is the man in the cave?
One of the first enemies Lara meets and barely escapes is a man chasing her in the cave during the opening of the game. He seems interested in helping you – possibly even friendly. “There was a lot of discussion about that. He does act like he wants to help you, but if you give him a chance it’s very clear that he doesn’t,” Hughes says.

He may seem like a forgettable enemy, but he has a whole backstory. He is on the lower end of the hierarchy of scavengers and basically lives in the cave sorting through the debris of crashed ships that wash into the cave. “Some people sort of lose it on that island,” Hughes says, “Not everyone keeps their s*** together as well as the head scavengers.” He’s losing it, but he is fulfilling his part in the scavenger ecosystem.

The Tom Hanks reference that got cut
Also in that opening cave, the team inserted a reference to the 2000 Tom Hanks film Cast Away that was eventually cut. “We had – I believe we took it out – but we had a Wilson-esque ball in the scavenger den. Originally, that was full of all this flotsam and jetsam, various bottles and cans, and there was a volleyball in the corner. If you looked closely there was the handprint. I don’t believe that one shipped.”

Where’s the last GPS cache?
Even if you ran through Tomb Raider like a completionist, you may have still missed a GPS cache. Hughes explains why. “It is probably on the way to the Endurance. The map screens count up how many of a given thing you’ve found, and that section doesn’t have a count up screen. You didn’t have a number that’s incomplete – you just haven’t found all the GPS caches.”

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