Rise of the Tomb Raider had bigger levels than the 2013 reboot. Crystal Dynamics has explained whether the sequel will go open-world.

The game’s creative director, Noah Hughes, was interviewed by Game Informer recently. He was asked if the Rise of the Tomb Raider sequel will go open-world or not.

He said: “I don’t know if an equivalent scale in the next game is necessarily the right answer, though. What we always want to maintain is a sense of density and a sense of a unique crafting experience, so as much as scale was the right step this time, going forward we want to make sure we’re continuing to create worlds that are meaningful, well-crafted, and rich. It’s not about scale for scale’s sake.”

His explanation is a reasonable one. Some open-world games suffer from being too big for their own good. Sometimes the worlds are too large that there isn’t really anything meaningful to do with them.

If the sequel to Rise of the Tomb Raider is to truly be open-world, Crystal Dynamics will have to have a good reason for it. They wouldn’t want Lara Croft just travelling long distances meaninglessly just for the sake of making the game world bigger in scope.