Tomb Raider Legend (October 24)

Lara's revamp is under way. How will it fare? What's it look like? Is it any good? We answer it all.

Tomb Raider and Crystal Dynamics. Wow. Those words never sounded stranger. But now that I've said it several times and had five months to continue saying it, I'm just now getting used to it...Sorta. But really? Tomb Raider by Crystal Dynamics? Wow.

Switching the development team of Tomb Raider from its originators and creators, Core, which envisioned the series, brought it to its pinnacle, and in a very real sense, brought it to its knees, and giving it to Crystal Dynamics, is nothing less than a colossal move for everyone involved -- the developers, the publisher, and especially for gamers. But something had to be done, and the long-time, Northern California Eidos studio has made a concerted effort to get things right. Having made its debut at E3 this past May, Crystal Dynamics demonstrated how much research, care, and passion it has for re-making this series in the best possible light. And to be honest, given the phenomenal suckage that was Tomb Raider Angel of Darkness, there is little room for mistakes this time around.

Grid-Free Spelunking

The early look we grabbed late last week of Tomb Raider Legend gave us another reason to exhale with relief. Tomb Raider is in very capable hands. If you've ever looked at Legacy of Kain: Defiance, you know just what Crystal D can do from a visual standpoint. These guys know big, gorgeous, exotic locales, fine architecture and action-adventure. Lara alone uses twice as many polygons in her model that ever before, and the result is more realism and definition, but also more personality and color. She's a little softer now, a little less of a caricature, and more like an Olympian athlete.

Using an entirely different engine that either Legacy of Kain or Angel of Darkness, Crystal D worked on several major courses of action. Tomb Raider should be fun. It should focus on adventure and exploration. It should feature an athletic, nimble heroine who moves like an athletic, nimble heroine, and it should evolve in essence and playability from the best qualities found in the first games of the series, Tomb Raider 1 and 2. And it should delight gamers with gorgeous, exotic settings.

At E3, Crystal D showed us level 4, a West African level featuring waterfalls and rocky, viney caverns. Last week, we witnessed a level from Peru, featuring a classic Indiana Jones-style physical puzzle involving everything a good spelunker should have. First things first, however: This new game functions differently than any other Tomb Raider. Lara is free-form in movement. She is completely free of grids. She walks and runs with a far smooth motion, independent of a mathematical grid hidden beneath the surface. What's more, the game is designed for Lara to react instantly to a variety of different surfaces. As yuo can see in this screenshot, she already features new animations preparing her to jump, swing, or shimmy to the next rock, vine, or crevice. Finally, the most notable addition to Lara's arsenal is the magical grappling hook, which adds another dynamic 3D element to escaping danger, solving puzzles, and exploring incredible environments.

This section of the Peru level started with Lara looking down a giant stone-laden courtyard. With mountainous cliff walls in either side, partly covered with vines and tough, resistant vegetation, the passage led to the courtyard, which opened up to reveal three ancient statues, carved from rock in half-relief. A small pedestal stands in the middle, and three seven-foot wide, one-foot deep concave pools surround it. A giant stone ball stands obviously in the middle. HmmA giant moveable rock? Three pools? Wonder what to do?

But before she reaches the pools, she sets off a trap. The stones start crumbling beneath her, and a quick mini-game prompts the player to jump. Similar to God of War or Resident Evil 4, a small icon shows which button to hit and when, and if you time it right, she jumps from the ground to a nearby cliff-side, saving her life. If you time it badly, Crystal D has created a series of unique death animations, so she'll die in unique and unusual ways. This way, gamers with years of pent up frustration thanks to hair-brained Tomb Raider puzzles can watch old Lara take a little virtual heat before moving on to the next puzzle.

By pushing Lara up to the ball and into it, she automatically animates into a position to roll it. You can turn the ball left or right, roll it slowly or moderately fast, and it has its own weight and physics. The demo guy dropped it into a pool, and we watched as one of the statues opened up to reveal climbable ridges. A giant ray of light shoots from one of the statues into the pedestal in the middle of the courtyard, and all of a sudden, things make a little more sense. The developer then sent Lara over to the ridges, and from there, she climbed up to a jumping point. When Lara reaches a corner of that point, one can push the analog toward it, starting a swinging motion, indicating she is ready to jump. Tracking her motion, you watch her swing back and forth and when she's at her peak in one direction, you hit a button for a leap. She follows a zigzag pattern of leaps and climbing sections until she hits the top. If you miss the jump and fall, Lara's simple health meter shows the damage she's taken.

Once Lara reaches it, she stands up on a perch and can push the ball down. The ball goes in the second pool, and a bam, a statue opens, a beam of light pours through, and it's clear just one more ball is needed to finish the puzzle. Lara traverses a series of obstacles, including jumping from cliff-side to crevice, where she can quickly shimmy (another nice new addition) across a ledge, jump across crumbling ledge sections, and essentially function in a fluid and fun manner.

The final part of the puzzle involves Lara using a rope to swing back across the passage she started on. From a cliff-side she must watch a swinging vine and time the jump to catch it, and then from there she must swing the vine back and forth to bring her in reach of the little plateau on the other side of the level. Time it right and she's good as gold. Blow it, and she dies in a deep, dangerous cavern. The level doesn't start over again. Instead, she'll start back at the last major puzzle portion she's finished.

Croft's New Creds

It's also good to know that the puzzles won't function across a vast series of levels. Instead, they'll happen in one giant space. So, once you do the right thing, a small door in a room won't open up several sections far away, forcing you to remember every cavern, hut, or cave you've been in before. Tomb Raider Legend is still split 70/30 in adventure/action, and it takes approximately 10-12 hours to beat. That said, Crystal Dynamics said it's always been bad about measuring how long a game is and that they always underestimate the time.

Lara carries a few things you should already know about. She's got a flashlight strapped to her chest, so she can see in the dark. She dual wields pistols, but only pistols. She also will carry a shotgun -- a pump-action and an automatic -- an assault rifle, an RPG, grenade launcher, and sub-machine guns. There are seven weapons altogether. She will strafe while shooting, and can instantly lock to and unlock from targets with the touch of a button. There is also a remote analysis device (RAD), which acts much like map, deployable via the Dpad. The move set is simple and easy to get used to: there's the "do" button (X on Xbox, Square on PS2), the roll/drop button (B, Xbox; Circle, PS2), the jump button (A, Xbox; X, PS2), and the gear use (Y, Xbox; triangle, PS2). The PC is free for gamers to configure on their own, without restrictions.

There were two aspects of Legends Crystal D wouldn't talk about: 1) the story, and 2) the Xbox 360 version. The story is a big part of the game, and is meant to be learned, not told beforehand. We did chisel out some news, however. Winston the Butler makes a return, but pretty much no other characters from previous games will make it. There are no other playable characters. This is a single-player action-adventure game with no online component or co-op play. The game primarily features jungles, tombs, caves, and secret wild areas, though there will be some man-made modern environments. Crystal D would not comment on the use of vehicles, which means there are certainly going to be vehicles in the game, but which ones, we don't know.

Finally, the story will lead Lara to the Himalayas, where a deeper, more personal part of Lara's story is revealed. (If you have followed the series, you'd know that a part of her story -- that part that made Lara Croft who she is today -- takes place in the Himalayas). So that should be interesting. Also, unlike the other games, when you beat a level, you'll see a stat screen to see how you did, but also to upgrade weapons, unlock several vaults worth of unlockables, including many alternative costumes and neat-o items.

Outlook

What I learned from this single demo is that Lara's environment is far more interactive than it ever was; Lara features many more animations than before, and she does a lot of simple things -- from handling odd angles during jumps, to moving fluidly, to being free of a grid -- that makes her both modern in look and feel. Crystal D says Lara is all about movement, and that's exactly what I got from the demo. Sure, they're not showing me everything, but what I did see looked and played fluidly. It's a helluva start. It's not Prince of Persia, it's not God of War, both of which feature more action. But it's more like the Tomb Raider we've always wanted: It's fluid, fun, and constantly tapping into the heart of the adventurer. The 360 version? Well, all we know, and all we're allowed to know, is this: Tomb Raider Legend is shipping simultaneously with the other versions, i.e. in spring 2006. How will it be different? What's new and better? Eidos said we'll all find out in good time.

PS, one last thing. For all those doubters who thought the X05 video of Lara was pre-rendered -- Crystal D went on the record by saying the footage was created using an in-game engine on Xbox 360. It was all realtime footage, suckas.

Source: IGN.com, by Douglass C. Perry

Tomb Raider: Legend Impressions (October 24)

We get a sneak peek at the second level of Lara Croft's upcoming adventure.

During a recent meeting with representatives from Eidos and Crystal Dynamics, we were given a guided tour through a small portion of one of Tomb Raider: Legend's levels by the game's producer. The level, which will be the second in the finished game, was set in a large underground tomb that was more reminiscent of the environments in Lara Croft's first adventure than of anywhere you might have spent time in her subsequent outings. The underground tomb was impressively lit by shafts of light coming through cracks in the ceiling, and on the few occasions in which Lara found herself in darkness, she was able to turn on a small shoulder-mounted torch.

There were no enemies for Lara to deal with in the tomb, but if you've played any of the previous Tomb Raider games, you know that much of the challenge often comes from solving puzzles and working out how to get from A to B. Traps have also been a common problem for Lara in the past, and although we didn't get to see her dodging arrows and pits filled with spikes on this occasion, we did get to see a walkway across a chasm crumbling under her feet. In previous games, you might have dealt with Lara's predicament by making a desperate jump for a nearby ledge or something, but on this occasion, the danger took the form of an interactive cutscene in which you're required to perform "super actions" by hitting the correct buttons as they flash up on the screen.

The super action sequence that we were shown required only three or four button presses to beat, but the timing was crucial. The buttons flashing up on the screen used the same control conventions as the rest of the game, so when Lara needed to perform a spectacular leap to avoid a falling column, for example, it was the jump button (X on the PS2) that appeared onscreen. Lara's super action animations were more spectacular than those that you'll see during regular gameplay, because they were tightly scripted specifically for the sequence. We were told that each super action sequence will also have its own hand-animated death visuals waiting for Lara if you mess up, but we didn't get to see any for ourselves on this occasion.

After Lara had successfully negotiated the crumbling walkway and toppling columns, we saw her entering a large room containing all of the props necessary to solve an Indiana Jones-style puzzle. There were giant statues against the walls, a smaller statue of an Anubis-like dog in the middle of the floor with blue gems for eyes, pressure plates in the floor, and a spherical boulder that Lara was able to push and pull around. Needless to say, solving the puzzle required Lara to activate the pressure plates using the boulder (which boasted entirely believable physics), some climbing of statues, and making beams of light hit the dog statue's eyes in order to open a secret passage to the next area. At this point we were treated to a brief in-game cutscene in which Lara retrieves an artifact of some kind and is then contacted by her gadget guy, Zip, who warns her that mercenaries are heading into the tomb via her headset.

We never actually got to see the aforementioned mercenaries showing up, but the Tomb Raider: Legend producer did use the next room to show off some of the new gadgets that Lara will have in her arsenal, which include a magnetic grappling hook and a pair of binoculars equipped with a remote analysis device (RAD). The grappling hook can be attached to any surface in the game that has a slightly artificial-looking sheen when you look at it, and although you'll mostly be using it to swing from or climb up to otherwise inaccessible areas, we also got to see Lara pulling a statue to the ground with it. Unsurprisingly, the binoculars (which come with a powerful zoom function) will mostly be used to examine your surroundings as you try to figure out your next course of action. With the push of a button, your binoculars will use the aforementioned RAD to analyze whichever area you're focusing on and will let you know if it has any useful qualities (such as being flammable or unstable) by illuminating one or more icons along the bottom of the screen.

Before our all-too-brief demonstration of Tomb Raider: Legend came to an end, we were treated to a veritable exhibition of Lara's range of movements as the game's producer negotiated a room full of ledges, platforms, ropes, and such. Jumping between platforms and clinging to narrow ledges is nothing new for Lara, of course, but in Tomb Raider: Legend, you'll find that many of her acrobatics are much more interactive than they've been in previous games in the series. When moving along a narrow ledge that you're hanging from, for example, you'll find that the ledge has been destroyed in some places and the only way for you to pass is to perform a tricky jump-and-grab maneuver that requires split-second timing on the buttons. Mistiming the grab won't necessarily result in you plummeting to the ground (or bottomless pit) below; rather, you'll get a second chance if you manage to press whichever button flashes up on the screen before Lara loses her grip completely. Other moves that we got to see Lara perform included using her arms to propel herself from a ledge to another ledge directly above, and jumping between two walls with surfaces that could be grabbed onto. Classic "flair" moves, such as the swallow dive, and unnecessary handstands and cartwheels when climbing up onto ledges will be available to any of you who can figure out the button combinations necessary to perform them, along with a bunch of new, even showier moves that are being kept under wraps for the moment.

Perhaps the most impressive feature of Tomb Raider: Legend during our demonstration--if only because it had to be pointed out to us--was the camera, which never failed to keep up with Lara's acrobatic antics. Crystal Dynamics' goal for the in-game camera, we were told, was to let you control it manually whenever you want to, but to ensure that you'd never actually need to. The camera assumed a garden-variety third-person position behind Lara for the most part, and did an excellent job of keeping her in frame (without being detrimental to the gameplay) whenever the action got a little crazier. We also noticed that the camera would occasionally reposition itself slightly to afford us a view of important objects and such as we passed by them, which has long been a subtle feature of the series, although in previous iterations you'd actually see Lara's head turn, as if she had noticed something of interest.

We left our Tomb Raider: Legend demonstration feeling impressed with what we'd seen and wishing that we'd been allowed to get our hands on the game, if only for a couple of minutes. We're sure to get an opportunity to do that ahead of the game's spring 2006 release date, so look for more coverage on Tomb Raider: Legend in the (hopefully) not-too-distant future.

Source: Gamespot.com, by Justin Calvert