Continue reading...

“In setting the stage for the Tomb Raider franchise moving forward, we took ourselves back to Lara’s origins, asked ourselves the hard questions and challenged ourselves to think differently,” said Chip Blundell, vice president of brand marketing, Eidos Inc. “Who is Lara Croft? What makes her tick? How is she relevant today? Only by answering these questions could we ensure that gamers get the experience they deserve with the character they love.”

“Even before the first title launched, Lara Croft had to fight her way into the Tomb Raider franchise, since at the time most game characters were muscle-bound blokes,” said Gard. “The Lara Croft character is resilient and totally unstoppable. In Tomb Raider: Legend, we explore these core personality traits and reveal the Lara Croft gamers have been waiting to see.”

The character model that you see below features natural structure, realistic textures, detailed facial features, reactive eyes and fluid motion, all of which make her part of a living environment. Crystal Dynamics also stated that Lara Croft will have new controls, so expect Lara to do various new things that you are not used too seeing in past versions.

There will be three versions spanning across the PlayStation 2, Xbox, and PC. No word on a PSP version as of yet. Gaming Horizon will have a full preview of Tomb Raider: Legend on April 12. So bookmark the page!

This review was originally published on Gaming Horizon, GameBump's predecessor. Its format does not match our own but we support its content.

More than a decade has passed since the inception of the Tomb Raider series back in 1995, when Tomb Raider I hit the market on the original PlayStation and firmly defined the modern platform genre. Eidos Interactive’s Core Design introduced the popular world to what would become Britain’s greatest digital superstar – Lara Croft, the archeologist lady of mystery who specialized in ancient cultures, updated weaponry, and shrewd wit. From the franchise’s early beginnings, it was clear that Eidos had lucked upon a character and a series that would bring in the cash to fund other projects, but this was despite the lack of quality that further installments possessed. The game of Tomb Raider soon became the race to push out a new Lara adventure just in time for Christmas, and to increase sales, each rendition boasted a “remade” Lara that effectively turned her into a pinup girl that decorated the rooms of adolescent males everywhere – a pinup girl selling bad games.

After the previous “remade” Lara, as featured in

Takes a hit for shortness, needed interactivity. Combat tweaked; love the grapple.

Very detailed environs, reworked Lara, visually impressive tombs. Some generic models, though.

Strong voiceovers. Solid music when you get it. Good sound effects.

Had a great time except for those damned motorcycle portions.

Get pulled through it, go through it again, then check out the extras and the mansion.

This preview was originally published on Gaming Horizon, GameBump's predecessor. Its format does not match our own but we support its content.

If you remember the tagline for Eidos’ Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness then you’re already amused by the series’ irony. “Out of the tombs and into hell” was splattered across every gaming site on the Internet, and intrigued gamers waited anxiously to give the industry’s leading lady a next-generation, honest chance. Lo’ and behold, the game…sucked. It suffered from horrendous slowdown, AI that simply didn’t work, and plagued controls.

Almost immediately after its release Eidos shocked everyone by repositioning the series, stripping it from Core Design and handing it to Crystal Dynamics, the company responsible for Gex and the Legacy of Kain/Soul Reaver franchises. The pressure was on, and Crystal Dynamics was charged with nothing short of overhauling the series to bring it into the modern era. To do this the developing house – along with Lara’s original creator, Toby Gard – embarked upon a “soul searching” quest, finally asking the big questions – “Who is Lara Croft? What makes her tick? How is she relevant today?” The result: a return to Lara’s roots in Tomb Raider: Legend.

Very little is known of Legend’s plot. It involves the standard globetrotting to eight different locations, including jungle, snow, mountainous, and underground areas. The bulk of these gorgeous environments consist of tombs, and judging from the available screenshots, are reminiscent of the underground/cavernous areas in the original. The Himalayas are cited as key to the storyline, which brings to mind the famed airplane crash from the original’s background story. It’s unknown whether the levels progress on a non-linear timeline (i.e., Chronicles) or follow Last Revelation’s timeline jumps from past to present, though it’s confirmed that Lara, while in search of another ancient artifact, confronts a foe long-thought dead. The enemy’s name – and why he’s concerned with the artifact – remains a mystery.

To navigate throughout these tombs Lara requires precision controls, a feature that enabled the previous versions to exist but was MIA in AoD. The switch to analog controls was troublesome and crippling; lining Lara up for jumps, performing the most basic maneuvers, and just repositioning her to look around was difficult. Crystal Dynamics has revamped the control scheme in Legend, increasing its functionality and comfort. It’s uncertain if the game allows for D-pad use, but it’s a good guess that the analog control system was at least completely re-worked (compared to AoD’s controls this can only be a good thing). Lara performs her favorite moves – swan dive, back flip, handstand, etc., - and does so smoothly. Her model receives another facelift with a higher polygon count, detailed facial features, reactive eyes, and a complete new look thanks to the original’s character designer.

There’s no word on enemy types but Lara retains her usual weapons, the dual pistols, now paired with an updated “move and shoot” system and goodies. High-powered binoculars, a personal camera for dark areas, frag grenades, communication devices, and a new magnetic grappling hook are introduced. A lock-on system is in place, and judging from trailer footage actually uses a targeting icon, unlike AoD. Another new feature is Lara’s ability to shoot destructible objects in the environment, like barrels. Any opponent near said barrels gets splattered with splinters and firepower, assuming they’re stacked with something inflammable. When a bad guy goes down Lara can even steal his weapon, though she’s limited to only one rifle at a time. Melee combat for close-quarter fighting is present and hopefully nothing like AoD’s dysfunctional stealth/melee system, but then again details are sparse.

Legend, as a return to Lara’s roots, probably removes itself from the action emphasis AoD had and focuses on puzzle and platform gameplay. To help players find their next destination/clue Lara turns her head to the location, indicating the relevant area. In trailer footage arrows designate important directions. The camera, while controllable, is said to move and pan the area naturally.

There’s an online component but Crystal Dynamics hasn’t commented on it yet, though Xbox Live (and probably PS2 network play) is confirmed. An Xbox 360 and PSP version are rumored to be in the works, too.

Judging by the drastic change of development teams and redirection of the series, this is probably Lara’s last chance to appear in a reputable title published by Eidos. If Crystal Dynamics gives Legend an entirely re-worked precision control system, ups the interactive environment feature, grants it an innovative online mode, and strengthens the storyline then a comeback is possible. If it’s plagued by horrible AI, terrific slowdown, and repetitive gameplay, however, the formula is dead. Maybe Lara can join the long list of videogame celebrities in another DDR remix? Hey, even the British know how to get down.