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'TOMB RAIDER LEGEND'
FACTS & FIGURES
Copyright 2005 www.tombraiderchronicles.com
[ July 15th 2005 ]
Toby
Gard, creator of Lara
Croft and lead designer on Tomb
Raider Legend, comments on Lara's new model
as "a natural evolution. We're now using close
to 10,000 polygons, so we're able to make her
look much more realistic. She even gets wet when
she goes into water, and she gets dirty if she
rolls around in filthy tombs long enough."
Storyline
Toby
Gard describes Tomb raider Legend as a "completely
new start for Lara." Lara Croft will be searching
for a valuable English artefact, pursued by corrupt
forces led by an old nemesis long thought dead
and buried. Many aspects of Lara's history will
be addressed in Tomb Raider Legend, including
an incident which occurred in the Himalayas.
Moves
Lara
will be more athletic than ever before! Rope swinging,
bar swinging, climbing, crawling, jumping and
shooting, swan diving, swimming are just a tiny
sample of moves seen so far. Crystal
Dynamics has hinted at acrobatics on par with
Prince of Persia.
Combat
is going to be more in-depth in Tomb Raider Legend.
The shooting is still automatic, but with a clever
twist. From time to time, an icon will show that
Lara has locked onto an explosive barrel or a
rope that she can blast with a simple tap of a
button. During combat, Lara can perform the following
actions: crouch, reload, melee attack, fire blind,
take aim, throw grenades and switch weapons.
Lara's
enemies will be smarter than ever. Enemies will
respond to the ever-changing combat situation
in intelligent ways, such as moving to flank Lara
when she is pinned down, dodging grenades, and
calling for backup.
Weapons
and Equipment
Lara
will have her trademark double pistols at her
side. In addition, frag grenades, machine gun
turrets, a shotgun, revolver, RPG and automatic
weapons have all been confirmed to return. Lara
wears all her equipment on her body (no more infinite
backpack). When you use a grenade, it disappears
off her belt. In addition to her pistols and grenades,
Lara can only carry one weapon at a time which
she can pick up from fallen enemies.
A magnetic
grappling hook can be used to swing over pits
of spikes and in other puzzle situations. Other
equipment includes flares, binoculars, a torch
and a Bluetooth headset, used to keep in touch
with the 2 man team back at Croft Manor via picture-in-picture
video.
Locations
There
are 8 location confirmed for the game. Levels
known so far include: Ghana, West Africa, Russia,
Bolivia, Peru, Malaysia / Kuala Lumpur and Tokyo.
Vehicles
The only
vehicle confirmed so far is the super-bike which
is hinted to be the main vehicle in the game.
However, the game will contain a number of other
vehicles yet to be confirmed.
Game
Mechanics
The game
uses a modified version of the 'defiance' engine
used in games like LOK: Defiance and Project:
Snowblind. Puzzles will now be more physics
based and open-ended, with multiple ways for Lara
to solve them. The game has a "softness filter"
which smoothes out angular edges and takes care
of aliasing. The result is an amazing looking
game.
The revamped
control system provides intuitive and fluid character
movement. Dynamic animation system puts focus
on continuous motion, giving Lara the ability
to seamlessly handle any obstacle and interact
dynamically with any surface.
Release
Date
Winter
2005 / Early 2006
Formats
PS2,
PC, Xbox, Xbox 360. While all versions will fundamentally
be the same, Toby Gard has confirmed that the
Xbox and PC versions of the game will have higher-resolution
textures, a higher frame rate and faster load
times.
There
will also be widescreen support for the XBox version.
Toby Gard has also confirmed the Xbox version
will "support a jukebox function which will be
fun in Croft Manor. You'll basically be able to
play a stereo when training."
Sources
- www.tombraiderchronicles.com,
www.tombraider.com,
PLAY, EGM, Games Master, Xbox Magazine, OPS2,
PSM2.
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