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UNDERWORLD THAILAND
CONCEPTUAL ART
Copyright 2008 www.tombraiderchronicles.com
[ August 8th 2008 ]
Eidos
has dispatched a brand new piece of conceptual
artwork showcasing Tomb
Raider Underworld. Accompanying the Thailand
artwork is a new blog entry from producer Eric
Lindstrom. Tomb Raider Underworld is scheduled
for release on November 21 across European territories.
"I’ve
been accused by some fans of giving vague descriptions
and evasive answers to questions about Tomb Raider:
Underworld, and all I can say is yes, guilty as
charged. But for good reasons.
"From
the beginning I’ve been asked, "Are we going
to see Croft Manor?" To that question I’ve
always answered a simple yes. What else could
I say, knowing what I knew about the trailer we
would eventually release but didn’t want spoiled?
My half-answers and evasions are often protecting
what fans really don’t want to know before they
play the game, or features that are intentionally
being kept flexible until the end because the
overall quality and taste of the final soup is
more important that any one ingredient that goes
into it.
"When
it comes to specific features, a lot of what makes
this game so exciting comes down to details; lots
and lots of details. Some features that people
talk about the most, or have the biggest impact
– and I’m not only talking about Tomb Raider games
here – are details that occurred to someone late
one night and two days later were in the game.
But just as often a feature can be planned from
the very beginning, and then late in development
it needs to be cut because for whatever reason
it just doesn’t contribute properly, or it can’t
be debugged.
"This
flexibility is very important, and so when someone
asks a simple question like "How is health
going to work?" I don’t answer definitively,
because until we ship, such a sensitive and influential
system for a game like this can’t be locked down.
If we’re not happy with how players are responding
to the experience as a whole – if the soup doesn’t
taste great yet – we need to be able to make easy
but significant changes to ingredients right until
the end.
"This
also stops me from shouting out some of the really
cool details we have now, and continue to add
each week as we polish the game from top to bottom.
Things like how Lara puts her hands up to protect
her face from the heat when she gets close to
fire. Or the way you can grab a cliff edge, and
if you press the ledge-up button at the right
time, she can seamlessly loft herself up to stand
atop the cliff edge. Or how Lara presses her lips
together when she’s holding her breath underwater.
Or any number of details we’ve put in which might
not stay in for some reason, including the things
I recklessly revealed just now.
"I
do hope to be able to give more details about
Tomb Raider: Underworld in the coming weeks, but
when I give slippery answers, please believe that
I really do want you all to know everything about
the game, but by experiencing it yourself more
than by hearing me explain it. Having said that,
be on the lookout for more information about Lara’s
expedition to Thailand, coming out in magazines
any day now, and online in a week or so.
"There
was no way to show off Thailand without including
what many fans will consider spoilers, but to
make you feel better, the giant statues that Lara
interacts with are part of a puzzle much more
elaborate and multi-staged than the media will
reveal – it’s the nexus point of many related
challenges and puzzles that must be overcome to
progress. "
Tomb
Raider Underworld Conceptual Artwork
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