TOMB RAIDER NEXT
GENERATION JUICE
Copyright 2002 www.tombraiderchronicles.com
[ February 12th 2002 ]
Tomb
Raider Next Generation is, without doubt, this
year's most anticipated title, propelling Lara
Croft - the most successful video-game character
in the history of the industry - onto the Sony
Playstation II and PC platforms for what promises
to be a highly charged, action packed and digitally
re-rendered adventure penned for a five year incubation
period.
Tomb
Raider Next Generation is a three part adventure
that begins in cosmopolitan Paris, where Lara
Croft arrives only to be framed for a crime she
apparently did not commit, and begins a hasty
retreat through the dark Parisian underbelly relentlessly
pursued by the authorities while attempting to
piece together a puzzle surrounding the conspirators
who seek her doom, vehemently led by the unscrupulous
Eckhardt. Weaponless and without a penny to her
name, Lara must negotiate her way through the
initial segment of her adventure combining a desperate
acquisition of apparel and hardware with a search
for five 14th century paintings penned by the
famous "Obscure Painter."
The architectural
majesty of the famous Musée du Louvre in Paris
will play host to a spectacular robbery in Part
II when Lara Croft actions the theft of the 14th
century artworks to further her adventures, drawn
deep into the poignant bowels of the catacombs
rooted beneath the city where her traditional
Tomb Raider skills will be resurrected by a series
of mind-bending puzzles and action-packed, death-defying
leaps and jumps.
Core
Design's second playable character, Curtis Trent,
joins forces with Lara Croft and they both advance
their challenge for beneficial resolution with
the recovery of the five antique paintings. The
surgical-steeled schematics of high-tech industry
is sown into the game-play broth as both Lara
Croft and Curtis Trent travel to Prague, Eastern
Europe, for the third and final part of their
adventure and descend into the monstrous Strahov
Complex for a final showdown with Eckhardt. Here
the first episodic adventure of Tomb Raider Next
Generation will conclude.
Adventures
involving the new AI character Curtis Trent are
likely to spawn from Tomb Raider Next Generation
in the form of a spin-off video-game series -
such is the depth and historical content Core
Design have sown into their first additional playable
character; although no official confirmation has
been made.
Core
Design will expand the interactivity of Tomb Raider
Next Generation by offering downloadable components
such as character development and plot details
via the web, although the studio dispelled earlier
rumors about their internet update strategy by
stating that the games themselves will not be
made available online.
Tomb
Raider Next Generation will also sport more role
playing elements in the form of attribute development,
which awards more diligent players richer content
and improves Lara's skill and dexterity the more
she performs specific actions. Rather than allowing
players to tweak the game's characters to their
liking, certain actions - such as running and
sprinting - will automatically become more effective
the more a player performs them. This allows Core
to include areas in the game that are accessible
only by characters of a certain proficiency level.
The Lara
Croft model has undergone extensive digital surgery
and her current 500-polygon skeleton has been
shed for a 5,000 polygon external chassis, affording
an improved fluidic appearance that will catwalk
gamers with a more organic and human feel. Environmental
architectures and game-play schematics have been
redesigned from the wire frame up with Core Design
gearing up to exploit the PS2's huge terrain-based
polygon capabilities to render more depth, texture
and response to its levels.
Tomb
Raider Next Generation - a working title - has
initially been slated for a November 2002 release,
although we suspect mandatory teasing will see
the game commercially available sometime in December.
During a visit to the Derbyshire-based studios
last year, we noted a Microsoft XBOX Developers
Console in Next Gen Mission Control, but to date
no official confirmation has been made as to whether
this platform will host Tomb Raider. Sony Playstation
II and PC platforms are the only confirmed consoles.
Expect
a Tomb Raider Next Generation media explosion
in the coming months, in the meantime, click HERE
for our Tomb Raider Next Generation media-packed
offering.
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