I had the chance to experience Lara’s world first hand last week – in more ways than one. Not only was I thrust into a vast ‘Croft Manor’ garden to take part in five crazy sporting events (all of which I was miserable at), but I also managed to find time to play the latest build of
Tomb Raider Underworld during the chaos.
I’ve had the pleasure of having some hands on time with Lara’s new adventure
back in August, so the focus for my experience was so see whether there have been any improvements to the engine since I played the Thailand demo (which, incidentally, was one of the levels on offer today too).
During the press conference held at Luton Hoo, Crystal Dynamics’ Creative Director Eric Lindstrom showed us how the game begins – with Lara Croft’s manor crashing down in flames. This is your tutorial stage, and ultimately your goal is not only to learn the controls but also escape the mansion successfully. It’s certainly a clever way of going about it; training levels are usually boring and pedestrian affairs.
Eric told SPOnG that he wanted to grab the audience quickly in an unexpected environment, and as a result have tried to avoid giving a really boring tutorial and instead the player right in the action from the start. It’s also a rather bold move, given the iconic meaning of Croft Manor as a tutorial stage in the original
Tomb Raider. It seems that Crystal Dynamics are willing to take a few more risks with the franchise, after proving themselves with Legend.
In fact, plenty of the new additions and tweaks in
Underworld appear to be there to make the game as accessible to any kind of gamer as possible. I was re-introduced to the voluntary Hint and Tips system in the options menu – if a puzzle is doing your head in, you can ask for a Tip that tells you what the current problem is, and a Hint to overcome that problem if the Tip still stumps you.
The aim is to provide gamers with their own style (or rather preference) of
Tomb Raider Underworld – one with more action and shooting, or a more cerebral one for those who fancy their puzzles over their pumping of lead. The puzzles haven’t become lazy either – there are some very intricate posers that require multiple solutions to overcome.
One underwater puzzle features a massive lock that requires you to turn three dials to match their symbols together, but some dials need to be discovered in the surrounding depths. This is where your new sonar radar comes in handy, as it builds a gradual 3D map of the stage by pinging the immediate area.
After the training stage (and before the Thailand level) the story jumps back to a week before the fiery incident at Croft Manor, as you play out the events that unravel what really happened. The first level is set in the ocean – Lara is directed here following her father’s footsteps. Something he found here has a connection to his disappearance, and exploring the ocean further reveals an underwater temple that holds many secrets – one of them being a big fat Kraken that you need to take out using good old-fashioned platform crushing.
