New Tomb Raider Details

New details have emerged for the upcoming Tomb Raider game which is due later this year. This information comes via the French version of PlayStation magazine.

A New Lara

The Lara in this episode is more human and vulnerable, she will suffer much, her tenacity will be put to the test. The facial expressions were worked to reflect this, using motion capture. Young and inexperienced, this Lara has doubts.

The Beginning of the Adventure

Barely out of her studies, Lara embarks on his first expedition aboard a ship called Endurance, which sank near an island ...(off Japan). She is the only survivor of the sinking ship, and wakes up tied up and hanging in a dark cave. Some scenes are handled by Quick Time Event, such as the extraction of a metal bar which has pierced her ribs after a fall...The games interface and contextual help will be as minimal as possible to enhance the level of immersion.

There is someone else on the island, and Lara seems destined to be part of a ritual. Lara discovers allies - expedition leader and mentor Conrad Roth found alive several days after the scene in the cave.

Gameplay

It appears that the puzzles are just as important as ever. The puzzles will be more complex than in previous games. It will not just be a case of observing the environment, but also reflecting on the interactions between objects & elements.

The heart of the island will serve as a hub, however, It will not, strictly speaking, take a similar approach to GTA or Assassin's Creed, says Karl Stewart responsible for the license, but "we want to suggest the idea that Lara is in an open environment."

The explorable areas increase as Lara acquires new capabilities that enable it to reach new areas. Players can use a new view: "survival instinct" which will highlights in yellow important elements of the environment to Lara, while the rest will be in shades of grey. For example, the footprints of wolves, which lead to their lair.

The camera will use innovative framing to accentuate sensations such as claustrophobia or anxiety. Transition between cut-scenes and phases of the game will be invisible. There are several save points scattered throughout the island, these are represented by statues of Buddha.

The jumping mechanics have been revised, they will now include the ability to ammend trajectory. The action will be more "visceral" and "dirty" and more realistic.

The confirmed weapons: Bow and arrow, gun, axe (which serve as a melee weapon and as a tool for climbing).

Influences

The physics of Half-Life 2: use of fluids flowing, gravity, etc..The atmosphere of Uncharted. The Eagle Vision Assassin's Creed. The origins of the film Batman Begins for the initiation quest. The pain described by the film 127 hours. The mysteries of the series Lost.

Thanks to Gameblog.fr

( Edited 25.02.2013 15:06 by Azuardo )

The atmosphere of Uncharted? I was hoping they'd go completely 180 from that game but at least the gameplay seems vastly different from what is known.

Very much looking forward to this and hope the new innovations lead to a much needed revival in Lara's rep.

Definitely cannot wait for this.

The Lara in this episode is more human and vulnerable, she will suffer much, her tenacity will be put to the test. The facial expressions were worked to reflect this, using motion capture. Young and inexperienced, this Lara has doubts.

Tomb Raider hype now ridiculously high.

CG trailer due next week. Some teaser shots:

Awesome. I love how Square Enix are handling the CG. Really excited for to see what they do with Tomb Raider's cutscenes.

Man sure I hope this tomrader game will be good I been with tombraider since the early days of ps one I must say that the last few have been well not so great hope me and the other tombraider fans won't be let down yet again

A Message to the Tomb Raider Community

When Crystal Dynamics first set out to reboot the Tomb Raider franchise, there were two goals that we were extremely passionate about. The first was to create a modern Tomb Raider game that would surprise and excite gamers. The second was to make this the best game of our careers, something we would be really proud to be a part of. We truly believe that we have something very special on our hands and we can’t wait to share it with you.
Our priority now is to make sure we fully deliver the very highest quality game. In order to do this, we have decided to move the game’s release date by a few months, from Fall 2012 to the first quarter of 2013.

We’re doing things that are completely new to Tomb Raider in this game and the additional development time will allow us to put the finishing touches into the game and polish it to a level that you deserve. We believe this is the right choice and I guarantee it will be worth the wait. The game is looking amazing and we can’t wait to show it to everyone at E3 in a few weeks.

Noooo Hopefully the extra time will help to create a truly AAA game.

Here's a recent screenshot, the graphics have definately improved from last year!! (open in new tab)

Thanks for sharing. Been so looking forward to TR since it was announced, and was anticipating a good last half of 2012 with this and Resi 6. But I'm still pleased to hear the delay since it shows they really are putting everything into it. Hopefully some new stuff will be shown at E3, although I've shied away from most gameplay already to save on spoilers.

March 5, 2013

My god that was amazing! It looks alot more like Uncharted in a way xD

Looks a billion times better than Uncharted.

Oh dear, disliked for expressing your opinion. Shame. I'll +1 you.

They say they wanna make Tomb Raider the best game this gen. Quite a statement. Hopefully it'll have a longer story than Uncharted 3.

From Game Informer:

- Don't expect much of the old linear platforming formula. "We're now giving the player the opportunity to go into a space and choose their own path. Where we take you across the ledge of the B-52 bomber, that's a tutorial. Once you move away from the plane, everything is basically open, dynamic traversal where the player has the freedom to roam around a jump from location to location with ease..."

- You'll be able to air steer, direction control, speed her up/down during jumps

- The game has an XP system. You'll be able to use this for upgrading Lara's abilities. You'll also have to scavenge for materials to upgrade Lara's equipment

- The base camps will allow you to upgrade Lara's abilities, improve your equipment and fast travel to other base camps that you've visited on the island

- Early on you'll only have a few options to upgrade Lara, such as giving her the ability to carry additional arrows for her bow or increasing the speed that she's able to shoot the arrows. As you continue the system will open up and allow you to shape her abilities to your playstyle.

- The context-sensitive actions are one-off sequences. For example, the scene with Lara stabbing the wolf is only going to happen once in the game. They say that if you do it right the first time it'll have an impact.

- "There is linearity to the story - you have to go from point A to point B - but there's junctions in between where we want the player to feel like they're real explorers." These are described as non-linear hub spaces that you can come back to at different times of day.

From what I've seen so far, I think the right word is that I'm intrigued. It does look like a female version of Uncharted, which I'm not sure is what Tomb Raider is supposed to be. I was pretty sure that the games had Lara by herself without any other characters. The game does look pretty good so far though.

As a side note, I think it's extremely annoying, and sort of sexist, that every single time she touches something, she moans and groans.

There's definitely more character interaction in this one compared to past games. The similarities to Uncharted are obvious from what we've seen, but remember we've seen very little else. After reading the info and hearing the devs speak about how they believe it's different to Uncharted, it seems legit. Free-roaming, hub areas, XP system, scavenging materials for upgrades; Uncharted has none of this.

By making her frail, scared and scream like most people would when fighting for their lives, it'll better show her transformation into the hardened treasure hunter we know her as. In the latest trailer you can already see a point in which she looks completely fucked up and pretty much knows she has to fight to live. I really look forward to how her character develops.

I do hope that some classic Tomb Raider-ing makes its way in. Those foreigners must be there for an ancient powerful artefact or something. Hopefully some classic TR won't go out of place in line with Lara's fight for survival.

All of that info sounds really awesome. Sounds like it's going to be a completely different experience!

March 5 is going to be a long fucking wait.

I was thoroughly interested in this until I heard how sexist the dev team are being. Even if the game is quality I just.. won't be able to enjoy it considering it thinks depicting a previously strong woman as weak is ~more realistic~.

Women can be less strong and more human without being vulnerable or without being sexually assaulted. Apparently the game is being made with a vulnerable weak Lara so male players want to protect her?
It's bullshit, I'm not happy about that at all. They're not helping the whole mysogyny in games crap we get any better when one of the core female role models in gaming is turned from eye candy (who was at least strong) into a fragile little girl for big manly gamerhands to protect.

game honestly looks really good despite that, I'm not not ok at all with how she's being handled

hire some writers who actually understand how women work, I beseech you.

Fair points. Like I said in a previous post, I think making her weak and scared etc will help show the transformation of her character into the hard woman we've known her as in the past. I didn't like seeing some scruffy dirty prick touching up my Lara, either, but I thought it was going to be a lot worse than people made out.

For all we know, she won't be anywhere near the same weak sort of girl she is in this game in the next one, since she'll have become that tough woman in the end. Speculation, though.

Interesting to hear your opinion on that, though. Apart from not being too happy about her being touched up, I am still as excited for this as the day it was announced.

I completed the game with 77%. Quality game, definitely a solid 90. 

Exploration time.