E3 '08: Tomb Raider Underworld
Lara Croft, arguably the most iconic female character in video games, is back in an all new adventure, Tomb Raider: Underworld. I was able to sit through a short demo at E3 and was quite pleased with the way everything looked. Lara starts off on a ship in the middle of the Mediterranean Ocean set to dive into an underwater site her famous archeologist father had found but was never able to explore. After diving in we saw that the former button mashing swimming mechanic had been replaced by a simpler mechanic utilizing the two analog joysticks.
We were soon presented with our first puzzle which required Lara to find two pieces needed to open a large underwater door. After finding the first piece we saw that Lara no longer stores pieces in her bag but actually carries them in her hand to their destinations. This creates a much more realistic feeling and Lara can even use the items in her hands to attack if necessary. While looking for the second piece to the puzzle Lara made use of her new sonar witch allows you to see a 3D map of your environment without all the pesky plants and such obstructing your vision. This came in useful since the missing piece was in a cave who's mouth was covered by a large growth of kelp.
After solving the door puzzle, a large tentacle is seen waving about, foreshadowing something yet to come... I wonder what it could be? The tentacle disappears as Lara approaches and after a bit more swimming she finally arrives on semi dry ground. Here we saw Lara's new motion captured animations which looked quite smooth. Eventually Lara finds the owner of the giant tentacle, a huge octopus known as the Kraken. After a few more deft moves, Lara manages to drop a spikey platform square on the giant cephalopod's head putting an and to it's slimy hideousness. And here our demo ended.
Underworld's creative director Eric Lindstrom who had been demoing for us clued us in to some of the things Lara will be using to traverse her (under) world. A digital camera has been added that will allow you to send snapshots to folks on your friend list. For weapons a harpoon gun and sticky grenades are available as well as a tranqulizer gun so players can choose between killing or incapacitating their animal enemies. And building on that, Lara will have very few human enemies in this game, taking us back to the kind of gameplay we are familiar with from the earlier titles. The Croft mansion will be making a return appearance as well as Lara's motorcycle which will now be used as a mode of transportation rather than a device to traverse cycle specific levels.
Tomb Raider Underworld looked very impressive graphically and Lara's new character model looks quite nice if not a wee bit different than what we're used to. It really seems to combine the best parts of Legend and Anniversary with some new innovations thrown in to make this a worthy new entry into the series. Underworld is expected to ship November 18th and will be available on Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, PS2, PC, PSP and DS.
Fruit Brute
Posted to E3, Hot Stuff, Video Games on 19 July 2008
· Comments (5)
Other stuff like this: ds, eidos, lara croft, pc, ps2, ps3, psp, tomb raider, underworld, wi, xbox 360
Hmm. I hope this teaser means they're going to try to take the focus away from the disappointing ret-con of Lara's background history:P
omg.. what the heck is that screenshot? she has full diving gear without the fins? developers lost their minds obviously. damn..
Woah. Definiion of a teaser. Why the hell would she blow up her own beautiful mansion.
WHY!?!
Best trailer I've seen all year
holy shizz.
I officially can't wait for TR:U. Though, I must say I'm slightly iffy about Laura's newest transformation. She was perfect in Legend... now she's somewhat mediocre-looking.
=[
I like the style the trailer starts out with, but I wouldve preferred an ocean setting. There is something cool about the stuff Lara is wearing, but her face and body are just fugly, she looks like she's modeled after an orang-utan...
That said, I haven't played all that much TR after the very first one and I don't think I ever will...