L'article de PLAY 05/05

Le magazine américain PLAY s'interroge sur ce que veulent les fans pour Tomb Raider 7. La traduction française est disponible ici.

- Can Tomb Raider : Legend rekindle our love for Lara ?
- The Changing Face (And Bust) Of Lara Croft
- What was wrong with Angel of Darkness ?
- Is Lara still relevant ?

A Legend in the making ?

Can Tomb Raider : Legend rekindle our love for Lara ?

The success or otherwise of Tomb Raider : Legend depends on wich direction Crystal Dynamics takes it. Less killing, more stealing, more exploring, less stealth and more tombs, less... Paris? A return to the series' roots is a bit of a nobrainer - the important thing is that Crystal Dynamics can manage to do this without making the game seem old-fashioned. it is, after all, a good years since Lara Croft was first seen on our Playstations.
Moving the development from Core to Crystal Dynamics appears to be a positive step. The company's using its Legacy Of Kain game engine for the game. While the Legacy Of Kain games have hardly set the world alight, this will at least naturally free up the action - Core's Tomb raider engine restricted the action by constraining it to a grid formation.
So we can expect more fluid movement from our heroine, and it should be more joyful to move around each environment. We're told that Crystal Dynamics team are fans of the Prince Of Persia games and have said that they're going to make Legend a lot like Ubisoft's superb platformers. We can't help but think that this is exactly what Core should have done with Angel Of Darkness in the first place. Another good sign is that Toby Gard, who worked as an artist on the fist Tomb raider and famously designed Lara, has benn brought by Crystal Dynamics to redesign her for Legend. Gard was asked in a recent magazine interview what he thought about the new Lara Croft game. "Obviously, people weren't too keen on the different direction that the game took. So, it's sort of 'back-to-the-basics', but faster paced - more 'action-y'. That's what everyone wants."
There's no reason why Legend won't take place in more modern settings as well, though - think back to Tomb Raider 2 and stand out levels were actually the ones set in Venice. Gard thinks that Lara "can be put into a modern setting, you just have to be very careful. Too much realism would really take the fun out of it. I mean; what if every artifact Lara got, she had to spend six months going through customs and paying taxes out the kazoo?" Crystal Dynamics will have to try and get this just right - appropriately historical, you might call it.
Of course, Lara herself has been brought right up to date, without losing her Lara-ness. Gard explained, "I didn't want to make her too realistic, because then she would lose some of the ionic nature of the character. It seemed to me taht it would be good to find a balance between the caricature and that Lara was and the need to be more realistic, more human. That was the goal. More detail in the anatomy, more detail in the facial features, but keeping the proportions."
But what about the new features in the game? Was there anything that Gard led slip about that? "We're trying to stop the infinite backpack thing she's always had. Putting her inventory where you can see it on the character seemed a good thing to do, since we can put more polygons on the screen. It's a nice way to show things, without having to go to an inventory screen."
One thing sure: after the disappointment of Angel Of Darkness it's going to be an outnight stormer of a game to restore faith in what was once one of the videogames' industry's most bankable stars.

The Changing Face (And Bust) Of Lara Croft

TOMB RAIDER LARA
Pure caricature - This Lara was, apparently, an amalgamation of the designers' favourite ladies and famously had massive boots and a tiny waist. An icon. Women wanted to be her, men wanted to be with her.

ANGEL OF DARKNESS LARA
A more streamlined look and slightly more realistic-looking too. Sporting slightly smaller bristols (or a more practical Lara), Lara Croft PS2-era can be seen as having a more mature look.

LEGEND LARA
A huge departure from the original Lara, Legend retains Lara's distinctive lips and eyes while reducing her bust and giving her a softer look.

That's what you'd call progress, we guess.

What was wrong with Angel Of Darkness ?
A quick recap of what we don't want

A hugely anticipated, first next-generation (as it was then) Tomb Raider game was a massive disappointment - it managed a measly 71% in PLAY, the lowest score for any Tomb Raider game in these hallowed pages.
There was much that was wrong with it - starting with Lara. She became more important than the Tomb Raider part of the name, effectively giving Core free reign with the setting, which was chiefly responsible for the loss of the direction. Anyone who remembers the Paris level will agree that moving out of tombs was the worst thing that cove have done. Core also attempted to expand the franchise with Deus Ex-style RPG-ish sections where Lara could learn and improve her abilities - this was essentially an elaborate key system. Lara also became nastier by having the ability to break necks and was almost impossible to control. Jumping was almost impossible. It was all a bit 1996 for us. Oh, and there was Kurtis too.
The question is : can Crystal Dynamics learn from Core's mistakes? Yeah, why not...

Is Lara Still Relevant ?

Can Lara still be a force in today's gaming? What would we like to see from Tomb Raider : Legend? Are we impresed with Lara's new look? All these questions (and more) are answered by our expert panel.

AARON : Hmmm, can Lara Croft still be a force in today's gaming? Well, yeah, unless teenage boys suddenly become non-sexual between now and the next Tomb Raider game's release. Importance is a popularity contest and Lara's got tits. As for gameplay... well I've heard she's had a breast reduction and some ass implants.

GREG : We don't need her anymore. She's past her sell-date. Lara was a terrific PSone icon - there's no doubt about that - but in a soon-to-be Playstation3-crazy videogames climate, I just can't see room for a has-been. The importance of videogame icons is sagging, and Lara's a fitting personification of that metaphor.

JONES : The new Lara looks good - I only hope that this is indicative of the way that the game is heading. However, Crystal Dynamics has talked a lot about Legend being similar to Prince Of Persia, so there's a real danger that it could become little more than a derogatory clone. Still, the return of Lara is most welcome.

POWELL : I hated the last game. It just wasn't Tomb Raider. I can only hope that Crystal Dynamics doesn't forget what made the first few game great: the grandeur, the exploration, the epic feel of the whole thing. Oh, and Legend must have Lara raiding tombs. That's not too much to ask for is it?

MAT : It's going to take more than a dye job and a sports bra to keep Lara relevant in today's game market, as was proved in the atrocious Angel Of Darkness. What the Tomb raider series needs is innovation in the gameplay department; if she'll be using that great figure just to push around boxes at right-angles then what's to get excited about?

WILL : Too late, baby. Others have used more impressive technology, and had female characters you could care about without purely fixating on the physical. Extra moves? No, she's meant to be just a gymnast. Extra weapons? She's meant to be a thief not an assassin. Can I play Beyond Good & Evil 2, now?.