Tomb Raider 9: Big Changes Afoot!

[Tom]

Information was leaked out on the internet yesterday evening which shows information and artwork that says Tomb Raider 9 will be:
Open World
Localised around deserted Japanese Islands
based around staying alive - a survival adventure

The artwork shows dark nephilim style mutant creatures which wouldn't be out of place in some kind of horror game. Lara herself has been given a radical overhaul. Not only does she look younger - appropriate for what is being billed as an 'Origins' story but her proportions and face have totally changed to something much more realistic.

Justin a.k.a TLR Online has claimed that he saw all this months ago courtesy of Crystal Dynamics and now is urging them to 'embrace the internet' and accept that the leak has generated a large amount of positive fan and media interest.

I for one am absolutely thrilled by this. I've always wanted TR to go in an open world style direction with survival elements. The look, the story, the whole feel of it is just right and it screams out that TR could be something special that will make everyone sit up and take notice again. Begone the rubbishy Legend era and hello this wonderful reboot on its way.

LINKAGE 1
LINKAGE 2

[L.E. Croft]

Tomb Raider was meant to be open world, there's no doubt about that, and I love the prospect of them developing a TR with that in mind. However, I'm not sure about how I feel about the idea of it turning into a horror survival game. Don't get me wrong, I love horror survival games. I'm a big fan of Resident Evil and Silent Hill, but TR was never meant to be this sort of game. It always had it's horror elements, it's freakish creatures and nail-biting on-the-edge-of-your-seat moments, but to go all out would be completely changing the entire game. They didn't even go that far with Legend, and we all remember what a fit many of us had about the changes they did make. lol

I like the idea of Tomb Raider evolving and becoming more mature. I like the idea of it taking a walk on the dark side. That was what was so refreshing about AOD. But I don't want to lose the tomb raiding to the "slicing off monsters' heads with a chainsaw". It's too early to really pass judgement, but I'm not hoping for much. I'm getting kind of tired of CrystalD using Tomb Raider as their test dummy. Legend, Anniversary, and Underworld were suppose to be the so-called "reboot", and now they're scrapping that just like they scrapped the originals for yet another "reboot". So now we have a third origin to throw into the mix. How many origins does one character need? Plus now we have to consider, after they punch out two more games after TR 9 are they going to scrap them too for yet another "reboot" if fans aren't overly impressed? Which they won't be, because us fans are never satisfied, there's always going to be something to tick us off. lol

As for the new Lara, I was just finally getting use to Legend Lara and now they have to go and change her again. lol The concept art is cool and she's pretty badass looking, but she doesn't look like a Tomb Raider anymore. She looks like a Resident Evil character, in fact she looks more like Claire Redfield than she does Lara Croft.

Ah well, I guess we'll just have to wait and see how things pan out once more info is released.

[Marcus Brody]

Sorry I haven't been around lately. Been busy. Went on vacation for two weeks, so now I'm dealing with settling back into reality. lol

Sounds like a drastic change they're making. The links you posted, Tom, no longer have the leaked concept art up. Is there some where else that has it?

Yeah, I thought Legend was suppose to be the reboot. Don't you just love it when franchises screw up and then decide a reboot will solve everything. Then when the reboot fails they make another reboot to try and fix the previous reboot. I can understand your frustration, L.E., it gets annoying after a while when they keep changing things.

It seems kind of stupid that they're starting over again with Lara's character, sure Legend Lara wasn't the greatest but Underworld successfully ended the "crying for mommy" bit and she could move on and mature as a character. I don't think they really needed to scrap that background story, they just needed to move on and drop Lara's "family issues". She had potential to become more like the original Lara Croft. It will be interesting to see what they have in store for her now. I'm hoping they try to stay consistant with at least one of the background stories, by dropping two background stories for a third one is pretty much them taking a piss on the fans.

[L.E. Croft]

Shh! It's a secret. Don't tell anyone.

It does look rather impressive, but I just don't want this to be another lame attempt to try and make TR "hip and cool" again. They tried that with Legend, making Lara more appealing to a new generation of gamers. They succeeded in bringing in new fans, but at the same time they cheapened TR and Lara Croft, making the game short and easy. Something more appealing to a novice rather than an expert raider.

Well it's more like them taking a piss on TR than the fans. But they've been doing that since the get-go. I mean it's not entirely CrystalD's fault, I know a lot of them (most of the ones that were laid off at the beginning of the year) really wanted to make an impressive TR game and wanted to appeal to all of the fans. Corporate politics and the all-mighty dollar have been the true villains. However, I honestly think karma has come back to bite them in the arse. They spat on the old games and Core Design, and now they're in the same position Core was in when AOD was being made. Except the end for them has come a lot sooner. This seems to be CrystalD's AOD, their last shot to reinnovate Tomb Raider. And if they fail, will Eidos get rid of them too? Will they be traded out for a "newer" and "hipper" game developer who will spit on them and their TR games?

I don't mind them trying to keep up with what gamers are looking for in a game these days. I can admit that the old games became repetitive, and TR needed a change. But to ditch its history was a mistake, and I hope they realize that. It's like taking Spider-Man and saying he was biten by a radioactive walrus instead of a spider. Oh but he's still Spider-Man he just has walrus tendancies. I would prefer them to go back to the original background story and just expand on it like TR4 and TR5 did. In the concept art Lara looks like she's in her early twenties, this could fit into the time period after the plane crash when she was 21. However, I'm still extremely unsure about this game turning TR into a "survival" game rather than an "adventure" game.   

[Marcus Brody]

  What the hell are those things? My son says the middle one looks like a monster from the game F.E.A.R.

Definitely sounds like they're converting TR into a completely horror survival scenario, ditching the actual tomb raiding. Maybe there will be some kind of mythological context to the storyline. Japan has a lot of pretty cool myths, although I'm not sure any of them contain monsters like those. I get where you're coming from now, what's the sense in even calling it Tomb Raider if there's going to be no tomb raiding? Although the fact sheet does say you will be exploring some tombs, but will that be tomb raiding in the archaeological sense, or will you just be in the tombs in order to survive those monsters? Also I noticed the M rating for this new game. A lot of the kids who became fans through Legend are going to be pissed. lol

lol Nice analogy. So Legend Lara was Lara Croft with walrus tendancies? I still can't grasp the need for another origin story. It's like the Wolverine movie, we already received all the background info we needed through the X-Men movies, why does he need his own origin story? Of course, they didn't even get it right when they made the origin movie. Hollywood doesn't know how to follow their source material very well. I'm hoping you're right and they go back to the original history. From what I remember, the old Lara Croft was a lot tougher and had more of an attitude. Given the description on the fact sheet, this game is suppose to reveal how Lara became a "hardened adventurer", sounds more like the old Croft, than the new one.

I also have a question for you, L.E. but I'll ask it in the Final Crusade thread because I don't want to go off topic.

[L.E. Croft]

Yes, someone else has said that too. I've never played F.E.A.R. so I don't know whether that's an accurate statement or not. But it wouldn't surprise me if perhaps F.E.A.R. had an influence. After all Legend and Anniversary were influenced a lot by Prince of Persia and God of War. Which kind of erked me because the gameplay in those particular games were unique to them and it felt like they were being ripped off by the new TR games. TR, at one time, was on the front lines of gaming evolution and I'd like to see it return to that. And the only way it's going to do that is if they stop worrying about her background and her origins and just focus on creating an entertaining game. All of her fans already know how she became a tomb raider and why, we don't need more explanations and frankly I don't think your average gamer really cares either. As long as the storyline is awesome, the gameplay excellent, and the replay value is high, gamers aren't going to care how Lara Croft became such a badass.

I can't make a definite decision on this new game until I have more information about it. My main worries are that they're going to distort Tomb Raider into something it's not just to make money and that no real effort was put into making a TR game that the fans have really been asking for, a longer and more challenging game.

Ok then. lol *heads over to the Final Crusade thread*

[Marcus Brody]

Yeah, I pretty much agree with you. Hopefully more info will be released soon. I find the concept interesting, but like you said a reboot pretty much doesn't mean squat unless the gameplay's length and difficulty are increased.

[BegeOrer73]

I still dont fully understand ;s

I buy the dowloadable Tomb Raider: Anniversary from the Marketplace which will be released in November, then I buy the Retail version of Tomb Raider: Legend, then I play the same levels that are on the Anniversary edition, but on Legend? Is that right?

[BegeOrer73]

ummmm why the hell is a different games achievements on this?
 
I dont get it. how would buy it on legend? its in the store for 40 i think. ummmm like why are achievements on this game though?
 
oh and it ISNT CALLED LEGENDS ITS CALLED TOMB RAIDER: LEGEND

[L.E. Croft]

I'm not sure I fully understand what you're talking about BegeOrer. Tomb Raider: Legend and Tomb Raider: Anniversary are two separate games, albeit both lacking difficulty, but they're not the same game. Also this topic is for Tomb Raider 9 discussion, if you have any further questions about Tomb Raider: Legend or Anniversary please create a separate topic for it. Thank you.

[D.Daymn]

Do you think tomb raider legend looks better on the 360 or on the PC? Itz
becuz I have the 360 version and the graphics look way much better on the PCs
that support next gen graphics and i was kind of upset of how it kind of lacked on
the 360. Let me know what you lara lovers think about the differences of the
graphics.


Oh yeah guys im a new member of this board. Im excited

[Greange09]

I replay Tomb Raider 2 these days too Im in Tibet now, I didnt beat that game much of the times and I havent play it for ages so its like playing it for a very first time lol.
My fave are Tr1, Tr4, Chronicles and AOD. TRU was not bad aswel. I cant count how much of times I finished Tr1 and Chronicles lol

[BegeOrer73]

As much as I hate to say this.  Just before I do, I love tomb raider more than any other game.  But... Its getting old, the first games were just outstanding because it had everything.  I hate to say it, but, the new games are the same theres nothing new.  Shoot that bird, climb that ladder, jump on that rock.

Thats why I think tomb raider still hasnt turned into a next-gen game. I think it hasnt evolved as well as it should of done and also as well as other next-gen games. You just seem to able to do more things on different games on the xbox, ps3 or perhaps the wii. Tomb raider is pretty much the same.

This maybe to why they took that radical step with Angel of Darkness by turning Lara into a right weirdo wandering around Paris collecting silly paintings. Its because it was so incredibly different from the previous games. AOD lost tomb raider a lot of fans... its true, I know there a lot of people on this forum who love AOD but youve got to be honest, thats why people darent buy the new tomb raider games cause they might be just as weird as AOD and they lost their faith in TR after AOD.

Legend and anniversary were fantastic I thought but everyone was expecting TRU to be bursting out of its Legend/anniversary format and be a completly different game But it wasnt, that might be why people dont like Underworld very much. Because they may have been expecting something much more.

I think tomb raider can be revived, especially if CD/square enix sort out everything Mikeyy listed and also A much longer plot and Game something a bit like TRLR really really long, but you just cant stop playing it. Do you know what I mean?

Sorry for rambling.

[L.E. Croft]

Yes, I can understand that. I do agree that Tomb Raider needs to evolve as a game, especially if it has any hopes of competing with all of the new next-gen games. My main fear is that they'll make huge changes to the character and the storyline of the series, but no real effort will have been put in towards the actual gameplay itself. They've been so preoccupied with trying to create a Lara Croft that's better than the one who was presented in AOD, that the gameplay of the series has suffered. Tomb Raider: Legend was suppose to be the reboot for this series, but it didn't reboot anything. A lot of people enjoyed it, and there's nothing wrong with that, but I personally found the gameplay to be simplistic at best and the storyline was dull. Underworld was a much better game by comparison. The gameplay was far more enjoyable and the level designs were superior.

However the series still needs work, and apparently they believe yet another reboot will do the trick. Maybe it will, maybe it won't. I think the only way the series will evolve is if they up the gameplay and create a more indepth and complex storyline. Since this new game will be aimed towards fans who are 17 years and up, I think it shouldn't be too hard to create something that will be enjoyable for older audiences.