tlr online
30-08-02, 23:44
We're there tomorrow, in the meantime, here's what IGN and GAMESPOT think:
IGN:
Eidos demonstrated a PS2 version of Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness at ECTS this year that is supposedly only 50% complete, though the game is due in November 2002. The demo only revealed a small section of a level, but what it did show was impressive in certain respects.
The thing about Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness is that it's different in many ways from the original Tomb Raider, and yet it's also very much the same. From the builds we saw at E3 (which, granted, was very, very early, and nothing really to judge the game by in concrete terms) and this early build here at ECTS, the most discernible differences in the game are A) camera angles; B) Lara's newfound abilities to move in a free, 360-fashion, C) stealth attacks, D) the introduction or more platform-style levels, and finally, E) the addition of another playable character.
While those additions are large in the world of Lara Croft, the videogame world has been rapidly accelerating around the busty English spelunker, and those changes don't seem to be vast enough to present this next Tomb Raider in the most revolutionary of lights. On the other hand, after five Tomb Raider games, which were essentially altered, modified versions of the original game, Eidos core franchise is seeing the most significant changes its seen ever.
The demo we played takes place in an urban setting, wherein Lara must find her way out of a hostile environment without being spotted by security guards. Clad in tight, hip-hugger jeans, a plain shirt and jacket, Lara is able to around freely in this new environment, opening doors, climbing, walking, running, and crouching to reach her objective. As was always the case with Tomb Raider games, the large puzzle-riddled environments were extensively textured, and this game is no exception. The backgrounds look excellent, but Lara herself looks much less dolly, much less robotic. She moves with a better organic flow, shown in her simple slow walk or in her run. Turning, climbing, crouching, all of these movements feel smoother, more fluid than ever before. Although she is still simply designed, her facial textures are more detailed, with more attention given to the curves in her face and the complexity of her eyes. Lara's hair also moves well, her ponytail swaying and reacting to her movements relatively realistically.
She is entirely moveable using both the analog buttons and the Dpad, but it's clear that Lara's movement is still very much based on mapped block grids, and so her step forward motions, side-step motions, jumps, and long jumps all take her precisely the same lengths no matter what the situation. They are still the same, even if the movement is handled with a more fluid motion. Secondarily, at least now, the Dpad is far more preferable than the sloppy, loose, and awkward analog control. Again, it may simply be the case of an early build, but at least here, it's clear the D-Pad is the best, if not only, way to move Lara Croft -- something that was very true about all of the PlayStation versions. (The PC game never had this problem since it used a keyboard.)
By climbing up a set of objects, starting with a rather generic crate, Lara uses mostly similar functions to jump, climb, and hang as in previous games. By pressing up against the crate, she automatically climbs up it. She jumps straight up and can lift herself up exactly the same way as in previous games. This particular level required Lara to climb up several boxes and fire escapes and to jump long distances to get from one building to another without being seen.
Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness is still too early in development to get a good feel for the overall gameplay experience, since I have only played two small sections of two environments. But so far I can say that while many of the graphics have improved I have yet to experience anything that gives me a real feel of something new. I am still hopeful and open-minded, too, so Eidos bring it on, and please do it soon. November is right around the corner.
GAMESPOT:
Core Design's Lara Croft is set to make her PS2 debut in November, and today we got to take a look at the first level in a 75 percent complete build of Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness.
The first level of the game takes place on a wet night in Paris, it's a dark and moody setting which sees Lara attempting to evade capture after being framed for a crime that she didn't commit. This level falls into what Core Design has described as the role-playing section of the game and as such Lara has no weapons equipped and has to rely on stealth along with her abilities to jump and climb to get her through for the most part. There actually weren't very many enemies to avoid in the level that we saw, although the armed French policeman that gave chase at one point seemed reasonably intelligent as he searched for Lara using his torch. The level also featured a Rottweiler chained to a wall that made a lot of noise when approached by Lara and will presumably be capable of alerting any enemies that are nearby.
We managed to have a conversation with another character in the level, which was linear for the most part but which occasionally presented us with two different options of what to say. According to Core Design, these conversations can affect the ways in which different characters react to Lara should their paths cross again.
The new Lara model in the game looks impressive although at this point the animation wasn't quite as smooth as we expected it to be. Lara moves in much the same way as she has in all of the previous Tomb Raider games, which is perfectly acceptable, but which can look a little unrealistic at times--particularly if compared to a game like Konami's Metal Gear Solid 2. What did impress us is the fact that Lara appears to cast realistic shadows onto every object in the game, including herself.
Perhaps the most significant change in the game, based on what we've seen today, is to the game's camera system. Instead of using a camera positioned directly behind Lara for the most part, the game employs a more cinematic approach not entirely unlike that seen in the Resident Evil games. While this can make for great screenshots, it doesn't really help the gameplay--particularly since there didn't appear to be a "look" button or any way of moving the camera manually to get a better idea of Lara's surroundings in the version on show. We should point out that we were warned about the camera not having been perfected before we played the game, but we were still a little shocked at just how tricky the camera angles made the game to play.
We were also warned that the control system for the game hasn't been finalised at this time, which we'd have to say is just as well. When playing using the directional pad Lara was restricted to walking thanks to the absence of a "run" button, after questioning an Eidos representative about this we were told that using the analog stick would allow us to run, and thus clear a particularly long jump that we'd got stuck at. We made the jump, but only after figuring out that whereas the directional pad uses the Resident Evil control system whereby pushing up always moves the character forward, the directional pad moves the character in whichever direction you push it--this coupled with the ever-changing camera angles made the game unnecessarily difficult.
Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness isn't scheduled for release until November so Core Design still has plenty of time to address the problems we came across in the ECTS version, if it hasn't done so already. We're certain that the final version of the game will be significantly more playable than the one that we struggled with today, but we can't help wondering if the game really will be ready pre-Christmas given its current state.
IGN:
Eidos demonstrated a PS2 version of Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness at ECTS this year that is supposedly only 50% complete, though the game is due in November 2002. The demo only revealed a small section of a level, but what it did show was impressive in certain respects.
The thing about Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness is that it's different in many ways from the original Tomb Raider, and yet it's also very much the same. From the builds we saw at E3 (which, granted, was very, very early, and nothing really to judge the game by in concrete terms) and this early build here at ECTS, the most discernible differences in the game are A) camera angles; B) Lara's newfound abilities to move in a free, 360-fashion, C) stealth attacks, D) the introduction or more platform-style levels, and finally, E) the addition of another playable character.
While those additions are large in the world of Lara Croft, the videogame world has been rapidly accelerating around the busty English spelunker, and those changes don't seem to be vast enough to present this next Tomb Raider in the most revolutionary of lights. On the other hand, after five Tomb Raider games, which were essentially altered, modified versions of the original game, Eidos core franchise is seeing the most significant changes its seen ever.
The demo we played takes place in an urban setting, wherein Lara must find her way out of a hostile environment without being spotted by security guards. Clad in tight, hip-hugger jeans, a plain shirt and jacket, Lara is able to around freely in this new environment, opening doors, climbing, walking, running, and crouching to reach her objective. As was always the case with Tomb Raider games, the large puzzle-riddled environments were extensively textured, and this game is no exception. The backgrounds look excellent, but Lara herself looks much less dolly, much less robotic. She moves with a better organic flow, shown in her simple slow walk or in her run. Turning, climbing, crouching, all of these movements feel smoother, more fluid than ever before. Although she is still simply designed, her facial textures are more detailed, with more attention given to the curves in her face and the complexity of her eyes. Lara's hair also moves well, her ponytail swaying and reacting to her movements relatively realistically.
She is entirely moveable using both the analog buttons and the Dpad, but it's clear that Lara's movement is still very much based on mapped block grids, and so her step forward motions, side-step motions, jumps, and long jumps all take her precisely the same lengths no matter what the situation. They are still the same, even if the movement is handled with a more fluid motion. Secondarily, at least now, the Dpad is far more preferable than the sloppy, loose, and awkward analog control. Again, it may simply be the case of an early build, but at least here, it's clear the D-Pad is the best, if not only, way to move Lara Croft -- something that was very true about all of the PlayStation versions. (The PC game never had this problem since it used a keyboard.)
By climbing up a set of objects, starting with a rather generic crate, Lara uses mostly similar functions to jump, climb, and hang as in previous games. By pressing up against the crate, she automatically climbs up it. She jumps straight up and can lift herself up exactly the same way as in previous games. This particular level required Lara to climb up several boxes and fire escapes and to jump long distances to get from one building to another without being seen.
Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness is still too early in development to get a good feel for the overall gameplay experience, since I have only played two small sections of two environments. But so far I can say that while many of the graphics have improved I have yet to experience anything that gives me a real feel of something new. I am still hopeful and open-minded, too, so Eidos bring it on, and please do it soon. November is right around the corner.
GAMESPOT:
Core Design's Lara Croft is set to make her PS2 debut in November, and today we got to take a look at the first level in a 75 percent complete build of Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness.
The first level of the game takes place on a wet night in Paris, it's a dark and moody setting which sees Lara attempting to evade capture after being framed for a crime that she didn't commit. This level falls into what Core Design has described as the role-playing section of the game and as such Lara has no weapons equipped and has to rely on stealth along with her abilities to jump and climb to get her through for the most part. There actually weren't very many enemies to avoid in the level that we saw, although the armed French policeman that gave chase at one point seemed reasonably intelligent as he searched for Lara using his torch. The level also featured a Rottweiler chained to a wall that made a lot of noise when approached by Lara and will presumably be capable of alerting any enemies that are nearby.
We managed to have a conversation with another character in the level, which was linear for the most part but which occasionally presented us with two different options of what to say. According to Core Design, these conversations can affect the ways in which different characters react to Lara should their paths cross again.
The new Lara model in the game looks impressive although at this point the animation wasn't quite as smooth as we expected it to be. Lara moves in much the same way as she has in all of the previous Tomb Raider games, which is perfectly acceptable, but which can look a little unrealistic at times--particularly if compared to a game like Konami's Metal Gear Solid 2. What did impress us is the fact that Lara appears to cast realistic shadows onto every object in the game, including herself.
Perhaps the most significant change in the game, based on what we've seen today, is to the game's camera system. Instead of using a camera positioned directly behind Lara for the most part, the game employs a more cinematic approach not entirely unlike that seen in the Resident Evil games. While this can make for great screenshots, it doesn't really help the gameplay--particularly since there didn't appear to be a "look" button or any way of moving the camera manually to get a better idea of Lara's surroundings in the version on show. We should point out that we were warned about the camera not having been perfected before we played the game, but we were still a little shocked at just how tricky the camera angles made the game to play.
We were also warned that the control system for the game hasn't been finalised at this time, which we'd have to say is just as well. When playing using the directional pad Lara was restricted to walking thanks to the absence of a "run" button, after questioning an Eidos representative about this we were told that using the analog stick would allow us to run, and thus clear a particularly long jump that we'd got stuck at. We made the jump, but only after figuring out that whereas the directional pad uses the Resident Evil control system whereby pushing up always moves the character forward, the directional pad moves the character in whichever direction you push it--this coupled with the ever-changing camera angles made the game unnecessarily difficult.
Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness isn't scheduled for release until November so Core Design still has plenty of time to address the problems we came across in the ECTS version, if it hasn't done so already. We're certain that the final version of the game will be significantly more playable than the one that we struggled with today, but we can't help wondering if the game really will be ready pre-Christmas given its current state.