23-05-18, 01:43 | #1 |
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The Bio-Research Facility Was Meant to be Played Backwards? (My Theory)
As we know from Murti Schofield's documents, Lara was meant to visit the Strahov 2 times through 2 different entrances. One entrance was meant to lead to The Sanitarium, the other to The Bio-Research Facility. Maybe this could explain why the door Lara enters The Bio-Research Facility looks different from the door she exits The Strahov Fortress and why she suddenly wears shorts. Also the cutscenes before The Sanitarium and before Aquatic Research Area look a little out of place as in the cutscene before The Sanitarium Lara tries to open the door she just passed through in the gameplay and then Kurtis appears on the other side of it. As of the cutscene before Aquatic Research Area, Kurtis comes from the same door again he had left previously but then Lara pushes him towards the other door leading to Aquatic Research Area and shoots the Sanitarium inmate behind him, which is kind a unusual place for the Sanitarium inmate to come from. And also at the end of the cutscene Kurtis leaves through the door that leads to Aquatic Research Area and Lara leaves through the door that leads to The Bio-Research Facility, which is illogical. In one of the pre-release renders of the game you can see a still that looks similar to the cutscene before Aquatic Research Area but the setting is completely different:
https://i.imgur.com/Wt89uXk.jpg The door that Kurtis apparently enters The Sanitarium does not match the door through which he leaves and comes back in the cutscenes too. There are also some screenshots that probably show removed parts of The Sanitarium or The Strahov Fortress: https://i.imgur.com/Pza3ZUx.jpg https://i.imgur.com/1noAsya.jpg https://i.imgur.com/7sEJWCB.jpg There is even Nokia N-Gage trailer from 2003 that shows TRAOD gameplay with Lara in The Sanitarium: https://youtu.be/TxR37sOJV9g?t=21s We also do not know how Kurtis was captured. I think there may be some more cutscenes, gameplay or boss battles missing, for both Lara and for Kurtis... Considering he has so many removed moves and then there is unused character Luther Rouzic with his fully unknown role and I think some deleted Muller's animation of him turning into bees too? It is also quite surprising and disconnected how Muller suddenly sprays Lara with pesticide and runs away. There is a blackout between the part of the cutscene with Muller where Lara has conversation with him and the part where he sprays Lara with pesticide and runs away. Furthermore, it is very strange that during the conversation with Lara Muller says that Boaz deserved to pay for her stupidity even though Eckhardt kills Boaz only afterwards. Maybe there was meant to be some boss battle between Lara and Muller? Furthermore, I think the maps order in The Bio-Research Facility is named backwards some reason. I would be grateful if someone like nakamichi680 or someone else who has extracted the map files could confirm this but as far as I remember the name of the first map where the level starts is 1bc38a7f-.map and the name of the last map where level ends is 1bc38a7a-.map. This is very unusual because usually a name of a map where level stars is named with letter 'a' at the end of its name and a name a map where level ends is named with a later letter of the alphabet according to how many maps there are in a level. So my idea is that maybe The Bio-Research Facility was initially designed to be somehow played backwards? Lara was meant to enter the level where it actually ends in the game, perhaps through the airlock where Aquatic Research Area actually starts in the game or maybe through some other door in that area, then see Boaz being killed by Eckhard, then talk to Muller (he would mention that Boaz deserved to pay for her stupidy), then Lara would have some boss battle with him and go thought the door where The Bio-Research Facility actually starts in the game and that door would actually lead her to The Vault Of Trophies, either to the original Eckhardt's Vault of Trophies where we would have meet Luther Rouzic or more likely to Aquatic Research Area and the actual Lux Veritatis Vault of Trophies we have in the game? And perhaps there would have been some removed gameplay or cutscene of Luther Rouzic, Eckhardt, Karel or Gunderson capturing Kurtis then? This would explain why Eckhardt says that Muller failed him too during the cutscene before Boaz Returns as during the boss battle with Lara he would not prevent her from going trough that door to The Vault Of Trophies... So you may now wonder what was meant to be in the place where Aquatic Research Area actually is in the game then? My idea is there was meant to be the Sanitarium because: 1. As I mentioned previously, in the cutscene before the Aquatic Research Area the Sanitarium inmate appears behind Kurtis on the other side of that door, not on the other side of the door that Kurtis comes from. 2. At the end of that cutscene we also see Eckhardt and Karel in the Sanitarium looking at the monitors and Eckhardt says 'The male will be coming this way soon. Make the preparations.' Kurtis also mentions that 'Eckhardt guards the Shard in his old alchemy lab in the lower regions.' so it makes sense for him to go through The Sanitarium and Maximum Containment Area, which are at sub level 5 and 6 respectively. And where would the huge door between the 2 airlocks that Kurtis goes through turn the power back on would lead to? I do not know. I still cannot fully put everything together. Perhaps there is a lot of things removed to completely figure out. Maybe those both airlock cutscenes were meant to take place in some totally other place that is shown in the render instead of that airlock and that other door would lead to some part of The Strahov Fortress or some part of The Sanitarium? As penguinraider mentioned in his post here, there are kind 2 power switches in The Strahov Fortress, the one that Lara uses in the cutscene and the other unused on the left in the room in front. Lara also mentions 'Better get moving whilst the grid's down.' after she shuts the power off, which implies that there was something timed there afterwards, likely some timed gameplay. There is also a text in the text file 'I must move quickly, the grid is down.' So maybe that room with the cutscene was meant in some other place? And Kurtis would have used that unused power switch to turn the power back on? Boaz Returns must be also somewhere close to The Bio-Research Facility and there are few doors that we do not get to know where they lead to in Boaz Returns too. It felt very illogical how Lara left The Vault Of Trophies too as Eckhardt mentions that 'We have lost too many men trying to open that damned Vault.' and that 'That Vault has defeated us for months.' and Lara suddenly exits from the vault is just a clear passage away from him... Maybe she was meant to leave the tomb from where she enters just like she does in Paris? There is also a jammed door at the end of the The Bio-Research Facility. This also leaves unanswered question where the door at the end of the Strahov Fortress would lead to according to these ideas. How The Lost Domain starts also feels slightly disconnected. Maybe the last part of Eckhardt's Lab was somewhere closer to Boaz Returns as Lara later runs from the last part of Eckhardt's Lab to there, maybe not? I was always quite suspicious about those rails in The Strahov Fortress. It looks like something large was meant to be moved on them throughout the whole level and turned towards the end of the level on that round platform towards the door using some switches and it also feels like there must have been some huge elevator there afterwards. It is just me who has this feeling? What do you guys think about this? Last edited by kietasvyras; 23-05-18 at 02:03. |
23-05-18, 04:00 | #2 |
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I always thought the connection between many of the areas in the game to be forced and unnatural. Two of my favorite places in the game are Eckhardt's Lab and the library in the Vault of Trophies, even though they are only a couple of isolated rooms that feel very disconnected from the rest of their levels and pretty much out of place, but they have a very unique feeling to them. Those levels feel almost like those design units in Anniversary, as if those areas were supposed to be fully fledged levels but never actually made it there.
I was also always intrigued by Eckardt's comment about the vault defeating them for months. What was exactly keeping him or his men from getting there? The vault was neither the largest or the hardest level to beat in my opinion. |
23-05-18, 07:51 | #3 | |
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Have you noticed that Aqua - lung Lara finds in the middle of The Vault Of Trophies that almost have no use? I found it a little bit teasing Core Design has put it there as there would wait some more serious diving and then there is almost none! Lara was also meant to use harpoon gun, which is even still in the game unfinished, somewhere. There are entries in the text file like 'I'll take a harpoon gun.', 'I can always use a harpoon.' and 'A harpoon gun will always come in handy'. And harpoon gun was meant to have various tips. Standard and explosive. Maybe Lara was meant to blew her way out to Boaz Returns using harpoon explosive spears? Or maybe harpoon explosive spears were only to blow out those walls that she kicks out in the game? There is also a TRAOD trailer that shows razorjaw from Aquatic Research Area following Lara in The Vault Of Trophies. |
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23-05-18, 18:20 | #4 |
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Holy crap, AoD deserves an award just for how often I go "wow I thought I knew everything about the game but apparently I don't". I think it was very much obvious that the Strahov levels were very randomly stuck together, but it's nice to see some explanation regarding the alternative. I didn't know about the deleted character, and tbh the only part of the game that feels at least somewhat seamless is the Parisian levels with Lara's denim outfit, even the Louvre levels start to feel very odd when she goes into the Tomb of Ancients, since if I'm not mistaken she was supposed to take different paths.
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23-05-18, 19:00 | #5 | ||||||||
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The library in the Vault is most probably a leftover from the Castle Kriegler level. The underwater parts might have also been from the Castle Kriegler level (as there are outlines of the lower levels which mention underwater parts). Quote:
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Personally I think the last three levels of the game (The Vault of Trophies, The Lost Domain, Eckhardt's Lab) were not even really planned. Wouldn't be surprised if there were no outlines of these levels as they were probably left for the later stages of the game and never started. What we have is just a quick patchwork of assets made for other levels. Last edited by Caesum; 23-05-18 at 19:02. |
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23-05-18, 19:59 | #6 | |
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23-05-18, 21:16 | #7 |
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omg that Nokia clip with Lara at The Sanatorium... so rare!
I think that early ideas for gameplay concept were some levels (Le Serpent Rouge, Louvre Galleries, The Sanatorium... maybe The Monstrum Crimscene too?) playing with Lara & Kurtis like a team. I mean, there's a lot of beta screenshots in which we can see Kurtis in all those levels instead of our Lara. Beta stuff of this game still blows my mind. SO MANY GREAT THINGS MISSED |
24-05-18, 01:53 | #8 | ||
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I heard Germany was taken out of development quite early and Turkey even earlier. I think the room with The Last Obscura Painting in The Vault Of Trophies may be from the original Eckhardt's Vault Of Trophies. The tapestry in that room on the wall would have probably given Lara a hint about Castle Kriegler. But it is possible that room could be from Castle Kriegler itself too. The underwater parts of The Vault Of Trophies look like something from Germany as there would have been a river not far away from Castle Kriegler and likely groundwater not that deep beneath the castle. Or those underwater parts of The Vault Of Trophies may be also some residues from The Hall of Seasons. The Lost Domain definitely looks like something beneath the mountains in Turkey. Just look at the bright sunny light shining through the ceiling at the end of the level... Well, unless the weather in Prague changes that much by the time Lara reaches Eckhardt's Lab but still the level looks very rocky, volcanic and like somewhere beneath some mountains, not in Prague. I think The Lost Domain may have also been temporary moved to Germany when Turkey was taken out but Germany still was not. I doubt The Lost Domain has anything to do with Egypt or the cave training level as there Eckhardt's statues, his face on the door and lion symbol. There is also quite late TROAD screeshot that shows The Lost Domain barely finished, which implies that the level was rather hasty addition to the game. It is also quite surprising that The Lost Domain is named as PRAGUE6A.GMX and Eckhardt's Lab is named as PRAGUE6A.GMX even though Eckhardt's Lab is the last level in the game so would have been more logical to name it as PRAGUE6A.GMX instead and The Lost Domain as PRAGUE6.GMX... I think that the room with the third Periapt Shard/Eckhardt's old alchemy lab in Eckhardt's Lab is definitely from Castle Kriegler. I think there is some information that the place where Castle Kriegler stands had been Eckhardt's stronghold some time ago before he was imprisoned, is not there? So perhaps that old alchemy lab would have been something in Castle Kriegler from then and would have enabled Lara to get out more information on Eckhardt? Maybe that is why there are Lux Veritatis knights? I think it is not that easy to tell what was actually developed and what was not just from the story documents because gameplay and cutscenes add a lot more to the game to that. We can sense that in pre-release videos and screenshots as well as in the released game. A picture often tells more than a 1000 words. I think there may be quite a lot of cut out gameplay and cutscenes in overall not only because they were not finished but because something else was not finished or just changed and they did not fit in the game that well anymore. It is like a movie, there are always some scenes that do not make into the final cut. And the more changes you make, the more there usually are. I think TRAOD's gameplay and cutscenes or at least some Maya design are no exception. Considering how many changes the game has undergone I can only imagine the amount... Core Design was not just sitting there for 3 years and doing nothing. And common, it is Core Design, not Crystal Dynamics who only develop some boring, short and plain game in 3 or 5 years. Those 3 years went into something, maybe something that is unpolished but still... Quote:
There are also screenshots with Lara wearing the swimsuit in the room with The Last Obscura Painting in The Vault Of Trophies, which suggest that she was probably meant to take it off somewhere later in the game. Last edited by kietasvyras; 24-05-18 at 02:01. |
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24-05-18, 21:29 | #9 | ||
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25-05-18, 03:31 | #10 | |||||
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Last edited by kietasvyras; 25-05-18 at 03:50. |
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