A new Tomb Raider V for TR IV-VI Remastered

[SLAYER]

TRC is perfect as is.

[Shirley_Manson]

Originally Posted by SLAYER

TRC is perfect as is.

For the garbage bin, sure.

Kidding, but it is terribly sub-par.

[XavierVonCroy]

Originally Posted by Mr Od

The gameplay and graphics are fine. It is the plot that is uninspired and botched.

I completely disagree. Yes the graphics are fine, but I found the gameplay uneven, growing from very bad and boring in Rome, to perfect in New York (bugs aside). And the plot, on the contrary, is the only thing that I found constantly good. (relatively to a standard Tomb Raider of course, this is not Jules Verne).

While playing it, I thought that the screenwriters were obviously the only ones having fun and getting inspired, creating original settings, good and entertaining dialogs and characters, digging up great folklore or mythological elements, exploring more story genres and nailing each of them (classic tomb-raiding, spy thriller, horrific fairy tale, and finally a heist story). But it is obvious that the level-designers felt bored and did the very minimum effort to create the levels required by the story. The storytelling (the cutscenes or the the in-game narrative elements) are more interesting than the pure gameplay phases (the street of Rome are just empty, the Russian port has no challenge or puzzles, the underwater exploration takes fives minutes and takes no advantage of its concept to create cool game mechanics or cool underwater rooms to explore, etc). So in the end, I played those chapters only for the plot, which was great.

If it's the mini-stories format that bother you, I wouldn't like it if all the games were made in this format, but in the case of Chronicles it brings a nice and unique feeling to the game, IMO. Chronicles is often described as a minor entries to the series, but the fact that its structure looks like no other game makes it memorable, and not just a lesser version of the previous games.

[Mr Od]

Originally Posted by XavierVonCroy

... But it is obvious that the level-designers felt bored and did the very minimum effort to create the levels required by the story. ...

I think it was the other way around, given that the overarching story was written only after the levels had already been made. Many levels were originally concepts for TR4, but were discarded when it was decided that the latter would be set entirely in Egypt.

[Gaelen]

If Andy Sandham is to be believed (which I think he is), the level designers did a lot of the writing and design side by side. It wasn’t like AoD onwards where there was an actual writer. Yeah there was one person who oversaw it (Andy did so for 5), but there was a lot of creative freedom.

[XavierVonCroy]

Originally Posted by Mr Od

I think it was the other way around, given that the overarching story was written only after the levels had already been made. Many levels were originally concepts for TR4, but were discarded when it was decided that the latter would be set entirely in Egypt.

For Chronicles more than the previous games, I don't think that you could do the game then find a story about it. Especially the Ireland segment, which is story-driven more than gameplay-driven. (For those levels, you couldn't just build rooms and platforms sections, and then hand it over to the screenwriters and say "ok, write some stuff").

The concepts discarded from the TR4 were only concepts, ideas for a setting, not fully designed set of levels. Probably in the same state that the cancelled TR4 Gold about the Fountain of Youth (a storyline, and some artistic inspirations). The next step is to build the levels, which can't be done without the screenwriter, probably side by side with them.

[fredrikk]

i like this idea. it would make a good transition between LR and AOD. keep werner in this game and have it end with him walking away and leaving her (as she mentions in the aod intro).

[Mr Od]

Originally Posted by fredrikk

i like this idea. it would make a good transition between LR and AOD. keep werner in this game and have it end with him walking away and leaving her (as she mentions in the aod intro).

It is a good plot that with adjustments (other artefact instead of the Spear of Destiny; other locations instead of NY and Russia) might be used for a new TR game in the Classic Line: https://www.tombraiderforums.com/sho...d.php?t=229449

However, in hindsight I recognise that TRC had its reasons, and better ideas have arisen around its TR5R version. Specifically, it is likely that it will officially receive expansions:

- https://www.tombraiderforums.com/sho...&postcount=941
- https://www.tombraiderforums.com/sho...postcount=1011
- https://www.tombraiderforums.com/sho...postcount=1099
- https://www.tombraiderforums.com/sho...postcount=1101