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Tomb Raider Underworld Press Demo
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| Tomb Raider: Underworld - Eidos Press Event |
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On Thursday 17th January
2008 various members of the press were invited to London for an exclusive first
look demo presentation of Miss Croft’s 8th Adventure, Tomb Raider: Underworld.
Tomb Raider Central was right there with them to catch a glimpse of Lara’s
latest outing.
At around 2.30pm the
presentation began. We were greeted by Gareth Ramsey (International PR Manager)
who introduced the game. He then handed over to Sarah Van Pompey (Senior
Producer) who would be giving us a guided tour through the demo. The lights in
the room dimmed and the demo began…
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The portion of the demo we
got a glimpse of takes place in Southern Mexico, and sees Lara searching for
the final piece of a puzzle needed to reset the Mayan Calendar in order to open
the gates to the Underworld. The demo opens with Lara stumbling across a group
of poachers who are hunting Panther, inside a small village. The Panther soon
show up, but they are oblivious, causing the hunters to become the hunted.
Lara dives in pistols blazing and disposes of both the Panthers and the
Poachers. It is at this point we see a new weapon brought into play, the
‘Sticky Bomb’, which does exactly what it says on the tin. A very sneaky, but
equally hilarious grenade that will cling to anything you throw it at! A few
bombs and bullets later, Lara easily defeats the enemy and continues on her
quest to find the missing puzzle piece.
Sarah Van Pompey takes a
moment to talk about the brand new game engine and weather system Crystal
Dynamics have developed. This brand new gaming engine allows Crystal Dynamics
to develop vast open ended environments that will make even the most
adventurous players puzzled at where to go or what to do next.
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The weather system is one of
the exciting new features Crystal Dynamics showcased, and even at only 50%
completion it looks absolutely amazing! The weather system simulates realistic
weather including realistic tropical rainforest storms and makes use of high
dynamic lighting, which allows the sky and clouds above to cast real time
shadows on Lara and the environment below. Sarah also mentions that if Lara
gets muddy, the rain will gradually wash it away! Crystal Dynamics really have
thought of everything this time!
As we continue onwards through
the small village we encounter another pack of Panther. Sarah uses this
opportunity to explain that objects from the environment can be also used as
weapons. Lara picks up a pole from the ground and begins using it against the
Panther. A few swings later and the predators are history! It is at this point
we are told that the bodies of the enemies we kill do not disappear, even if
you turn the game off and come back, they will still be there when you get
back. Nice feature, huh!? |
We are then introduced to Lara’s beautiful new polygon rich character model.
She looks absolutely stunning! We were told the character model is still being
worked on, which means she can only look even more stunning in the final
product! Sarah also took a moment to mention the fact that Lara’s movements are
much more realistic. This is because Crystal Dynamics have chosen to motion
capture all of Lara’s movements using an Olympic Athlete who really can perform
all of Lara’s amazing spins, flips and acrobatics tricks. When Lara runs she
seems as if she is really pushing to run, rather than gliding through the
environments with ease like previous games. Combined with phenomenal amounts of
animation blending, Lara is looking more polished than ever!
As we reach the ruins of a Mayan temple, the doors are sealed shut. It seems
there is no way in. After looking around it becomes apparent, the only way in
is up! But how do we get up there? There seems to be no obvious climbing ledges
staring us in the face, like previous games. After exploring around the outside
of the temple a little more, we see a rather large hole in the wall, which
looks like something needs to be place inside. Sarah reveals that objects can
also be manipulated to help get to harder to reach places. By placing a pole
into the wall Lara has a boost allowing her to reach up onto a ledge and begin
scaling the tomb looking for a way inside. |
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Crystal Dynamic’s have learnt from previous installments that obvious ledges
took the fun element out of climbing and have decided to tone them down as well
as introduce a new array of surfaces for Lara to interact with. On one of the
ledges Lara was able to jump into the wall and kick off it to get up to a
higher ledge; one of many new and improved climbing moves in Underworld. Once
atop the tomb Lara finds an opening, which allows her access to the inside of
the temple.
The inside of the tomb was
very spacious, yet very empty. In fact so empty, there was no artifact inside
at all. Oh well, Lara will have to give up and go home now! Sorry no opening
the Underworld for you!
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Sarah told us that
there was a subtle clue on the floor, the water in part of the cracked the
floor seemed to be escaping somewhere. This told us that there was definitely
something below. But how do we get through? The floor is solid. Lara looks
around again to find a conveniently placed block sitting on top of a pillar,
just waiting to be knocked to the ground.
Lara climbs up on top of
some rubble for a better vantage point. A grapple point then comes into view,
which Lara can now make use of together with her own force to shift objects.
Lara attaches her grapple and tightens the grip on the grapple, before moving
the line forward, forcing the block to fall from the pillar and break the
ground below! We are told that there is an alternate solution to this puzzle,
where you can use Lara’s weight to tip the balance and knock the block over the
edge.
Having now used the block to break the floor below, we are able to descend
inside and claim out prize, the missing puzzle piece. The classic secret chime
is back as Lara pockets what seems to resemble a skull.
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But just when you thought it
was all a little too easy, cue the face hugging, poisonous spiders! Don’t think
you can get away though! These spiders can pursue you even if you climb to a
higher vantage point. This is also the case with a number of creatures in
Underworld. Good job Crystal Dynamics have introduced Dual Aim, which allows
Lara to aim at two targets simultaneously and pick off the spiders effectively.
Wasting no time, Lara quickly exits the temple through a back door and retraces
her steps back through the jungle.
On her way through the
jungle Lara is greeted by some more vicious Panther, who Lara easily disposes
of, before continuing on her quest to open the gates to the Underworld. Soon
enough, Lara reaches the puzzle area; A huge arena, with two Mayan temples
overlooking on the area. At both ends of the arena is a set of elevated
platforms containing the puzzle elements. We are told most of the puzzle has
already been completed, and Lara just needs to solve one element in order to
open the gates to the Underworld.
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The puzzle requires Lara to
reset a giant clock, by rotating various dials until they aligned. Lara wastes
no time and jumps right in. By placing the retrieved puzzle piece into the mail
dial, the gears in the floor unlock allowing Lara to rotate the dials and align
markings on 3 different sized dials. By solving the puzzle, we are shown an
extremely epic cutscene, showing the gates to the Underworld opening. The floor
below begins to split apart, massive fire breathing head figures raise from the
floor. Accompanied by an impressive musical score this cutscene really felt
like we were getting somewhere! But we can’t gasp for too long! Sarah told us
we only had a limited time to enter the Underworld before it closes again. She
needs to get down there fast, but how? Her motorbike of course! The bike has
been completely reworked for Underworld into a super charged, meaty, superbike,
which looks and sounds amazing! Lara jumps on and roars down to the gates,
jumping cliffs and avoiding greenery, complete with some amazing intense action
music!
As Lara reaches the entrance the gates are very quickly coming to a close. Lara
puts her foot down, and just squeezes through, narrowly avoiding getting
impaled by some very large spikes on the gate walls. A cutscene takes over, but
there’s no time to relax! Lara is fast approaching a spike pit. She slams on
the brakes and quickly steers the bike to safety. She climbs off the bike with
a look of relief on her face and looks into the pit she nearly fell victim to.
As the camera pans down, we see the words ‘Coming in 2008’. The screen fades to
black. End of demo. Such a tease…. |
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Ok, one word, WOW! The demo left us completely mesmerized! We want more, NOW!
It’s obvious Crystal Dynamics have really set out to build the ultimate Tomb
Raider experience this time around! We look forward to seeing what Crystal
Dynamics have to tease us with until the release of Tomb Raider: Underworld in
late 2008! |
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| Ben Riches - Tomb Raider Central |
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