STACK #167 Sept 2018

GAMES FEATURE

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B y and large, booby traps in ancient tombs are mainly the preserve of a scriptwriter’s imagination. Ancient Egyptian tombs had false corridors, curses inscribed on tomb doors, passages blocked with enormous stones, and six-metre-deep pits that would prove rather difficult to climb out of if you were

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tomb-burgling alone. But the elaborate traps encountered by Indiana Jones, Lara Croft and Nathan Drake are the work of fiction. However, there is one burial

chamber that does display some of those mythical traits, and that is

the tomb of ancient Chinese Emperor Qin Shi Huang, who died in 210 BC. You probably know this guy from the vast army of terracotta soldiers found in his tomb. While the main tomb containing the Emperor has never been opened, contemporary accounts describe rivers filled with poisonous mercury and crossbows rigged to fire on entry. Archaeologists have drilled into the tomb and found unusually high concentrations of mercury in the soil samples. The secrets to the location of these alleged traps were known only to the labourers who worked on the tomb, and most of them were killed once construction was completed.

We wanted to open up spaces and make traversal even more of a puzzle, bringing some of the classic Tomb Raider feeling back to the series

could heal herself on the fly when injured. We’ve taken that

thrown at her. Emotionally, she’s younger and out to prove her father was wrong. She comes away shocked at how capable she was. In Rise of the Tomb Raider ,

system and expanded it into a number of different remedies from plants Lara finds in the Amazon. Now

she can proactively use them to gain an advantage in combat.

Lara struck out on her own for the first time. Now she knows her father was right, she’s looking to restore the family name, but she’s moving forward without a full awareness of the impact of her actions. At the beginning of Shadow , we find Lara the most capable, determined and proactive she’s ever been. However, this proactivity in her search for Trinity and for answers is bordering on obsession. So while we find her in a darker place, she has to learn to balance these aspects of her personality in order to become the Tomb Raider she’s destined to be. Also, she’s beginning to realise that there’s more to Tomb Raiding than taking artifacts and dead things – true Tomb Raiding is balancing archeology with an understanding of anthropology – of people. Letting others in and learning from others could be Lara’s greatest challenge yet. Can you outline what’s involved with the puzzle and tomb creations? Do you attribute specific tasks to individual teams? Tomb team and puzzle team, etc? We do have a challenge tomb team and they are amazing. Puzzles usually start as a design sketch-up or ‘grey block’ in-engine. What is interesting is we then interpret how we can make those mechanisms believable

For example, slowing down her perception of time when aiming and even sensing enemies through the jungle environment. In addition, players now have even more ways to approach combat via the skills and outfits they choose to equip; Lara can now craft flare rounds to stun enemies and equip various outfit parts that make her more silent. She can even learn how to chain takedowns to take care of two enemies silently in a row. We wanted to reflect the narrative theme of descending into darkness, and fear in the way Lara traverses the environments. Also, we wanted to open up spaces and make traversal even more of a puzzle, bringing some of the classic Tomb Raider feeling back to the series. These tools also enable Lara to fluidly move around the jungle canopy in combat – a must in order to strike, disappear and reposition – becoming ‘one with the jungle’ against her enemies. Overall, how does this Lara Croft differ from the protagonist in the first two reboot titles? The intention was always to show an arc of Lara becoming more mature throughout the trilogy. The Lara Croft of Tomb Raider (2013) was thrust into a survival situation – as she says, “adventure found me.” She is much more reactive and trying to survive the challenges What does the grappling hook and rappelling mechanic bring to the gameplay?

cultures, materials and techniques they used and not only does technical sketches, but often builds them in Lego! The tombs themselves are often built around a theme – claustrophobia, vertigo, etc – and iterated on from there, all the way from concept art to final implementation. What happens now? The trilogy is complete. Can we expect to see Lara Croft embarking on a whole new trilogy next? At Eidos-Montréal we have been totally focused on closing out this trilogy and making as satisfying a conclusion as we possibly can. As for what’s next – who knows? Lara Croft is such a resilient character – I doubt that this would be her last adventure!

and grounded regarding the cultures and materials involved. We have a technical artist on the project named Yann Régnier, who we like to call our ‘Leonardo Da Vinci.’ He researches the

• Shadow of the Tomb Raider is out Sept 15

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SEPTEMBER 2018

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