Tomb Raider LEGEND Producer Interview
At A Glance
After several delays, Lara Croft is finally heading back to consoles with a brand new adventure. Eidos enlisted Crystal Dynamics to revive the Tomb Raider franchise and three years later, Lara Croft rises from the ashes and makes her next generation debut on Xbox 360™ with Lara Croft Tomb Raider™ LEGEND. The game's Senior Producer, Matthew Guzenda, from Crystal Dynamics, took some time to talk about Lara Croft and her videogame resurrection. Xbox.com: Can you talk about Lara Croft the icon and what she's meant to gaming over the past few decades? Matthew Guzenda: Well, she was the first really widespread popular female video game character (and yes, I was there too in front of my NES for the great Samus revealing, but its not the same …). Tomb Raider 1 served to usher in a whole new generation of third-person action adventure games, and showed that you can have platformer elements with realistic characters and game worlds. I think Lara has helped propel gaming forward on both a gameplay level, as well as helping to make it more mainstream. Xbox.com: Can you talk about the Tomb Raider franchise and what it has meant to you? Matthew: I have been a fan of the franchise since its first outing. I've always loved that mix of adventure and action, and the elements of puzzling solving. Let's face it, there are worse gaming experience to be had than staring at Lara for hours as you dive into forgotten tombs. Xbox.com: What does your studio bring to the table with the new Tomb Raider? Matthew: Obviously our history with platform-based action games is well regarded due to the Legacy of Kain franchise, including Legacy of Kain™: Defiance on Xbox®. So we had a good understanding of what we wanted to do, and at times more importantly what not to do.We have a highly motivated and talented crew that takes a great bit of pride in the work they do. Also, we have a lot of enthusiasm for the franchise. In many ways we are fans who got that once in a lifetime chance to answer that common gamer question, "What would I do if I got to make the sequel to GAME X?"
Lara Croft has never looked this good. Xbox.com: Can you talk about what's new with Lara this time around? Matthew: First thing is obviously her movement. She now moves extremely fluidly, without having to do a lot of stopping to change orientation (the stop-and-go nature of the previous titles). This was crucial to us. We've also given her a new key piece of gear called the grappling hook. It's a multi-tool Lara can use to move objects around the world (including herself). She can even use it to adjust the placement of objects in the environments to create new navigation paths to get to her objectives. It's pretty cool. Gameplay aside, we also really delve into Lara as a character. Her past, what things transpired to make her the woman she is today. What her true motivations are. I thinks fans are going to be excited to really see the inside of the woman really for the first time. Xbox.com: How has the gameplay evolved with the new game? Matthew: With her new controllability our game worlds have opened up quite a bit. Lara is in much more natural environments now, and can really navigate through them with speed and grave. Also, our use of our in-house physics system has really kicked down the door in terms of Lara's interaction with the world, and our puzzle designs. This is probably the biggest evolution in our game. Our puzzles are much more dynamic now, and require a greater deal of cunning, as well as a bit of acrobatic skill to solve. I really believe we have brought the "adventure" half back to our action-adventure roots. Xbox.com: What is the structure of the new game in terms of levels and locations visited? Matthew: We decided to go with a linear narrative structure. So as the story progress around Lara she travels to a variety of locations on her search. We go all over the globe, from Bolivia, to Peru, West Africa, the Himalayan mountain ranges, we even do a bit of cliff climbing up the urban facades of Tokyo.
LEGEND delves beyond the eye candy of Miss Croft. Xbox.com: What types of weapons and vehicles will be in the game? Matthew: Obviously, the twin pistols are back, and back to stay! There will also be the usual assortment of submachine guns, assault rifles, shotguns, grenade launchers, and so on. We also have a few really cool "surprise" weapons, but I'd rather not spoil that for you guys. As far as vehicles, Lara can take to the road on several Ducati motorbikes, and there are a number of Jeeps used throughout the game by both friend and foe. Xbox.com: What are some of the areas that you think will appeal to hardcore gamers? Matthew: The hardcore crowd will love the physics system stuff. They'll love all the possibilities that it offers to interact with the world. They'll also really get into the depths of our combat system. It may seem a little easy at first blush, but when you really explore the amount of combat combos, and different ways to attack enemies and use the environment, I think they will be very pleased.
Here to stay, here to play. Xbox.com: How do you address the more casual gamers? Matthew: We know Tomb Raider has wide appeal. It brings together gamers of different skill levels as well as people who rarely pick up a controller, but are fans of the franchise. The simple answer is we offer a few difficulty settings to help people get through. The real answer is we have spent a lot of time and effort ramping our games difficulty. We wanted to make sure that we taught players how to control Lara in bite-sized portions, before really requiring that the players step up to the harder challenges. We have spent a lot of time focus testing every aspect of the game tomake sure we have dialed the in the gameplay, and don't present people with too many barriers which get in the way of them enjoying the experience. By the time we begin tuning up the heat in terms of challenge, everyone should be well prepared to make a go of it. Xbox.com: What direction do you see this franchise going after this game? Matthew: I think we have been able to really help Lara get caught up with the times and be competitive. She can certainly hold her own with any other game on the market now. Looking forward, I believe we have some really great plans to move the franchise forward, not just with evolving Lara, but further creating some really innovative gameplay! I'm excited about what we have in store. Xbox.com: We can't wait. Thanks for your time, Matthew! Related Links |
