Tomb Raider Underworld

Tomb Raider Underworld Playable at NVISION 08—Feature

by John Gaudiosi

Crystal Dynamics was on hand for the inaugural NVISION 08 showcase to offer gamers a sneak preview of Eidos’ Tomb Raider: Underworld game on PC at Microsoft’s Games for Windows booth. Matt Knowles, product manager for the game at Eidos, took part in an exclusive demonstration of the game at the HD Theater inside the San Jose Convention Center.

Knowles showed off a new level of the game, which takes place on the West coast of Thailand level. To illustrate just how far Lara Croft has come since she made her PlayStation debut 12 years ago, she’s gone from 350 polygons then to 30,000 polygons today. Along the way, her assets have gone from Barbie-exaggerated to more realistic, but still sexy.

As soon as Lara is seen in motion, it’s obvious something is different. Her movements have been motion-captured for the first time in the history of the franchise. Crystal Dynamics hired a professional gymnast and Hollywood stunt double to perform all of Lara’s moves. Knowles said it gives her the feeling of being an adventurer and an athlete.

The Thailand level starts off with Lara on a speedboat just off the shore of a rocky cliff that features a breathtaking waterfall. She jumps off the boat and swims for shore, looking for the best place to make her way up the cliff wall.

“Lara has the ability to free climb up walls,” said Knowles. “In the past, you had one path, “Now you have more freedom of exploration and more play paths with every level in the game. She can also wall hug, which helps navigating.”

Once atop the precipice, Lara looks down at her boat in the glistening blue sea. The level of detail is so great that sharks are visible swimming beneath the clear water. After some brief sightseeing, Lara makes her way through a lush tropical rainforest in search of ancient ruins.

“We sent a team to Cambodia to take pictures of ancient ruins and we’ve used those for all of the ruins in this game,” said Knowles. “The textures are just like what you’d find on real ruins.”

Before making her way through the ruins, Lara comes face-to-face with a Bengal tiger. Underworld offers plenty of real-world and fantastical animals for Lara to fight in this game.

“We’ve introduced new evasion moves,” explained Knowles. “Lara gets an adrenaline shot, which slows down time. You can use the right analog stick to aim your guns at the tiger. The adrenaline shot breaks down to one shot, one kill.”

Anyone who has a conscience about killing endangered species can forego Lara’s dual machine guns, which are always hanging behind her neck, and use a tranquilizer gun to put the animals to sleep instead of shooting them.

Although it’s not noticeable until Knowles mentions it, there has been no soundtrack in this game’s level other than natural sounds like the lapping waves on the shore or the caws of tropical birds.

“We’re using new sound technology that eliminates musical soundtracks in certain levels,” said Knowles. “We’ve carefully orchestrated this because we wanted it to add to the emotion of what’s going on – being isolated in this ancient place.”

Since she’s an archeologist at heart, Lara takes pictures and talks into her camera/recording device at key points in each level. One such point occurred when she arrived at a clearing with a large stone statue from Norse ruins. The game focuses on ancient Norse mythology.

“We wanted to create an accessible experience for any level of gamer,” said Knowles. “We have a PDA that gives assistance if you need it. By clicking a button an inexperience player will be told what he or she needs to do to solve a puzzle.”

In this case, ropes are being blocked and Lara must find a way down into the ruins to clear them and then lowering an elevator. Bats attack her as she climbs down the wall, but she has her trusty machine guns for defense.

“Lara can fire while hanging from objects or standing on beams,” explained Knowles. “If she’s hanging from something with one hand, she should be able to use the other hand.”

Lara will be globetrotting in her new adventure, trekking to the arctic, exploring Mexican ruins, and diving underneath the Mediterranean sea. Tomb Raider: Underworld ships for PC and consoles on November 18.