Lara Croft har gjennomgått litt av en forvandling i løpet av opprinnelsestrilogien som ble sparket i gang av Crystal Dynamics, og som avsluttes neste måned med Eidos Montreal sitt Shadow of the Tomb Raider.
Vi fikk muligheten til å ta enda en titt på spillet før det lanseres, og slå av en prat med Jason Dozois og Heath Smith, som har ansvar for henholdsvis historien og designet til spillet. De hadde mye spennende å si om det nye tilskuddet til serien, men det vi syntes var mest interessant var hvordan klassiske elementer fra det originale spillet har inspirert noen av utfordringene i det kommende jungeleventyret.
"We also took a lot of inspiration from the classic Tomb Raider. So we thought: this is the third game in the origin trilogy, she's becoming this tomb raider she's meant to be. Like a reinterpretation of that original, classic Tomb Raider. And what could she do in those games that she can't do yet, that she hasn't faced yet? So underwater was a big one, and also repelling, spelunking, wall-running - these classic moves."
"However, what was interesting about that was we tried to do a stealth experience and we realised very early on that Tomb Raider ... it's all about movement in combat. It's even, in fact, in classic Tomb Raider when you would lock-on and circle-strafe around the enemy, you were always rewarded for keeping your movement because this is Lara; she's athletic, she's acrobatic. So very early on when we were trying to figure out what is jungle stealth combat, it's not just waiting in a tree forever - you will be found, right? So we try to create challenges, enemies, ingredients that encourage the player to move."
"So you'll notice all the vine walls and canopy, it's creating a fluid, contiguous traversal for the player and if you move and reposition - what we call "strike and disappear" - become one with the environment, this is really a fantasy of becoming a predator ... In fact, she even has an encounter with a jaguar early in the game and she realises: I need to become that jaguar to survive."
For mer informasjon og spennende detaljer om spillet, sjekk ut videoen nedenfor. Der finner du hele intervjuet vårt med Jason Dozois og Heath Smith.