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Crystal Dynamics announces Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light

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butsomuch

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http://forums.eidosgames.com/showthread.php?t=102106

CRYSTAL DYNAMICS ANNOUNCES NEW LARA CROFT™ ADVENTURE, LARA CROFT AND THE GUARDIAN OF LIGHT™

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – March 4, 2010 – Crystal Dynamics™, a part of Square Enix Europe, today announced Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light™, a new game developed by Crystal Dynamics, which will be released via digital download in 2010.

“This is a really exciting project for Crystal Dynamics, we have created something completely new and very different to what people might be expecting,” said Darrell Gallagher, General Manager of Crystal Dynamics. “Lara Croft is such an iconic character in videogames, with Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light we have created what we believe is a truly original digital experience.”

Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light will be shown strictly “behind closed doors” at this year’s Game Developers Conference beginning on March 9th.

Crystal Dynamics is an award-winning studio located in San Francisco. Founded in 1992, the studio has created and developed key game franchises such as: Legacy of Kain™, Pandemonium™, Gex™ and most recently the Tomb Raider™ series.

For more information visit www.laracroftandtheguardianoflight.com or follow us on Twitter and Facebook - @Crystaldynamics – Facebook.com/LaraCroft
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Pylon_Trooper said:
I think this will be a stellar reboot...not sure why, but I put my faith in the devs.
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Isn't it the third of fourth try for a reboot? Angel of Death, Legend, Anniversary maybe... I don't know. I think it has to be stellar, if they want people to ever get interested in the series again.

Oops, missed the digital download bit. Odd.
 
Would be cool if they tried to have a presentation that rivaled Uncharted 2. Kinda tired of the whole bare bones thing from Tomb Raider story, Cut scenes etc

But Digital Download screams budget reboot.
 
Isn't it the third of fourth try for a reboot? Angel of Death, Legend, Anniversary maybe...
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No, Angel of Darkness was just Tomb Raider Next-Gen, Legend was a legitimate reboot, and anniversary is just Legend 2. 0. Both :lol

Considering how ambitious the project sounded it's hard to believe they'll be able to live up to the "open-world platforming and tomb raiding" with a digital download unless they are episodes like Anniversary XBL. We'll see, but I'll remain skeptical.
 
logoLaraCroft.png


Lar A CR of T
 
Return to what made Lara Croft an iconic and popular character in the first place. Solitude. Tombs. Tension. Don't make surprising people your top priority. That way lies tragicomic failure.
 
This thing isn't even called Tomb Raider anymore. What does it mean?

Maybe some episodic, Lara Croft mansion-like game? Well, I'm curious to see how this unfolds, truly!
 
Sloane said:
Isn't it the third of fourth try for a reboot? Angel of Death, Legend, Anniversary maybe... I don't know. I think it has to be stellar, if they want people to ever get interested in the series again.

Oops, missed the digital download bit. Odd.
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I thought Legend and Anniversary were very capable games, and could hold a candle to the originals. Didn't play Underworld, but it looked like it had good intentions. Doesn't get it past the post, sure, but it's still worthy of a new entry.
 
Peff said:
No, Angel of Darkness was just Tomb Raider Next-Gen, Legend was a legitimate reboot, and anniversary is just Legend 2. 0. Both :lol
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Nah, Angel of Darkness was last-gen, the one that tried to incorporate classic adventure and rpg elements... the one that sucked horribly. Legend was another reboot, and Underworld was Legend 2.0, wasn't it? So many games...

Pylon_Trooper said:
I thought Legend and Anniversary were very capable games, and could hold a candle to the originals.
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I liked Legend, didn't really like Anniversary. Don't really remember why though. :lol
 
Hopefully this new game just depicts Lara and ONLY Lara. Much of what was her intrigue was the notion that she was alone on her adventures. The calmness of just her in a skimpy raiding outfit with no outside help.
 
Sloane said:
Nah, Angel of Darkness was last-gen, the one that tried to incorporate classic adventure and rpg elements... the one that sucked horribly. Legend was another reboot, and Underworld was Legend 2.0, wasn't it? So many games...
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Yeah, AoD wasn't all that great (to put it lightly :lol ), but by the next-gen comment I meant that while it was the "bigger, better, more baddass" installment that would renew the series with innovative mechanics... it was still Tomb Raider 6, it even continued the same storyline. Legend was the TR that followed, and it was indeed a reboot that ignored the others and started a new storyline and gameplay. Underworld and Anniversary are the sequels of Legend, they could have called them Legend 2 and 3 but went with different subtitles. This guardian of light seems to be another reboot.
 
Name change implies a spin off. My guess is a dumbed down action game with no puzzles or platforming. Maybe some trendy but dull feature like an open world added into the mix.
 
The huge emphasis on "LARA CROFT" seems kind of desperate to me "Oh shit, hardly anyone remembers Tomb Raider these days, but hopefully they still remember Lara, right? Right? I mean, there are still video game stores that have life-sized Lara dolls in them, right?"
 
Peff said:
Yeah, AoD wasn't all that great (to put it lightly :lol ), but by the next-gen comment I meant that while it was the "bigger, better, more baddass" installment that would renew the series with innovative mechanics... it was still Tomb Raider 6, it even continued the same storyline. Legend was the TR that followed, and it was indeed a reboot that ignored the others and started a new storyline and gameplay. Underworld and Anniversary are the sequels of Legend, they could have called them Legend 2 and 3 but went with different subtitles. This guardian of light seems to be another reboot.
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Anniversary is a remake of the first game - it would make no sense to call it Legend 2. Underworld is a sequel to Legend.

And what's the point of announcing this game without any details?
 
Digital Download? So pretty sure it's going to be episodic?
 
Moobabe said:
It's going to be a side scrolling, metroidvania style game. I hope.
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doubt it.

but that would be great! man, that would really be cool actually.

ULTROS! said:
Digital Download? So pretty sure it's going to be episodic?
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sadly, im sure you're right. ug.
 
That title really sounds like one of the hidden object games you'd find on a casual gaming site.

Just a quick look at Big Fish Games, we have

Laura Jones and the Secret Legacy of Nikola Tesla
Rhianna Ford and the DaVinci Letter
Samantha Swift and the Hidden Roses of Athena
Sarah Maribu and the Lost World

And hyphenated, but still female archaeologists/treasure hunters, we have:

Alexandra Fortune: Mystery of the Lunar Archipelago
Jane Angel: Templar Mystery

Granted, if it were the case, I doubt they'd be showing it behind closed doors. But casual gaming like this is one of those areas that most video game companies ignore, even though it's quite lucrative (though admittedly, the portals get a huge cut).
 
BiasedGamer said:
Anniversary is a remake of the first game - it would make no sense to call it Legend 2. Underworld is a sequel to Legend.

And what's the point of announcing this game without any details?
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Well, it wouldn't be the first time that a series has a numbered installment that is really a remake of another (Super Castlevania IV-Castlevania, for example), but the name is irrelevant, the point is that they tied Underworld's plot to Anniversary's and the three games are a trilogy of sorts, not different reboots.
 
I really enjoyed the last 3 games (legend onwards). They weren't remarkable, but they were very solid platformers and a lot of fun, so I'm leaning towards excited. DD only has me a bit wary though.
 
Keir_Eidos said:
Darrall Gallagher (General Manager at Crystal D) recently did an interview with gamasutra.com where he mentions they're working on two projects. This is one of them... but it's not 'Tomb Raider'.
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So the other game they are working on could be titled "Tomb Raider" then?

So it is possible that both projects in development at Crystal Dynamics star Lara Croft?

I know you probably can't answer that, so no worries.
 
“This is a really exciting project for Crystal Dynamics, we have created something completely new and very different to what people might be expecting,” said Darrell Gallagher, General Manager of Crystal Dynamics. “Lara Croft is such an iconic character in videogames, with Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light we have created what we believe is a truly original digital experience.”
Click to expand...

So the leaked Resident Lara of War concept sketches (see this thread) are different from what people have been expecting for quite a long time now? They didn't really look very original tbh.
 
The concept art intrigued me when it surfaced but the digital download only thing is disappointing. Hopefully they do something similar to the GTA episodes (if they go the episodic route anyway) and release them all on disc when they've finished releasing them.

I enjoyed Underworld and, to a lesser extent, Legend so I have a bit of faith in this at least.
 
Losing the Tomb Raider branding is a mistake. I understand the reasoning if this is indeed a reboot of the series, but it will have to be dramatically different. If they intend to make it more action orientated (Uncharted) then the series is done.
 
Cerberus said:
So this might not even be an action adventure game. A metroidvania style game does sound pretty cool.
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Hold on till GDC, we're releasing some info then.


Mama Robotnik said:
So the other game they are working on could be titled "Tomb Raider" then?

So it is possible that both projects in development at Crystal Dynamics star Lara Croft?

I know you probably can't answer that, so no worries.
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PR answer: Tomb Raider and Lara is part of the Crystal fabric these days

Community Manager answer: You're on the money :)


Turfster said:
So the leaked Resident Lara of War concept sketches (see this thread) are different from what people have been expecting for quite a long time now? They didn't really look very original tbh.
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Got no comment on that.
 
BUT CAN WE STILL RAID TOMBS?

Can't wait though. Underworld was flawed but enjoyable. Hopefully we can get closer to the Anniversary of Tomb Raider, loved that game a ton.
 
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