At E3 | Tomb Raider -Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light

Lara Croft is 21 and just at the beginning of her adventurous life.  We open seeing her captured, somewhere unknown in a dark area hanging upside down.  She is frightened, vulnerable and in a very claustrophobic scene.  The animations are frighteningly real and the cinematography immediately grips the player making them edgy and feeling the sheer intensity of the situation.

The player quickly learns that in order to free Lara, he or she must do the unthinkable: set Lara on fire to break the rope.  This is just the beginning of the preview of how Tomb Raider will be played.  Lara interacts with the environment, if she gets hurt she will react to that area and she, along with the player will learn the rules of the environment.  The first rule you learn is the cause and effect of fire and then the relationship between fire and water.  For example, you can use a torch to light cloth on fire that will burn and eventually create an explosion and if you accidently get her torch wet by getting to close to the waterfall it will go out.  With playtime, the player learns how to interact with the environment and that there are many tools that can be used to solve the problems Lara is faced with.

Tomb Raider is a cause and effect type of game where there are many ways to solve the problems that Lara encounters.  The player uses a combination of trial and error as well as “Survival instinct” which will indicate briefly if the player is on the right track or not.  “Survival instinct” can be turned on briefly and will brighten up objects and tools that can be of use for Lara.

This game immediately draws you in and makes you empathetic for our very distraught heroine.  This is not the Lara Croft that we are used to seeing; she is fearful and vulnerable and this adds greatly to game play.  As the game progresses, Lara gains skills and confidence so the player is able to watch her grow into the character that is known already to us.  There is an increase in the emotional depth of the character that is unmatched by other versions of Tomb Raider.  There is also evidence of this in the tool progression and gaining tools in this game follow increased confidence and abilities in Lara Croft.

The producers and developers clearly pride themselves on creating a game that includes free exploration and user creativity, while maintaining a very well woven story-line.   The game is visually stunning, auditory engaging and apparently simple to play.  The executive producer on the project was explaining that the controls are very simple and intuitive for the player.

From an accessibility stand-point, the demo was dark and a little difficult at times to fully determine what was occurring.  My other issue with the demo was it was difficult to hear Lara’s voice overtop of the background noise, but I’m hoping that this might simply be a demo issue or a sound balancing issue that the user can customize.  According to the producer, the game controls are simple and easy to learn for any player.  Since it is an explorative game it seems that precision would not be too much of an issue since one could always attempt a different solution to the problem.

This is certainly a game I look forward to getting my hands on and trialing over the next few days or upon release early next year.

http://www.laracroftandtheguardianoflight.com/