TOMB RAIDER
The Angel of Darkness

Official Press Release:
A new Lara Croft for a new generation. Eidos Interactive and Core Design announce the return of the world's most famous video game character in Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness . The game will be released on PlayStation 2 and PC towards the end of 2002.

Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness is classic Lara as both hunter and hunted relying on her ingenuity, athleticism and a new edge that has arisen from her dark inner demons. However, this time she faces more evolved characters and situations, calling for more involved decision-making. Lara now has the ability to interact with characters and the choice of which path to take. Upgrading her trademark style and look and dropping her into a bombshell scenario calls for a new resourcefulness making her a stronger and more complex heroine.

Adrian Smith, Operations Director at Core Design says, "Our vision is to take the player somewhere dark, a place they might not necessarily wish to go, but a place they will have to venture if they are to bring Lara back. Lara will have some tough moral choices to make. It's no longer a clear-cut case of good versus evil - this is a more complex tale, which will ask more complex questions of the player. It will be a new experience for people who have played Tomb Raider in the past."

The game employs a brand new engine built from the ground up to fully utilise the power of PlayStation 2 and the latest PC graphics cards. Lara is now made up of over 5,000 polygons as opposed to just 500 in previous Tomb Raider games. She must traverse an intricately detailed world, which takes her from the back streets of Paris to the hellish depths of Prague.

Lara has changed since her experiences in Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation. She has become darker, harder, less tolerant and her tomb raiding days are a distant memory. A desperate phone call from her former mentor Von Croy leads her to Paris. Von Croy has been asked by a sinister client, Eckhardt, to track down one of five 14th century artworks - the Obscura Paintings. She arrives in Paris to find a city in fear. Von Croy has been the victim of a horrific murder and framed for the crime, Lara has no option but to go on the run.

During her exploits Lara encounters a kindred spirit in Kurtis Trent, a hardened adventurer like herself, who is in pursuit of Eckhardt. In her struggle to unravel the trail left by Von Croy, Lara becomes involved in underworld deals, grotesque murders, the dark side of an advanced form of alchemy and a history of blood, betrayal and vengeance spanning across hundreds of years.

New details revealed in PC Gamer and Playstation Magazine include:

• A scriptwriter was hired to map out the unfolding Lara saga - the script is so big, it's long enough to cover the next five Lara games.
• Lara is framed for the murder of Von Croy.
• A money system will be used to obtain your weapons and other items with a little help from a neighborhood pawnshop
• Lara will be rendered in all her glory with 5000 polygons compared to the previous 500 used.
• In the new adventure, Lara will share the spotlight and the booty-kickin' with Kurtis Trent, a new character whose ultimate goal coincides with Lara's. Kurtis, described as a 'hip, action-focused, super-disc--wielding adventuerer', will be a second playable character. His role is still somewhat shroaded in mystery -- such as how much Lara and him will cooperate vrs. play against one another.
• Eckhardt is the apparent major baddie in this round - Anthony Hopkins is the #1 pick for this players voice.
• The Nephilim, an ancient group, also have a role in the story.
• Questions concerning Lara's apparent demise in Last Revelation will finally be answered.
• Angelina Jolie, the Lara of the movies, may provided the voice for the pixelated Lara.
• For the PC version, a possibility of a level editor may be included with the game.
• Core disclosed that another of their teams has already been a year into development of second next-gen Tomb Raider game.
  

The game will be split into three sections or areas:

• The City of Paris is where the game begins
• The Catacombs underneath the city is the next major area
• A Mental Asylum is the setting for the grand finale

First off, Lara isn't really dead (as if we every really thought she was!) but very much alive in Paris. A cut-scene at the start of the game shows you what really happened at the end of Last Revelation. Early on Lara's primary motive is to clear her good name after being framed for the murder Von Croy, her old mentor. A sinister, criminal underworld is revealed which continues to dominate throughout the storyline.

From the streets of Paris, Lara moves on to the Louvre, which consists of a maze of passages and rooms. Here she begins the search for the five 14th century paintings that play a central role in the plot. Multiple routes mean the game's much bigger than any of the games before. It's estimated that if you follow the straightest path through the game with little "character developement", you'll only get to see 60% of what's in the game - more on this expanded area in a bit.

The biggest news perhaps is that Lara's not the only playable character - you'll also be able to control a mysterious fellow. By the time Lara reaches the Prague section of the game , you'll be able to control character known as Kurtis Trent.

The setting of "TR-Next Gen" reflects the darker, grittier and complex story direction Core wishes to take in Lara's newest adventure. There's talk of otherworldly creatures, friendship and betrayal (Kurtis?) in the story. Areas such as the Catacombs will give old fans a familiar feel to Lara's spelunking past in previous adventures. Also this game will have more of an adult flavor with less emphasis on certain fantasy aspects (such as finding an AK-47 within an exhumed sarcophegous) than in the past. The new money system within the game among other things will make gameplay much more realistic.

On the subject of gameplay, the most radical change is the much hinted at developement of Lara and the players as they progress through the story. New areas will only be accessible as 'enhanced' skills are aquired. The attribute development will reward a more diligent player additional content. The more one performs specific actions - such as running and sprinting - the more a player's skill and dexterity will automatically become more effective. This is also how Core has included areas in the game that will be accessible only by players of a certain proficiency level.

There is still debating going on over the release title of the new game ('Next Generation' is only a working title). Core Design still intends to drop the Tomb Raider part, but this has caused some strong objections. It's yet to be seen how this will play-out.

Lara's latest romp, the fifth in the series, is the first for PS2 and is also expected on PC and possibly Xbox. It should be seen on shelves in time for Christmas 2002.

First ingame screenshots of Tomb Raider Next Generation

Core Design has released a handful of new screens from the upcoming Tomb Raider game still in the works

the Pawn Shop	the Pawn Shop	the Pawn Shop
Lara will need to do alot of hunting for objects to trade at the pawnshop		Prague control room
on the streets of Paris you'll be able to engage in traditional Lara activities

The next offering in Lara's video game saga will be completely different from her previous Tomb Raider games. The game is an entire new design with a brand new game engine. It will include some RPG elements and will move in a much more fluid, organic way. Environments will be fully interactive and much more true to life.

Tomb Raider: the Last Revelation is the true ending of the Tomb Raider series. Because Tomb Raider: Chronicles (which flashbacks to Lara's earlier ventures before TR-TLR) came out too early to tie in with the new movie, Chronicles became the final game released under the Tomb Raider name.

Toward the end of Chronicles, we again saw Last Revelation's Von Croy as he searches frantically for Lara. Someone approaches Von Croy with an object belonging to Lara giving hope that she is still alive. This sets the scene for Next Generation.

Kurtis is a major new character presented in the Next Gen game.

Little is known about Next Generation's story, but it's said to have a much darker theme than the previous Tomb Raider series has traditionally explored, though the company was suitably silent about exactly what that entailed. While visiting a friend in Paris in the first chapter, Lara is framed for a serious crime involving the Louvre Art Museum in Paris, forcing her to evade the law. Another playable character, Curtis, will join Lara in her adventure. Not much has been revealed about Curtis, but it's been hinted that his motivations are similar to Lara's.

Everone's favorite digital danger girl may have a few new surprises in her latest adventure.

The game will feature four large areas to explore--the first of which is Paris--and the gameplay styles will range from stealth-based to classic Tomb Raider-style exploration. Rumors indicate that exact sets for the movie are built from game elements. It also may have elements relating to the Tomb Raider Movie.

The game's environments will be much more explorable and interactive. Lara will be able to access entire buildings, even able to leap through windows if she chooses.

The new game is being developed for the PlayStation2 and XBox systems and is scheduled for release in Fall/Winter of 2002.

Now we can finally see the first images of the newest Croft game, due out sometime this upcoming Winter (that'll give you plenty of time to either seriously upgrade to your computer or buy a PlayStation2 for playing the Next Gen game, right?).