GameSpy的7代预览

作者 TombCrow, 2006 二月 08, 23:38:48

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TombCrow

It\'s been almost ten years since Lara Croft debuted in Tomb Raider, a groundbreaking action / adventure that took so-called Prince of Persia-style platforming into the realm of 3D. While she got off to a great start, the years, and the sequels that came with them, were increasingly unkind to Eidos\' buxom adventuress. In fact, her last game was so bad that Eidos yanked the Tomb Raider property away from its traditional team and gave it to Crystal Dynamics. That must\'ve hurt, but history will show it was a wise move. Tomb Raider Legend, the fruit of that new development deal, is rapidly nearing completion, and even in its unfinished state it\'s clearly the best darn game Lara\'s ever had the honor of starring in.

One of the designers\' main goals in Legend is to humanize Lara Croft. Previous games have portrayed her as rather cold-blooded; in fact, if you look back, most of the major characters she\'s encountered have ended up dead. While Legend is not going to make major changes to the series canon, it will try to show us how she reached that point and the reasons why she\'s the gun-slingin\' mercenary she is today. A lot of this story will be revealed as she pursues an artifact from her past, but Crystal Dynamics and Eidos are keeping more or less mum about further story specifics.

Free at Last

That\'s just fine, because the gameplay seems to speak pretty well for itself. Crystal Dynamics\' single biggest focus was on perfecting Lara\'s animation and control, and the new team seems to have nailed it. For starters, they\'ve eliminated \"the grid.\" Previous Tomb Raiders and derivatives like Prince of Persia: Sands of Time kept the heroes stuck on an invisible grid that limited movement possibilities but made it easy to set up precise jumps and the like. That outdated convention is no more; Lara now controls with a newfound fluidity and responsiveness that compares favorably to any 3D platformer.

To further distance Legend from the old grid-based movements, the developers have added a special button that gives you even more control over Lara\'s actions. It\'s context sensitive. You can tap while she\'s climbing a ladder to execute a speedy ascent; likewise when clambering hand-over-hand across a chasm. If you barely make a jump and end up with a weak handhold, you might have to give the button a quick smack before Lara loses her grip and falls (the game prompts you). Skilled players can even hit it preemptively before a jump ends to ensure that she makes the quickest and smoothest possible transition upon catching the wall. In effect, Crystal Dynamics have added an analog skill factor that\'s long been missing from the rote, jump-and-climb gameplay of Tomb Raider and its ilk. The new button not only lets you speed through familiar obstacles, it constantly keeps you involved in the minute-to-minute action.

What\'s Old is New

One criticism of the more recent Tomb Raiders is a lack of, well, tombs. Urban environments just don\'t have the same appeal, and Legend\'s designers fully agree. Legend will have a city level or two (and we\'ll be interested to see how they spiff \'em up), but Legend focuses overwhelmingly on old-school tomb raiding of the sort Lara encountered back in \'96. Spike traps, rolling boulders, hidden spears, mysteriously moving statues... it\'s good to be home.

One of the demo levels we played -- it looked like a tomb, incidentally -- demonstrated some of the puzzle and gameplay mechanics we can look forward to. The sequence starts when you discover a round boulder, about as big as Lara, and roll it into a depressed spot on the ground. That turns out to be a switch of some sort, and there are two more nearby. However, you\'ve got to do some looking around to find the other two boulders. The first one proves to be ensconced in the top of an ancient statue. Not a problem. Lara can hook her new grappling hook into the statue\'s face and pull the entire thing down with little more than a sharp tug. One ball down, one to go.

The other one is up and to the right, several levels above the main floor. A bit of tenuous wall-climbing ensues, showing off the vastly improved climbing and grappling mechanics described above. Once at the top, a little push send the ball rolling down (with realistic physics) and it\'s a simple matter to clamber down and complete the puzzle. An ancient stone door rumbles open and Lara\'s on her way to bigger and better puzzles. Perhaps this sequence sounds unremarkable, because we\'ve all played plenty of games full of stereotypical crate and switch puzzles. True enough, so it speaks to the quality of Tomb Raider Legend\'s design and implementation that such basic gameplay concepts can feel fun and even fresh again.

Another new element appears soon after this puzzle -- Crystal calls these \"super action\" sequences. You might know them better as Shenmue\'s Quick Timer Events, wherein the game calls on you to quickly press a button which determines whether your character successfully performs an athletic feat or dies trying. This early one requires three inputs to make Lara successfully cross a series of crumbling pillars that span a chasm. We messed up twice at different points, leading to two different death animations. A developer actually noted that some of the later death animations are spectacular, so at least us incompetent tomb raiders have something to look forward to. Speaking of death, the restart points come early and often, so you should seldom have far to backtrack upon screwing the pooch of the ancients.

Never One For Subtlety

Lara\'s always been a shoot first, ask later kind of gal, and she\'s no different this time out. She has, however, gained a few new tricks to help her take down her enemies with style. For starters, when it\'s not destroying priceless objets d\'art, her grappling hook can be used to snag enemies and reel them in, not unlike the maneuver made famous by legendary Mortal Kombatant Scorpion. You can use this to yank unfortunate bad guys off high ledges, or just to reel them in as the first stage of a combo attack.

Once they\'re close, a kick can be used to stun them. Better yet, tap the jump button twice in succession to plant a boot in their face and launch off their body, turning around in mid-air to unleash a slow-motion barrage of bullets. The slow-motion effect kicks in only during certain key moves; when you see it, you can rest assured that you\'re inflicting some gnarly damage. Coolest of all is the new \"target of opportunity\" system. If you ever see a button prompt appear over something in the environment, that means you can shoot it with a single tap. When that object happens to be, say, the gas tank of a huge truck, well, we\'ll leave it to you to connect the dots.

Now that Lara controls so well, she\'s a much better dodger. While most of the enemies will make use of hitscan-style bullet weapons, you can significantly reduce the damage she takes by diving and rolling like a madwoman. Some enemies also have laser-sighted rifles. If you ever see that thin red beam flick about, think of it as a very good suggestion to roll, jump, or otherwise get the hell out of wherever you\'re standing.

Version Variations

Tomb Raider Legend is a pretty good-looking game based on animation and character models alone. We\'re sure you\'ve already noticed that Lara\'s been completely overhauled in the polygon department, and she actually looks fairly human, now. But beyond the basics, each version of the game will have different strengths and weaknesses.

Unsurprisingly, the PC and Xbox 360 versions will lead the pack in graphics. Normal, diffuse, parallax, and several other types of mapping will gives these versions an extra edge, with four to eight times the texture data of the other games. Much like those notorious basketball players, Lara will gleam when wet, and dry off over time. Similarly, rolling around in the dirt will give her that not-so-fresh look. Further, real-time lighting adds extra dazzle to her flashlight, and the Xbox 360 version will feature Live! awareness and achievements. The one disappointment so far is that the 360 version will only run at 30 frames per second. Its 720p widescreen looks nice, but not so much that it shouldn\'t be humming along at 60.

The Xbox version, by comparison, is actually the one version that does run at 60 fps. While it lacks most of those fancy effects mentioned above, it still features significantly more detailed textures than the PS2 version, and the smoother framerate is a treat. The PS2 version is the least impressive of the console SKUs, but that\'s to be expected, and it still looks very good. Xbox and PS2 both support widescreen, by the way.

Believe it or not, the little PSP version is looking pretty darn impressive itself. Its adventure will be pretty much identical to that of the console versions, albeit with somewhat toned down graphics. Still, it runs at a fair clip and it looks like the excellent gameplay of its big sisters is pretty much intact. In fact, it features three exclusive multiplayer modes. Two of these involve racing to collect treasures and racing to complete randomly generated obstacle courses, while the third has each player hiding a treasure in the environment and then racing to find their opponents\'. Not really anything to buy the game over, but it\'s nice that Crystal\'s given the PSP version a bit of extra attention. It should also have a few other bonus features, but mum\'s the word at the moment.

Back in Business

After taking in two hours\' worth of action, there\'s no doubt in our minds: Lara Croft is back. After so many shameless cash-run sequels, it\'s a joy to reconnect with a character who showed so much promise nearly a decade ago. If Crystal Dynamics can maintain the level of quality it showed off today, Tomb Raider Legend will reestablish Tomb Raider as one of the preeminent franchises in action gaming. Not only that, Lara\'s got a really cute butt. The game\'s due April 11th, with the Xbox 360 version trailing a month or two behind. Get your fill of the old games now, because they\'re going to feel even more archaic once Legend hits.