I was excited to see Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis at Gamescom last month, because I wanted to see how Amazon was moving the franchise forward after the dour reboot saga from the PS4 generation.
I got to watch a full 30-minute hands-off presentation, narrated by series stewards Crystal Dynamics and Polish dev Flying Wild Hog. But if I’m being brutally honest with you, I came away a bit flat on it all.
It’s not that it looks bad by any stretch, but it all just seems a bit uninspired to me.
While the acrobatic Lara Croft of old is very much back, the dev has decided to import the skill trees and crafting from the survivor trilogy, noting it doesn’t make sense for the heroine to be discovering medkits in a decades-old cave.
Fair point, but I’d argue it’s equally immersion breaking to be cooking up broths with vegetables she’s pilfered from dusty old ceramic pots. It’s not a big deal, but I felt myself furrowing my brow at some of the things being said during the presentation.
The slice I got to see took place in Greece, approximately a quarter of the way into the original campaign. If you’re familiar with the PS1 title, you’ll probably recall the Damocles Room deep beneath St. Francis’ Folly. It’s an iconic mission.
As you’d expect, the team has completely reworked the art, and this underground area looks like a sprawling metropolis now. I spotted tons of impressive little environmental details, like carvings and statues in the walls, which make this feel like a majestic and mysterious place.
I was also rather impressed with the lighting; as this section primarily takes place underground, the dev uses light sparingly, with shafts just breaking through cracks in the walls to highlight specific points of interest or to add spectacle to the scene. Lovely.
سەرچاوەی فەرمی بە زمانی ئینگلیزی: https://www.pushsquare.com/previews/tomb-raider-legacy-of-atlantis-has-the-right-lara-but-somethings-missing
