September 27, 2011

Tomb Raider 30-Day Challenge Day 27: If you could suggest one thing to Crystal Dynamics in regard to the Tomb Raider series, what would it be?

UPDATE: This month-long challenge has officially finished, but you're still welcome to post your comments below at any time. We'd love to hear what you think.

Maybe you've read or even participated in the "Official TR9 Wishlist" on the Eidos Forums. If not, or if there's something you'd like to add, now's your chance. Who knows, maybe someone from Crystal might actually read this.

19 comments:

  1. Rather than a specific suggestion, I'd offer a more general one: In the course of updating and adding "relevance," try to remember the things that made the original Tomb Raider so successful and so much fun to play. Part of what made Lara such a compelling character was that her emotional state was *not* laid out in black and white. The player had to use some imagination. The levels were compact but so well designed that they felt bigger than they actually were. They were somewhat linear but had just enough detours and backtracking to make it feel like you could explore forever. And the locations, while not strictly realistic, always set a mood and felt very immersive.

    There are a million shooters and survival horror games out there, but there's only one Tomb Raider. Remember what makes it special and do more of that.

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  2. I think I'd suggest to stick to the character this time around.
    She has been redesigned 3 times, her background story has switched at least 4 times(including the movies).
    If anything is important to the series, even more so than the plot, the game-play and visual style, it's the character.
    Pleas be consistent!
    Love the 30-day challenge,
    should've participated from the start.

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  3. For myself I have only two requests: Bring back the snowmobiles, and I'd like a waverunner with machine guns on it.

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  4. FWIW, it's not too late to go back and comment on previous days' challenges. People are still discovering this series and adding their opinions, and others are reading them.

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  5. @Buffalo Mein: A simple guy with simple needs. ;)

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  6. Don't stray too far from the original. The idea of a reboot is to go back to what was successful and elaborate on it; in the process dropping the things that didn't work.
    Don't make Lara too talkative. Whether she's giving too much help or distracting you by useless chit-chat, please save the dialogue for cutscenes and places of interest.

    The more logical puzzles are, the more interesting they tend to be. They should be hard, but not so difficult that you need a walkthrough, a lot of mistakes game developers make is creating puzzles that only the designer would know how to solve.

    But seriously, the game looks awesome so far :D

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  7. Bring back labyrinths, puzzles, non-human foes and silence, and stop messing around with Lara's bio. Tomb Raider had its own vibe and doesn't need to copy other games. Lastly, keep Lara British (and no, I don't mean "Disney British").

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  8. Remember what made the first game so good: long silences punctuated by scary stuff, amazing locations that you could explore for a long time, a tight plot, and a sense of discovery. Remember what made the first game so good: long silences punctuated by scary stuff, amazing locations that you could explore for a long time, a tight plot, and a sense of discovery. Remember what made the first game so good: long silences punctuated by scary stuff, amazing locations that you could explore for a long time, a tight plot, and a sense of discovery.

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  9. -Don't make Lara too talkative; she needs to keep an aura of mystery.
    -Yes, keep her British and not Disney-british.

    -Music is important but should be used a little sparingly to help impact the more dramatic moments.

    -Focus on Visuals such shouldn't compromise gameplay.

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  10. Simply don't go mainstream. We already have too many "Let's kill everything" games with all the basic clichés. The originality/creativity is the supporting pillar of the franchise. If that goes way, everything will rumble, since nowadays we have already too many mainstream games, and no more room for one more. Also, try to appeal to the old-school fans, since there are much more of those rather than the modern ones.

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  11. Drop the Hollywoodization and bring back Classic Lara, she was unique, the post-Classic versions (including movies and comics) are basically all the actionhero clichés stitched together.

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  12. I completely agree with you Stella.The only thing besides that would be please keep lara's speed run or sprint ability.

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  13. I have a couple of suggestions. Stop changing the model so often, just keep one, and make it look more realistic as technology increases. Keep her bio, THE SAME, and keep adding things as needed. Don't just press the reset button on Lara and start over. And if you have to, I mean absolutely have to, then keep the classic things that are set in stone. Like Lara's Parents. Yeah I would love to see a game that shows them more deeply, but maybe make her just younger. I want it to stay constant, I don't want to read one thing then a year later, BLAM, completely different. Two more suggestions, Try not to change the voice actress so often. It's nice to recognise a voice in more than one game. My final suggestion is BRING BACK THE ANGEL OF DARKNESS SERIES, BUT DON'T MAKE IT EASY AS THE NEW AGE GAMES. I LIKED IT THE WAY IT WAS, AND I WOULD LOVE A REMAKE, AND I WANT THE SECOND TWO GAMES. PLEASE, I WANT TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE STORY OF THE NEPHILIM, KURTIS, WERNER VON CROY, AND EVERYTHING ELSE! WHO'S WITH ME?

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  14. Get rid of the rigid linearity. i will replay the old games til i die. Why? There's almost always a different set of options for how to complete it. It wouldn't be a game about an *explorer* if there's only a single, preset route for you to take at every turn.

    i will say, however, that i like that Angel of Darkness was more plot heavy than the previous games. i'd love to see some combination of heavier plot/mystery elements and the vastness/explorability of the earlier games.

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  15. We play station people made the tomb raider series. I for one will buy every game. I have a grand-niece that cut her gaming teeth with Lara Croft and buys evrything that is put out for sale. SO, Stop giving special privileges to the X-box people and cutting us out of the picture. It's not nice to give the people that put you into the top ten the finger.

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  16. I'd tell them to make the games long, challenging, fun, and all that other good Tomb Raiding stuff! They should also have little posters in the game box.

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  17. I'd say to keep the game the way the fans like it. Don't change all the history of the series. Don't change anything we already know how to do. the exploration, the music in certain moments ... etc.

    And if Lara could come to my country, Guatemala, that would be so cool! There's enough Mayan Trmples here to make an entire game, but I know that's not Lara's style!!

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  18. Honestly, I've been a die-hard Tomb Raider fan since I was, literally, a baby. Tomb Raider came out the year I was born, and I've been watching my father play every game for as long as I can remember. I've also been playing the games for most of my life.
    It really makes me want to cry seeing this new 'Reboot' completely destroy every I've ever known of the series. 'Angel of Darkness' was the last game I actually enjoyed playing.
    I really wish they'd not change her life story, voice, and, most of all, her whole APPEARANCE every new game they release. Truthfully, I think the whole Tomb Raider series is going to fizz out and die, and it's all thanks to the company that took over after AoD.

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  19. Lara needs to retain her mystery. I don't think players should know everything about a character. It allows us to create our own Lara Croft as we play the games. I like thinking of her just as an explorer, not as having some deep emotional motivation for her adventures. The silence of the games needs to stay, using cutscenes and music to punctuate an event.

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