June 2, 2012

Tomb Raider "Crossroads" Trailer Transcript and Analysis

On Thursday the latest Tomb Raider video trailer premiered on GT.TV. The action picks up where last year's "Turning Point" trailer left off, adding about two more minutes of previously unseen gameplay footage. After escaping from the creepy caves at the beginning of the game, Lara must figure out how to survive in hostile, new surroundings. This time, however, she has allies as well as enemies.

There are localized versions of the trailer on the official Tomb Raider YouTube channel, but in case your language isn't available, I've included a transcript of the dialogue below the video so you can plug it into your favorite online translator.

At the request of several readers, I have added the following
Trigger Warning: This video contains images that may be disturbing to rape/sexual assault surviors.

Transcript:
Lara (00:23): I gotta get out of this!
Lara (00:36): What is this place?
Lara (00:41): Oh god...Steph.
Lara (00:45): Need to find a way out.
Lara (01:12): Mayday. Mayday. This is Lara Croft of the Endurance. We are stranded on an island in the Dragon's Triangle.
Lara (01:18): We need help and medical supplies, please respond.
Lara (01:33): Sorry....
Roth (01:36): Lara!
Lara (01:37): Roth! Please come and get me!
Roth (01:39): Easy, Easy, we 're regrouping at my location.
Lara (01:44): Get the hell off me!
Man (01:50): The others wanted to go further inland, after that I never saw any of them again.
Sam (01:53): Lara! You're alive!
Lara (01:54): Hey! Let go of her!
Sam (01:54): Get off of me!
Man (01:57): We've waited so long....
Lara (01:59): Sam!
Sam (01:59): Lara!
Lara (02:02): He took her, he took Sam!
Man (02:04): Who took Sam?
Lara (02:05): A man...like the one who...killed Steph.
Man (02:10): Get back!
Lara (02:12): Get off!
Man (02:17): Round them Up!
Lara (02:18): Don't make a sound.
Man (02:18): Ya, I'm on her.
Man (02:21): I cant find her. She's gone.
Man (02:28): No one escapes.
Man (02:32): Out!
Man (02:34): I always find her.
Roth (02:54): You can do it Lara, after all, you're a Croft.
Lara (02:58): I don't think I'm that kind of Croft....
Roth (03:00): Sure you are...you just don't know it yet.
Man (03:13): Kill them all!
Lara (03:27): I hate tombs!

If, like me, you like to pause and scrutinize every minute of these videos, you might enjoy this frame-by-frame analysis courtesy of IGN Rewind Theater's Daemon Hatfield and Casey Lynch.


So what do you think? Some of you have already shared your opinions about the new video on my Facebook Page. If you didn't post there, I hope you'll leave a comment below. Love it? Hate it? Still too soon to tell...?

32 comments:

  1. I want confident, dark humored, kick-ass Lara back. Complete with a Brittish upper class accent, of course. Guess I'll have to wait till next game, for that.

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  2. Me too, Rebecca. Let's hope that by the end of this one that's what we'll get. Still, sometimes the journey can be as interesting as the destination. ;)

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  3. I hate it. Crystal is destroying Tomb Raider. If this is a sample of future TR games I've purchased my last one. Thinking about switching to Uncharted. Anybody know of any good Uncharted walkthroughs?

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  4. Seeing this trailer puts the final nail in an already tightly closed coffin for Tomb Raider for me. I just hope that at some stage in the future CD/Square realise their mistake and give us back the real Tomb Raider and the real Lara that we all know and love.

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  5. There's a possibility there might be a new voice actor for Lara due to some complaints. At least, that was what I gathered from an interview conducted with a Crystal Dynamics representative by Geoff Keighley.

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  6. @Anonymous: Interesting. Could you possibly point me to that interview? Guess I missed it. I'm curious though. I'm not wild about the voice, but I suspect the actor is putting on a "young" voice. I assume they want to hire someone who'll go the distance and play the mature Lara as well.

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  7. I waited a couple of days to post, because I wanted it to settle in a bit before I reacted. I think all will be OK, I just wasn't prepared for the shock of there being clearly a new genre for this game.

    The hallmark of even the most violent early TR games (TR2, I'm looking at you), was that you had adventuring to do, and the violence or confrontations came from encounters you had with animal, human, or alien obstacles to that adventuring. Yes, there's a reason that Lara carries weapons, but this trailer was a bloodbath. Gratuitous and off-putting.

    The gameplay itself appears to be compelling: hands tied and using avoidance tactics to escape capture--like it.

    There's a distinct lack of distance because the graphics are very far advanced, and so I think I may be experiencing the Uncanny Valley effect (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley#Hypothesis) to wit:

    …hypothesis states that as the appearance of a robot is made more human, a human observer's emotional response to the robot will become increasingly positive and empathic, until a point is reached beyond which the response quickly becomes that of strong revulsion.

    (http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/07/human-android-brain-response/)

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  8. I really do love the confident mature Lara, her character is the reason I love the series. However, there was always the loss of connection (so to speak) to Lara's human side, especially before Legend. Nothing can beat the older Lara but I think an explanation of how shes so kick-ass will be just as lovely.

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  9. dear stella... i think its a good aproch to a new tombraider, all of the demos ive watched witch were like 3 or 4 seem pretty amazing to me... i like this game better than the origional i love tombraider alot but this just looks fantastic... also HOW ON EARTH DO YOU GET DULEL PISTOLES ON AOD (for pc) please help... thanks
    :) tombraider fan 234 :D

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  10. no! i love the actresses voice dont change it!

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  11. @Anonymous #5 (I wish you people would at least leave fake names. ;) ) The only way to get dual pistols in AOD that I know of is to use a cheat program like TRAOD SCU (Google it) or GameShark. They aren't in the game as it was released. Just know that they're a little glitchy when you cheat them up--probably because it's not a finished animation for Lara.

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  12. dear stella... im also having that problem, i domt know how do download that traod scu thing... will it work if im already halfway in the game? ... also is there any cheats that dont involve crazy hard downloading or glitching? i could settle for glitching but i cant downloading anything...
    from (fake name for ya ;)) alisa monvich

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  13. Hey, Alisa. ;) There are a few cheats for AOD here: http://tombraiders.net/stella/cheats/TR6cheats.html but nothing for dual pistols, which is what you asked about. Sorry.

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  14. Meh... looks like all the other rock em sock em kill em games coming out only featuring what was my favorite heroine. I haven't been able to play the new TR games and enjoy them, like Underworld and Legend and even Anniversary, because I just fond them to be lacking the esscense of the original TR. Lara just doesn't seem like Lara naymore and this whole chaning of her backstory I hate. I hate reboots. Guess for me I'll stick with the old tried and true TR games and just remember fondly days gone by. This game, sadly is not for me.

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  15. I'm disgusted by this trailler.
    Even if the gameplay and graphics look amazing, like Gary said, the trailler was a blood bath. And the rape scene way off limits for an adventuring game(now the switched it for survivor horror with a few elements of adventure, a pity cuz this is no tomb raider at all).It was also bad to see Lara getting that punch on the face and the blood oozing all over. Do we have to banalize everything, even if it fits the plot? Violence against women, rape, blood, blood, blood?

    I'm against censuration and for freedom of expression, but one must to know himself the limits.

    I was sceptic about this game even if a rebbot could be cool. I think it will be the AOD (even if aod was much better than this one) of the CD era and it might end the tomb raider franchise.

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  16. I know from experience not to judge a game until I've actually played it, and I'd say it's way to soon to write off CD or especially the franchise, but I agree that it looks like they've made some very poor decisions about this one. I wouldn't be the least surprised if they lose a lot of their long-time female fans. Count me among those who prefer LESS VIOLENCE but all the things that make TR unique - the strong, intelligent LC character, the exploration of environments through the third-person, and the environmental puzzles related to the story. I wonder how many adventure game refugees like me have gravitated to the TR franchise. CD was moving in the exact right direction with Underworld, by downplaying the violence (still not enough) and focusing on a good story, a thoughtful, intelligent Lara taking notes about her locations, superb environments ans puzzles. They need to develop Lara's intelligence as a reaction to challenges rather than the typical violence as her reaction.

    I do like the idea of a young Lara and the Japanese Island location.

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  17. hey i like this game, it takes a break of the origional "tombraiding" btw this is all about how lara became the badd ass we all dream of being, and its not a "rape scene", because he doesnt actually """""rape""""" lara, she obvisioly (srry 4 spelling) knees him in the balls and kills him,you all are entitoled to your oppion but im just really sick of reading peoples rude comments, and im just one of those ppl who tell em what im feeling about there comments,cant help it... and it isnt your game and theres alot of people that like it, if you dont want to you just simply dont need to buy the 60.00 game... sorry bout this message but it feels good to let my feelings toward you people out, and yeah big deal shes a lil bit different... think of TR1 all the way up to TRU thats a HUGE change...

    i think lara is beautiful in anygame, sorry again for taking action but i neeed sy it, thanks...

    from: TOMBRAIDER

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  18. A bit late but you asked for it Stella so her's what I think.
    The graphics in this last trailer look promising. About the voice, I prefer Lara to have the same voice but can comprehend a switch as she is soo much younger now. It would have made more sense if the accent had stayed though.
    If this last trailer is representative for the amount of violence we will be getting, it would better suite another type of game. For me it is really taking it to the limits. Less realistic would have been better as TR is not a blood & gore game. So hopefully this is an extreem trailer.
    Looking at the escape scenes in the cave we might have our amount of puzzling to do so no complaints on that yet :-).
    What is really annoying is that, at least in the 2011 demo, Lara is constantly wining and making sounds like she is doing audition for Scream 99. Imagine a tuff part that you (or for sure I) have to play a couple times over !
    Please, despite her age, let her be a tuff girl. That must have been in her charatcer already at that age. And a tuff girl is also better capable of giving guys the knee when they forget the upbringing their dear mother gave them.

    Stella, do you know if comments here are read by anyone of the eveloper team ? Reading is not the same as making a change but it could be a start.

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  19. Hey, Kees. I don't know if the developers even look at this blog. Meagan, the community manager, may read some of them but I know she's busy and can't possibly keep up with everybody's blog. I know for a fact that she and Brian Horton do read the Eidos TR forums. So if you really want to be heard, I would post there. Like you said, one comment probably won't change the direction of the series, but if enough of us weigh in, it can make a difference.

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  20. That would be difficult because some fans respect and admire this new direction of the series, while some are staying faithfull to the original Tomb Raiders. I'm among those who believe this reboot is going to be amazing, because Tomb Raider and Lara were in need of reinvention, and many people got tired of Core Design using the same basic formula of the original TR over and over again. That's probably why they were replaced by Crystal Dynamics, because they couldn't create something special, no matter how hard they tried (Angel of Darkness proved it). I think we need to wait until this game is released and judge then.

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  21. I'm not sure what I think about this new game, I guess I'll have to wait and actually play it. I'm not ready to write off Crystal Dynamics just yet though. To be honest, I love Legend and Underworld, but I started with those games so maybe I don't know what I'm missing having not played the original. The biggest thing I'm concerned about is the new voice actor and the seemingly less confident Lara. Her character is what made me a fan of Tomb Raider to begin with. Still I'm cautiously optimistic. -Zach

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  22. This stinks, for the simple reason that I've played all the xbox releases with my young daughter and we've really enjoyed solving the problems, the sense of adventure etc. This is totally different and not at all suitable for family involvement. Shame. According to an interview on Digitalspy, the developers are pretty clear that the "realism" is here to stay and the traditional "mythical" elements are never coming back. If that's so, looks like we'll be sticking with the back catalogue!

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  23. dear stella, first off you are my hero <333...
    i finaly got texmod tto work on trl after a year of being completely clueless, but i need all the outfits , do you have a save game i can download for TRL that has all the outfits? also do you know how to get the unripped dresswear outside of just the first part of japan? another thing is in like totaly new to pc gaming of trl but i have it on all the system, ive unloked the outfits before but i dont want to do it again because it would b my 4th time, please reply to my questions thanks XD <333
    from: Lili Rochefort231

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  24. Hi, Lili. Thanks so much for the compliment. I'm glad my site has been helpful. :)

    I'm afraid don't know anything about outfit modding, but there's lots of help on sites like tombraiderhub.com and tombraiderforums.com. I do have a save file with everything unlocked in Legend, though. You can find it at http://tombraiders.net/stella/savegame/TR7saves.html. Have fun! :D

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  25. Hello Stella.....i have a biG BIG comment to make about the 2013 Tomb Raider.....hope im not too...drastic...:)).....BUT FROM WHERE LARA GETS HER ARROWS FOR THE BOW....i think that is just a crazy mistaKe......for the gaming level that is today....i watched the gameplay on youtube.....if they dont fix that is going to be just...another 2013 adventure game for kids

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  26. If i want to leave an opinion on the official tomb raider 2013 site...where is that....i will....:)....and im not the only one who saw that....many people saw that...Lara puls the arrows from a magic bag....which is invisible...:)).....that is just shit.y......sory for the word

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  27. @C-G: If that's your only negative, then I wouldn't worry too much. Let's hope that in the next 7 months they manage to model a backpack and/or quiver for her. ;) It's a good question for the Crystal Habit podcast though. If you don't mind, I'll ask it for you.

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  28. @C-G: Following up on your earlier comment, I just checked with Crystal and they said they're working on modeling a quiver for Lara's arrows but won't add it to the model used in the demos until they get it just perfect. So, yay, good news. Hopefully there'll be a backpack or fanny pack too. It does look weird watching her literally pull equipment out of her butt. ;)

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  29. stellalune can u help me please, i know theres 2 versions of tr legend where one is like her hair is braided or something and the other is like the one i have whitch is the one like x box, do you know where i can find the other version... this is what im talking about http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nw6QNSPQDBM if that doesnt show a youtube video with 2 diff versions (the one on the left is beta it should b a little foggy) then on youtube its called Tomb Raider Legend Beta Version VS TRL please tell me where i can find it, and if anything i say is confusing then tell me thanks...

    from: lolipop101

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  30. Hi, lolipop. As far as I know, the beta version was never released (or leaked) to the public. If there's a place to download it, I'm sorry but I have no clue. Generally developers may release some screenshots/video while a game is in the beta testing phase, but since that's an unfinished version of the game, they don't usually release it to the public unless they're asking for help testing it. Crystal didn't do that in this case.

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  31. I've played the TR series since it came out.. This is COMPLETELY different than any game I've played.. I'm kind of torn with this game. I like how it's more realistic than the others, but it seems too real. Lara is supposed to be a super-human kind of girl. She's tough and headstrong in the other games, but in this one, she seems weak and careless.. Like a child. And to those who are on the rocks of buying it: Find a place to rent it, see how you like it. The series has been "dead" for several years, and this is an spectacular attempt to revamp the series back into action.. And possibly, if they sell enough copies and see the negative comments, they will bring the original Lara back in future games. I believe they are just trying to keep up with the fast paced life of the gaming world. Only time will tell.

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  32. The game might facilitate new ideas for behavioural laboratories as those found in the DIAND countries, but NATO researcher so far mostly dump more weapons on those dominant apes outside the human world.

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