Tomb Raider: Surviving together

Game2k
Tuesday, January 8, 2013 | 5:27 PM
20 comments

Developer Diary PC Xbox 360 PS3

The fourth episode of Final Hours take us to Eidos Montreal where a team works on the multiplayer mode of Tomb Raider.

Crystal Dynamics and Eidos-Montréal Collaborate on Multiplayer Mode for Tomb Raider
New - The Final Hours of Tomb Raider: Multiplayer Edition Now Live

LONDON (8th January, 2013) – While Crystal Dynamics is putting the finishing touches to its re-imagining of Lara Croft™ in the new Tomb Raider®, a dedicated team at sister studio Eidos-Montréal has been working on the game’s first versus multiplayer mode: breaking new ground for the franchise and an experience that has only been made possible through close collaboration between the two Square Enix studios.

“It’s something we talked about when creating the initial design for Tomb Raider, but it was very important that there weren't any distractions from our focus on delivering a great single player experience, so we parked the idea of creating multiplayer at Crystal Dynamics and looked to our sister studio, Eidos-Montréal” said Darrell Gallagher, Head of Studio at Crystal Dynamics.

Stephane D’Astous, General Manager at Eidos-Montréal, added, “It’s been a privilege for the team at Eidos-Montréal to be a part of Tomb Raider. We built multiplayer from the ground-up, around the core theme of survival, using some of the key elements of the single player campaign and re-purposing them for a fast and exciting experience. It’s been an amazing project, one we’re immensely proud of and one which we really think gamers will have a lot of fun with.”

Multiplayer in Tomb Raider sees the island’s indigenous Scavengers pitted against the crew members from the shipwrecked Endurance. Set in some of the island’s hostile landscapes, players will use traversal and hunting skills from single player, plus trap setting to create fast-paced combat in a selection of versus gaming modes.

Darrell Gallagher concluded, “For me, the multi-player has to fit and it has to be fun, so we’ve worked hard to make multiplayer fit seamlessly with the single player game and its key themes and we’ve play-tested the hell out of the multiplayer game, it’s working well and gamers are enjoying it. Now we’re all just eager to get Tomb Raider into gamers’ hands in March so they can experience the entire game for themselves.”

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The Final Hours #4 (EN)

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The Final Hours #4 (FR)

Xoar

Commented on 2013-01-08 19:35:21

Like Uncharted multiplayer i doubt this will get much play...hope im wrong and it's great but just cant see it.

In reply to

KORNdog

Commented on 2013-01-08 20:04:58

Wish the animations where better. Otherwise it looks OK. Having played both uncharted 2 and 3 online already it's taken some of the uniqueness away from it, but for those who only have a 360, there is something incredibly satisfying about a shooter that mixes traversal and verticality into its gunplay. Uncharteds MP was awesome for it. Hopefully this isn't TOO much of a retread?

nostradamus

Commented on 2013-01-08 20:26:48

gotta say, i laughed my ass when i saw the clone, but stoped and sayed "thats neat" at the bow&downed, sloppy slope, traps segments.

Seth

Commented on 2013-01-08 20:37:57

Lol, it looks pretty bad, but why i'm not surprised? :)

alimokrane

Commented on 2013-01-08 20:43:44

I am having a very hard time accepting multiplayer in a Tomb Raider game. I doubt I will play this. Having said that, I did enjoy Uncharted 3's multiplayer so maybe I will end up liking this but I doubt it.

bleachedsmiles

Commented on 2013-01-08 21:32:07

"we looked at guardian of light, saw people were having fun in the co-op of that and decided to bring you something completely different" - great. Not sure many people wanted competitive multiplayer from this?

Is that the guy from Chuck?

Commented on 2013-01-08 21:41:55

I wish we were getting Guardian of light 2 instead. Damn, this was one fine game. :(

michaelob

Commented on 2013-01-08 21:53:11

Ugggh, not much to see here. They should have dedicated the extra resources to creating a larger, more interactive SP world, and relied less on linear paths and QTEs. Even a lot of the multiplayer looks like small, linear areas with a few larger temple like areas mixed in. Not to mention the graphics and animations look pretty bad in the MP footage. Don't know what they were thinking other than "ME TOO"....

Zarsky

Commented on 2013-01-08 22:27:19

That didn't wake up any excitement in me.

This message and account have been deleted at the user's request

Sath

Commented on 2013-01-09 11:03:02

I knew it was him the second he showed up, and i dont even watch nor like Chuck.

ManThatYouFear

Commented on 2013-01-09 11:08:52

"we must have multiplayer in every game"
christ..

but you never know uncharted multiplayer was good fun (aside from wall glitching bastards)

Kostchtchie

Commented on 2013-01-09 16:38:10

would have preferred open world tomb raider than this tapped on MP trash

Commented on 2013-01-09 23:55:41

It looks like the last issue of Xboxworld confirms that the game is a linear, 3rd person shooter, rather than an open exploration game. Here is a quote regarding their two hour playthrough:

“We’re ducking behind waist-high concrete block,” opens the preview, “taking potshots at some armed goons, and we’re thinking to ourselves, is this Tomb Raider? We played the game for two hours, and most of it was spent in combat – so it’s basically a third-person shooter, despite pretensions of it being a wilderness exploration game.”

They didn’t have much good to say about the exploration aspects, either, describing levels as “winding, linear trails”, and going on to say that “You don’t feel like you’re exploring at all. Some sections open up, which serve as Arkham Asylum-style hubs, but mostly you’re pushing forward through a set path.”

They also didn't sound too keen on the characters or the lack of interactivity. The supporting characters were described as “a bunch of laughable stereotypes. A Scottish sailor? A nerdy tech guy with glasses? Spiritual Maori guy? Oh, please.” “Tomb Raider is one of those ‘experiences’ modern developers love so much. Most of the time you feel like you’re just moving a cutscene forward by holding forward on the analogue stick.” said the magazine. “In one scene towards the end of our hands-on, she has to climb a huge radio tower atop a blizzard-battered mountain. This is ripe for an awesome climbing puzzle, but instead we just hold forward, and scripted scenes do the rest. It’s a well made game, with great production values and some dazzling visuals (especially the weather effects), but it’s a pretty big departure from made the old games so special”

It looks like the last issue of Xboxworld confirms that the game is a linear, 3rd person shooter, rather than an open exploration game.  Here is a quote regarding their two hour playthrough:

“We’re ducking behind waist-high concrete block,” opens the preview, “taking potshots at some armed goons, and we’re thinking to ourselves, is this Tomb Raider? We played the game for two hours, and most of it was spent in combat – so it’s basically a third-person shooter, despite pretensions of it being a wilderness exploration game.”

They didn’t have much good to say about the exploration aspects, either, describing levels as “winding, linear trails”, and going on to say that “You don’t feel like you’re exploring at all. Some sections open up, which serve as Arkham Asylum-style hubs, but mostly you’re pushing forward through a set path.”

They also didn't sound too keen on the characters or the lack of interactivity.  The supporting characters were described as “a bunch of laughable stereotypes. A Scottish sailor? A nerdy tech guy with glasses? Spiritual Maori guy? Oh, please.”  “Tomb Raider is one of those ‘experiences’ modern developers love so much. Most of the time you feel like you’re just moving a cutscene forward by holding forward on the analogue stick.” said the magazine. “In one scene towards the end of our hands-on, she has to climb a huge radio tower atop a blizzard-battered mountain. This is ripe for an awesome climbing puzzle, but instead we just hold forward, and scripted scenes do the rest. It’s a well made game, with great production values and some dazzling visuals (especially the weather effects), but it’s a pretty big departure from made the old games so special”

Commented on 2013-01-09 23:59:36 In reply to michaelob

Posted by michaelob

It looks like the last issue of Xboxworld confirms that the game is a linear, 3rd person shooter, rather than an open exploration game.

I don't think the quote was needed to know that tbh, just the footage they've released and apoair of functioning eyes.

Commented on 2013-01-10 09:06:09

^^ lol

Commented on 2013-01-10 17:54:22 In reply to KORNdog

Posted by KORNdog

The linear part was definitely apparent, but I hadn't realized it was 95% shooter. I thought they were going to focus somewhat on exploration and puzzles, but I suppose that being on rails pretty much limits the exploration AND puzzle aspects....

Commented on 2013-01-11 18:05:36 In reply to michaelob

At first that was their goal - more survival elements, puzzles and exploration... Sadly these things were scrapped and final product is pretty much cover based shooter with few basic puzzles here and there. :(

Commented on 2013-01-11 20:01:54 In reply to Seth

Posted by Seth

The more Uncharted style gameplay the better! Tomb Raider got far to stale and Tomb Raider Legend just didnt compete with Uncharted so change was badly needed.