Hopefully these cinematic camera angles won't hamper control.

Goodbye dual wielding, hello pickaxe.

4-Extreme Suspension of Disbelief


Then: In her earliest days, Lara was damn near perfect. After a long day of close shaves and tight-rope walks across the line between life and death, not a polygonal hair was out of place. On some level, of course, it made sense. After all, we're talking about Lara friggin' Croft here. Still, when Legend can present a scenario in which an enemy helicopter sneaks -- an action I was unaware helicopters were capable of performing -- up on Lara and waits until she's noticed and sprinted across a perfectly destroyable bridge before opening fire, well, things might be getting a little far-fetched.


Now: The Tomb Raider E3 demo opens with Lara falling 20 feet and impaling herself on a jagged metal pipe. Admittedly, the very fact that she survives -- let alone stands up and walks away without the aid of mutant healing powers -- sends plausibility plummeting into a bottomless abyss filled with Lara Croft corpses. However, it at least does so in a novel, provocative way -- as opposed to the hokey, almost campy method employed by previous series entries.

 

Then: For a franchise that, more recently, began to carefully hold players' hands, Tomb Raider's oftentimes aimless boss fights were quite the anomaly. Legend's final boss fight, for instance, was an ugly mess of equal parts confusion, frustration, and the color purple. Why can't I hit it? Why aren't my dodges working? Why oh why did anyone think this was a good idea? And why is my keyboard suddenly in a million pieces? Oh, wait, I think I know the answer to that last one.


Now: On the upside, Underworld did away with boss fights altogether, and one would hope that the reboot is leaving that portion of the past where it lies. If not, though, can I at least request that they not be punctuated by...



Then: Legend and Anniversary both sported copious "press X to not die" moments, because those were simpler days (back before everyone realized that quick-time events weren't even fun when they were called "Dragon's Lair"). Underworld, meanwhile, pressed X to dodge that bullet and gave the boot to QTEs altogether.


Now: The Tomb Raider reboot's E3 demo was almost entirely made up of quick-time events. The opening cave sequence was perhaps among the greatest nail-biters gaming has ever seen, but let's face it: the whole thing was -- aside from an all-too-brief puzzle -- completely on-rails. Crystal Dynamics, however, promises we've only seen the tip of the iceberg.

"One of the things which is absolutely important to us is to deliver an intense and cinematic experience," creative director Noah Hughes told GameSpot. "At very specific times, we feel we can do that best -- while still delivering challenging gameplay -- in a quick-time type event. Having said that, it really isn't the primary tool we use to deliver drama in the game."

I really, really, really hope he's not just telling fans what they want to hear




Spy Guy says: Press X! Press Q! Press Z! Yeah, QTEs are all the game-design rage these days as devs continue to try to deliver "an intense and cinematic experience," as Hughes said. Unfortunately, they actually pull me out of the intense experience they're supposed to help create. We're putting QTEs in the rebooted Tomb Raider at the top of our list of concerns. What about you?





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