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Core gets bitchslapped.

As noted in this story over at Shacknews, Eidos has yoinked the Tomb Raider franchise out of Core Design's hands and turned it over to Crystal Dynamics. I think this is probably a very smart move from Eidos' perspective, since the Tomb Raider franchise has been languishing for years now, while the Legacy of Kain games keep getting better and better. But still, that's pretty harsh.

I have a strange fascination with the Tomb Raider series. Although I haven't played one since Tomb Raider III, I haven't forgotten how good (and I mean really good) the original game was. I seem to be in the minority there, as most hardcore gamers tend to be very bitter on the subject of Tomb Raider, choosing to remember only the crappiness that came later in the series, instead of the groundbreaking first title.

For those who may have forgotten, Tomb Raider was one of the very first games to utilize a third person 3D camera. The only other game to do so was Mario 64, and while both games had camera problems, neither was so bad as to make the game unplayable. Tomb Raider showed off a completely 3D world in a way nobody had seen before. And the first time I saw the dinosaur in that game I was in total awe. Tomb Raider was also one of the first games to offer 3D acceleration when paired with a 3dfx Voodoo card, and I remember those first rendered screenshots and being absolutely blown away by what I was sure had to be pre-rendered.

But nonetheless, the franchise has faltered. The second game wasn't bad, but by the third it was in desperate need of reinvention. Instead of giving us that, we had drivel like The Last Revelation and Chronicles shoved down our throats, and while the early details about The Angel of Darkness sounded intriguing (remember when it was going to be an episodic game?) the end result was more of the same, and more of the same that came late and was totally bug-ridden.

I think there's still time to save the Tomb Raider franchise, although not as much as Eidos would probably like. It's going to take a really good game to bring the series back, and hopefully Crystal Dynamics can do that. What's still unknown is if there's any time left to save Core Design, as their non-Tomb Raider games haven't sold very well.

Posted by jason at July 30, 2003 12:53 PM | TrackBack | Read more: Games