Uncharted Territory

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It was a fall from grace normally reserved for self-righteous politicians and televangelists. Having made some of the defining games on the original PlayStation, Lara Croft watched helplessly as her games became increasingly disappointing, culminating with 2003's unplayable The Angel of Darkness. As the saying goes, you can't keep a good woman in shorty-shorts down, and so it was that three years (and a switch in developers from Core to Crystal Dynamics) later that Ms. Croft would make a triumphant comeback with 2006's exhilarating Tomb Raider: Legend and a stellar remake of her original adventure as 2007's Anniversary. Now Crystal D is going for the hat trick with Tomb Raider Underworld, which Eidos will release this November on almost every platform available. Though according to the game's creative director, Crystal Dynamic's Eric Lindstrom, Lara's getting more in this game than just some new stamps in her passport.

Crispy Gamer: So where in the world is Lara Croft this time?

Eric Lindstrom: She's actually going all over the world. We're not saying where yet, but she's going to multiple places around the world to investigate ruin sites that are tied to the local underworld where she's going, though they're all threaded together by a common theme and the story of the game.

Crispy Gamer: What is the story for this game and how does it connect to the rest of the series?

Lindstrom: Again, we're not saying much, but I can tell you that the story takes place after Legend and Anniversary, and it answers a lot of the questions left unanswered by those games.

Crispy Gamer: How does the gameplay compare to the other games?

Lindstrom: There are a lot more things you can do, especially things you'd expect Lara to be able to do. Like being able to balance on the poles she can swing on. Or, if she's climbing around, and she has a free hand, she can now pull out a gun and shoot someone if they're shooting at her.

Crispy Gamer: It's also been reported that, for the first time, you motion-captured a gymnast -- NCAA Women's Gymnastics Champion Heidi Moneymaker, to be specific -- for Lara's moves. Did you pick Ms. Moneymaker because her name makes her sound like a Bond girl?

Lindstrom: God, I wish it was that easy, but that is her real name. I'm ashamed to say I asked her.

Crispy Gamer: What did motion-capturing a gymnast bring to the game?

Lindstrom: What's always been really important to us is raising the level of detail and fidelity, which is why the environments are getting much more detailed and lush. So when it came to Lara's animations, they needed a higher level of detail, as well. Now the way to do that is to work a bunch of animators to death, or to go do motion-capturing, which brings in a lot of secondary motions that would normally take a really long time to animate. So it wasn't about making them more real, but it was also a way to get a high level of detail.

Crispy Gamer: Did the motion-capturing result in you adding any new moves for Lara?

Lindstrom: It didn't give her any new abilities, but there were times when we told her [Ms. Moneymaker] what to do, and she'd say, "Well, that's not the way I'd do that move, that's awkward." Then she'd do it her way, and if it looked cool, we used it.