Tomb Raider: Chronicles Preview

Following Lara Croft's mysterious disappearance in the last installment of the Tomb Raider series, many wonder how the series will make a return. Considering the cash flow that the Tomb Raider franchise generates despite its seemingly played-out game mechanics, Core Design has found an interesting way to bring Lara back to the PlayStation. Tomb Raider: Chronicles begins as Lara's family and friends are gathered at the Croft estate to remember the world's sexiest archeologist. As they sit together, each person begins to tell tales of Lara's secret adventures from the past, and you are then transported back in time to play out each scenario.

Tomb Raider: Chronicles sticks closely to the usual formula of jumping, climbing, and puzzle-solving found in past installments, but the developer has managed to squeeze a few new moves into the game to keep things fresh. Lara can now perform parallel bar swings, tightrope walking, and fancy hand-to-hand stealth attacks that seem to be a prerequisite in almost every other modern action game. The inventory system has also undergone a slight makeover, as more item combinations are possible, and an inventory search option has been added to make searching files and cabinets less cumbersome than before.

Spanning four different locales including the ruins of Rome, a Russian submarine, and a futuristic city, Tomb Raider: Chronicles is yet another quest to find ancient artifacts. Each chapter in the game is said to provide further background into Lara's life as both a child and an adult while divulging insight into the other bit players in the series as well. Based upon the character model images we've received, it appears that Lara will be shooting it out with more than just wildlife in Chronicles. SWAT teams and moss-covered swamp creatures are just a couple of examples of the varied enemies that Lara will face off against in this, the fifth game in the series.

While the enemies may have changed over the years, much of the level design and visual qualities have remained the same. The brown-hued levels appear as if they could have been lifted directly from the first Tomb Raider, and some of the screenshots show off some fairly pixelated and warped textures. Of course, the game is still a couple of months away from completion, so there's plenty of time for Eidos to make significant changes to the game's look and feel. Tomb Raider: Chronicles is scheduled for release on November 26.