Preview By: Jared Black
Developer:	Core Design
Publisher:	Eidos
Genre:	Adventure
# of Players:	1
Est. Release:	Fall 2002
Posted:	3-21-02

Today Eidos unveiled the first details on their latest Lara Croft title, Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness.

Scheduled to hit the PS2 and PC sometime this fall, this time Ms. Croft will face even more evolved characters, situations, and multiple story paths to choose from.

Adrian Smith, Operations Director at Core Design says, "Our vision is to take the player somewhere dark, a place they might not necessarily wish to go, but a place they will have to venture if they are to bring Lara back. Lara will have some tough moral choices to make. It’s no longer a clear-cut case of good versus evil - this is a more complex tale, which will ask more complex questions of the player. It will be a new experience for people who have played Tomb Raider in the past."

Lara herself is promised to be "darker, harder, less tolerant, and her tomb raiding days are a distant memory".  The storyline is that she receives a phone call from her former mentor Von Croy, which leads her to Paris.  Von Croy has been asked by a sinister client, Eckhardt, to track down one of five 14th century artworks - the Obscura Paintings.  She arrives in Paris to learn that Von Croy has been murdered, and naturally she's being framed for the crime.

During the course of her latest adventure, Lara will meet up with several other characters (both friend and foe), and become involved in underworld deals, grotesque murders, alchemy, and other gruesome things.

The new Lara Croft model, Jill De Jong (Click to Enlarge)

This latest Lara Croft title sports a brand new game engine, something the series has long been overdue for.  Lara herself will be composed of over 5,000 polygons (4,998 of which make up her breasts...I'm joking of course), and Core is promising incredibly intricate environments.

With a brand new game engine and the promise of a much darker Tomb Raider, the series' future looks brighter now than it has in years.  It still has a long way to go, but the early signs point to a renaissance of the Tomb Raider series.