A merchant had a daughter, who was known as Vasilisa the Beautiful. When the girl was eight years old, her mother died. On her deathbed, she gave Vasilisa a tiny wooden doll with instructions to give it a little to eat and a little to drink if she were in need, and then it would help her. As soon as her mother died, Vasilisa gave it a little to drink and a little to eat, and it comforted her.After a time, her father remarried; the new wife was a woman with two daughters. Vasilisa’s stepmother was very cruel to her, but with the help of the doll, she was able to perform all the tasks imposed on her. When young men came wooing, the stepmother rejected them all because it was not proper for the younger to marry before the older, and none of the suitors wished to marry Vasilisa’s stepsisters.One day the merchant had to embark on a journey. His wife sold the house and moved them all to a gloomy hut by the forest. One day she gave each of the girls a task and put out all the fires except a single candle. Her older daughter then put out the candle, whereupon they sent Vasilisa to fetch light from Baba Yaga’s hut.

Vasilisa the Beautiful at the Hut of Baba Yaga, by Ivan Bilibin

Also check out our Lara’s Diary Project where Lara studies the myth of Baba Yaga in preparation for her upcoming adventure; the Rise of the Tomb Raider DLC – Baba Yaga: Temple of the Witch.

Starring the original Lara Croft voice actress Shelley Blond [Tomb Raider (1996), Peep Show]

The post Lara’s Diary: Baba Yaga appeared first on Tomb of Ash.

Our Let’s Play Rise of the Tomb Raider video with Lady Scion is coming soon. Check out my Spoiler Free review in the meantime

The post Let’s Play Rise of the Tomb Raider appeared first on Tomb of Ash.

Achtung!
The following text contains some
spoilers (though I did try to make it as spoiler free as I could) and my own (OMG!) personal (OMG!!!) opinion (OMFG!!!!) on the
game.

As a classic fan,
I was obviously hurt deeply in 2005 when Tomb Raider Legend came out. The new
biography that pushed Lara closer to the Tomb Raider films (which I can’t stand
btw) made me cringe. Tomb Raider Anniversary and Underworld though were on the
right track but when I thought she would finally focus on travels and artefacts
rather than her mother, a reboot happened.

I liked Tomb
Raider 2013, overall, that is. Since I read Lara’s biography in the manual for the
original Tomb Raider I always wanted to play as her during her early days when
she survived a plane crash. TR 2013 was a right start for a new lineage of Tomb
Raider. Yes, there were a few things I wasn’t happy about (and most of them
kinda were carried on into ROTTR) but overall it was a great game.

When I first saw
the gameplay footage for ROTTR at E3 I was moved. I had huge hopes for this game
and I was not disappointed. The locations, puzzles and tombs are absolutely
amazing. Enemies are a little bit too stupid though.

Lara looks great. Even
on Xbox 360 she looks fantastic.

I can only imagine how gorgeous this will be
on PC (not long to wait now). Unfortunately, if locations give us the original
Tomb Raider motifs and feels, Lara still has her ponytail and not a braid; it’s
those tiny things like the colour of her eyes and her hairdo that make Lara who
she is. Maybe in the next game she will opt for a more practical braid than
ponytail.

Those of you who are
butthurt by people’s outcry for a braid and defend the ponytail with ‘oh they would have a ponytail in classic
games, they just couldn’t coz of technology’ are wrong; PS2 could easily
support a ponytail yet in the Angel of Darkness she has a braid. I’ll stop
there, coz I made myself a promise to stop arguing with ‘fans’ like this as
they will defend any single decision their favourite developer makes without
realising that it is normal (and in fact it is important) to be critical about
games (or frankly – any media) you like. Imagine if they would change 90% of
the plot in the Lord of the Rings, think Tolkien fans would approve coz it has
“Lord of the Rings” in its title?

Same goes for her dual
pistols and her outfits.  I do have a
good feeling that in the next game she will be gearing up as a proper Tomb
Raider so that’s when we probably will see her wearing great “Lara’ish” outfits
and shoot from her iconic guns.  The
ending implied that anyway. Until then we have a wonderful puzzle game called
Lara Croft Go to fulfil the need of the 100% original Tomb Raider dose.

Don’t get me wrong
though. Rise of the Tomb Raider has a lot of motifs and links with classic Tomb
Raider. In fact, this is as close to the classics as Crystal Dynamics has ever
been (excluding TR:Anniversary; that is a heavily based on the original Tomb
Raider motifs).

Yes, the game has a
LOT in common with TR 2013; game mechanics and even some sound effects remain nearly
identical. That doesn’t mean that those who didn’t enjoy the previous game
won’t like this one. It has so many improvements that will completely grab you.
Huge locations offer you tons of fun exploring them. There’s no open-world but
you don’t really need it for such a game. I liked Tomb Raider 2013 and I
welcome some of the mechanics that remained in the Rise of the Tomb Raider.

There’s a blonde
haired character in the game called Ana, (or Hannah if you’re Camilla
Luddington) and I don’t even think it’s a spoiler thing to say as I’m sure
every Tomb Raider fan will know – There’s no such thing as a GOOD BLONDE HAIRED
female in Tomb Raider games. I suppose binary opposites in characters’ looks
and personalities can be allowed for simplicity of narrative.

There’s a number of
optional challenge tombs which make this game stand out from its predecessor. I
managed to play the demo of the game at EGX and actually wasn’t so impressed
with the Prophet’s tomb as all the puzzles revolved around water level; however
the number of tombs and the broad selection of puzzles do indeed make this game
an absolute gem in Tomb Raider series. While the main campaign will take you
about 9 hours (depending on the difficulty settings) a huge number of
collectables will make you play this game for many more hours.

The Xbox 360 version
has very decent graphics but there is a number of bugs, some of which will require
you to reload the game. The last locations are particularly poorly tested, but
Nixxes will probably fix these soon as they already released a patch that
improves the graphics, implying that they will still work on the game.

Locations are simply
stunning; even on Xbox 360 they make you want to stop and look around. Siberia
reminds me heavily of Tomb Raider II: Golden Mask while Syria simply returns to
the classic Tomb Raider atmosphere. Unfortunately, Syria is a bit short and I
really wanted to explore it more.

Microtransactions
aren’t necessary and I don’t see anyone actually spending money on these
(unless you’re really bad at collecting coins). I am concerned though that they
will become a trend and the devs will make them much more necessary for future
game.

And then there’s Laura’s
voice… or as Ostercy in his preview for Tomb
Raider 2013 wrote “We’ve
been introduced to an American actress born in England who is either
not very good at an English accent, or who is deliberately putting on a bit of
an American accent because that’s allegedly how the inhabitants of modern
cosmopolitan London speak”. Thankfully, the game has a fully dubbed
Russian language version; the irony is that I learned English because of Tomb
Raider but now I have to play it in Russian in order not to risk dath whilst looking for answers to the kwestins. In fact, CD decided to keep
over 90% of Lara’s soundbites from the previous game too, so all them forced
grunts of Britney Spears trying to sing death metal are still there; Russian
actress is great though, no complaints there at all! The accent does sound as
forced as ever but it is not as bad as it was in the previous game. Ostercy, if
you read this please update us on what you think! I personally think the Queen
of England would tell Lara to ‘tone it down, love’ XD

The amount of mocap used in this game is
impressive and it does make the characters move more naturally, but this is
where MOVA Tech actually looks incredible and bad at the same time as it
captures overacting too so even simple dialogue between Lara and some other
character turns into a South American telenovela or
pantomime.

And here comes the
exclusivity bit. It is a big shame that the Tomb Raider community, already
heavily segmented by Core, Crystal, comic books and film love/haters, is now
even further divided due to the exclusivity deal.

Unfortunately, I can’t
enjoy this game fully. You see, every time a new game would be out I’d be very
excited and talk to my friends as we all play it. Now it seems like I’m the
only Xbox owner; my friends are waiting for a PC or PS4 version. I feel uneasy
playing the game. I feel like whilst I’m playing it I’m robbing the pleasure
off my friends and every single status update on social media where I mention
I’m playing the game hurts them. It’s a very odd and awful feeling. Even my
co-admin can’t play the game. I’ve made so many friends online because of Tomb
Raider, many of which I met in real life and I now feel that the community is more
divided than ever. Very disappointing; and no, Xbox fanboys, writing comments
about OMG IT’S A TIMED EXCLUSIVE won’t help me feel better.

In conclusion, you have
probably read reviews from fans where they have wrote something like “it’s a
good game but it’s not Tomb Raider”, I think Rise of the Tomb Raider is a good
game and definitely IS a Tomb Raider game (at least to a significant extent).
If you liked Tomb Raider 2013 then you will definitely enjoy the Rise of the
Tomb Raider. If you didn’t – still give this game a chance, it’s definitely
worth it.

A few hours into the
game and I still haven’t heard SAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAM, that’s already a good reason
for you to consider playing this game!

As for the most
important question – is it worth buying an Xbox One to play this game? This
really depends on your situation:

·
If you own
a good PC I’d avoid buying an XB1 and would probably spend money on upgrades.
You can get a used Xbox 360 for about £60 (or less) if you’re that impatient to
play it. PC version will definitely feature better graphics so investing in an
XB1 is not worth it (as long as you can run GTA5 on high details your PC should
be fine). You have until early 2016 to upgrade your PC. That’s enough time to
save up!

·
I suppose
the above applies if you have a PS4; get XB360 if you’re desperate and play on that
until it’s out on PS4 (with probably some additional and exclusive content as
compensation for such a long wait)

·
In all
other cases, I’d suggest getting an XB1. Then again, many people do not really
care about graphics and the Xbox 360 version looks OKAY anyway. They patched it
recently to add ‘wet’ effects too. I personally don’t like TressFX hair.

My heart goes out to those who can’t play the game just yet. Stay strong guys, there’s a light at the end of this tomb <3

The post Sit Back, Relax, and Enjoy Your Rise [of the Tomb Raider Review] appeared first on Tomb of Ash.

Hello. Thanks for taking the time to talk to me. Could you please introduce yourself to our readers?
Brandon Fernandez:  Hi, I’m Brandon Fernandez, Animator Director on Rise of the Tomb Raider.  I’ve worked at Crystal for 15 years, with my first project being Soul Reaver 2.  13 of those years I’ve spent focusing on player animation and control.  Working with our talented player group on bringing our characters to life not only in cinematics, but during every moment of gameplay as well.   I’m excited to hear fan’s reactions and thoughts on Lara’s growth in her latest journey.
What would you say is involved in your average day working on the new Rise of the Tomb Raider?
Brandon Fernandez:  While not animating myself, much of my time is spent continually playing the game, ensuring Lara’s animations and controls are in sync and intuitive.  While we are always pushing for high fidelity motion, we also strive for a character that feels responsive and easy to control.  In addition to this, I also work with our excellent animation team reviewing work and providing feedback.

As a professional animator, how has the process of character animation changed through the years?

Brandon Fernandez:  15+ years ago there was less specialization in games, so an animator might model, rig, animate, create character vfx and even do a bit of design tuning.  With the ever increasing fidelity new hardware allows, along with a maturing game’s industry filled with professional artists in all areas, animators are now able to focus more on animation as an art.

How has this technology opened up new animation options?  Has it saved time in production or has it brought up new complications?
Brandon Fernandez: It has definitely increased our ability to achieve more nuanced performances with our characters.  It brings with it new challenges to be sure, but much like motion capture for body motion, it allows us to get the subtle, minute detail of human movement quickly.  Then it is up to one of our skilled animators to massage that into the characters you see come to life.

In the past, video game character animation would have been a more solitary occupation; working from pre-existing reference materials.  With the increasing use of motion capture technology in modern games, the artist needs to interact with the motion actors.  How has this affected your workflow?  

Brandon Fernandez: While motion capture is a great tool to help us create our characters, the majority of an animator’s time is still spent crafting that performance with the team here at Crystal or in our sister studio in Montreal.   Motion capture allows us to get to a common ground faster, so we can focus more on the subtly of the acting and emotion.
As an artist, do you guide the motion actors’ performance?
Brandon Fernandez: We have many talented people at Crystal who are in sync with our characters motivations, so the direction is shared.  Whether it is Noah, Tore, Brian or myself, there is always someone with a strong understanding of our characters driving the performances.
What is the most enjoyable part of your job?

Brandon Fernandez: The challenge and beauty of animating for games is creating a character who can both be separate of the player with her own personality, while also at the base level be driven by the player.  Ensuring the player and Lara are in sync throughout the game is a great challenge, and when done right is incredibly rewarding.

The post An Exclusive Interview with Brandon Fernandez, Animation Director for the Rise of the Tomb Raider appeared first on Tomb of Ash.

In June, Microsoft and Crystal Dynamics sponsored my trip to the USA to attend their presentation of the Rise of the Tomb Raider at E3 2015 in Los Angeles. I had an opportunity to meet some of my online friends for the first time and catch up with some of the people behind the new Tomb Raider at both E3 and Crystal Dynamics’ studio in San Francisco. You can find out more details about my adventures, read and watch exclusive interviews and see photos here

Excuse my accent  

The post E3 2015 Experience Recap Video appeared first on Tomb of Ash.

The post [Interview] Brian Horton – Game Director for The Rise of The Tomb Raider appeared first on Tomb of Ash.

The post [Interview] John Stafford – Narrative Designer at Crystal Dynamics appeared first on Tomb of Ash.

Can we expect any nods to classic games as Lara becomes a Tomb Raider?

Noah Hughes: Yeah, one of the things we always try to do is evoke elements of the classics and that comes in more abstract and more literal ways. Probably my favorite of the general themes is really just tombs and trying to evoke those same feelings you’d get in the classic games when you’d come into these giant vertical spaces and really wonder how you’re going to get through them. So for me a lot of it is just that feeling that you got in classic games and just trying to really conjure that same sense of awe-inspiring discovery. We also try to find ways to evoke the classic games a little more literally but with that I think it’s probably a little spoilery, so I will say that we have tried to evoke not just those feelings but actually gesture at some of the classic things from Lara’s history. Even the bear I remember going to toe to toe with the bear in the first game which was really memorable for me, so even things like the bear are an important part of the survival ecosystem but they also have that nostalgic flavor to me.

Will there be a multiplayer mode?

Noah Hughes: Well we don’t have anything to announce in terms of multiplayer, but certainly we heard feedback from the last game and so as always we try to distill any feedback we get and make sure whatever we do, we’re informing it with what people would like to see.

Will there be any kind of summary of the comics and books?

Noah Hughes: That’s a good suggestion. We currently have set out to make a story that does stand alone so we don’t want people to be confused if they haven’t read the comics or book. But at the same time it does add a certain amount of understanding about Lara’s character and what she’s been through between the two games, so even if we don’t include it on the disc, I think it is something that adds to the experience. But we are committed to making sure people don’t feel left out if they haven’t experienced all of them.

Will it be possible to combine equipment to create new equipment or gain new attributes?

Noah Hughes: Yeah, we definitely have more equipment that for Lara in this game and in some cases that equipment sort of progresses over the course of the game. So in that example she takes her climbing axe and is able to use it in new ways, and one of the most important things about that is then she is able to get to areas in the world that she wasn’t previously able to. So one of the things that we like is coming back to hub spaces that you’ve been to before and making sure that that new gear is making it increasingly fun to get around, but also giving you access to more and more things within the world. So gear is still a very important part of the game and we have some new gear to introduce.

Are there vehicles?

Noah Hughes: We don’t have anything to talk about as it relates to vehicles. A lot of what we do focus on is Lara’s traversal mechanics – the platforming and the gear is something that’s really important to us, so that’s certainly the primary mechanic set that we wanted to focus on this time around. But we wanted to expand it, so for example swimming is a new way for Lara to traverse even when she may not have a vehicle. So for us it’s sometimes more interesting to give Lara new mechanics, new skills, and new ways to get around.

Will there be any hand-to-hand combat?  

Noah Hughes: There are some additions to Lara’s close quarters combat move set, but we do feel like it becomes a bit of a different game, and in some ways becomes a little bit out of character, when hand-to-hand combat becomes your primary means of interacting. So in a lot of cases it is a last resort to some extent. Lara tends to take advantage of her bow obviously and she can use her axe in close combat, but it hasn’t been a focus of combat evolution. Instead we’ve tried to give more ways for players to use the environment and especially in the context of stealth and pre-combat, and we feel it’s in character to give Lara that resourcefulness and that intelligent approach to combat, and the ability to use her bow as a star and give the bow new mechanics. So yes there’s been some slight enhancements but it’s not necessarily the focus of Lara style combat for us.

Will we see the dual pistols, the ponytail, the swan dive, and more familiar elements make a comeback?

Noah Hughes: We have some small details that make a reappearance, but in a lot of ways it’s more those thematic elements. It’s the tomb feelings and a lot of those aspects. Having said that, there may be at least one of those things in that list that makes an appearance, so I’ll let you guys figure that out.

A lot of people want to know more about the final boss.

Noah Hughes: Spoiler alert! [laughs] Yeah, we do have bosses in the game, and on a smaller scale we even think of the first bear as a mini boss encounter and those sort of escalate between human and animal enemies. We do have a final climax at the end that may qualify as a boss fight, but for us it’s more about creating a memorable experience that allows you to test all of the skills that you’ve gained over the course of the game and ultimately feel that sense of accomplishment. And there is a narrative showdown between you and the main antagonist in the game.

What can we expect in terms of the graphics engine over the Definite Edition?

Noah Hughes: The Definitive Edition was a great opportunity to push the content we had made with some of the resolution and performance of the hardware, but it also allowed us to understand how to make better content from the beginning as well as enhance our engine to take advantage of that hardware. This time around I think even if you played the Definitive Edition on the Xbox One that even though it’s the same platform you’re going to see a notable improvement. Some of my favorite things are Lara’s facial animation, and I think she really is coming to life and more importantly showing her emotion in ways she hasn’t in the past.

I think also even just things like her hair are great, and for her to have all that secondary motion –  as she moves all the things on her outfit are jingling around. But also gameplay benefits as well, as with the scale of the hub spaces. One of the things that’s interesting about that, as spaces get bigger you can actually sort of get lost in them, and talking about evoking some of those classic Tomb Raider feelings, that is part of it. I remember almost being panicked, like, “Oh my gosh, I don’t know where to go!” and so I do think even just scale adds a certain amount of feeling that we couldn’t evoke in the small-scale environments.

And then just little things, like the snow and Lara’s ability to make trails in the snow or get snow on her. There’s any number of things both gameplay-wise and aesthetics-wise that I think we’ve been able to do because we were making it for the hardware, and Microsoft’s been really good about giving us the geniuses behind their hardware, and we can send them code and they can profile it and instead of pulling back on the aspiration they really figure out how to get the system to do that for us.

Will there be any paid DLC?  

Noah Hughes: I think that is a common request that we very much take to heart, but we don’t have any announcements for PDLC. It is something that like you said we want to provide to allow players to continue to play in the world and that starts with just the on-disc replay. As soon as you’re done with the story, chances are there’s quite a bit more to do in the world. But then we recognize that beyond that it would be great to have more fun in the game so we’ll look at ways to do that.

Did you have Rise’s story in mind before developing it?

Noah Hughes: Yeah, we had on a couple levels. So one is trying to understand Lara’s arc as a character that we had a very broad strokes understanding of where she would go after the first game. And so there were some facets of character arc that we were excited to do after this game, and then beyond that I think you get inspiration for things that worked well in the first game so before you even finish you start to imagine what you could do. So you not only have this broad sense of where Lara would go, but in the end we don’t know the details like what exact location she is gonna go, or who the bad guys are, but it helps to have sort of a broad strokes sense of Lara’s journey as a character.

How did you choose the location, and why the myth of Kitezh?

Noah Hughes: That’s a great question. We choose our locations based on a lot of different facets, but one of them is very much the myths and inspirations that we can take for the actual tomb raiding that Lara is going to do. And in particular when we did find the myth about Kitezh, this idea of a lost city but not just lost, but the idea that it sank beneath a lake, was captivating to us and there were some great themes in the story. But for the most part it also becomes a decision about location and what types of environments we want to explore, and making sure we’re taking Lara to different places. So it becomes a combination of being inspired by the myth as well as the terrain, and situations that we can experience, but I think it was a very fertile land for both.

Does it matter what order you do side missions in and can Lara influence the day-to-day lives of NPCs?

Noah Hughes: Well I don’t think we are talking much about the NPCs and generally as a game we do find it difficult to express changes in the narrative flow based on the player’s actions. But at the same time what we try to do is express a lot of playstyle advantages to how you play, and there may or may not be some secondary effects. But for the most part, the main story will play out. A lot of what you’re allowed to do is sort of tell your own stories on the side. So in some ways, I kind of think of it like a tree where the trunk is the main story, but when you get out on to the branches and leaves you really do feel like you’re progressing your own story, and we tried to involve more characters in that as well. We do try to make sure that’s a narrative backdrop for a lot of the secondary stuff that you do, but again that sort of becomes the story that you tell along the way.

Will Jason Graves be returning? Will the soundtrack be released on a CD or vinyl for collectors?

Noah Hughes: Again I think that is one of those questions that we…

Meagan Marie: Jason has actually said publicly that he is not involved. But we don’t have any announcement for who the new composer is. I’m sure we’ll blow it out when we do. I think that the answer to that is we know how much fan loves music, and that you guys loved the CD last time, so I would expect we’ll do something very similar. That’s not a formal announcement, but we’re definitely looking into options and we’ll let you know as soon as we have details.

Noah Hughes: I should clarify then in that context that I really enjoyed working with Jason and I think we’d enjoy working together again, so it was something where we very much respected each other’s work. This was more a decision about this game being an evolution of the last game, and really trying to capture a new personality, so part of it was saying from the ground up that if we want to score this experience, how can we best show this transition in Lara’s character?

Will Jason’s theme come back?

Noah Hughes: Yeah that is fair to say that we really loved the theme work that Jason helped us establish with the reboot, and so we like themes as a style of scoring the game. We try to make sure those themes take on the tone and emotion of the moment so they are very portable but we do work with common themes to help get that sense of identity.

Will TressFx be applied to other characters in the game?

Noah Hughes: That’s a good question. We do focus on Lara’s hair and TressFx for anyone who tried to played the last game on an old PC, knows that hair simulation is pretty greedy as it relates to performance, so we do have to be modest to how much we apply that to other characters. But we do try to make appropriate hair styles where that doesn’t become a noticeable shortcoming. and it really is Lara’s long hair that begs for that simulation the most.

Once Darrell Gallagher said “forget everything you know about Tomb Raider. I know that there are many forms of retaining the spirit of tomb raider to respect the spirit of what came before, while going new directions. After all of it, what should remain?  

Noah Hughes: The shortest answer is Lara and who she represents, and the reality is that we didn’t throw everything out. It was a mental exercise to basically strip the franchise back to its very core but ultimately rebuild it with the same sensibilities and intentions and I think for me that becomes an expression of Lara’s adventure. As a character, she’s a brilliant archaeologist, she’s athletic in traversal, she’s competent in combat now, but most importantly she’s this driven explorer and discoverer and a lot of that embodies what’s great about action adventure games, and so we kind of took these two ideas of Lara Croft and everything she represents and what is fun to do in an action adventure game and we rebuilt with those same ideas our new vision for it. So it’s really a combination of being willing to put everything aside, but trying to put something together that’s a modern expression of everything that you did love about those classic games.

Good question, by the way.

Are we going to see Lara’s apartment in Rise of the Tomb Raider, or be able to play in her apartment?

Noah Hughes: Unfortunately we’re trying to not necessarily speak to everything you’ll do outside of the demo content. Mainly I can expand on what we’re showing right now. But it was fun to work on Lara’s apartment and showing her personality in different ways, and get inside Lara’s head by understanding what her desk looks like and things like that.

What is driving Lara this time around?

Noah Hughes: That’s a good question. We could play a whole game’s story to answer it fully, but to summarize we probably start with trying to get into Lara’s head after the last adventure. She glimpsed something supernatural that she couldn’t explain but she believed it was real, however she came back to a world that didn’t believe it was real. So she suffered a certain amount of trauma on the island but probably the hardest thing about coming back to normal life was trying to get that out of her head – that idea that if this myth was real what else could be real? And she started to begin to realize that her place in this world isn’t just digging up pots and relics and things, but she really felt that there were truths lost to humanity that were buried in these secret places around the world. If something like immortality was real it could make a difference, so you have a character that is both out of place in her world in search of an identity, but ultimately fueled by a passion to understand and discover and make that difference in ways she never thought she could. So we get deeper into Lara’s past to understand where that hunger comes from, so it’s actually a fun part of the storytelling this time around.

Another good question!

How will transitioning between locations work as relates to fast travel?

Noah Hughes: It is important for us to allow players to replay areas for completion’s sake, but certain mechanics sometimes make that travel not available. So you won’t necessarily be able to freely travel between every location, but we will provide fast travel for players to strive to be completionists.

What percentage is the action adventure versus puzzles?

Noah Hughes: Percentage is always a hard thing to give but generally we’ve tried to maintain a similar balance to the last game with a few major adjustments. The most important adjustment is more tombs on the main story path along with challenge tombs in the world that are truly ancient spaces. Puzzles being a big part of tombs so I’m hoping there’s a bit more classic tomb raiding in there.

The second facet would be as it relates to combat style. I know some people would like if there was a lot less combat but certainly it is an important part of our pacing and mechanic set, and so we’ve tried to provide more ways for Lara to engage and sometimes be able to not engage in combat. When she does, there’s more opportunities to be clever and resourceful and win because she’s outsmarting her opponents instead of just outshooting opponents. So it’s not entirely a different mix from the last game, but I think those were two pieces of feedback we got especially from the fans. As you know I’m always trying to broker a peace between some of our classic sensibilities and some of the more mass market pacing requirements and stuff, but I do think we have dialed the knobs a bit to try and cater to that.

Are there difficulty settings and will they affect puzzles at all?

Noah Hughes: Yes there are difficulty settings in the game but it’s very hard for them to affect the puzzles specifically, so one of the ways we choose to address that is to put some of the harder puzzles off the main path in some of the challenge tombs. So if you like harder puzzles you’re going to seek out the challenge tombs.

Having said that it does affect resources, so one of the things that does is asks you to play a bit more carefully. When we talk about smart resourceful Lara, that’s not necessarily just puzzle solving but it’s also catering to succeeding by out-thinking rather than out-twitching.

Do the actions you take have a persistent impact on the game?

Noah Hughes: Yes, there will be some reflections of things you do in the world. We try to make sure there’s a certain persistence to the world so those things that you can do in different orders is generally respected across the game.

Will Rise of the Tomb Raider be harder than the previous game?

Noah Hughes: The goal is to allow players to use difficulty settings to make it harder, but we’re pushing to make the hardest difficulty setting a greater challenge by a decent amount than the last game. The normal setting is really about finding that sweet spot where the majority of our audience can really enjoy it, but for a lot of us–myself included–I like a greater degree of challenge, so we’re trying to make sure the game is challenging even hardcore players at those higher settings.

Will Jonah be with Lara during the whole game?

Noah Hughes: We don’t have any specific details on other characters, but we do focus on Jonah as the main Yamatai survivor featured in this story. As you saw in Bear Valley, Lara gets separated from Jonah. You will see him later in the game but at the same time we create these periods of separation to get back to some of those Tomb Raider flavors like isolation and Lara’s independence as a character. Having said that, human interaction is something that really allows you to understand a personality a lot more, and we create large periods of separation from the other characters, but it’s great to see Lara’s relationship with Jonah and he’s featured various times throughout the game.

Now that Lara can swim will we see more of her acrobatics like the swan dive?

Noah Hughes: No specifics for anything we didn’t see today, sorry.

How do the things that happened to Lara on Yamatai affect Lara in-game?

Noah Hughes: We learn a little about what Lara was going through, but in a lot of ways that state of mind plays into Lara’s motivation, the idea that it’s not just coping with the trauma of the event but her whole belief system was turned upside down. The idea that things exist in this world that she can’t explain and she came back into a world that questioned what she saw and doesn’t believe her and so she feels unable to fulfill something important, and so we do see her state of mind play into that a bit.

Noah sends his regards to Tomb Raider fans at Laracroft.ru :

Transportation, lodging, and E3 badge provided by Crystal Dynamics and Xbox as a part of the E3 2015 Ambassador Program.

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