We’ve received a number of documents on the abandoned Kurtis Trent spin-off game, a prequel to Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness. These were sent to us anonymously. This particular anonymous contributor has sent a number of screenshots and documents to us in the past and they were eventually verified by members of the Core Design team. As such, we have no doubts about the authenticity of these documents.
SYNOPSIS V1
Kurtis is approached by a priest and asked to come to a house where there is a severe case of demonic possession.
During the car journey the priest tells a tale of a normal happy child turned by degrees into a demonic creature gifted with destructive paranormal powers. The priest has been working with the child for over a month but now things have gone too far and he has come to Kurtis with a request – kill the child.
Kurtis is shocked but before he can argue the car pulls up outside an ordinary looking suburban home – but something has happened while the priest was away.
A police car is parked in the drive, lights flashing, the doors open with the radio requesting the patrols location.
On entering the house they find the child’s parents burned and torn bodies littering the floor – the cops called to the disturbance murdered in much the same way.
They cautiously enter the child’s bedroom and find a boy of twelve sitting on the bed playing a computer game.
“Kill it!” urges the priest and Kurtis draws his pistol, unsure if he can shoot a child.
Suddenly a woman appears behind him holding a pistol.
She is under the child’s influence and opens fire, killing the priest and wounding Kurtis before being shot down herself.
Kurtis staggers to his feet and turns to face the child but the bed is empty.
With no time to lose Kurtis begins a hunt for the boy – realizing that this is more than possession, but a demonic changeling – an exact copy that is cared for by its unsuspecting human parents until maturity when it will hatch into its true form.
They can only hope that the missing alter-ego of the demon child is still alive somewhere and that they get to him before time runs out.
Meanwhile the changeling is recruiting a small army of thugs to protect itself from Kurtis.
The energy from these enslaved drones is food to the demon-child and the more weak minds it recruits the more it will grow in power.
But killing it isn’t an option when Kurtis realizes that to do so will also kill the abducted human child.
Eventually Kurtis tracks down and defeats the changeling. Using the creature as a key he unlocks a doorway into another dimension and sets out to rescue the missing boy.
This world is a demonic reality and one where our physical laws do not apply.
Kurtis’ guns will only slow down the creatures in this dark realm and he must use all of the paranormal powers learned in the hunt for the changeling to rescue the abducted child and return it to our world where the boys appearance will banish the evil changeling back to the dark dimensions.
Level 1 – Hospital
The level starts with Kurtis in the hospital reception.
He must locate the Professor who will give him information about the case.
The hospital has been ransacked. Dead bodies are everywhere.
Survivors are dangerous.
Whole walls and floors have been blown away making exploration difficult.
The Professor is in his laboratory, a bandage wraped around his forehead, arm in a sling.
He tells Kurtis that the patient he was studying is gifted with extremely dangerous paranormal powers. These powers have been unleashed, hence the wrecked hospital and dead bodies.
Kurtis continues his search while the Professor (wounded), stays put.
Using his paranormal sense he tracks the patient down in the morgue. The patient is an eleven year old boy.
The boy says nothing but makes a sign with his hand. The storage lockers slide open and the dead rise to attack Kurtis. The boy smashes up through the ceiling leaves Kurtis to fight the dead.
Kurtis escapes and following his senses he heads for the roof. The police are now searching the hospital, and Kurtis has to avoid them.
On the roof he confronts the boy, who escapes.
The police make it to the roof and Kurtis has to work his way down the fire-escapes on the outside of the building. Avoid the helicopter search lights and police search squads.
On the ground and Kurtis gets into his truck. The Professor is waiting for him.
Professor says – “You can’t kill the demon child. You must find and return the abducted human to our world. That will weaken the demon to a point where you can kill it.”
Level 2 – Triad Fortess
Kurtis tracks down the boy to Chinatown. He is being protected in a Triad fortress.
Kurtis fights his way inside and searches the building.
The Triad soldiers defend every inch of ground.
Kurtis confronts the Triad boss. He aura scans the boss and realizes that the boy has shape changed into this fat criminal. Before Kurtis can move the Triad boss touches a Siamese cat that darts out of the window. (This is how the Anti-Christ transfers himself from host to host.)
Kurtis fights and defeats the Triad boss, but he has let the demon child escape.
Level 3 – Gothic Mansion
Two months later …
Kurtis breaks into the creepy mansion of billionaire software entrepreneur Dr Phil Yates.
The Dr is building a complex software system for the US military.
Kurtis’ paranormal investigations have led him to this place, now he goes into action, fighting and exploring his way to the nerve center of the Dr’s empire.
In the Dr’s study.
(Washing itself by the fire is the cat from Level 2.)
Meanwhile the Dr is delivering the final part of the software system. An air force Colonel takes the briefcase from the Dr and shakes his hand. The Anti-Christ transfers itself into the Colonel who leaves the mansion.
Seconds later Kurtis bursts in and scans the Dr for a paranormal aura but nothing shows up. He beats him up for the hell of it and gets the key to the computer system hidden in the Dr’s study.
From this he learns the location of the military base.
Level 4 – Military Base
Kurtis infiltrates the base.
Fights the soldiers, uses his paranormal powers to evade the security defenses.
Discovers the train carrying the nuclear missiles.
(Realizes that the Anti-Christ plans to launch the missiles, start Armageddon blah, blah.)
Confronts the Colonel. Kills him. The Anti-Christ appears in its original child like form.
It opens a gateway and demon warriors teleport in to protect it. Kurtis fights and wins, then turns to finish off the Anti-Christ.
The Anti-Christ shows Kurtis a vision of the imprisoned human child that was abducted when the demons swapped the boy for the Anti-Christ. “ If you kill me – he dies too!”
Kurtis dives through the gateway into the demon realm – now he is on a rescue mission to get the human child back.
Level 5 – Demon Realm – Desert and Dark Citadel – Level 1
Kurtis is standing in a desert. In the distance towers the Dark Citadel, a huge city rising from the arid plain.
Kurtis must make his way to the Dark Citadel, avoiding the creatures and vehicles that populate the desert.
When he has crossed the desert he has to enter the lower level of the Dark Citadel.
This level of the Citadel is the ‘engine room’, supplying power to the upper levels of the fortress.
Grinding wheels, furnaces and gantries are everywhere.
Kurtis must explore and fight his way through this industrial hell.
Level 6 – Demon Realm – Dark Citadel Level 2
This part of the Citadel is a stone fortress.
Draw bridges, battlements, dungeons. Heavily fortified and defended.
Kurtis must explore and fight his way upwards where the palace rises from the center of the fortress.
Level 7 – Dark Citadel – Level 3
The human child is held prisoner in the palace.
The palace is a gothic marble clad nightmare. The proportions are huge. Vaulted ceilings and wide concourses make Kurtis look small and vulnerable.
Kurtis must fight and explore his way to the throne room. Here the human child is held prisoner in a glass dome.
Defeat the Devil Master and release the boy.
Teleport out of the demon realm back to the military base in Level 4.
Level 8 – Final Confrontation
Kurtis returns with the human child. The presence of the boy will weaken the Anti-Christ and force it to return to its true form.
A head to head battle with the Anti-Christ takes place. Kurtis must use his shield to keep the human child alive while he fights.
Kurtis forces the Anti-Christ to reveal its true demonic form and the creature escapes death by leaping onto the moving missile train as it passes by.
Kurtis leaves the human child and follows, jumping onto the last train wagon.
Kurtis must now fight his way up the moving train to the control car and stop the Anti-Christ from launching the nuclear missiles.
With seconds to spare Kurtis manages to stop the main missile launch, but the Anti-Christ hot wires a nuke and the missile hurtles skyward.
Kurtis has to stop the nuke so he trans-mutates into an Arch Angel and launches himself into the sky.
Over Washington DC – Kurtis and the Anti-Christ fight in an air-to-air duel.
Alerted to the incoming missile strike, the army has soldiers firing Stinger missiles from the rooftops and helicopter gun ships patrolling the skies. The military has orders to shoot at both Kurtis and the demon.
Kurtis defeats the Anti-Christ and absorbs the missiles nuclear blast.
He tumbles from the sky, hitting the pavement with a thud.
His spectacular paranormal powers are now burned out. He is mortal again.
A car pulls up. The Professor offers him a ride. Kurtis gets in. The car pulls away.
Game completed.
SYNOPSIS V2
A dark night in the city.
Trash blows across the parking lot, the ground wet and flickering under the bright lights of the emergency vehicles parked behind a cordon of police cruisers.
Cautious cops approach the shattered building, double handed grip on their drawn firearms. A sign flaps in the wind – “City Hospital – Main Entrance”
Kurtis stands in the accident and emergency department. The place is a mess.
“Looks like someone started a war in here.” Walking further into the hospital’s corridors confirms Kurtis’ assessment. Something bad has gone down tonight and mixed up in it is the Professor.
Kurtis heads for the Professor’s office. The door is open, glass crunches under his feet as he enters. No one at home – but a sound from the bathroom attracts Kurtis’ attention.
The Professor is alive, sitting on the floor and nursing a damaged arm.
“I got your message – looks like I’m too late.” says Kurtis.
“No. It’s my fault – I thought I could contain it. But it’s growing all the time and …” The Professor looks at Kurtis with haunted eyes. “We have to find it – if it escapes into the city …”
“I understand.” Kurtis draws his weapon and disappears into the devastation – the demon hunter is back in business.
But what Kurtis believes is just another bug hunt quickly becomes a ride into the unknown – for this is no routine exorcism but a demonic plan to slide the world into a nuclear fueled Armageddon.
“Demon Spawn”, utters the Professor under his breath.
It is later and the Professor and Kurtis drive the dark streets hoping to pick up a trace of their escaped quarry.
Kurtis glances at the Professor.
He continues,,“The Spawn is an exact copy of the human child – not even the parents would suspect. But somehow through transference they become linked, and to kill one is to destroy the other. This creature also has the ability to steal any animals shape, but will revert back to its original form when weakened.”
Kurtis checks the mirrors. “So you’re telling me I got something that looks like a kid, got the power to chew up hospitals for kicks and can change its shape at any time – but I can’t zap it because the host kid will croak simultaneously?
The Professor stares grimly into the night, “Return the lost child to our world Kurtis – it’s our only hope of stopping whatever it is planning to do!”
The hunt will take Kurtis from the criminal underworld of the city streets to the top of corporate America before crossing the dimensions into the Dark Citadel to rescue the lost child.
And all the while the countdown to annihilation is ticking …
Level 1 – Hospital
The level starts with Kurtis in the city hospital.
He must locate the Professor who will give him information about the case.
The hospital has been ransacked. Dead bodies are everywhere.
Survivors are dangerous.
Whole walls and floors have been blown away making exploration difficult.
The Professor is in his laboratory, a bandage wraped around his forehead, arm in a sling.
He tells Kurtis that the patient he was studying is gifted with extremely dangerous paranormal powers. These powers have been unleashed, hence the wrecked hospital and dead bodies.
Kurtis continues his search while the Professor (wounded), stays put.
Using his paranormal sense he tracks the patient down in the morgue. The patient is an eleven year old boy.
The boy says nothing but makes a sign with his hand. The storage lockers slide open and the dead rise to attack Kurtis. The boy smashes up through the ceiling leaves Kurtis to fight the dead.
Kurtis escapes and following his senses he heads for the roof. The police are now searching the hospital, and Kurtis has to avoid them.
On the roof he confronts the boy, who escapes.
The police make it to the roof and Kurtis has to work his way down the fire-escapes on the outside of the building. Avoid the helicopter search lights and police search squads.
On the ground and Kurtis gets into his truck. The Professor is waiting for him.
Professor says – “You can’t kill the demon child. You must find and return the abducted human to our world. That will weaken the demon to a point where you can kill it.”
Level 2 – Triad Fortess
Kurtis tracks down the boy to Chinatown. He is being protected in a Triad fortress.
Kurtis fights his way inside and searches the building.
The Triad soldiers defend every inch of ground.
Kurtis confronts the Triad boss. He aura scans the boss and realizes that the boy has shape changed into this fat criminal. Before Kurtis can move the Triad boss touches a Siamese cat that darts out of the window. (This is how the Anti-Christ transfers himself from host to host.)
Kurtis fights and defeats the Triad boss, but he has let the demon child escape.
Level 3 – Gothic Mansion
Two months later …
Kurtis breaks into the creepy mansion of billionaire software entrepreneur Dr Phil Yates.
The Dr is building a complex software system for the US military.
Kurtis’ paranormal investigations have led him to this place, now he goes into action, fighting and exploring his way to the nerve center of the Dr’s empire.
In the Dr’s study.
(Washing itself by the fire is the cat from Level 2.)
Meanwhile the Dr is delivering the final part of the software system. An air force Colonel takes the briefcase from the Dr and shakes his hand. The Anti-Christ transfers itself into the Colonel who leaves the mansion.
Seconds later Kurtis bursts in and scans the Dr for a paranormal aura but nothing shows up. He beats him up for the hell of it and gets the key to the computer system hidden in the Dr’s study.
From this he learns the location of the military base.
Level 4 – Military Base
Kurtis infiltrates the base.
Fights the soldiers, uses his paranormal powers to evade the security defenses.
Discovers the train carrying the nuclear missiles.
(Realizes that the Anti-Christ plans to launch the missiles, start Armageddon blah, blah.)
Confronts the Colonel. Kills him. The Anti-Christ appears in its original child like form.
It opens a gateway and demon warriors teleport in to protect it. Kurtis fights and wins, then turns to finish off the Anti-Christ.
The Anti-Christ shows Kurtis a vision of the imprisoned human child that was abducted when the demons swapped the boy for the Anti-Christ. “ If you kill me – he dies too!”
Kurtis dives through the gateway into the demon realm – now he is on a rescue mission to get the human child back.
Level 5 – Demon Realm – Desert and Dark Citadel – Level 1
Kurtis is standing in a desert. In the distance towers the Dark Citadel, a huge city rising from the arid plain.
Kurtis must make his way to the Dark Citadel, avoiding the creatures and vehicles that populate the desert.
When he has crossed the desert he has to enter the lower level of the Dark Citadel.
This level of the Citadel is the ‘engine room’, supplying power to the upper levels of the fortress.
Grinding wheels, furnaces and gantries are everywhere.
Kurtis must explore and fight his way through this industrial hell.
Level 6 – Demon Realm – Dark Citadel Level 2
This part of the Citadel is a stone fortress.
Draw bridges, battlements, dungeons. Heavily fortified and defended.
Kurtis must explore and fight his way upwards where the palace rises from the center of the fortress.
Level 7 – Dark Citadel – Level 3
The human child is held prisoner in the palace.
The palace is a gothic marble clad nightmare. The proportions are huge. Vaulted ceilings and wide concourses make Kurtis look small and vulnerable.
Kurtis must fight and explore his way to the throne room. Here the human child is held prisoner in a glass dome.
Defeat the Devil Master and release the boy.
Teleport out of the demon realm back to the military base in Level 4.
Level 8 – Final Confrontation
Kurtis returns with the human child. The presence of the boy will weaken the Anti-Christ and force it to return to its true form.
A head to head battle with the Anti-Christ takes place. Kurtis must use his shield to keep the human child alive while he fights.
Kurtis forces the Anti-Christ to reveal its true demonic form and the creature escapes death by leaping onto the moving missile train as it passes by.
Kurtis leaves the human child and follows, jumping onto the last train wagon.
Kurtis must now fight his way up the moving train to the control car and stop the Anti-Christ from launching the nuclear missiles.
With seconds to spare Kurtis manages to stop the main missile launch, but the Anti-Christ hot wires a nuke and the missile hurtles skyward.
Kurtis has to stop the nuke so he trans-mutates into an Arch Angel and launches himself into the sky.
Over Washington DC – Kurtis and the Anti-Christ fight in an air-to-air duel.
Alerted to the incoming missile strike, the army has soldiers firing Stinger missiles from the rooftops and helicopter gun ships patrolling the skies. The military has orders to shoot at both Kurtis and the demon.
Kurtis defeats the Anti-Christ and absorbs the missiles nuclear blast.
He tumbles from the sky, hitting the pavement with a thud.
His spectacular paranormal powers are now burned out. He is mortal again.
A car pulls up. The Professor offers him a ride. Kurtis gets in. The car pulls away.
Game completed.
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