Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis' lead developers say that the moments that elicit the strongest emotional response in the original were non-negotiable to tamper with in the remake.
With Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis, the developers are going down the Resident Evil and Final Fantasy 7 school of remaking a game. Rather than a near-1:1 remake like Metal Gear Solid Delta or The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, Legacy of Atlantis uses the setting and story of the 1996 classic and builds something unique from it. While this has garnered some criticism for adding modern AAA mechanics like crafting and skill trees, the developers believe they have gotten the important parts right.
"Imagine you just finished the first Tomb Raider, then you close your eyes and you imagine a playthrough in your head," Michał Kuk, creative director at Flying Wild Hog, tells Edge. "Your brain remembers the things that generated the most emotions for you." He explains, "These moments, locations, vistas, objects that stick in your memory, these are the things that have to be in the [remake] almost untouched."
As for what can be messed with, Jeff Adams, experience director at Crystal Dynamics, explains, "As we bring the level of realism up, there are some things from the original we struggle to justify."
He specifically points to "finding a med pack in a tomb that's been concealed for 10,000 years," as one of these points that don't really make sense in this game where you shoot dinosaurs with guns.
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