E3: Eidos’ Tomb Raider: Underworld, Monster Lab and Battlestations Pacific Previewed


Immediately before showing us the latest entry to Lara Croft’s
exploits, Eidos treated us to a substantial lunch. We were ushered into a darkened,
air-condition room and within a few minutes we were quickly asleep.  This is not entirely the fault of the developers,
merely the context in which this game was presented.  A majority of Tomb Raider’s gameplay is thoughtful,
relatively quiet exploration punctuated by brief moment of gunplay; and Underworld
does not buck this trend.

Tomb Raider: Underworld opens with the famous archeologist in an completely open
and unlikely environment- The Mediterranean Sea. Outfitted with scuba gear, Ms.
Croft begins her descent to the underwater caverns below, dispatching a single
enemy shark with her blow gun. Once inside, the game’s first conundrum is
presented to the player- Lara has to find two cranks to open an undersea
passage.

Our guides from Eidos, showed Lara’s ability to carry
object- apparently, you’ll be doing this a lot while traversing the game’s
levels. Ms. Croft now has independent control of her limbs. While carrying an
item or handing from a ledge she can open fire with her trusty sidearm. Since a
majority of the game will take place in and around water, the player now has
the ability to ‘ping’ areas to create a 3D map. Graphically, this Tomb Raider
feels more realistic and less cartoonish then previous installments.

 
Next, we tried the wonderful and very Pokémon-ish Monster
La
b for the Nintendo Wii. The title is an adventure game with turn-based
combat. Players build characters out of parts from three realms: biological, mechanical
and alchemical. What makes Monster Lab very intriguing is the overall
complexity of the title. Monsters can be made out of hundreds of weapons each
created by individual, smaller parts. Minigames enhance the weapon creation
system, and give the game the perfect amount of action, so as the game doesn’t
become overly cerebral.

Combat consists of targeting enemy monsters, strategically dismantling
them until the final coup de grace. In our first encounter, our monster knocked
the head off of enemy, who kept fighting diligently. Further attacks where
dodged by the enemy, and our battery charge was soon depleted. While spending a
turn recharging, the enemy monster knocked off an arm, and left us stand
precariously close to death. Luckily, our last blow to the torso dispatched the
beast, and victory was ours.

Monster Lab uses deep hues, with delicate lighting to create
its environments. If the idea of Tim Burton reinventing Pokémon is appealing to
you, keep an eye peeled for Monster Lab this October.

 
Lastly, we tried Battlestations Pacific, a sequel to last
year’s Battlestations Midway, which followed the fighting from Pearl Harbor to
Midway. BP is a curious combination of real-time strategy game and flight
simulation; with the Wii’s Battalion Wars 2 being the only game remotely
similar.

Players first deploy their squadrons on an overhead map. Instead
of watching units battle strategically from this perspective, as most RTS’ do,
players can then take control in a first person aerial view. Graphically, the game has a much greater graphical
fidelity that the first game, and has some amazing water and explosion effects.

Flying felt significant easier that in Midway; we were able
to complete a number of objectives, thanks to the game’s simplified control
system. While the game has some time to refine and polish it’s gameplay, before its Spring 2009
release, we are hopeful Battlestation Pacific be significantly better than it’s mediocre
predecessor. BP will be available for 360 and PC gamers.

About Robert Allen

Since being a toddler, Robert Allen has been immersed in video games, anime, and tokusatsu. Currently, his days are spent teaching at two southern California colleges. But his evenings and weekends are filled with STGs, RPGs, and action titles and well at writing for Tech-Gaming since 2007.

35 comments

  1. No more Tomb Raider, Please!

  2. Monster Lab sounds linda cool.

  3. Ew, Battlestations Midway was a turd. I don’t know how much they can fix the gameplay.

  4. Tomb Raider Legend wasnt that bad, but nothing to really warrant a sequel if they follow the same formula.

  5. Monster Lab could entice me.

  6. I hope they finally get a new engine for Tomb Raider. The old one based on the PS2 code is embarrassing.

  7. backwards_compatible

    Monster Lab would be fun with online play…can’t remember if I remember seeing if it would be online or not.

  8. Battlestations Pacific reminds me of SecretWeapons over Normandy. Seems more of a rental instead of a buy

  9. Hrm, I’m surprised Lara Croft is still a Ms…. 🙂 Tomb Raider looks playable, at least.

  10. Secret Weapons! Man, I loved that game!

  11. Yes, there will be online matches (with friends codes, of course)

  12. What happened to Just Cause 2?

  13. Monster Lab sounds great.

  14. I’m still in love with Lara.

  15. This article was just begging to be commented on, like the whore it is. I’m not going to comment on it again. Because I’m just that bad of a guy.

  16. Monsters Lab has potential, but after watching a gameplay video.. meh, it might struggle /just/ to be a hidden gem.

  17. It’s hard to give any good opinions on things thus far, but I will be keeping an eye on the Tomb Raider title. It seems to offer what all Tomb Raiders want to offer, but if that’s all it is, I can’t say I’m too interested. Looks pretty, though.

  18. the tomb raider game seems like it could be pretty good. I havent touched the series since #3 i believe.

  19. Tomb Raider should be interesting 🙂

  20. Monster Lab could be worth a purchase when it hits $20.

  21. I have a hard time getting excited for another Tomb Raider game. It just seems like it has been overdone at this point.

  22. Battlestations will have to be improved greatly.

  23. How big were Lara’s boobs?

  24. Exactly, the game sounds good. But not $50 good.

  25. Another Tomb Raider Game?

  26. Maybe they need to tinker with the game mechanics of Tomb Raider. Lara is a good character but I think she needs to be in a better game.

  27. What’s with all the TR hate? There really hasn’t been a bad game since the three (On PS1)

  28. It’s good to see Tomb Raider seemingly continue its upwards swing in quality.

  29. Looks like a few companies are bouncing back after a bad (quality) year in 2007.

  30. Mixing RTS with action is always tricky. Lets hope they do it right!

  31. Monster Lab reminds me of this monster maker game I used to have as a kid. Good times.

  32. On the C64? I had one like it, too!

  33. awesome looking forward to the game 🙂

  34. Tomb Raider here I come.

  35. The new Tomb Raider gives me some sort of tingly sensation that I’ve never felt before.