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Evolving the Alchemical Underworld on PlayStation Two 8:18 Miles: When you think about the actual gameplay mechanics Core was cooking up for the future, you have to look at what they were trying to do with the "stealth" system. It wasn't just about hiding; it was about "flattening herself against walls" and "army-crawling." This was 2003—stealth was becoming huge, and they wanted Lara to be a predator, not just a target.
8:39 Lena: Right, and they were adding things like hand-to-hand combat. Lara could actually punch and kick for the first time. In the older games, if you ran out of ammo, you were basically just a sitting duck. But in *Angel of Darkness*, she had these new stealth attacks where she could sneak up on enemies. If that had evolved, we might have seen a "skill tree" or more intricate melee systems.
8:59 Miles: And the weapons! They introduced the K2 Impactor stun gun and upgraded versions of the classic shotgun. But the most interesting part was how those weapons interacted with the environment. They wanted the puzzles to be more "complicated," moving away from the "find a key, open a door" style of the nineties.
9:17 Lena: The "Hall of Seasons" in the game is a great example of that original Core Design DNA. You have these four sub-levels—Fire, Water, Earth, and Air—each with its own traps and atmospheric challenges. It felt like a classic *Tomb Raider* tomb, but with the added layer of the new engine’s lighting and physics.
3:24 Miles: Exactly. They used something called "bump mapping" on the PC version to give textures more depth—something the original PlayStation could never have handled. If the trilogy had progressed, the environments would have only gotten more interactive. Imagine a tomb where the lighting isn't just for mood, but is a core part of the puzzle—like using mirrors to reflect sunlight into dark corners, but with real-time shadow effects.
9:57 Lena: And we can't ignore the "RPG elements." The dialogue trees were supposed to be much more impactful. Early in the game, your answers were meant to "directly affect her progress through the story." That was so ahead of its time for an action-adventure game. In a hypothetical sequel, maybe your relationship with Louis Bouchard or the investigative journalist Thomas Luddick would determine which levels you could access or which gear you’d get.
10:20 Miles: Luddick is such a tragic character, too. He helps Lara infiltrate the Strahov, only to be murdered by Eckhardt. If the story had continued under Core, I bet we would have seen more of those "disposable" allies—people who are caught in the crossfire of Lara’s world. It adds this layer of guilt and responsibility to her character that we hadn't really seen before.
10:40 Lena: It makes the "Tomb Raider" title feel more like a burden than a hobby. And that’s where the "The Prophecy" and "The Lost Dominion" would have really shined. They were supposed to be chapters in a book, with *Angel of Darkness* being just the first one. They’d already written a back-story that spanned multiple chapters.
10:55 Miles: It really feels like they were trying to build a "Lara Croft Cinematic Universe" before that was even a thing. They had Attitude Studio doing the CGI cutscenes, and they were treating the script like a movie. Jonell Elliott, who voiced Lara, even said the script felt much more like a film compared to the earlier games.
11:13 Lena: That cinematic ambition would have likely led to even more seamless transitions between gameplay and cutscenes—something they were already experimenting with in *The Last Revelation*. They were inspired by the cinematic style of *Final Fantasy VII* and *Metal Gear Solid*. By 2005 or 2006, if Core had stayed on, we might have seen a *Tomb Raider* that looked and played like a modern AAA blockbuster, but with that specific British grit that Core was known for.