"Our plan for the trilogy is very much to have one out every 12 months" this comment belongs to Core co-founder Jeremy Heath-Smith. With Tomb Raider Angel of Darkness facing constant delays and a European release not yet confirmed, although June 27th on PS2 and July 7th for PC are the most likely dates, you would expect comments about future games to be more modest.
But Heath-Smith, speaking to Computer & Video Games, insisted that AOD was part of a trilogy and that progress on the other two TR titles has already been made, with the final two parts bringing Lara back to her roots. Even though the dark streets of Paris and Prague do give the game an intriguing atmosphere Heath-Smith claims We don't think we went traditional enough with this game. For the next one, we want to bring the dinosaurs back. According to Core then, even though this game marks Lara's return to old form, the next two games will put her right back into familiar surroundings.
Lara's pretty good in Paris, but in hindsight, we were scared of taking her straight back to tombs. We thought people had had enough of tombs, but the reality is, I don't think people can get enough of tombs and all that stuff. So we're gonna go pretty big on that.
So how far along its development is the AOD sequel? According to Heath-Smith, ...all the design and locations are done, lots of sketches have been done... and we have the main character! Despite all the fuss about the current Lara game, Core are determined to be on schedule with the next two titles. On their side is the fact that both of the follow-up games will utilize the same engine and basic technology as AOD.
So Core, in their own words, are not going to ...touch the technology, so we're going to play with the storyline - and our plan is to spin the next one in a year. Our plan is to have it, I'm hoping, before June next year. Worst case would be in a year, but hopefully before that.
