Summary
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Tomb Raider 4-6 remastered praises core design with a grave on Chronicles main menu.
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Core Design created Tomb Raider in 1996 and, after his huge success, released five sequels in just seven years.
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However, it closed its doors 20 years later in the middle of the poor reception to Angel of Darkness.
Tomb Raider 4-6 Remastered brings the last three core design games to modern hardware, and to pay tribute to the developer who started everything in 1996, Aspyr hid a small Easter egg on the new Chronicles main menu.
As pointed out by U/MSPurbo on the series' subreddit, you can see a grave in the background marked “Core Design 1998 – 2006”, just behind Lara Croft's parents. Wait long enough, and the main menu even will cut to close -up.
Why did the core design close?
Core Design, the Derby-based studio founded by several previous Gremlin Grephics Devs, started working at Tomb Raider in 1994. When it was released two years later it was a huge hit both critically and commercially and sold over seven million copies. This ambitious, Globe-Traving Affair inspired by Indiana Jones, where a British heroine rejects dinosaurs and even Atlantic monsters, helped to put core design and Publisher Eidos interactive on the map.
Surprisingly, five sequels were released in just seven years. But this ambition, combined with the advent of the next generation of consoles, turned out too much for a studio to carry. And then the core design was divided into two. A team, consisting of serial veterans, worked at Chronicles, while a more fresh team led the accusation on Angel of Darkness.
Selection of the beginning of a new trilogy for a new generation, Angel of Darkness was an incredibly ambitious game. It had more open areas, RPG style dialogue and even metal equipment solid-inspired stealth. But with a narrow deadline, several delays, crunch, “no leadership” (according to the original developer Gavin Rummery), and an ultimatum that is clear at the lead – release this before 2003 “or everyone becomes screwed” – the first step on PS2 would also be The last one.
Angel of Darkness killed core design, but not immediately. CEO and co-founder Jeremy Heath-Smith left to form Circle Studio after Eidos handed over control of Tomb Raider to another of its studios, Crystal Dynamics. Most of the core design followed Heath-Smith, who left the team “flounded around with a handful of people trying to get a project from the ground”. The few who remained struck a new recording of the first Tomb Raider for PSP, but unfortunately it led nowhere.
Just a year later, in 2006, the rebellion was removed core design for parts and left its IP – namely Tomb Raider – with Eidos. Until today, Crystal Dynamics is still responsible for the series.
Tomb raider 4-6 remastered
