Tomb Raider (2013)

Well, the new Tomb Raider just came out, and it seems like everyone loves it. This inspired me to go back and finally check out the last Tomb Raider - the reboot from 2013. I played it for four hours on Thursday and seven more on Friday to finish it off relatively quickly. So yeah - I liked it! The series has come a long way from where it was the last time I played it in 1999, and for better or worse this kind of felt like an entirely different game with an entirely different protagonist.

We'll touch on gameplay first. The new Tomb Raider borrows liberally and shamelessly from the Uncharted series. We've got cinematic cut scenes now, we've got cover-based gunfight mechanics, we've got a gorgeous open world, and we've got buttloads of quick time events. The game isn't exactly a clone; there's more emphasis on raiding and looting in Tomb Raider than there is in Uncharted, for instance (thought not much more) and while Uncharted has always been strictly level-based, Tomb Raider takes place on a big open island where you're encouraged to backtrack and revisit places and discover secrets, not unlike in a Metroid game. I don't think there's anything wrong with this! When I first experienced Uncharted, I quickly noticed that its DNA was crawling with Tomb Raider genes, along with virtually every other person familiar with both franchises. Video games have come a long way since the 1990s, and Uncharted was a pretty big part of that evolution; that a 2013 Tomb Raider game would play more like a 2011 Uncharted game than like a 1996 Tomb Raider game isn't really that surprising, I guess.

But it's not just the gameplay that's different. The Lara Croft in this reboot is such a far cry from the traditional Lara Croft. That Lara Croft was such a unique character not just in gaming but in pop culture. A high-class posh British woman with a sprawling estate and an insatiable desire to explore ancient ruins. She was brash, cocky, and loaded with swagger. Her cannon-chested, pencil-waisted attributes were cartoonish and absurd; her true sex appeal came from her confidence and "don't give a fuck" attitude. Do you guys remember the training tutorials in the early Tomb Raider games? They encouraged you to use Lara's feeble old butler for target practice! Truly, this rich-as-fuck Jessica-Rabbit-bodied devastatingly lethal British duchess did not give a fuck! She was basically a lady Batman, but instead of helping other people she spent her time trying to acquire more treasures. This is a woman who, pretty early on in the first game, just shoots down a motherfucking T-Rex! Just the ultimate badass.

The Lara Croft of 2013's Tomb Raider is, by contrast, a sheltered 21-year-old girl with a heart of gold. She's a college student who survives a shipwreck during an archaeological expedition and breaks down in tears the first time she's forced to kill a man. She's exceptionally loyal, unwilling to leave any member of her expedition behind, and motivated by survival rather than by the allure of the ancient ruins all around her. Moreover, she's tough and gutsy, but clearly somewhat fragile - just like a real human being would be. She grunts and winces and keels over constantly. She even pants and breathes heavy. It's funny, in a way - gone entirely are her cartoonish proportions, but they've been replaced by a very different form of hyper-sexualization, what with the cries and the whimpers and a sadistic amount of pain endured in general.

Granted, the drastic change in personality makes sense. The new Tomb Raider game serves as an origin story of sorts, and it does a great job walking Lara through the journey from "victim just trying to survive" to "conscientious gun-toting heroine." There are a few great moments in the game that almost delineate the progress in that journey, from a bloodied and battered Lara catching a glimpse of herself in the mirror to her newfound propensity for gun violence. It's certainly possible that "this" Lara ultimately becomes "that" Lara over the course of a few games. I kind of doubt it, since this Lara is a sympathetic character who's much easier to build a compelling story around, but it could happen. It's more likely that the series has truly been rebooted, and that new Lara is simply a softer, gentler, better person than old Lara. And hey - I like new Lara! I feel terrible for her. I kind of just want to give her a hug and tell her everything will be okay. But old Lara - imagine what she'd do if I tired to give her a hug? Holy shit, I'd be dead.

Here are some images for comparison, to really drive the point home:

It's in the eyes! It's all right there in the eyes.

At any rate, Tomb Raider was a lot of fun and I'd have to call it a very successful reboot. It even ended with a quick time event that brought back an element of the original Tomb Raider I'd been waiting for all game. I definitely want to play its brand new sequel, but I can't imagine I'll do so any time soon.