by Orion_NGC1976, HSM Editor Emeritus

The latest installment in the Tomb Raider franchise is a re-boot of the Lara Croft character. When Crystal Dynamics contacted Rhianna Pratchett to write the story for Tomb Raider, she thought that she would have to play the previous Tomb Raider games, as background information for the Lara Croft character, but Crystal Dynamics preferred that she only knew some of Lara Croft’s background and history.

This was a real reboot.

This was not going to be just a restyling of Lara Croft. They wanted to start anew, and they wanted a writer that could deliver a truly new Lara Croft, and Rhianna Pratchett was excited to have that chance. “The chance to get my hands on her, so to speak, gave me the chance to make a difference. I spent ages working on her back story, relationships with other characters, how she evolves. She’s a Lara that doesn’t have all the guns and the gadgets or the confidence to get herself out of any situation.”

There are games that allow the player to play as a female or male character. Usually, it does not make much difference which you choose to the narrative of the game. It seems that the differences are in the form of the romantic interactions with other characters, as in Dragon Age or Mass Effect.

Rhianna Prachett, Tomb Raider story writer and has an uncanny resemblance to the new Lara Croft.

There are still some in the industry that still feel that games with a central female character will not sell. They feel that the largely male-dominated consumer does not want to play as a female character, or at least not a realistic female character. While the gender gap of gamers is closing fast, the majority of games are still being designed for a male audience. The buxom Lara Croft, who could perform amazing feats of gymnastics and charge enemies with both guns blazing, is an example of marketing a female character to a male audience.

I can understand the difficulty in creating a realistic female playable character, as female characters seem to come under greater scrutiny, than male characters. Does Nathan Drake get the same critical eye that Lara Croft does? If you make her pretty, then you are objectifying women. If you make her ugly, then you are saying that only ugly women can scale mountainsides and shoot a gun. If you make her vulnerable, then you are making her weak and a victim that needs protecting. If you make her a kick-ass character, then it is viewed as defeminizing.

There is a study that I found that explored female dislikes in computer games. There were four things that the study sited: archaic gender role portrayals, violence, lack of social interaction, lack of non-competitive interactive tasks. In fact, the study found that one aspect that held more weight than the others was meaningful social interaction between characters. “Interestingly, the relative importance of social interaction was much higher than the relevance of gender role stereotyping and violence in the game.”

I know that I am treading on thin ground here, speaking generally of gender preferences. As we all know that both genders have preferences that span a wide spectrum, but some general gender-based preferences in games can be found in studies. I know all too well, as I don’t fit into the general norm of what male gamers prefer, and have the same criticism of today’s games that were sited in the study. I even have an aversion to speak of the new Lara Croft character, as a realistic female character and not just simply as a realistic character.

Lara’s expressive eyes.

I have found that characters, in games, whether male or female, talk and behave in a cartoonish manner. It is refreshing to see they have a protagonist, male or female, behaving and speaking in a manner fitting the story narrative.

This is a reboot of Lara Croft. She has never done any of this before. Lara is truly scared, as anyone would be, when the ship hits a storm, causing it to sink, she makes her way to an island and has her life threatened by people on the island. She is alone, cold and shivering, when she makes her first camp.

Brian Horton, the senior art director of Crystal Dynamics has said this about the reboot of Lara Croft and Tomb Raider, “After crafting the biography, our goal was to make her as believable and relatable as possible. We wanted to make a girl that felt familiar, but still has a special quality about her. Something about the way her eyes look and the expression on her face makes you want to care for her. That was our number one goal. We wanted to have empathy for Lara, and at the same time show the inner strength that made clear she was going to become a hero.”

I believe that they do accomplish this in a believable way. For the first part of the game, Lara is alone and separated from the other survivors of the ship Endurance. She needs to survive and make her way to the others. Her first weapon she acquires is a bow and arrow. In order to survive on the island, she not only has to kill animals, but she also has to kill hostile inhabitants on the island. As one would expect, this does not come easy to Lara–killing another human would not come easy to anyone. When she finally is reunited with Conrad Roth, she explains to him that she had to kill them. Twice during the game, Lara calls out that she does not want to kill them. When she kills a deer for her first meal, she apologizes.

Lara and Captain Conrad Roth

We learn about characters through journals that are found or by Lara narrating her own journal, as well a through cut-scenes. We see a friendship of sisterhood between Lara and Sam. We see fatherly figures that encourage Lara. As she progresses through the story, we see changes. At first, she is hesitant, unsure of herself and even blames herself for the shipwreck and deaths of friends and crew members. Projecting this self-doubt, a few affirm Lara’s own doubts by blaming her for their predicament and deaths.

A few of the older characters, including a seasoned ex-Royal Marine believes in Lara and see a strength in her of what she could become. They encourage Lara and about halfway through the game Lara stops second-guessing her decisions and takes on the mantle of a true leader, bringing everyone around to follow her decisions. All of the this is still new to her, she is ready to take on the new challenges, and even going into the last battles, she fears what she may face.

Overall, I am very pleased with the new Lara Croft and Tomb Raider. I am glad that they gave her a more realistic rendering. As time passes through the game, not only does her character develop in a realistic manner, but Lara’s appearance also coincides with her time on the island; Lara adds bandages, she becomes grimier and her clothes become frayed.

When I play games, I always feel as if I am the person in the game. The Tomb Raider team strove, and was very successful, to maintain a connection between how Lara was feeling and how the player was feeling. As I finished the game, I felt that I had gone through the same transformation, ready to take on the next adventure.

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