Lara Croft and the demise of the Tomb Raider

Once upon a time, there was a character. An icon who changed the landscape of video gaming forever. She earned a legion of fans with her charm, determination and a bit of sexuality.

And she's dead. And it's a real shame.

Lara Croft was first introduced to the gaming world in 1995 via 'Tomb Raider'. Core Design's 3D platformer, aping Prince of Persia and Indiana Jones to various degrees, revolutionised gaming and had a massive impact on Pop Culture at the time.

While female leads in games were not uncommon, it was a little rare for one to be so overtly female. Lara didn't hide her femininity inside a spacesuit or ill-fitting police uniform. Her creators had her ride the sex-positive 'girl power' wave and gave us a protagonist which was comfortable in her own skin, while showing off smarts, physical prowess and dry wit.

Needless to say, Lara was much more than a pretty face.

But Tomb Raider fell on hard times. An unrelenting publisher desperate for their annual return, burnt-out developmental staff lacking inspiration and general modernisation of gaming graphics and controls left Lara's games feeling a little flat and dated.

In an attempt to revitalise the series, the developers have 'borrowed' from the trailblazers of the here and now while overseeing a drastic shift in the character of Lara herself. But in my opinion, Lara has lost that certain spark she used to have. And without that compelling character, the series is rendered generic at best. At worst, it's dead in the water.

To paint a picture:

Lara Croft was born a blue-blood. Her family demanded that she live a certain way; marry into a family of a certain pedigree, and not upset the established order of things. To do so would be unbecoming of a Lady and a Croft, after all!

She realised her passion for adventure as the sole survivor of a plane crash when she was 21. This near-death experience inspired her to give up on easy, safe life and follow her dreams.

This lead to being disowned by her parents. Lara turned to writing about her exploits to finance her trips. Tellingly, Lara never refers to her parents in-game.

Most people recognise the familial pressure to settle down, have children, get a safe job.. Lara's situation was relatable even if you didn't share her heritage. Her willingness to forge her own path was aspirational. Her passion for her choice of career was palpable.

Here was a woman nearing 30 years old. She's at the height of her powers, doing what she loved, damn whatever anyone else thought of her.

And then the series fell on hard times. The dev team had left the series on a cliff-hanger, seemingly killing Lara off at the end of the fourth game. After an annual cash-in demanded by the publisher, their next project emerged.

A buggy mess of a game, Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness (2003) was met with generally negative reviews. The publisher's solution, unsurprisingly, was to move the property to a new studio and demand a reboot.

After a 'soft reboot' and period of stable mediocrity lasting three games, the developer felt it was time for the series to undergo a real change, which brings us more-or-less to the present day.

I see frequent critiques of 'classic' Lara where detractors will refer to her as 'just a pair of boobs'. New Lara is held up as relatable. More realistic. A more respectful idea of femininity. But beyond her girl-next-door looks, is that actually true?

Rather than a dreamer who wanted to change her life and break out of the mould, Lara is hamstrung by ideas of family legacy, her place in the world, and the approval of strangers.

Rather than forging her own path, Lara now follows in her academic father's footsteps. He wasn't taken seriously by the intellectual community at large and she is striving to prove his theories right. She wants to restore her family's honour. She wants to uncover the truth of his apparent suicide.

As you'd expect, this doesn't leave a lot of room for joy or passion. Rather than adventures, she endures trials. Ordeals. If it weren't for the fact that she was doing all this for her Father's legacy, I expect that she'd give up and live the cushy, privileged life laid out for her.

And does Lara feel any more real for this added angst? No, not at all. Indeed, this 'complexity' just leaves room for bad writing when the narrative is not developed properly. For instance: deeply affected by killing her first human in a life-or-death situation one moment, she mows down an army while hurling insults the next.

She's also a little dim. I lost count of the amount of times during 2013's 'Tomb Raider' where I was rolling my eyes or outright yelling at my TV while Lara completely missed an obvious plot development or twist.

To paraphrase a reviewer of TR 2013 (I cannot remember the author to name-check): if your audience and protagonist have the same information and the audience can guess the plot but the protagonist is too stupid to do the same, you've failed at writing.

It pains me that Rise of The Tomb Raider recently won an award for outstanding achievement in character when what we're experiencing is the most banal kind of Hollywood writing. Forget that this kind of story is pretty common in film, it's not even revolutionary for Lara herself.

As alluded to earlier, Lara has been rebooted twice. Three times if you count the films starring Angelina Jolie. In all three cases, she has been following in her family's footsteps, searching for the truth of either her mother or father's disappearance.

So where do we go from here? I imagine that this new Lara is here to stay as unfortunately, we have a film following the events of the 2013 reboot incoming.

Will this finally be THE successful video game movie we're hoped for? Doubtful, given the track record of such films plus the source material they've chosen for the story.

I would love for the Lara I remember to come crawling out from under the inevitable wreckage but alas, I feel that this is a series that has seen its best come and go.