Poll: Lara Croft's character.

[Mutant1988]

I like the new Lara. I just don't think the game made her growth from vulnerable desperate survivor to a goddess of death on a path of vengeance that convincing. The character growth was just ridiculously condensed in favor of the gameplay, because the game design document called for a third person shooter and not a survival horror game.

I understand why though. It's a lot marketable as an action game. I just think it would serve the character better had it been less action packed and with more meaningful impact to the traumas she suffer. I mean, she's impaled on rebar in the first 10 or so minutes and nothing comes of that except her limping for 5-10 minutes afterwards. The level of trauma is set to ridiculous from the outset and only gets more ridiculous as the game goes along.

Doesn't help that some of the game designers had a weird outlook on her character that suggested that the audience should want to protect her rather than, you know, be her (The infamous "rape" sequence). Rather than immerse ourselves in her struggles we are just outsiders looking in and being told to be sad that bad things happen. That is, until the bad things become so ludicrously exaggerated to the point where you start laughing. There is just a massive disconnect, between the gameplay, the plot progression (Which rather obviously were built around the setpieces they made) and the character as it's written.

So yeah, good character, good game, not so great when put together. Having the first instalment of the reboot be a more survival geared game would have been preferable, with a sequel ramping up to the levels of shooty fun fun to that of the game we actually got.

That's just my 2 cents.

Oh, and the people that want old Lara? Just put some tits on Nathan Drake and there you go. There's your high functioning psychopath stealing priceless treasures and caring for nothing but himself and his friends (Who are also psychopaths).

 

[CannibalCorpses]

The old character was a strong independent women who fought dinosaurs with shitty weapons...and won.

The new character is a pathetic weakling who can't be trusted with a tomb to raid that takes more than 5 minutes.

 

[small]

i detested the old games with a passion and wouldnt touch them with a 10 foot pole even though they are sitting in my steam library but i loved the new tomb raider. a woman pushed past breaking point in an impossible situation to either fight or die, its the situation that would send most people into a psych ward

 

[wizzy555]

I can't bring myself to play the reboot as I just find the survival horror (ish) motif too unnerving.

The old one had a very odd character (generally what Ambient_Malice said) and story but I suppose it was no more odd than Kratos by the end.

 

[Leon Royce]

The focus on Lara Croft's personality is ridiculous. The originals were about player interaction with the world, an interaction still not matched by today's fancy graphics. You could climb on any ledge within reach, and the jumping was far more satisfying. Lara was something to fit on the cover of a box. Something to catch the eye. A marketing ploy.

She was also suppose to be a man. And in the originals (the two first ones being the good ones) she also barely spoke or had any lines. In the second one her last full line is delivered at the end of the Diving Area cut-scene(barely half-way through the game).

Games are not movies. Character's are avatars for the player to step into the world. The world is the focus. It's like the problem with Dark Souls, with everyone focused on the combat the world and its design are completely overlooked, despite being the series one and true strength. This is evident with the mediocre reception its sequel received.

 

[lacktheknack]

Legend/Underworld Lara > 2013 Lara >>>>>>>>>>>> other Lara

Just like how Crystal Dynamics deal with the character a lot better than how Eidos did, and I'm not really sure why. That said, Pratchett's Lara is a fine character, and may even be a better character in every way than the older Lara. I just slightly prefer the older CrysDyn Lara.

 

[Whispering Cynic]

The old character was a strong independent women who fought dinosaurs with shitty weapons...and won.

The new character is a pathetic weakling who can't be trusted with a tomb to raid that takes more than 5 minutes.

Heheh, pretty much this. The TR reboot wasn't a bad game, but I'm not a fan of what they've done with Lara's personality.

 

[McElroy]

The only TR game I've played is the reboot which I played last November right after playing through Uncharted 2 and oh boy the comparisons. I guess the character is just fine, but numerous design choices made the game much less engaging than Uncharted. One of the biggest reasons is that Lara gets visibly hit by all the bullets and arrows and other crap and then magically recovers while Drake is supposed to be lucky enough to "dodge" them (until that luck runs out).

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

New Lara is better because you see her progress from both victim to hero and surviving what ever comes her way. Though i also know that this is the origin story and she will become the confident and skillful character in the original series. I just hope they keep some of the vulnerable aspect of her a bit longer.

Really only thing the game lacked was the massive puzzle sections and the "WOW" moments were a cave platform section opens up into an underground temple.

 

[circularlogic88]

Iunno, I always saw old Lara as an Indiana Jones meets James Bond type of character. Not exactly the deepest of characters, but for the most part, consistent at least.

I found new Lara's character to be incosistent between gameplay and cutscenes. I get what they were going for, they had clearly been marathoning Battle Royale and Hunger Games to get a sense of what the action and tone should be for their stay on the island. Doesn't make it good. Lara does have more character, but it conflicts with what I as the player am doing. Not only that, but the entire rest of the crew suffers from any real sort of characterization or why I should care about them. The only time I was able to empathize with Lara was when she was in deep, severe pain, and honestly, that was more or less due to me not liking seeing people suffer in physical pain the was she did.

And for all of these comments talking about how great Rhianna Pratchett is with her writing, what about her writing was so special? For being touted as the person who made a more believable, realistic Lara, she still resorts to damsel in distress with Sam. There was at least two times I could recall Sam could have done something proactive to help herself out of being captured. All of the characters are stock and there for the sole purpose of boosting Lara's fragile ego.

If the next game has some sort of consistency between her actions and her character, then maybe I'll warm up to this new Lara. As it is right now, she's more annoying to me than anything else.

 

[Casual Shinji]

And for all of these comments talking about how great Rhianna Pratchett is with her writing, what about her writing was so special? For being touted as the person who made a more believable, realistic Lara, she still resorts to damsel in distress with Sam. There was at least two times I could recall Sam could have done something proactive to help herself out of being captured. All of the characters are stock and there for the sole purpose of boosting Lara's fragile ego.

Also the fact that you have a cult that's been trapped on this island for years, yet was never able to discover they could just destroy Queen Himiko's body so they could escape. But Lara comes to this conclusion within a few days.

 

[circularlogic88]

And for all of these comments talking about how great Rhianna Pratchett is with her writing, what about her writing was so special? For being touted as the person who made a more believable, realistic Lara, she still resorts to damsel in distress with Sam. There was at least two times I could recall Sam could have done something proactive to help herself out of being captured. All of the characters are stock and there for the sole purpose of boosting Lara's fragile ego.

Also the fact that you have a cult that's been trapped on this island for years, yet was never able to discover they could just destroy Queen Himiko's body so they could escape. But Lara comes to this conclusion within a few days.

It's just mediocre writing, though that's pretty much par for the course with video game writing.

 

[Ambient_Malice]

I do think it's a bit odd how TR2013 is called "the reboot" when it's actually the second reboot. The way some people talk you think that there'd never been a reboot Tomb Raider game depicting Lara Croft's origins before. I mean, sure, Legend/Underworld only sold 2 million copies each or so. But the way the series is percieved is odd.

Imagine if you had James Bond discussions where people pretended Bond had jumped straight from goofy Roger Moore to Daniel Craig.

 

[EXos]

I've only seen what they did with her in one game.
On one hand they put her down as a girl that doesn't back down from a fight. Though they use her as a rag doll during the game.

So I'm curious what they are going to do in the next one. The clip with the shrink has potential but its going awfully close to cliché country.
We'll see after the next game.

 

[Maximum Bert]

Only played TR1,2 Legend, Underworld and the new one and only finished the new one. Did not like the old Lara Croft at all if she was just in her game and that was it I would have forgot all about her but she was forced down our throats for so long I just despised her more and more although to be fair I did not despise her as much in Legend and Underworld.

In the reboot I was surprised I actually liked her not sure why but for me personally she was much more tolerable and fun to play as im still not overly keen on her but cant say I have a problem with her anymore as such.

 

[Savagezion]

Lara whines too much in the new one and doesn't seem socially witty like the old one was. The original Lara was charming because she acted like death defying stunts were a cake walk, didn't discourage easily, mocked those who thought she was crazy, would toy with an enemy's ego, etc. New Lara is like "Oh my god!" as a response to EVERYTHING. She has moments of resourcefulness but honestly we get no more character development than we ever got with the original games. It's not like the next game they have to make her a bad ass because thats what she became in the reboot. If she is suddenly a bad ass in the next game they are gonna have to explain why and how that is a result of the first game. We are still going to need a sequence of events or decisions that lead her to the path of bad ass. Really what we have to choose between right now is "Do you prefer strong and confident Lara or scared and worried Lara?"

 

[Doom972]

I like the old Lara better. I've always seen the Tomb Raider franchise as something more video-gamey than realistic and gritty (More like Mario, less like Spec Ops: The line), so the new realistic take on Tomb Raider was very alien to me. I liked the game, but I think that they could've named it Uncharted: Hunger Games edition, and it would've made more sense.

Maybe the upcoming sequel will get it right.

 

[someonehairy-ish]

I liked reboot lara. I guess I'm getting old, I'm starting to prefer characters that feel human over ones that are impossible badasses.

Doesn't help that some of the game designers had a weird outlook on her character that suggested that the audience should want to protect her rather than, you know, be her (The infamous "rape" sequence). Rather than immerse ourselves in her struggles we are just outsiders looking in and being told to be sad that bad things happen. That is, until the bad things become so ludicrously exaggerated to the point where you start laughing. There is just a massive disconnect, between the gameplay, the plot progression (Which rather obviously were built around the setpieces they made) and the character as it's written.

Eh, to be fair, there's nothing actually wrong with wanting to make a game protagonist an actual character in their own right rather than a self-insert for the player. The way they handled it was a bit hamfisted though, I do agree.

 

[Foehunter82]

The old Lara was a standard-issue 90s action movie stereotype that just happened to be female. The few older Tomb Raider games I have played didn't reveal her to be any special or interesting. They were dungeon-crawl games with guns and a thin plot to string together action scenes and puzzles. In other words, a game Michael Bay would make because it appeals to *gasp* a broad audience. I say this as one of the teenage boys that was actually into Tomb Raider BITD.

I've considered this for a bit, and I've come to realize that Tomb Raider is something to look back on nostalgically, but not to be copied ad nauseum. The current reboot line that's out is actually better storywise, I believe. The well-mannered psychopath is a throwback to the 90s. I prefer to see growth in a character (you know, ACTUAL story), rather than this boring, flat repetition of actions that the original games actually are.

The story WAS imperfect, of course, but game developers don't exactly write Shakespeare...yet.

 

[SlumlordThanatos]

I'm not sure what's in store for Lara in the next installment, but personally, I'm hoping they move more towards showing the mental strain that the island had on Lara. She's not bad the way she is now, but she either needs to stop killing people altogether or embrace the side of her that demonstrated that killing people is something she's very, very good at.

I've not seen any examples of character flaws in TR 2013, besides being slightly impulsive. They need to introduce some.