Poll: Lara Croft's character.

[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.

 

[Teepop]

My favourite parts of TR2013 were when Lara went a bit cold blooded psycho. I think halfway through some guy is on the floor trapped or injured and she (I) execute him and she says "go to hell" or something like that. Later she shouts that she is going to kill the lot of them or words to that effect.

Fantastic!

But....then she meets up with her friends again and seems to revert back far too easily/freely to being the old Lara. Seemed inconsistent to me. When challenged by Reyes why didn't she grab her by the throat or put a gun to her temple (and immediately show remorse for doing so) instead of just calmly debating.

I hope the sequel portrays her as someone whose friends are a bit scared of her new darker side that came out in response to the traumatic events on the island. Someone who feels uncomfortable because they fear they may enjoy killing and are worried that little separates them from those they are fighting against.

 

[halisme]

To me she didn't seem to have much of a character, in either new or old games.

 

[Batou667]

I'm chiming in as somebody who has managed to pretty successfully avoid playing a Tomb Raider game for 18 years and counting, so have your pinches of salt at the ready.

I like the idea of Lara being a public-school misfit who is in her element scrambling through ruins and killing wildlife, but completely lacks in people-skills - but I'm not sure how well this was actually portrayed in older games. It's very easy to claim a character has "attitude" or say the designers envisioned her being the strong, silent type... but, come on, back in 1997 she was a mute, pyramid-busted bunch of polygons with a poorly painted-on face. It was hardly friggin' Shakespeare.

I can well imagine that Pratchett did characterisation much better, although that's probably more a product of the technical capabilities, rather than the direction she took her. Even then, I gather the Tomb Raider reboot suffered tonal inconsistency problems - Lara is simultaneously a victim and a mass killer. I think it's more accurate to say that whatever game Lara appears in, she plays second fiddle to the set pieces.

 

[Jarmam]

I picked up the 2013-TR game during the recent Steamsale (I've never played a TR-game for more than an hour), but this thread has sparked my interest for the rest of the series. I'll check out the Legend-games. The idea that Lara Croft steals shit and kills people because she's not a particularly nice person makes sense.