Tomb Raider 2013: Bringing Lara Croft Back To Life
Throughout the years Lara Croft has established herself as an icon, not only in the gaming world but as well as the big screen. Beloved by many for her beauty, strong determination and the will to survive, Lara herself is a self-made weapon.
The 2013 installment of Tomb Raider was an attempt to reboot the franchise and it was indeed a successful reboot, selling over 8.5 million copies around the world, more than any other game in the history of the franchise. The game shows the origin story of Lara Croft, the story of how our favorite Tomb Raider was born.
The story follows Lara, a young inexperienced archaeologist sets sail on the ship, Endurance, in hopes to find the lost kingdom of Yamatai. Against Whitman’s will (Lara’s mentor), Lara convinces the crew to head for the Dragon’s Triangle. The ship later gets trapped and hit by a HUGE storm, a storm that managed to tear the ship apart.
The young archaeologist finds herself fighting for survival when she gets stranded on a remote island in the middle of the Pacific ocean. Separated from her colleagues, Lara is pushed to her every limit to survive. Through loss and sacrifice, we see a survivor shaped in front of our very eyes. While stranded Lara quickly learns that they are not alone and that the island is run by a madman called Mathias. Someone who has been stranded on the island for many years. A cold-hearted leader of a cult, a leader who believes that Lara’s friend, Sam, is the key and that by sacrificing her many would be saved and that they would be able to leave the island. With her friends kidnapped and imprisoned, Lara has to save the people she cares about and will stop at nothing to ensure Mathias doesn’t win. However, her journey is also met with so much loss and sadness as she has to see both Roth (her beloved father figure) and Alex (a close friend, who was in love with her) sacrifice their lives to give Lara the chance to survive.
Much of the game has Lara fight her way through organised groups of armed enemies. As we take control we are still allowed to explore our surroundings to find artifacts and solve puzzles, like in the core game mechanics of the original series. Personally, I would love to see more sections of the game that allows the player to solve tricky puzzles or fight mythical monsters. Basically, I want to see the game take Lara’s survival to the next level.
Looking back at some of the previous Tomb Raider games many still remember Lara as the sexy, witty, dual pistol wielding beauty. The kind of lady that’s a fast thinker, always gets the last word in and takes whatever she sets her sights on. Putting her training to the test as she has to work her way through many obstacles, enemies, and puzzles. All with grace and style us mere mortals could never hope to achieve!
We see this game take on a very different approach to what fans of the original franchise would be used to. The developers and writers of this game take a much grittier and hands-on approach, allowing the player to plan out strategies of how to take down entire towns of enemies.
This new and fresh approach really works well for Lara’s origin story. At the beginning of her adventure we see Lara being treated as a child, her companions doubting her success and we even see her questioning herself on her own decisions. Something that we would never have seen from the older iterations of Lara in Tomb Raider games. As the game plays out we watch Lara progress and build up the courage and confidence to keep pushing through her struggles. The game brings an element of personal growth to Lara and the viewer gets to be an active part of her challenges and struggles. This development and growth really helps us feel empathy for this young girl who is risking everything to bring her and her friends home safely.
After finally completing the roughly 15 hour long game I had to take a moment to process the end of Tomb Raider’s story, and how the developers took me on a bumpy rollercoaster of a ride with my emotions. Lara was definitely one of my female heroes growing up and seeing her reach such great potential and seeing such depth in her personality within this game made me feel proud. Proud to have taken the journey with her, and it’s a journey I hope that continues with future games in the series.
Lara to me has always been a strong female character whose attitude and heroics have really stood out to me amongst other female characters as I grew up. In Tomb Raider 2013 we see Lara grow up right before our very eyes, mentally and emotionally. The origin story allows us to see how the survivor was born.
With the success of the reboot breathing new life into the franchise, fans have been buzzing with excitement for the future movement of the games. I can’t wait to see where the game developers will be taking us next and what wonders they will be showing us! I’m also very excited to see new fans come to fall in love with Lara and her adventures too!!
Lots of Love
Love what I do?
Support me and help me buy new games to review!!
