A More Human Tomb Raider
Back when she first debuted in 1996, Lara Croft was both famous and infamous for her appearance, both in and out of the games. It was very much reflective of the time — creator Toby Gard straight up admitted that the 1996 Lara was meant to counter stereotypical female characters of the time, which were mostly just damsels in distress. Her later sequels didn’t do a good job of getting her character right, though, and thus came the time to reinvent.
With both reboots came the switch to make Lara a more relatable and fallible character. The days where she could pull off death defying stunts with nary a scratch on her were gone, and for most, it was a welcome change. There’s nothing wrong with someone who’s largely invincible, but the problem is that if they don’t feel like they’re in any real danger, then why should the player? The 2013 reboot took this approach to its logical conclusion, framing Lara as a fresh eyed college student marooned on an island with nothing but her wits to guide her. She’s always in danger, either from the wild animals or the feral men on the island of Yamatai. Perhaps the best sign of her growth is about halfway during the game when an enemy is surprised that she’s still alive and she coldly replies, “Yes, I’m still alive.”
Shifting the series from straight action adventure over to survival is a subtle way of getting it across that this is a different Lara.When she’s not getting torn up through the ringer, she’s setting up camp (that also function as save points), wherein she opens up her inner thoughts on the big story events. It’s a nice way of opening her up emotionally and getting into her head space in a way different from trippy nightmare sequences or flashback segments.
