Tom Chick - "Tomb Raider was personal because it was personal. But now it’s come full circle to yet another vapid videogame character muddling through bad writing, rote familiar gameplay, and fewer features than the last time. Wake me when the next reboot is here."
The Survivor Trilogy was a drastic reimagining of Lara Croft and Tomb Raider, and it provokes changes for the character that are truly fantastic.
Deserves less IMO, i think the 1st in the new trilogy was a perfect 1st step for the new direction. The next 2 games were half steps at best. Not only that, every character in the series including Lara is just annoying and doesn't make sense in terms of motive, like yes they have a motive, but none of it seems proportional to the lengths they are willing to go through for it. The most annoying thing is every one of the games say "become the Tomb Raider" yet 3 games later and we're still not there? No thanks. Then there's the mess of the 3rd game, massive skill tree that serves almost no purpose as there's literally only like 3-4 short encounters in the whole game, and they took till the 3rd game to finally manage some decent puzzles even remotely close to previous games in the series. Nah, the trilogy infuriated me to no end as a long time fan of the series, i hope we get better going forward cause that crap sucked.
The first in the trilogy was my favorite. I thought they were going into the right direction with that one until the second one came out and seemed like a graphical downgrade but the gameplay was okay. As for the Third, Graphics were really nice but it was kinda boring me to death with its non-stop platforming and exploring with not enough action! Well, for me anyway...
Graphics on the 3rd one were abysmal. It’s more colorful and has more variety, but everything else was a noticeable downgrade.
The more open world with NPC quests was also handled very poorly, to the point I missed Angel of Darkness.
I know it is your opinion, but she did progress as a character in each game, she even got more muscular and seasoned.
That is the thing, people first complained that there was not enough platforming and actual tomb raiding in the first and second games. Shadow remedied that and kept the combat elements.
3-4 encounters? huh? did we play the same game? there was plenty of combat and, the skill tree did matter, like being able to hang enemies from trees, set explosives traps on bodies, being able to counter, and that are just a few of the combat skills. The skill tree also had things like being able to hold your breath underwater longer, crafting upgrades, zipline upgrade, and climbing upgrades that all changed how you can approach situations.
Not knocking your opinion, but we definitely had different experiences. I had 98% completion on the shadow.
Sorry but i'm with him about the low number of encounters, the game throws loads of weapons and skills you're way with a comparatively low amount of places to actually use them, so they felt under utilised.
Yeah...no
It was awful, for THREE GAMES it was "become the Tomb Raider" where she went back to square one after each game. Not to mention after a huge reaction of killing someone for the first time she then becomes Rambo straight after and goes on a slaughter spree without a single other reaction. Her development was all over the place.
She was whiney, weak and in later game a little arrogant and selfish
Oh and the voice actress compared to the previous ones was not as good
Lara Croft deserved better and while they are decent games as they are, we deserved actual Tomb Raider games, we could have had better survival games if they just stuck with the original Lara Crofts origin about her plane going down. Surviving 2 weeks in the Himalayas...I'd have liked to seen that, who knows what mystical threat she could have faced in the mountains or underground some secret concealed cave.
I thought Shadow of the Tomb Raider had better gameplay than Rise, but it annoyed me the most of the trilogy when I stopped to think about the story.
It's like they deliberately decided to make her unlikeable and did nothing to make the character you're playing as likeable or have even one sign of humility.
2013 I thought was a fine entry, but Rise and especially Shadow were painfully mediocre follow ups imo, I really didn't like how selfish and angry her character was in those two.
First one was decent, played through it twice.
Second one was okay, played through it once.
Third one was really bad, tried twice a year apart, still can't get through the first two hours, it is just really bad.
Honest question, what did you find bad about it? the opening 2 hrs of Shadow were fantastic imo.
The opening was very similar to the first 2, what did you find really bad?
Not looking for an argument, just an honest question.
3rd one just didn't feel like a tomb raider game. Possibly because the development was passed to another development team. Big mistake! Microsoft killed tomb raider making the first game a timed exclusive. Never recovered after that.
Starting today, Shadow of the Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition, Submerged, and a Knockout City bundle are free at Epic Games Store. The free game offers run until September 8 at 11 AM Eastern. Once you claim them, they're yours to keep.
If a new Tomb Raider game is in development, there is a lot that Eidos Montreal could learn from the highs and lows of the reboot trilogy.
please bring back voluptuous Lara and change her annoying voice for god sake!, I started playing all three games from my PS4, PS5 and PC (yeah found those dirt cheap in price), but still never finished a single one of them cause the main character is soooo damn annoying!, well at least for me. :D
Half the comments section is acting like they made her this 0/10 looking character wearing seven layers of clothes.
The games were well reviewed. The new Lara would be a model in real world terms. If the biggest recurring issue is she wasn't just modelesque, but also abnormally large breasts and skin tight/virtually no clothing, that's just sad.
"She wasn't made to be the literal idea of a blowup doll. It's the PC police at it again."
That's probably most of the ppl on here tbh, many have atrocious grammar too so it makes sense. Guess their parents let them run loose on the internet.
Honestly everyone here talking about her appearance is annoying, as if the game is perfect and just needs a fix in the character model and that's it, both people who are with and against her new design care more about how female character looks than her character
That’s the whole problem….people like you calling out someone else for having an opinion about an original character design like Lara Croft’s. She was designed in a more sexy form and it was part of her look.It was also part of the attraction for many gamers who actually liked her for whatever way they may have. Nothing wrong with wanting her to resemble her original form at all. Unless you don’t like other people enjoying characters for what they are to them. That is the definition of close minded. This is video games after all. NOT reality.
I thought the reboot trilogy were good games, but I'd like to see the old, original Lara back too. I don't care what she looks like, but I'd like the character to go back to the assertive, confident and kick ass original character. All Lara seemed to do in the reboot games was complain, and the voice actor was painful to listen to.
I couldn't care less about Lara's boobs or lack of them. The game is just boring, and even the first, which is by far, the superior and most fun one of the bunch, is atrociously written. That campfire scene of Lara and her friend with a strange islander after she witnessed murder and was chased almost to death by another islander was so badly conceived it hurts my brain... Holy molly.
Get a better writter. It's that simple.
Totally Agree. I've played everyone ever made. Original 3 were by far the best.
The recent ones have too much whiney vocals, I don't need to hear everything she is doing every second.lol.
I'm surprised they never included her tummy rumbling in the audio. Or having a dump in the bushes.
Modern trilogy based on a real-world woman for voice and design.
Older games based purely on imagination regarding design.
Yeah, censoring "women."
That is not really true or it’s misleading. All Lara Croft characters were based on imagination. None have been based off a real woman. Toby created Lara Croft to break stereotypes about females needing to be a damsel in distress. So he created her to and being tough and self reliant and can still be beautiful and attractive. There have been so many cosplays of all versions of Lara Croft so any could be a real world woman and is besides the point. But she has moved a bit further away from Tony’s original version and there are many who would like to see Lara return to form being all of those things.
At the very least give her her shorts, acrobatics and dual pistols back. That would be a start.
*** All Lara Croft characters were based on imagination.***
Camilla Luddington was the base for both the voice and look of the new Lara. So, no.
@below: This is obviously about looks, not actions in-game. Your post is nonsensical as it relates nothing to the discussion. Let alone I said "for voice and design" and didn't say "for in-game combat and actions."
The back bending some of you are doing to try and have a point is ridiculous.
"based on a real world woman for voice and design".
You have got to be joking surely? Did you play any of the games? The feats this "based on a real world woman" accomplishes are fantastical from start to finish. I am glad you said "based" more like loosely based in a purely imaginative way.
Additionally, Sure they both had voice actresses, Kelley and Camilla, (personally preferred keeley) but they weren’t modeled specifically after an actual woman’s looks, just voice and mocap. ( ie your comment on design).
Obviously not Christopher. "Design" covers the entire spectrum as far as I am concerned, and in context of the article, quite relevant. You should have defined what you meant by "design" better. If you had said "looks" or "appearance" then there would be no confusion.
Sure, bunt, sure. We're talking about a character, we obviously mean game design as well. Sounds logical to me.
I beat the trilogy, but the first reboot on ps3 was the best. Camilla luddington was amazing as lara. Rise and shadow were good, but something just felt off. They didn’t have the spirit of the reboot. Really hoping the next game is good and it moves forward.
I thought Camilla luddington's performance wasn't great, tbh. In real life, she sounds like an American doing a REALLY bad English accent (rather than the other way around) because she moved to America when she was young.
That also translates to the accent in the game. haha. It just didn't sound right at all and is obviously fake. The over-emphasis on certain words makes her sound ... at best strange, and at worst a bit dumb. The pronunciations are often wrong as well.
Honestly though, I could accept all that if the characterization and story were compelling (that's not her fault). I had no investment in the character.
I didn't play Shadow, but I thought these games tortured her without any real purpose. The GCI trailer for Rise acted like the game would delve into her psychological state (therapy session scene) which would be interesting but it never does. She doesn't feel like a fully developed character, she feels more like a prop for the game to mess with and gruesomely put through Mortal Kombat-style fatalities if you make a mistake and die. Let her be a person and give her some good dialogue.
These are also the only games where ludonarrative dissonance is obvious to me when I'm actually playing because the games draw attention to it.
I didn't mind the trilogy except for Shadow of the Tomb Raider the ending was honestly probably going to ruin it but it was shit. I mean Uncharted Lost Legacy had a better ending and it was a shorter game. Too make Lara great again you have to rebuild her from the ground up listen to fan input learn what works and what doesn't work and take it from there with her.
Make it more like the 1st game of the trilogy and don't make the map unnecessarily big with tons of collectibles.
And make Lara sexy again.
Yes make her sexy the way she originally was. Nothing evil or wrong with that at all. She is a video game character after all ……..ffs it’s not a real person. Video games are meant to be for fun and for the imagination. This new anti sexy anti feminine movement in games against female characters who originally were made that way is ridiculous. People need to stop taking everything so serious and looking for problems with everything in life. That’s why we are at this point in gaming with characters like Lara.
You know I'm gonna actually have to agree with this one the game and the entire 3rd gen series has felt like a shoddy uncharted clone.
Quick question...anyone else find it murky that EVERY article from Quarter to Three is submitted by Coolbeans who also happens to be a moderator on N4G?
Is Tom Chick Coolbeans? And shouldn't there be some sort of disclosure if a mod is funneling views to his other site via N4G whilst also generating clicks for N4G with outlandish reviews such as these?
I fully expect my comment to be marked as spam and my account to be banned for saying this but I'd like to add a disclosure that I'm just speculating here.