This topic isn't about the quality of the Tomb Raider games overall...but about how Lara has been written as a character lately.
I find it odd how in a time where feminism as a conversation is at all all time high and has been for years, Crystal Dynamics kind of dropped the ball with Lara Croft's personality with their writing ever since they got the character. She's basically one of videogame's biggest female characters ever and yet...the character has never been less...likable and has never lacked this much charisma.
I was watching this video:
There's a reason most of the video is about Core Design's games and the last third is about Crystal's 1st trilogy. And barely anything from the latest games. And Core Design barely had any cutscenes unlike nowadays.
How come Lara from the 90's sounds way cooler than whatever we got after that?
Yes those outfits wouldn't fly in 2021, some men drooling over her would just be too cringe nowadays and you can tell there wasn't a single woman in the room when those games were written. But my god did she have an actual personality.
Like she really gives no fucks even during her teenage years.
There's charisma there. And that's just something that's been lacking ever since Crystal Dynamics games started to be developed.
The original Crystal Dynamics trilogy actually managed to be good with her lines. But still...everything she was doing and her main motivations was about her mom, basically. That was her main drive. It was all about family. 3 games about that only to find her mom and shooting her in the face cause hey...surprise...her mom was dead anyway.
Their second trilogy you'd think they would change it...but no...it was all about her dad. And i don't like how this strong and independent woman back in the 90's, now always needs some sort of traumatic event to actually be the badass we became to know her for. Much of the latest trilogy is basically torture-porn...followed by a cut-scene with Lara wining about something and screaming for Jonah. The transitions were actually quite jarring. Like how the game went from being so violent when you play it to Lara screaming in a cutscene.
Then we got...this during the latest game, and boy did it came out of nowhere:
1:30 minute in case it doesn't start there. I felt like this latest trilogy was written by multiple people with a different idea of what the character was supposed to be and splashed it all into the games. That rampage that she goes right there is simply out of nowhere. It looks cool. Graphics on point, soundtrack, amazing...but in the game's context? No way.
I hope Crystal's comments about the future of this series being a mix between the classic games and the new ones also includes taking a good look at Lara as a character. We know Crysal has trouble in creating decent characters ever since they got Tomb Raider. I mean...i only remember Jonah because she kept screaming about him, but i forgot about everyone else in the latest trilogy, lmao.
Am i alone in...basically all of this?
Sorry for the rant. It's just something i started to think about when watching the first video i posted above. (and what a nostalgic video tbh)
I find it odd how in a time where feminism as a conversation is at all all time high and has been for years, Crystal Dynamics kind of dropped the ball with Lara Croft's personality with their writing ever since they got the character. She's basically one of videogame's biggest female characters ever and yet...the character has never been less...likable and has never lacked this much charisma.
I was watching this video:
There's a reason most of the video is about Core Design's games and the last third is about Crystal's 1st trilogy. And barely anything from the latest games. And Core Design barely had any cutscenes unlike nowadays.
How come Lara from the 90's sounds way cooler than whatever we got after that?
Yes those outfits wouldn't fly in 2021, some men drooling over her would just be too cringe nowadays and you can tell there wasn't a single woman in the room when those games were written. But my god did she have an actual personality.
Like she really gives no fucks even during her teenage years.
There's charisma there. And that's just something that's been lacking ever since Crystal Dynamics games started to be developed.
The original Crystal Dynamics trilogy actually managed to be good with her lines. But still...everything she was doing and her main motivations was about her mom, basically. That was her main drive. It was all about family. 3 games about that only to find her mom and shooting her in the face cause hey...surprise...her mom was dead anyway.
Their second trilogy you'd think they would change it...but no...it was all about her dad. And i don't like how this strong and independent woman back in the 90's, now always needs some sort of traumatic event to actually be the badass we became to know her for. Much of the latest trilogy is basically torture-porn...followed by a cut-scene with Lara wining about something and screaming for Jonah. The transitions were actually quite jarring. Like how the game went from being so violent when you play it to Lara screaming in a cutscene.
Then we got...this during the latest game, and boy did it came out of nowhere:
1:30 minute in case it doesn't start there. I felt like this latest trilogy was written by multiple people with a different idea of what the character was supposed to be and splashed it all into the games. That rampage that she goes right there is simply out of nowhere. It looks cool. Graphics on point, soundtrack, amazing...but in the game's context? No way.
I hope Crystal's comments about the future of this series being a mix between the classic games and the new ones also includes taking a good look at Lara as a character. We know Crysal has trouble in creating decent characters ever since they got Tomb Raider. I mean...i only remember Jonah because she kept screaming about him, but i forgot about everyone else in the latest trilogy, lmao.
Am i alone in...basically all of this?
Sorry for the rant. It's just something i started to think about when watching the first video i posted above. (and what a nostalgic video tbh)
