The new Tomb Raider has been widely touted as a reboot of the series (much like the recent DMC was for Capcoms Devil May Cry) as well as an origins story, charting Lara Crofts evolution from a young, scared graduate- setting out on an expedition on the HMS Endurance to find the lost Japanese kingdom of Yamatai- to seasoned adventurer. There are plenty of story scenes in the new game which reflect her development, and in this blog Ill be examining some of them in detail.
WARNING-MAJOR SPOILERS FOR THE GAME CONTAINED BEYOND THIS POINT!
One of the more significant scenes takes place within the first couple of hours. Following your first encounter with the Solarii- the large tribe of island scavengers who act as your main enemy- Lara has her hands tied and has to hide from the armed men as they hunt her through a series of burning temple ruins. She manages to take cover in a small alcove, but the group's leader- a bearded Russian- notices her and orders her out at gunpoint. He comments that no-one can hide, before adding I always find them, as he runs a filthy hand down the side of her body.
Yes, this is that scene. The same one where, before the game was released, a particular Crystal Dynamics employee alluded to how escaping from sexual assault was a major part of Laras character development- cue very rapid backtracking on all fronts. Except it isnt quite that- if you dont hit the QTE prompts in time he just clamps his hands around Laras delicate neck and strangles her to death. This scene isnt about titillation- its a moment of mortal danger that enforces Laras will to do what it takes to survive.
Hit the prompts, and Lara fights back, kneeing him in the groin and biting his ear, before knocking him down and slipping out of her bonds, grabbing for his pistol. But hes not done yet, as he dives on top of her and they end up wrestling for the gun. Hit more prompts and Lara aims at his head and fires, blowing his brains out. She throws him off and jumps up, pointing the pistol at him. He isnt quite dead yet- he lies there for a few seconds, coughing and retching, despite the hole in his forehead. Finally, he lies still with a dying groan.
Lara- covered in the dead mans blood and brain matter- turns away and falls to her knees, sobbing and retching, the gravity of what she has just done hitting her like a ton of bricks- shes just taken her first human life. Of course shell take a lot more before the end of her journey across Yamatai, but right now the realization is raw and ugly. Oh God, she sobs, eye screwed shut. But her horror doesnt last long. She picks up her bow from the dead Russian and continues on her way without another word and without looking back.
There are times where Lara doesn't seem strong enough, but she's only 21- she still needs to learn how to survive these kinds of situations. And she does learn.
Shortly after her first kill against the Russian, Lara has to fight through several more Solarii to escape from the burning ruins, and initially shes still scared out of her mind. Why are you doing this?! she shouts out as they open fire. As she climbs a ladder to safety, she speaks to her mentor Conrad Roth over the radio, and mentions how she had to kill some of them to get away. When he remarks that cant have been easy for her, she replies It was scary how easy it was.
And she is right.
As you learn new skills and upgrade your weapons, it becomes all too easy for Lara to kill dozens of Solarii in the space of minutes. Hell, the dodge kill skill lets you easily duck out of range of an enemys attack, before coming back to stab an arrow through their throat for an instant kill. A man dead with two button presses. About the halfway point of the game, Lara makes her way into the sizeable shanty town that the Solarii have built around the base of an old Japanese fortress, and ends up having to kill a good three or four dozen of them in order to get through. As you lay waste to them with machine gun, shotgun fire and the odd explosive barrel you hear them yelling over the noise.
Shes just one girl! shouts one of them, incredulous.
That one girl is kicking our ass! retorts another.
How could this one girl- who looks as fragile as a twig- be capable of causing so much damage? And this one girl will then go on to raze the Solarris fortress to the ground as she makes her way through the caverns beneath it, setting off the pockets of natural gas along the way to solve the numerous puzzles. Then finally as she clears the outer courtyards, the Solarii fall back when they realize that Lara has just strapped a newly-acquired grenade launcher to her machine gun. The same one she is using it to blow her way through the heavy barricades. Thats right! she shouts after them, run you bastards! Im coming for you all! At this point, Lara seems to have become almost drunk off of the adrenaline rush from the gunfights prior, cutting the Solarii down with impunity while all they have are bows and molotovs.
Sure, Lara has a semi-breakdown over her first kill, but within a few hours shes quickly grown accustomed to killing a small platoon of Solarii with ease when the time calls for it, which can appear glaring. But even before killing other humans, Lara has to hunt down a deer using her bow in order to get some meat. And here you can sense hesitation before she seals the deal, crouching beside the dying animal. Sorry, she says with genuine regret, before taking out one of her arrows and using it to carve away some meat. Afterwards, she sits there for a few more moments, eyes closed, before standing back up and heading back to camp. She knew she had to do it, but that regret still niggles at the back of her mind. When she starts shooting the Solarii, that regret goes away a lot quicker.
Early on she reassures herself, that she can do this and that she has to focus, and even tries to talk the Solarii down- We dont have to do this! she yells at one group on the approach to the old mountaintop base. They open fire anyway. As time passes she no longer reassures herself before heading into battle. She has grown used to killing. Comfortable, even. As you find documents written by one of the Solarii, you realize that their livelihoods on this island- from their induction into the cult to their daily rituals- borders on the barbaric, of having to be willing to give up your very humanity to survive this damn place. In a way, Lara is going through a similar arc- though she isnt willing to give up 100% of her humanity, based on her willingness to save her friends, whatever it takes.
The combat has a savage, unforgiving feel to it as a result, as Lara scrambles around in the dirt to avoid molotovs which flush her out of cover, firing arrows, setting off explosive barrels and other environmental props- using whatever she can to win. The finishers only reinforce this notion- early on, Lara grabs a rock off the ground and smashes them in the face with it. As she starts to level up, she graduates to using the climbing axe instead, planting the spike down through their skull or using it to slice into their necks.
Even the in-game characters are aware of all the death. Near the games conclusion, the Solarii leader Mathias taunts Laras efforts to save the day, that she is no hero, before asking her how many how you killed? Its a good question- to be perfectly honest I lost count long ago, around the time that Lara was gunning her way through the shanty town, burning down the palace on her way out.
On another level, maybe Crystal Dynamics did this whole mass killing thing on purpose. Specifically to draw attention to how comfortable Lara is becoming with being a mass murderer, as some games seem to have started addressing this issue recently. Spec Ops: The Line comes to mind, a game which essentially acts as a commentary on the cognitive dissonance we get from playing military-themed soldiers, while Far Cry 3 acts a more recent example, with rich kid Jason Brody fast developing into a jungle badass capable of taking down entire Pirate and Mercenary camps thanks to his indoctrination with the local tribe. The crux for Jason comes when hes forced into torturing his own brother in order to maintain his undercover role within Hoyts private army. After spending several seconds digging his thumb into his brothers exposed bullet wound, Jason steps back and stares at his hands in horror. What have I become? he asks himself. Its one of the few times in the game when he does question himself, but its an effective moment, especially contrasted with when he first kills one of the pirates in self-defense, his voice and hands shaky with horror.
In the old games, Lara would go through an entire game gunning down all manner of viscous wildlife and enemy mercenaries, all without comment. To be perfectly blunt, the old Lara didnt have much character in her at all save for a huge pair ofwell, you get the idea. Her personality didnt exactly change that much until Crystal Dynamics took over the series for Legend and the Anniversary edition of the original game. In the latter example, even Lara herself seemed scared at how far she was willing to go in order to get the Scion of Atlantis- when Larson tries to talk her out of shooting him by claiming Thats just not who you are, her dark reply is You dont know what kind of person I am, before she shoots him dead. Afterwards, she looks a little horrified as she cleans the dirt (and metaphorical blood) off of her gloves. The 2013 Tomb Raider only shows this development at its highest.
New Lara doesnt have such a massive pair of breasts, but that didnt bother me. Weve all grown up since the first Tomb Raider was released, and as story-telling becomes more sophisticated; we naturally expect more sophisticated character development. As a young history graduate, Lara is knowledgeable about a lot of the periods and relics that are referenced in-game, has outdoors experience, and has good instincts (manifested in-game as her Survival Instincts mode), and is also resourceful, based on how she uses salvage and the occasional random item to mod and upgrade her in-game arsenal. She isnt just a walking caricature, which is what the old Lara was rapidly becoming. New Lara has a vulnerable side, surely, but she also has determination and willpower in spades- the drive to do whatever it takes to survive.
After reaching the aforementioned shanty town- Lara reopens the stomach wound she took at the very start of the game after taking a short cut down the mountain. Reaching a crashed helicopter, she searches for medical supplies but finds nothing save for an old lighter. Left with no choice, she heats up one of her arrow heads and then plunges it into her wound to cauterize it. The camera cuts away outside just as shes about to stab herself, but you still hear her stifled screams. Then it cuts back to her inside the chopper, close in on her face as she screams and sobs in agony, her eyes screwed shut as she comes close to tears. Her reactions understandable and pretty powerful too- first time I saw this scene, I found it a little hard to watch. And barely a minute afterwards, she picks herself up. When Roth then calls her on the radio, he picks up on the fact she doesnt sound 100%, but she insists that shes fine.
Like I said- determination. The drive to do whatever it takes- stabbing yourself with a heated arrow head to seal up a debilitating wound, killing dozens of insane cultists to save your friends, whatever it takes. Lara is rapidly becoming the Tomb Raider we all know in front of our eyes, through every hardship and battle she has to face. Even if that determination causes her to make the occasional bad choice- when she insists on setting off to save the survivor from a plane crash, Roth tries to talk her out of it, saying Sacrifice is a choice that you make, loss if a choice made for you. She insists on doing the right choice though- and ends up wandering straight into a Solarii ambush, and the pilot still ends up dying. We all make mistakes, and Laras no exception.
Speaking of Roth, the rough Northerner acts as a representation of what Lara will become in the future. Hes clearly more experienced than Lara in dangerous situations, and his weapons of choice happen to be a pair of pistols that resemble the signature weapons of the old Lara- the same weapons that he passes onto her after his tragic death past the halfway mark as he shields a wounded Lara from the Solarii. His passing is one of the few times when Lara actually stops to take in what has happened, much like when she took her first life. But she knows that she has to carry on- the next journal that she reads out is titled Dont Think, Dont Feel, and reflects her current mentality. She cant let herself get too bogged down by her grief or her guilt, and so she trudges on, picking off the Solarii that are hunting her through the trees and heading towards the sea in order to help her friends try and fix a boat to leave the island.
Lara nearly always has some immediate objective in mind- linking up with her friends, reaching safety, saving someones life- and it means she barely stops. Barely stops to tend to every one of her wounds and injuries. Barely stops to mourn the friends who have died to aid her. Barely stops to consider just how many lives shes taken. But it affects her. Everything affects her, even if she doesnt show it all the time. After the death of another Endurance crew member in the games last third, she declares that she wont let anyone else die. And she ends up keeping her word.
In the near future, shell be taking the Solarii down by the dozen once more, her methods becoming more brutal as you spend more skill points. In one of her special finishers, Lara aims her pistol into the face of a kneeling Solarii at point-blank range. He tries to get a hand up- perhaps pleading for mercy- before she fires, blowing his face off in a spray of blood. In another, she puts a hand beneath their chin and fires her assault rifle from the hip into their stomach, letting the recoil stitch a bloody line up into their face. Shes grown very confident about her killing skills by this point.
I mentioned Mathias earlier on- in a way hes a dark reflection of Lara. Hes a survivor on Yamatai too- hes just been stuck there a hell of a lot longer than she has, as he points out, and something he uses to claim that he is more able to survive anything than she is. Clearly a smart man, Mathias was the one who discovered the truth about Yamatais power, and the one who bought the Solarii together and created their society to help achieve his goal. Note that I said his goals- though he talks about getting them all home, hes so utterly focused on escaping himself that he doesnt care if he has to sacrifice the entire brotherhood to do so- in fact hell do whatever it takes. Kind of like someone else that we know. As Lara notes in one of her other journals, Mathias is insane- but hes so far gone hes come back around on himself in some twisted view of sanity and logic, one where he utterly believes that what the Solarii are doing is right. If Laras not careful, then shell end up like Mathias. Fittingly, he acts as Laras final hurdle towards saving her friend Sam and escaping Yamatai- in beating him, Lara has proven that she not only survived the island, but that she was stronger than Mathias in the end to not let the darkness control her.
And finally, Laras evolution has a visual side to it too. During the opening CG scene, where Lara talks about setting off on her first adventure while in her cabin on the Endurance, theres a part where she closes her locker door and looks at her own reflection in the mirror. She looks fresh-faced, unblemished by the harsh realities of life. Later on, as she returns to the wrecked Endurance in order to find the tools necessary for the rest of the crew to fix a small boat they intend to escape with, she stops off at her cabin briefly. In pretty much a direct mirror of that opening scene, Lara picks a photo of her and Sam at their graduation off of the inside of the locker door and closes it, looking at her reflection in the mirror once again. This time, she looks absolutely battered- her tank top is badly shredded on one shoulder strap and her chest and shoulders are covered in dozens of tiny cuts and grazes, and she looks exhausted. As she turns away, she remarks so much has happened, which is putting things mildly.
And thats not all. In the Extras menu one of the features you can peruse are character models- 3D in-game models of the various characters in the game, of which Lara herself has three. The first one is called Innocent Lara, and shows her before she ended up on the island- her clothes are clean, so has no visible wounds or scars, and her skin is also unblemished. Obviously, this Lara is young, eager, and somewhat naïve- ignorant of the fact the world has some pretty dark places like Yamatai in it. The second character model is called Lara Croft, and resembles her in-game model for the first half of the game. She has the leather straps used to hold her gear slung over her chest, her pistol holstered at her right side, and the stomach wound she receives at the start of the game is visible. Though both models have the exact same pose, Im convinced that the second model has that steely gaze that shows her determination to survive, fostered after having survived for the first several hours on Yamatai, as her true calling as a Croft starts to become apparent.
The final model is called Survivor Lara and shows Laras condition by the final hours of her journey- her clothes are torn and ripped in places, dozens of tiny grazes cover her shoulders and other parts of her body, the bandages wrapped around her hands giving the impressions of her old fingerless gloves, and her stomach wound has been cauterized. Over the course of the game, Laras experiences have stripped away her carefree and innocent layers, exposing the hardened survivor that she has always been- a Croft, much like the father that she admits to hating for so long. By this point, the tagline for the trophy/achievement for completing the game, and the message which appears just before the credits says all that needs to be said.
A Survivor is Born.
Crystal Dynamics have said that they intend for this to become the start of an origin series for Lara. Based off of the ground works laid by this new entry, Im hoping thats the case.
If you took the time to read my first editorial for Gamespot- then Id just like to say a big thank you.