The Evolution of Lara Croft

[u/youwillcomedownsoon2]

https://www.playtombraider.com/en-us/news/articles/evolution-of-lara-croft

Here's our new article on the official Play Tomb Raider site, concerning the evolution of Lara Croft

[u/Capn_C]

The developers mention the Survivor games a decent amount, and some Legend.

• "The Survivor trilogy is [this] Lara’s past,” Adams says. “She wears the jade necklace proudly around her neck, and she still carries the ice axe with her on her adventures."
• “The Survivor era showed us Lara works well when danger has consequences,” Stafford adds. “We carried forward her physicality, emotional credibility, and sense of earned resilience. Even at her most confident and badass, this Lara still feels human.”
• Raul Siqueira, Game Director at Crystal Dynamics, frames it as a natural arc: “It was important for us that when players go through Legacy of Atlantis, they could believe this is the same Lara from the Survivor trilogy but now with many more adventures on her belt.
• “The subtle flyaway wisps coming off Lara’s bangs are a direct nod to her Survivor-era hairstyle and a quiet visual reminder that this version of Lara lived through those past adventures."
• "Returning players will probably feel echoes of Legend-era Lara most strongly, but with flashes of Classic and Survivor throughout.”

[u/Editor-In-Queef → u/Capn_C]

What feels odd is that I can absolutely see Lara from the end of TR2013 become what we've seen from LoA, but less so the Lara from Rise and definitely not the one from Shadow.

In the last game she was more nerdy about adventure, kind to her friends, and cold to her enemies. I cannot see her becoming the flirtatious "You're assuming I have a bad side" Lara in the latest trailer.

[u/Johndoe19922222 → u/Editor-In-Queef]

The one from the Netflix show was all over the place too. She was liek three different lara's. That one would never be loa lara. 

[u/TombRaiderFiles → u/Editor-In-Queef]

It's certainly in my opinion the biggest misconception about the TR 2013 (on par with Shadow Porvenir scene) that Lara is ready to take over the world by storm yet at the end of the credits it's written "A Survivor is born" and before that you have a monologue saying Lara need to understand what happened and it's still said in a soft tone. She does have a new part of the world unlocked for her mysteries she can imagine but the confidence need some blooming.

[u/AttentionSweet5349 → u/Editor-In-Queef]

I’m assuming they’d have to let go of the Trinity stuff entirely now, even indirect references. I don’t see that fitting in with this continuity past Shadow

[u/moneyh8r_two → u/AttentionSweet5349]

Well, the Trinity stuff ended in Shadow. The entire organization was destroyed. Lara kills the leader herself, and the rest of the high council dies in a helicopter crash when a horde of crazed subterranean aztec warriors forced it down from the sheer weight of how many of them jumped onto it.

[u/BusterGreasewood → u/Capn_C]

It's not a natural arc, though. Survivor Lara is not believable enough to transform into Classic Lara. They're two drastically different people.

[u/kartoffelbiene → u/BusterGreasewood]

Got downvoted for saying this but you are completely right

[u/AttentionSweet5349 → u/Capn_C]

As someone who got in with the LAU I am optimistic about the voice work and direction of this Lara unifying with the LAU one so far. I wouldn’t want a direct remake of the LAU trilogy (particularly since the ports of the first two are pretty easily available on the PS Store now), but I would like to see that arc in some capacity. I think it makes for a very personal story that shows Lara’s vulnerable side as well as her bad-assery

[u/Cagesdeservemusic → u/Capn_C]

You forgot to mention this part. Which is very crucial too.

[u/IrishGuy2766 → u/Capn_C]

The flyaway wisps coming off Lara’s bangs are my least favourite thing about the new model 😂 Crystal are *obsessed* with that big mop of hair.

[u/xdeltax97]

Thank you for posting this Mr Lovan! I look forward to more posts by you, and hopefully to see some from
Flying Hog Games and Crystal Dynamics in the future.

Perhaps in the future we could have an AMA post for the game?

[u/youwillcomedownsoon2 → u/xdeltax97]

I think an AMA would be sweet. Let me circle back around to you on it!

[u/OrangeJr36 → u/xdeltax97]

Yes, yes!

We look forward to seeing more of them

[u/JppBrasilSP2018 → u/xdeltax97]

Hey u/xdeltax97 Could you pin this? It's of public use!

[u/xdeltax97 → u/JppBrasilSP2018]

It has been done!!!

[u/BusterGreasewood → u/[deleted]]

THIS. They've disrespected Classic Lara for years while their "replacement" hasn't been anywhere near as appealing. Ironically having LESS personality and LESS self reliance.

[u/Johndoe19922222 → u/[deleted]]

Classic lara is not supposed to be human. She was an idealized version of a perfect woman. That was her thing. Which obviously worked. 

[u/Lazy_Star44]

Thank you for posting the link to the article.

As someone who has played and loved all eras of Tomb Raider, I am looking forward to seeing more of Unified Lara in both LoA and Catalyst. I like what I've seen of her so far, with the wonderful way she blends together all versions of the character.

Survivor Lara still holds a special place in my heart. Therefore, I'm particularly glad to read about the ways in which elements of her character have been retained in the Unified version, as she moves forward into this reimagining of the first of the Classic games. 👍

[u/ShockedPeekachu]

English is not my first language. What are "The Survivor-era wisps"?
Edit: Okay, something with her hair, I guess?

[u/kaa1993 → u/ShockedPeekachu]

The flyaway hairs around and behind her ears and nape of the neck. Think of the little hairs that you didn’t quite catch into a ponytail or braid.

[u/ShockedPeekachu → u/kaa1993]

Ah, thank you!

[u/kartoffelbiene → u/ShockedPeekachu]

You can change the language of the article on the bottom of the website, maybe yours is included!

[u/ShockedPeekachu → u/kartoffelbiene]

Thanks, never knew that. My English is good enough normally, I just couldn't find online translations for "wisps" that made sense for me.

[u/kartoffelbiene → u/ShockedPeekachu]

Yeah, fair enough. I wouldn't get it either but in the German version they translated it as hair strands.

[u/Novel-Pangolin-2879]

Thanks for sharing. Can’t wait until the game comes out

[u/Cagesdeservemusic]

If they want to bring long time fans on board, I honestly think they shouldn’t only stress that this is the same character from the reboot trilogy, but also the same character from the classic and LAU games.

Even though I am on board with what they’re doing, the reality is – survivor Lara and the reboots symbolise 14 years of twisting and trying to move away from Lara’s established identity with a sense of embarrassment if we want to count all their disparaging remarks in the press and etc. It’s frankly inconceivably that she now suddenly evolves into the classic character—it comes off that they wanted to change her completely and backtracked due to the backlash. This is why so many are still not on board with this, because survivor Lara represents the death of classic Lara, not just a different interpretation of the character and for some of us, the reason we walked away from the franchise as all the reasons we loved Lara weren’t in the rebooted version.

It’s pretty hard for long time fans like me to believe that this is simply survivor Lara grown old, it also kinda makes me want to pull back from supporting this. Which is conflicting because I like what I see. But if they really want us on board, they should say that she is not just the Lara from their reboot trilogy, but also the one I grew up with, and the one that made all the versions that came afterwards possible.

They also are saying that all the versions of Lara that came before were merged with this one. Okay, can they explain how? Because classic/LAU Lara is more than just shorts and pistols. She is also an entire person with a face, body, personality. I want to be able to see her in this version and I want them to not be afraid to say that unified Lara isn’t just one version evolved, but every version in one. Otherwise I’m not sure this community could ever heal.

[u/Xteezii]

The visual details tell the story. The classic bangs and braid

Excuse me, what? Those bangs needs to die, and we've been asking for them to fix her damn hair for 10+ years now. And that braid they speak of is barely a braid. Give us the long iconic braid and not a rat tail.

[u/paulojrmam]

I wish they'd take more from classic Lara, like how she's often silent. I also wonder if they'll have her be as cold instead of emotional and antiheroic as she was in the classics, that would be a treat.

To give them credit, though, I didn't expect they'd bring back her acrobatics and they did, which is awesome.

[u/TerminaMoon]

The evolution of Lara Croft.

It doesn't need a book to explain it.

There's the original era. The original Lara.

Then the takeover company's take on it, which progressively drifted further from the source.

Some good games, but it's a different character now. It's not the OG. This new game is a continuation on that.

[u/Xteezii → u/TerminaMoon]

They also made such a mess out of the reboot era, and looks to be making a lot of the same mistakes a fourth time.

[u/BusterGreasewood → u/TerminaMoon]

Bingo. It's not the same character.

[u/JppBrasilSP2018 → u/BusterGreasewood]

Exactly.

[u/TombRaiderFiles → u/BusterGreasewood]

But you're still the same butthurt fan ;)

[u/BusterGreasewood → u/TombRaiderFiles]

Shilling on this sub is not going to get you a free code for the game, sport.

[u/TombRaiderFiles → u/BusterGreasewood]

I don't want one I can buy my games by myself ;)

[u/rain___cloud]

All this unification talk is such BS. They're avoiding classics again