Tomb Raider: Let Lara Have Fun

 Playing through the last two Tomb Raider trilogies over the course of this year has been a roller coaster of emotions. Some of the games I was having a blast and some of them I was just trying to get through them at points. But overall, I had a fantastic time with these games and experiencing Lara Croft's style. The main thing that I ultimately enjoyed out of the series overall was during that Xbox 360 and PS3 era of games that had Legend, Anniversary, and Underworld.

That spark of joy came from how much fun it looked like Lara was having while in the midst of these world-ending calamities. Doing gymnastic counters on enemies while firing the twin pistols is an immense joy that ultimately becomes lost in the newest trilogy. While the gunplay is very good and the movement options are great, it doesn't feel like the ridiculousness that Tomb Raider had been dealing with before. As the games became more grounded, they kind of stripped Lara of some uniqueness. No longer sporting twin pistols, but instead a weapon wheel of guns that go from upgradeable to special unlocks. The change in combat stylings is one thing, but other grave offenses included the puzzles being over-simplified for the sake of these combat encounters in two out of the three games.

 

Stripping a series of its core gameplay mechanic for its secondary, just seems like a misstep. It was honestly more taxing to come across some of the puzzles in Tomb Raider and Shadow of the Tomb Raider because I knew that it was mostly going to be a climb to to the top affair. Nothing that would require more than a couple minutes to figure out. It felt like the wrong had been righted when Rise focused on the puzzle experience like in the other entries, yet that progress got reverted and it was back to uninspiring puzzles for Shadow. Not to mention the writing for Lara seemed to take a step in the wrong direction as well.

My main gripe comes from Lara's personality in the newest reboot. She lacks bite and doesn't put up a fight against people antagonizing her. She takes everything on the chin and just accepts awful criticisms from bad people. This is the same character that was shit-talking Natla, ruler of Atlantis, in the previous trilogy and was now subjecting herself to a bunch of men telling her she's not good enough without so much as a retort. I understand rebooting means that some things have to change, yet some of the changes felt so bad in comparison to games where you swing Mjolnir and Excalibur. Lara has always felt like That Bitch in previous entries, but the new ones wanted to prove that wrong. She wasn't That Bitch, she was some girl. Coupled with the main narrative being about men in a women heavy game franchise just felt like they weren't making the right steps when it came down to this historic character.

What this rant boils down to is that I want Lara Croft to whip out twin pistols, goomba stomp, and then talk that shit. Lara Croft should not be taking comments from dudes that could never lace her boots. It just feels like a disservice to a character that has historically dished it out. Pass Lara the ball and let her dunk on these fools, she deserves it.