Spike 2012 VGAs: Tomb Raider Survival Trailer
Image via Square Enix
Spare a thought for poor Lara Croft.
Her latest comeback, currently being developed by Crystal Dynamics and due for release in March of next year, has recently made headlines for all the wrong reasons.
Some of the first footage of the new game showed Lara helpless at the hands of one of her captors. While the apparent threat of sexual violence in the clip raised eyebrows, things hit the fan when Ron Rosenberg, the game’s producer stated that this was a deliberate tactic. The idea was to not only put Lara in serious danger, but to make the player want to protect her.
The implied idea was that only by showing Lara as weak, helpless and in need of saving, could the average (male) gamer root for her.
So, it’s interesting to see that the new Survivor trailer for the game shows Lara in a rather different light. The title alone is noteworthy – as the titular survivor, Lara is no longer just a victim.
Gameplay-wise, the game looks much the same as it always as, taking more than a few cues from the Uncharted and Assassin’s Creed franchises.
I don’t think the past controversy will have any long-lasting consequences for Tomb Raider; we gamers have notoriously short memories, after all.
Time will tell, of course. I’ve been wrong before. Once or twice.
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