Opinion – The Tomb Raider Reboots Are Fun, But Lara Croft Is A Bore

When I was growing up, Lara Croft was one of the few female stars in video games. I remember loving her and Parasite Eve's Aya Brea just for the mere fact that they took problems into their own hands and kicked ass. At the time, most mainstream games didn't have the mature storytelling or fleshed-out characters that they do today, so it was enough to just see a female character front and center in her own fight - especially one that I didn't have to rescue.

Things have changed since those days, though. Video game characters now have more complex personalities, and games like The Last of Us and The Walking Dead tell more emotional tales. That's why when Crystal Dynamics announced it was rebooting the Tomb Raider series, I became excited about the potential to learn more about Lara Croft. Outside of raiding tombs and being a tenacious woman, I don't know what kind of person she is. Is there more to her than just being an adrenaline junkie? Unfortunately, Crystal Dynamics hasn't really answered that.

I love the recent Tomb Raider reboots, but the thrilling action gameplay is what keeps me playing, not Lara Croft. The writing has yet to make me care about or understand our heroine. She's still just a simple avatar with basic motivations, but as such an iconic character, she deserves to be so much more than that.

The potential is there, and Crystal Dynamics has crafted some scenes in the reboots that were done well. For instance, the first reboot dealt with an inexperienced Lara having to make her first kills and confronting the world's harsh realities. Everybody remembers the scene where she has to kill a deer just so she can eat. The sadness and apologetic look on her face says it all. Then later, she has to kill a man out of self-defense. She sobs uncontrollably afterward, clearly shaken up by the encounter.

Unfortunately after these struggles, the deaths pile up, becoming more violent every step of the way, without her so much as a batting an eye. I can understand the narrative for being at odds with the gameplay since Crystal Dynamics is also out to make a challenging and fun game, but in Rise of the Tomb Raider Lara just feels robotic, moving from one slaughter to the next. Because these actions are routine in so many games, that makes it even important that the narrative is used to make Lara stand out in some way. Unfortunately, the only times Lara feels like a person is when she's talking about her father, showing her devotion to him, and even those scenes could be stronger.

I'm not saying every moment has to be serious or emotional to shed light on the character; sometimes a simple conversation or revelation can make all the difference in providing extra characterization. I love when games allow characters just let their hair down, like Tali getting drunk in Mass Effect 3 or Ellie breaking out hilariously bad jokes in The Last of Us. Maybe that's the problem - Lara Croft doesn't have many entertaining people to play off of and bring out different sides of her. She's a lone wolf, which offers the writers limited places to convey her thoughts.

In Rise of the Tomb Raider, her best moments are with Jonah, who she has a preexisting relationship with from the previous game. The pair survived the investigation of the lost kingdom of Yamatai together, clearly having a special bond. She comes alive a bit around Jonah, but these instances are few and far between. Even when other people enter the story, they're missed opportunities.  For instance, Jacob and his daughter Sofia come and go often throughout Rise of the Tomb Raider, and clearly we're supposed to see a growing friendship between Lara and them, but they're gone way too fast to showcase that. The conversations are also never interesting, often just conveying where they're headed next.

Crystal Dynamics succeeds at showing Lara struggle to survive in harsh world, but it still hasn't figured out how to show more personality. I don't expect her to be charismatic and cracking jokes like Nathan Drake. Lara Croft should be a more serious character to match the narrative's subject matter, but that doesn't mean she has to come off so bland. She needs more time for personal interactions and for her to unravel a bit, giving us more of a glimpse into her psyche. I get the feeling Lara has a traumatic past (losing both parents at an early age must have been difficult), which has made her go on the path she has, but the writing hasn't spent much time exploring it in a compelling way. I want the game to show more about the person she is. With a title like "Rise of the Tomb Raider" I expected more personal epiphanies to show how she became the hotshot I've known her as all these years. Instead all we have are flashbacks about her father that aren't that entertaining and don't reveal much about Lara.

I say all of this with love, because I think for any longstanding character to stay interesting, they must go to new places and surprise the longtime fan. Right now, it feels like Crystal Dynamics has been holding back when it comes to Lara. Maybe this is all leading up to an interesting place in a game down the line, and let's hope that is the case, but the reboots have only taken baby steps at making her a more complex character. I want to know more about Lara than her just being this reckless badass. That's where we were with her in the '90s. These prequels should be providing something different that makes me see the character in a new way. It's not enough for Lara Croft to just star in a game these days; she needs to measure up to other protagonists and feel like she's holding her own against them. The thrills can't be everything  - something more should draw you to her.