All About | Inside 25 Years of Tomb Raider

Tomb Raider, one of the most famous franchises in the entertainment universe, completes its first 25 years of life in 2021, and that's why the developers Square Enix and Crystal Dynamics launched a site special for this celebration.

Over the course of the year, the project provides content that features in-depth analysis of the games that have already been released, including unpublished files from the development phases, interviews, community activities, live streams and more. But do you know everything about the Tomb Raider universe? If not, read on.

Origins

tomb Raider is a series of electronic games, comic books and movies starring the character Lara Croft. Since the launch of the first tomb Raider, in 1996, the series made a big profit and Lara became one of the main icons of the video game industry. O Guinness Book recognized Lara Croft as “The World's Most Successful VideoGame Adventurer Heroine” in 2006. Six games in the series were developed by Core Design, and the last three by the Crystal Dynamics. All games were published by Eidos Interactive, which retains the characters' rights and the trademark of tomb Raider. For the cinema, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life were produced, starring the American actress Angelina Jolie like Lara Croft. All the games tomb Raider sold more than 89 million units, making one of the series of video games best sellers of all time. (Source Wikipedia)

Who is Lara Croft?

Lara Croft first appeared in the game “Tomb Raider” in 1996. She is a fictional character created by Square Enix. The character is introduced as a beautiful and intelligent woman, a British archaeologist who ventures into ancient and dangerous tombs and ruins around the world and facing traps and puzzles.

When she was 9 years old, she survived a plane crash in the Himalayas, where her mother was reported missing. After enduring a 10-day trek to Kathmandu, Lara Croft spent the rest of her childhood being raised by archaeologist Richard Croft, her father, the Earl of Abbingdon. At age 18, after her father's death, Lara inherited the family estate and became the Countess of Abbingdon.

At first, the designer Toby Gard focused on creating the main character who was essentially an Indiana Jones clone. When this character was deemed unacceptable, he turned his attention to a new one. One factor that influenced Gard to use a female character was that he realized that his team often preferred to use female characters in Virtua Fighter. The redesigned character was initially a South American named Laura Cruz. She ended up evolving into an Englishwoman named Lara Croft. Your name was chosen from a phone book. Your full name is Lara Croft Mandy DeMonay.

The games

As stated before, the first game in the Tomb Raider series began to be developed in 1993, however it was only in 1996 that the game reached the shelves. The original team of Core Design, responsible for the game, consisted of six people. Over the years, Tomb Raider games have gone through many changes.

Toby Gard, credited as the character's creator, opted for a female character during the game's development, as the team decided to set aside some of the action in favor of a game that focused on challenges and puzzles. The original idea didn't involve what many call “a female version of Indiana Jones”, though the creators say the idea seemed natural. From what we can understand, there are three different timelines involving the games in the series. Check out.

Tomb Raider Original Timeline

The original Tomb Raider also includes games Tomb Raider II (1997) and III (1998), The Last Revelation (1999), Chronicles (2000) and the Dark Angel (2003). In this space contemplated by the games, Lara found artifacts such as the Scion Atlantean, Xian's dagger, the Spear of Destiny and the Philosopher's Stone.

In the fourth game in the series, Lara faces the ancient Egyptian god Seth, who is supposedly dying in an attempt to prevent his full awakening. The fifth installment of the series shows his friends gathering for a memorial while remembering various moments in their career, recounting stories prior to the first game.

However, the situation was complicated by the release of the sixth title. At first, it was planned as the first in a trilogy, angel of Darkness received harsh criticism regarding its gameplay and graphics, as well as clearly diverging from the original style of games, adopting a survival and action style. Unfortunately, a sequel was canceled, as was the planned reboot for the original game. Later, development was handed over to the Crystal Dynamics, leading to the release of Tomb Raider Legend, which would serve as a sort of reboot of the franchise.

Tomb Raider Legend

Starting with Tomb Raider Legend (2006), the protagonist received a slightly altered background. A plane crash, which occurred when the girl was 21, occurred when she was 9 years old, culminating in the death of her mother. At age 17, his father disappeared on an expedition. In addition to the death of her parents, their names were also changed, as well as Lara's birth date, to suit her age when the game was released.

The next release of the franchise was the reboot of the original game, titled anniversary (2007) in reference to the 10th anniversary of the franchise. Despite being a reboot, some key story points were changed to make up Lara's background, starting with Legend and that would culminate in Tomb Raider Underworld, the end of the Legend trilogy. Tomb Raider Underworld (2008) brought back elements of Legend and Anniversary to end the trilogy, tying together several points from Lara's past, in addition to villains Natla and Amanda, ending the “main franchise” releases until the next reboot.

Tomb Raider Timeline Survivor

A new story started with the release of tomb Raider (2013), which once again redefined the story of Lara Croft. The first game in the series also changed the game mechanics, as much more than exploration, the game revolves around the protagonist's survival as she tries to escape the island where she and her exploration team got lost.

The continuation, Rise of the Tomb Raider (2015), put Lara on the trail of her father's mysterious death, as she immersed herself in her quest for immortality and encountered the mysterious Trinity organization in her path. The story of the new movie that just hit theaters freely adapts elements of these last two games.

The third game, called Shadow of the Tomb Raider (2018) again pitted Lara against the machinations of the Trinity organization and a mystery involving relics involving an apocalyptic end of the world related to the Mayan civilization.

It's interesting to know that…

Here is the timeline with the following versions that have been published so far and which platform it can be played on:

First generation

Tomb Raider: Atlantean Scion (1996) – PlayStation, Sega Saturn, PC, N-Gage
Tomb Raider Gold: Unfinished Business (1997) – PC
Tomb Raider II: The Dagger of Xian (1997) – PlayStation, PC
Tomb Raider II Gold: The Golden Mask (1998) – PC
Tomb Raider III: Adventures of Lara Croft (1998) – PlayStation, PC
Tomb Raider Gold: The Lost Artifact (1999) – PC
Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation (1999) – PlayStation, Sega Dreamcast, PC
Tomb Raider: Chronicles (2000) – PlayStation, Sega Dreamcast, PC
Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness (2003) – PlayStation 2, PC

Second generation

Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Legend (2006) – PlayStation 2, PSP, Xbox, Xbox 360, PC, Nintendo DS, Nintendo GameCube, GameBoy Advance and PlayStation 3.
Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Anniversary (2007) – PlayStation 2, PSP, PC, Nintendo Wii, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Action Adventure (2007) – DVD.
Tomb Raider: Underworld (2008) – PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC, Nintendo Wii and Nintendo DS.
Tomb Raider Underworld: Beneath the Ashes (2009) – Xbox 360
Tomb Raider Underworld: Lara's Shadow (2009) – Xbox 360

Third generation

Lara Croft and The Guardian of Light (2010) – Xbox 360, Playstation 3, PC.
Tomb Raider (2013) – PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360.
Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition (2014) – Playstation 4, Xbox One
Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris (2014) – PC, Playstation 4, Xbox One.
Rise of the Tomb Raider (2015/2016) – Xbox 360, Xbox One, PC, Playstation 4
Shadow of the Tomb Raider (2018) – Xbox One, PC, Playstation 4

In addition to these games, the following handheld versions have been released:

Tomb Raider: The Nightmare Stone (2000) – Game Boy Color
Tomb Raider: Curse Of The Sword (2001) – Game Boy Color
Tomb Raider: The Prophecy (2002) – Game Boy Advance

Tomb Raider also received games for smartphones.

Lara Croft: Relic Run (2015) – Windows Phone, Android, iOS
Lara Croft Go (2015) – Windows Phone, Android, iOS

The franchise games tomb Raider they made an epoch with their strong female protagonist, even though he was not the first to do so. This protagonism and strength encouraged thousands of girls to become interested in games and opened new debates such as stereotyped characters, sexualization, female protagonism and many others that permeate this universe. In addition, the character went from the small screen to the big screen.

Lara Croft in the cinema

Being a female character and still a reference in video games is not for many. In a world dominated by male protagonists, Lara Croft changed the industry by becoming a prominent character in a role of heroine of the action genre and remaining today as one of the few women who star in adventure games played by a large audience.

When something that big is created, the visionary phenomenon doesn't go invisible to Hollywood, which for better or worse has bullet in the needle to give popularity either positive or negative and the potential to further increase anyone's fan base. work that is adapted. In theaters, Lara Croft has been the star of three films over the past two decades and has been played by two major international stars.

With fame, some problems over the years became more evident, such as her hypersexualization, as her body and curves were used a lot as a way to promote the game and as times changed and women began to have more voice in various areas, it was clear that Lara Croft's body no longer fits this mold, as the body of male characters is rarely used for this purpose. Therefore, the first version of Lara Croft with Angelina Jolie, in movie theaters, she was much more “dressed” than her gaming counterpart. In 2013, the game had a reboot which also happened in movie theaters: the new proposal was to tell the origins of Lara before becoming a successful adventurer, and that's why she came to be lived by the Oscar winner Alicia Vikander.

It was Angelina Jolie

When Angelina Jolie agreed to bring Lara Croft to life in cinema, the technology was still not like the one we have access to today for video game characters to be realistic. Despite this, Jolie was considered to be very similar to the first versions of the heroine, and part of this is due to the characterization that tried to be as similar as possible.

Jolie took on the more "classic" look of Lara Croft, with her hair tied in braids, dressed in a tank top and simple shorts, combat boots, gloves and two guns strapped to leg braces.

However, some negative reviews emerged as Lara Croft had become a sex symbol for many fans of the time and according to them, Angelina didn't have enough “dimensions” to live Croft. But after more than US$ 400 million grossed at the box office, it has been proven that Jolie has fallen into the public's favor to the point where she was considered irreplaceable when the reboot was announced.

Read too Review | Kate

The adventurous archaeologist's first film hit theaters with a blockbuster budget: the adventure cost over $100 million, a generous sum for a debutante character. The investment was worth it and the return was good. In 2001 "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider” quickly became the most successful video game-based film in history, and remained with the title until 2010, when it lost the throne to “Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time”.

To the delight of the fans, “Lara Croft: Tomb Raider - The Origin of Life”, bet heavily on mythology and action sequences to bring to the screen the experience ever closer to what happened in video games. Here, Angelina Jolie lived the character for the second time and her acting continued to be a positive standout among fans and critics. The script was considered a little better than the first movie, although most fans agree that the story is never the great forte of the Tomb Raider saga.

Was Alicia Vikander

For the new version of Tomb Raider in theaters, the inspiration was the reboot of video games that tells the story of Lara Croft before she became a very experienced adventurer.

A brilliant and appropriate choice was actress Alicia Vikander for the role. The Swedish actress had already proven her talent for Hollywood – she won the Oscar for “The Danish Girl” in 2016 – but was not as experienced with action sequences as Lara Croft at the beginning of her adventures.

Here in the new feature, the most praised in the saga in terms of script, which is usually criticized by fans and critics. In addition, Vikander put her heart and soul into the role: she gained more than ten pounds of muscle and dumped the stuntmen whenever she could to make the scenes more real.

Read too Review: Tomb Raider- The Origin

Lara Croft's impact and legacy on society

Angelina Jolie and Alicia Vikander as much as they have played the same character on the big screen, they couldn't be more different. Note that Jolie lived Lara Croft at a time when her body was judged and the character's hypersexualization was considered an important element and suffered a lot of criticism when the first feature was released.

As a result, she became an icon by refusing to let the character be seen as just a sex symbol. Jolie managed to convince the audience that her acting and a fun movie were more important than the curves of her body.

However, Alicia Vikander took on the role at a time when Lara Croft's body was no longer exploited and Hollywood had already learned to value women, with films such as "Wonder Woman" and "Captain Marvel" already being created in the same level as big blockbusters and giving audiences a broader view that women can be sexy but at the same time powerful and highlights of big action movies.

Before Lara, it wasn't even thought that it would be possible to play a female character who could have such a huge impact on the industry, and you may not believe it, but very soon you can say yes, you can recognize yourself in many female video game characters . And maybe even Lara herself will be able to say, that with this body and this history she can defeat anything, and of course, with the right clothes she can face the jungle, desert or freezing mountains and do what needs to be done, without worrying about being just the eye candy of the male audience and inspire other women to do the same: fight for what they believe.

Turning 25 years old in the year 2021, the franchise has sold over 81 million copies worldwide and spawned three films, 'Lara Croft: Tomb Raider' (2001) and 'Lara Croft: Tomb Raider - The Origin of Life' (2003), both with Angelina Jolie in the lead role, and 'Tomb Raider: The Origin' (2018), inspired by the new game trilogy and with Alicia Vikander as Lara Croft.