Lee Hall: ''Lead writer of the Tomb Raider reboot Rhianna Pratchett has had an uneven relationship with Lara Croft since she first played – and loved – the original Tomb Raider. ”I fell out of love with Lara after playing Tomb Raider 2 and when I found other games,” she tells us. “I didn’t like the way she had been oversexualised by the wider media. As a young female gamer I felt it said ‘ladies – this isn’t for you’, though I suppose icons are always very visual.”
Any progress on the desexualisation of Lara Croft came under the microscope last year when the PR machine for the forthcoming reboot churned out a damaging comment from producer Ron Rosenberg. Pratchett, who has also worked to craft strong female leads in Mirror’s Edge and Heavenly Sword, said the problems around the now infamous Crossroads trailer came down to two words, not one. ‘Protect’ as well as ‘rape’. And she’s happy to reflect on what she calls the ‘blink-and-you-might-miss-it’ controversy.''
During the Game Developers Session (GDS) conference in Prague, we had the privilege of speaking with Rhianna Pratchett, an award-winning writer and narrative designer. Pratchett, who has penned some of the most memorable female protagonists like Nariko from Heavenly Sword, Faith from Mirror’s Edge, and Lara Croft from the 2013 Tomb Raider reboot, delves into the challenges and freedoms of writing for different media, AAA and indie games.
Complex? She literally made Lara Croft whine and have father issues for an entire trilogy
Groundbreaking...
"have father issues"
To be fair, that IS a complex... Just not the right kind, lol!
The dad stuff wasn’t entirely her fault.. She was given outlines she had to flesh out and not full freedom. from the article…:
“ And there were things that we kind of butted heads more on, particularly with Rise [of the Tomb Raider] because I wasn't a fan of the dad plot. I didn't really like her motivation being her father because it felt like that's often the motivation given to female characters and it's also motivation that's very prominent in the previous movies as well. And I would have rather it been about her own experiences in the first game and how that had changed during the second game. But sometimes you just have to do your job, you just have to find peace with it. And I kind of played around with my relationship with my father and kind of put some aspects of that and then that just made me feel better about it. And sometimes this is what you have to do.”
She never seemed that whiny to me given the circumstances.
If you’re a good writer you’d have been able to do that a little better but she didn’t
She was restricted sure but with what she had with an outline she didn’t do a good job
She’s not her father, she got work and into the industry a lot easier because her father was a great writer.
It’s nepotism basically
Female Commander Shepard is a way better female character then Lara Croft has been.
Meanwhile it seems that female characters across entertainment media are being dumb down. What they've done to the female characters in the Avatar adaptation is insulting.
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Tomb Raider I, II, III Remastered is available now on PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. Lara Croft is back in a classic remaster of the original PlayStation 1 hit title. Is the remaster any good though?
We've gone on many adventures with Lara Croft. With another reboot in the making, Wealth of Geeks felt it was a good time to go down the nostalgia rabbit hole and remember the best of those tomb-raiding thrills.
I do agree that Tomb Raider Angel of Darkness was the worse one 😂 I remember playing some of it and I took it back. That game was just awful in every way. I bought it used at gamestop and glad they had that 7 day return policy for used games 😂
Simple. He's been hating on the Tomb Raider reboots for years. I can't imagine seeing them at the top of a best TR game list let alone being on the list in general sitting well with him because of it.
Zeek
“Hating”
No no, just pointing out how TR mutated into a generic action adventure game losing the appeal of what it once was when it was more about puzzles and platforming over going Rambo, slaughtering waves of enemies
But hey, continue being a dick and speaking about me like I’m not going to see the comment.
Foxtrot, I'm curious if you have played the most recent games. Sure the 2013 reboot was hugely focused on combat, but each follow up became less and less about combat to the point where outside of a few large scale story missions I don't even remember combat being a part of shadow of the tomb raider. Shadow was so puzzle focused it actually was a bit much for me and I love the TR puzzles.
I still feel like Rise was the best of the series and I was a huge fan of the originals. To me it struck the perfect balance of exploration, platforming, puzzles, and combat. Not saying your opinion is wrong I'm just curious what you think they should have done different. Games do need to evolve somewhat to stay relevant. Would you prefer small linear jumping platform levels like the original?
I think Shadow wasn't even develop by crystal dynamics. I thought it was the worse in the new trilogy
That's right. Shadow was developed by Eidos Montreal who who went and made Marvels Guardians of the Galaxy next. (Great game)
Meanwhile after Rise of the Tomb Raider, Crystal Dynamics made Marvels Avengers. (bad game)
For me, Legend should be alot higher (along with the other two ). Shadow, I enjoyed it, but has too much has fluff, as modern games tend to do. Playing the remastered series, and apart from the controls, is very good.
I really enjoyed the first 2 games, Legend and the first of the reboots and the rest I didn’t get into so I never finished.
Completely subjective list. I really liked Underworld, I preferred Lara's design. That said I loved the horror/uncharted feel of the reboot. I think all the TR games have strengths and weaknesses. None are objectively better in every way.
Female action!!! scenario writers RoCK!!1 ..