What Went Wrong: Tomb Raider
New Gamer Nation – I cannot be too clear on this point: Tomb Raider is in no way a bad game. Over the course of its exceptional campaign, you’ll inhabit a newly-imagined Lara Croft, one who inhabits a wide range of vulnerabilities: crepuscular scavenger, torture porn survivor, hibiscus assassin. Considering that our previous Croft could only be described by a handful of terms—all of which involved some number of mammary glands—this range of character seems especially pertinent. One might even go so far as to declare Crystal Dynamic’s reboot of the series to be a refreshing and faith-inducing success. And yet, lurking behind the game’s narrative of survivorship, in much the same way that Lara lurks among the dark foliage of an enemy encampment, lies something in conflict with itself, struggling to carry the emotional weight of its own conceit.
