Tomb Raider devs offer a peek at their new ‘unified’ Lara Croft

Polygon: "Tomb Raider developer Crystal Dynamics launched a new website for the franchise on Wednesday — Valentine’s Day is also Lara Croft’s birthday — with another peek at the impending “unified” design for its action heroine. New artwork of Lara sporting a post-Survivor trilogy look that evokes her classic design supports the theory that the Lara we saw last fall in Call of Duty is basically the character’s future appearance."

[Christopher]

Ah, back to jungle romping in a camisole and short shorts.

[CobraKai]

Love it. This look is iconic. Her reboot look was so generic.

[VenomUK]

What you talking about? This is the reboot Lara but in the original costume.

[CobraKai]

Yeah. And? The original costume is the important part buddy.

[Vengeance1138]

Crystal Dynamics really going hard with the man face. They sure do hate feminine looks!

[Christopher]

Please tell me this is satire.

[Vengeance1138]

If you honest to God think that face is feminine, says alot about you pal. Go outside and see what actual women look like. Go google Unified Lara Croft Man Face and you'll see you're in the minority thinking this looks good. This is highly masculine.

[Christopher]

***Go outside and see what actual women look like.***

Do you honestly believe I'm some freak hidden away from the world and don't have a mother, never dated, my wife isn't a woman, my daughter isn't a woman, and I work exclusively with men, some who choose to wear dresses sometimes?

***you're in the minority thinking this looks good. This is highly masculine. ***

Right. I'm in the minority. It must be me. Not online people making statements like yours.

[isarai]

Take your own advice Vengeance, good lord 🤦

[Vengeance1138]

"men, some who choose to wear dresses sometimes? "

lmao, do you work at the circus? Definitely somewhere where clowns are present.

[frostypants]

@Vengeance maybe take your own advice and stop staring at anime all day. This doesn't look masculine at all.

[MrDead]

A quick Google as to why this comment was made... Oh a twitch streamer Melonie Mac went right wing so all the brain broken little kids are following her crazy man face rants.

[tracedinblood]

I used to follow her, but she started getting real weird when she consumed more and more meat and talked about it on a constant basis. Her eyes bulge out of her head now and she makes the most unhinged arguments while claiming to be holy.

Meat is fine, but don't forget your veggies.

[banger88]

Glad I'm not the only one who thinks this looks like a dude in drag.

[Vengeance1138]

Right! Glad to see atleast 1 sane person in here.

[FunAndGun]

Don't be ashamed you're attracted to her.

[Barlos]

Yeah, it kind of does tbh

[Mr_cheese]

Women come in all shapes and sizes pal, femine doesn't mean being put on a pedestal in looks.

Grow up lad.

[SimpleSlave]

You really going hard with the man face. You sure do hate feminine looks! Cuz if you honest to god think that face is masculine, says a lot about you pal.

Go outside and see what actual women look like...

Fixed it for you, bud.

On a serious note, you do need some help. Unplug, actually go outside, and soak up the sun. You'll be surprised of how much of a none entity you have turned into. Neither a man nor a woman, but a 4chan slime.

Seriously, seek help.

[H9]

Don't worry everyone agrees with you but they don't dare say it

[thesoftware730]

I think she has many masculine features, but wouldn't it make sense for what she does in game?

This is not PS1, it's a detailed model of a very built woman, who has a tough as nail edge...so yes, she has masculine features and she looks cool to me, I think the 3 Remakes were excellent, and can't wait for the next one.

Why are people looking for attraction in video game characters anyway?

[H9]

@thesoftware730 honestly I can say the same thing to you guys?, Why do you look for realism in fiction, I can't understand that at all, people like seeing something that looks good, we all like Ryu looking like Arnold times 2 because it's cool, not because it's realistic or anything, same thing for women

[RaiderNation]

@Christopher he only knows what women look like from OnlyFans and Pornhub.

[DrDoomer]

She does kinda look like the very rational Finnish alcoholic IT cross-dresser.

[isarai]

Sounds like you know that category quite well.

[xHeavYx]

@Vengance I wonder what you look like. It would be so ironic if you were this chubby guy with an overly round face.

[ZeekQuattro]

I'm getting strong neckbeard vibes from him just looking at those comments. If you think average or plain Jane women look like men something is mentally wrong with you.

[senorfartcushion]

Virgin alert

[isarai]

Turbo Virgin

[outsider1624]

"Go google Unified Lara Croft Man Face"

Lmao!!! Who..i mean seriously who..in their right mind would actually go the trouble to even type "Man" after Lara Croft. Jeeze..some you people need help really.

[YourMommySpoils]

I slightly see what you mean, but it's just concept art, so that will probably be improved.

[SyntheticForm]

Decent fix here.

https://x.com/MediaRaider19...

[isarai]

Why would she wear an obscene amount of makeup to go out and plunder ruins? This proves even more you guys need to go touch grass and see the real world instead of E-girls

[SyntheticForm]

@isarai

I like your selective realism.

You could also ask why a woman would go and plunder tombs and ruins alone if you're going to go that route.

"This proves even more"

You have no better argument than I do; it's preference vs preference. I've been married for 16 years and my wife agrees - thinks Lara's face is cold and masculine.

[thorstein]

Why would she put botox in her lips that make her look like a circus clown? That look is hideous.

Women don't look like that except in AI. No wonder you're single.

[SyntheticForm]

@thorstein

Lol. Slow down and take a breather, then keep reading.

[SyntheticForm]

Lara always looked feminine. She looks decidedly masculine here.

https://x.com/MediaRaider19...

[smashman98]

With all due respect (which is none at all) vengeance ur so off on this lol.

[thesoftware730]

@Vengeance

My man, she raids tombs, she scales building, mountainsides, trees, and anything else she can, she shoots guns,, fight hordes of men/women, animals, and dinosaurs, walks, runs, swims, and, swings on vines/ropes.. What do you want her to look like? Barbie?

So, I agree with you about her masculinity, but have no problem with it, for all the reasons above. Additionally, if you played the remakes(I highly enjoyed all 3)..you would see her actual physical appearance change from game to game, gaining muscle and more masculine features, the dev even had an interview talking about her change..this Laura that you see in this new artwork was always the end game.

Tomb Raider, Rise of the Tomb Raider, and then Shadow, all the same Laura as she gets more experienced, to finally become the iconic version, with the 2 guns and short shorts.

[-Foxtrot]

Great artwork but please…this unified timeline shit sounds awful

It won’t work

Classic Lara and Survivor Lara have completely different origin stories meaning they are two separate timelines you can’t unify together

I really don’t want Survivor Lara anywhere near Classic Lara.

[thesoftware730]

Survivor Laura in the remakes was a better character imo lol.

But, they can infact retcon, and unify everything. Take note of the remakes, they were always leaning into Laura becoming the, 2 guns, short shorts wearing version, just a more fleshed out, better written and more believable version of the old one.

[-Foxtrot]

How? She just whined and whined

Then you think after her progress near the end of the first reboot game the sequel would continue that but she goes back to her old self

The same then happens in the third game but now she’s arrogant and a bit of an arsehole at times especially to Jonah.

First game - Become the Tomb Raider

Second game - Become the Tomb Raider

Third game - Become the Tomb Raider

They are completely different timelines they can’t be merged, even the origin stories are totally different

It’s just a bad idea

Make a new universe or continue the original one

[isarai]

As long as she had dual guns, and doesn't whine all the damn time. They really dropped the ball with the new lara, had such a good start and didn't know what to do with it.

[Christopher]

She wines a lot less in the 2nd and 3rd game (she's pretty solid on her goals in the 3rd), but, yeah, lots of whining in that first one. It's not that she whined, it's when she whined at times. At some point, you have to recognize you're not in Kansas anymore, but she still had some moments pretty late in the 1st game.

[thesoftware730]

She was new to Tomb Raiding in the first remake...she progressively became more confident, muscular and experienced in each game.

So the "whining" sort of made sense...even though I would call it inexperienced.

[OtterX]

Yea, I actually really loved the moment in 2013 Tomb Raider where Lara truly transforms into the badass, blows the fort doors down shouting "That's right, run you bastards! I'm coming for you all!"
https://www.youtube.com/wat...

I thought hey, there we go! She's become the Tomb Raider!

......bbbuuuuut then she reverts back to the whiney-ness immediately at the start of Rise of the Tomb Raider all over again. I never made it far enough for her to return to that confident Lara again, but the character evolution was just terrible IMO. Inconsistent.

[Lexreborn2]

Whining wasn’t my issue with Laura in new games. The issue I had was the extreme homicidal aspects of her, she went from “surviving” treacherous scenarios in the 1st one to just straight up going to action murdering trinity.

Even to the point of flooding an entire town to “stop” trinity. She murdered a crap ton of innocent people.

And she also wouldn’t listen to reason from anybody else for the sake of her goals. I could never fully attach to her and it’s why the 3rd game is still unfinished for me.

I also remember when they were supposedly designing gameplay that gave you options for stealth but 0 scenarios in the game truly allowed you to progress without killing a wave of enemies. So that was just flat false advertising for me.

[outsider1624]

Yeah she whines alot. You'd think by a third game..her whining would lessen but nope. Only reason i put it up with that..is because its a reboot and you know..before her roots.

No excuse now...

[BrainSyphoned]

The Call of Duty version?! Surely there is a Fortnite version they can use instead to really nail the feel.

[H9]

Yeah they could have done much better work on the face

[GoodGuy09]

Yes

[RiseNShine]

Looks good, i'm hopeful we're leaving behind the Fable 4 face fiasco aka FFFF.

[CrimsonWing69]

Looks great, honestly.

[Kingrizzy90]

here is me hoping they redo her face and im would like to see the tomb raider series go back to the roots,

[senorfartcushion]

So we are back to Tomb Raider: Legend? Good; that's the best design.

Didn't they already reveal this design in the anime and Call it Duty crossover event?

[DaleCooper]

Almost have it. Keep going CD.

[jznrpg]

This looks more like the original for sure.

[MeatyUrologist]

Looks pretty damned good. I actually liked the rise of the tomb raider model best but I think blending the old and new is a great idea.

[Kingrizzy90]

Thats actually not a bad idea a all, new and old, new lara but go back to her roots

[Demetrius]

I recently beat rise od the tomb raider definitely a good game, couldn't get into the 3rd cause of way too many puzzles became a chore it was a nice looking game tho but the puzzling took the fun out of it to me hopefully they come back hard with the next title

[RhinoGamer88]

Proportions are off for sure too large in the top and bottom...belly and breasts of a smaller sized woman.

[X-23]

It's good she can look like her, but the new Lara needs some actual personality to go along with the look otherwise she's just playing dress up. People always criticize how she looked in the Survivor reboot, but to be honest she was boring as a protagonist. It was fine for the first Survivor game as we're getting to know her and she's discovering herself, but afterwards she's supposedly engaging in all these things, but doesn't grow or develop at all.
I mean Survivor Lara couldn't even do somersaults and backflips she didn't really come across as very athletic are having the skill set of a gymnast or something.

This new Lara needs to evolve into a more seasoned explorer more like OG Lara.

[YourMommySpoils]

Lets face it, Stellar Blade, Eve is the new Lara, specially with that accent.

[Vengeance1138]

Looks like I was 100% spot on with this one, Crystal Dynamics just backpedalled! Due to the widespread backlash this art received. They will be changing the model, most likely to be more feminine and not look like a man.