NEWS
by Mark Barley
Tomb Raider Rebooted To Make Lara Croft Relevant Again
Crystal Dynamics has stated recently that the reason they are rebooting the Tomb Raider franchise was due to Lara Croft becoming "irrelevant".
The developer's brand director Karl Stewart, speaking with RockPaperShotgun, stated;
“I think Lara’s a beloved character and Crystal has really enjoyed their time they’ve been able to spend with her."
“We felt she was losing some relevance in the gaming world, that she was a little too hard and removed. We wanted to make her more approachable and relatable. I think this was a perfect time for us to reimagine the franchise, taking Lara back to her roots.
“I think it’s growing to be a great way for players to learn to reknow who Lara is, retell her story.”
Stewart talked about the need to make Lara Croft imperfect, to show her flaws as a character in order for her character to grow. “We felt she was losing some relevance in the gaming world, that she was a little too hard and removed. We wanted to make her more approachable and relatable. I think this was a perfect time for us to reimagine the franchise, taking Lara back to her roots.
“I think it’s growing to be a great way for players to learn to reknow who Lara is, retell her story.”
“I think she became an icon. When you do, you remove yourself from relatability. We wanted to bring her to a place where she didn’t have all those skills, she wasn’t perfect. The modern gamer can relate to that, they want a complex hero,” he said.
“I think Lara had done all the growing she could. We’d taken her to a great place, to somewhere she had some closure. There weren’t really many more stories we could have told. So we feel like with this new place we have fertile ground and there’s a lot of places we can go.”
Tomb Raider is out next fall for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.
“I think Lara had done all the growing she could. We’d taken her to a great place, to somewhere she had some closure. There weren’t really many more stories we could have told. So we feel like with this new place we have fertile ground and there’s a lot of places we can go.”