#jonah and lara's friendship is so cute

[myymi]

the au curse hit me hard, marie 😔

does it surprise anyone that i made tails lara

someone take the tomb raider games away from me before i make another au that makes 0 sense

[lesbianrobin]

You played Tomb Raider? What did you think of it, and did you see the movie? Did you play any of the sequels?

Yes!! I absolutely adore the 2013 Tomb Raider reboot. I haven't replayed any other game half as much, besides Life Is Strange, which is of course very replayable as a choice-based game. Something about Tomb Raider just settled right next to my heart and hasn't left since. I think it's kind of the perfect comfort game. It's enjoyably challenging without ever being punishing, and the various difficulty options allow for a breezy experience or a harrowing one as well if the player so chooses. I can't remember the term from my game design class a couple years back, but I think TR is excellent at maintaining a sense of immersion through its design, allowing players enough freedom to feel as though they're operating under their own volition without giving the player the opportunity to wholly forget about the plot of the game and spend hours screwing around getting collectibles. I love TR'S little challenges and collectibles! There's not an overwhelming Assassin's Creed level of shit to find, the challenges like burning banners are fun to do even if you aren't aiming for completion, and it's always exciting to find a new artifact or object belonging to your crewmates because you'll get some nice background information as well as insight into Lara's state of mind and her true enjoyment of studying history.

Obviously I love the Sam/Lara element of the game. The fact that the (somewhat homoerotic) friendship between two women was much of the plot's motivation for a large part of the game is just really unique, and I like the way that the game emphasizes Lara's human connections while still developing her as a fierce, formidable survivalist who can take down an army on her own if need be. And the ending... wow, that shit meant a lot to my lesbian little heart.

I did see the Alicia Vikander flick, and I was... underwhelmed and perplexed. They made a lot of odd decisions, and though I think they intended to tell a new story with clear inspiration from the game, it instead seemed as though the studio/writers/whoever couldn't make up their mind whether they wanted to follow the game's plot or not, which resulted in a bunch of odd borrowed elements shoved into a lackluster and poorly-paced plot. You expect action and fun ancient setpieces from Tomb Raider, and as I recall the film spent a confusing amount of time more or less dicking around in modern urban environments. Alicia Vikander was pretty good, though, very hot and badass, and the dude with the boat was cute, so that's nice, I guess. They either should have gone with a condensed version of the game's plot (starting off with the boatwreck, following Lara as she's separated from her documentary group, struggles to survive, and ultimately rescues Sam) or written an entirely new story. Instead they managed to make Yamatai boring as hell, they stripped Lara of much of the depth and humanity she had in the game by cutting out her entire supporting cast and making her an island from the start, and in my opinion they squandered a talented and well-cast lead. Vikander absolutely could have helmed a new franchise, more grounded and markedly different than Angelina Jolie's, but they gave her a weird lame plot and now we're unlikely to ever see her reprise the role.

I did play both Rise of the Tomb Raider and Shadow of the Tomb Raider. I have some real issues with both games, but they are both absolutely gorgeous and fun to play. They both have settings and cutscenes that linger in my mind for their beauty and excitement. My primary gripe is the expansion of open-world elements and the addition of sidequests. Now, while sidequests in Rise were generally clunky and felt pointless, I did enjoy a lot of the sidequests in Shadow, so I think they did improve on their design, but my issue is that not every AAA game needs to be open-world! The stakes in Tomb Raider are quite literally apocalyptic, so it feels pretty ridiculous for Lara to be helping some rando find their lost chickens when the world is gonna end in, like, a day if she doesn't go to this tomb and do some shit. I love TR because it feels immersive to me, and while conventional wisdom often assumes that open world = immersion because player freedom lets them project more wholly onto the protagonist, that just isn't the case when the degree of player freedom disrupts and undermines the game's own plot.

My second-biggest issue is the total exclusion of Sam in both games. It's nice that Jonah sticks around, and it makes sense that Sam may be incredible traumatized and not fit to go on adventures with Lara, but she was the driving force behind Lara's determination in the latter half of the game, and it just feels weird for her to be nothing more than a footnote in the sequels. Lara doesn't feel quite as human with only Jonah's constant company (BTW it's absolutely insane the lengths he goes to for her and they're lucky they made him such a lovable guy or it would feel ridiculous and strain credulity) and the implications that she's essentially cut or lost all ties aside from him. While it was definitely intentional to make Lara's character more troubled and isolated as her adventures went on, I just don't think it was accomplished quite as well as it might have been. Rise and Shadow have high stakes, as well as interesting plots and plenty of human drama, but I find myself missing Lara at times. She's still there! She still has her moments of incredible kindness, of awe and excitement when she finds something extraordinary, but it just feels to me like something's missing, perhaps because of the increased scope of the disasters she faces.

Ultimately, I think all three games are excellent and enjoyable, and Rise/Shadow really stepped things up in just about every technical aspect, but there's some little bit of soul in TR that means it'll always be my favorite. I could probably say a lot more, but I guess that's all for now. Thanks for the ask!