| It all started with Lara Croft, Tomb Raider.
Her first appearance in the 1996 game developed by Toby Gard at England’s Core Design heralded two dramatic changes: first, it was one of the first video games to blend elements from multiple genres; second, it heralded a change in the way women would be seen and treated in pop culture.
Prior to Tomb Raider, games tended to be either adventure games like Myst (in which players solved puzzles to progress and reaction-time was not a factor), action games like Doom (the objective of which was to stay alive, not to solve anything), and platformers like Pitfall (which required running and jumping over obstacles to reach the exit).
Tomb Raider changed that by blending all three genres in one game. In Tomb Raider, Lara Croft must climb, jump, and swing her way past obstacles, shoot-and-destroy enemies, and solve complicated puzzles to access the secret chambers where the loot can be found.
But Tomb Raider suffered a decline with the 2003 release Angel of Darkness. Widely panned, it was thought to be the death of Croft. But other game designers had seen what Core Design had accomplished, and took things to the next level. Tomb Raider informed Ubisoft’s remakes of Jordan Mechner’s Prince of Persia games and Sony’s God of War game from David Jaffe.
Which brought everything full circle, because with Tomb Raider: Legend, the seventh game in the series, Eidos switched developers. Crystal Dynamics, in an attempt to recapture the magic of the franchise, learned from what Prince of Persia and God of War had done.
Crystal Dynamics also took great liberties with the character of Croft. They changed her proportions (an early live-action Lara Croft, actress and model Rhona Mitra, had breast implant surgery to more closely resemble the character) and altered her backstory to accommodate the Angelina Jolie films and a broader storyline.
Which means Croft, in all her pixellated prettiness, is a woman with a variable, floating history. How postmodern of her.
Tomb Raider also sparked a shift in how women were portrayed in media culture. Women aren’t simply objects needing to be saved like they used to be. Now, they are strong, independent protagonists who, as often as not, are the ones doing the saving.
So, in a sense, Lara Croft begat Buffy Summers (I know that the first incarnation of Buffy the Vampire Slayer was the feature film, which came out in 1992, but it didn’t impact pop culture the way the television series did, and I’m arguing that the television series might not have happened if it weren’t for the success of Lara Croft and Tomb Raider), slayer of vampires, who begat Sydney Fox, hunter of relics, who begat Sydney Bristow, super spy and double-agent, who begat Veronica Mars, sleuth and solver of crimes.
Lara Croft is a powerful role model for girls even if she is titillating and sexual. And boys don’t play Tomb Raider just because Lara kicks high, or stretches while she waits, or grunts when she exerts herself climbing a cliff. Boys like to play as Lara Croft because boys today aren’t afraid of strong, powerful, independent women, and they can actually identify with her.
In April, Lara Croft became a Guinness World Record holder not for most evildoers thwarted or artifacts recovered, but as most successful human video game heroine. Guinness praised her for "transcending the boundaries of video games and becoming a recognisable figure in mainstream society." And how.
Tomb Raider: Legend is available for 360, GameCube, PC, PS2, PSP, and Xbox, and is rated teen. |
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