Tomb Raider falls into the category of video games that defined my early adolescence, and if we want to be precise, the late 90s.
In particular, the second chapter, which I first encountered thanks to a demo published in the Italian magazine “Giochi Per Il Mio Computer” (quick ref also to another cool italian magazine with TR1 review here), was the first in the series to captivate me, thanks to the protagonist’s animations and the vast environments with natural and urban biomes, something simply never seen in the video game landscape until then.
I played the second and third chapters until I was exhausted, doing run after run, while the first, not being localized in our language, only got a few runs. It was easy back then to see the main inspiration, in terms of gameplay, for the authors of Tomb Raider, which was the Prince of Persia, which, especially in the second chapter, held my complete adoration, both in terms of setting and gameplay. The precise and intelligent platforming of Prince of Persia first and Tomb Raider later was satisfying and served the concept of the story perfectly.
Because, just like in Pop, in Tomb Raider the most interesting narrative aspect was undoubtedly the protagonist’s journey, surrounded by the desolate ambient noises, broken up occasionally by the main theme of the soundtrack, perfectly capable of conveying the atmosphere. And staying in the realm of storytelling, how can we not mention the characterization of the protagonist? In an era where female characters were still rare, Lara Croft was a perfectly characterized protagonist, apparently designed to charm male gamers, but in fact a perfect symbol of a strong, independent female presence, capable of wiping out gangs of criminals and monsters with the same tone with which Indiana Jones took out hordes of Nazis.
A lighthearted tone, therefore, perfectly in line with the narrative styles of the time, which I miss dearly today. And yes, because when I think of the latest iterations of Lara Croft in Tomb Raider (including the Netflix series), it seems obvious that the new developers of the saga have suddenly felt the need to make Lara Croft more “human”, full of guilt, afflicted by events, completely distorting the main characteristics of the original character. And although the new chapters of Tomb Raider haven’t displeased me from a production and gameplay point of view, seeing Lara whine every five minutes, making the violence of the adventure so realistic, always creates a sense of unease that I find difficult to explain.
The spirit of the adventure stories of the time (Indiana Jones, The Mummy) were forerunners of a narrative style devoid of any heaviness, the enemies fell like leaves, it’s true, but the thrill of the adventure never faded. Today’s fear of offending any individual or category or of negatively influencing the audience has made the stories sterile, lacking rhythm, focusing on elements that are of very little interest to me. And that’s why those 4-5 lines of dialogue from the old chapters are, to this day, far more interesting than the sermons of the more recent iterations, at least from my point of view. Fast forward to today: playing the remastered is a dream. They’ve fixed all the technical problems that had made those chapters age badly, as well as all of 3D video games around the year 2000. And I’m not talking about the controls, which are still perfect today (I’m referring to tank controls). I’m therefore very curious about what they will be able to do with the remastered 4, 5 and 6, already on my wishlist.
