Throwback Thursday - Tomb Raider (2013 series)

Welcome to another Throwback Thursday, our weekly look into my Top 100 games and general nostalgia.  While this blog is rated E for everyone's safe and enjoyable viewing, I should mention this week's throwback is rated M for Mature.  Parental discretion is advised for playing this game series.

Speaking of which, charting a course this week: The rebooting of the treasure looting explorer that is the 2013 Tomb Raider series.

Lara Croft, the female adventuring protagonist of the Tomb Raider series, has had a long and rich history since the release of the original Tomb Raider back in 1996.  She helped pioneer the industry for strong female characters, though was sadly also poorly portrayed with marketing for her sex appeal.  After nine entries churned out in rapid succession and a gradual decline in reprise, the series was handed off to Crystal Dynamics to revitalize the series.  With this, the decision was made to reboot the series and offer a new portrayal of Lara Croft, one that is more human and better depicts her rise to tomb raiding.  This reboot would come in the form of the aptly and simply named Tomb Raider, released on March 5th, 2013.

The new design of Lara Croft in the reboot of Tomb Raider features a now younger, but more determined and confident woman, who by the looks of it can persevere and has overcome many hardships.

As an aspiring archaeologist setting out on her first expedition to find a lost kingdom of Yamatai, Lara Craft and crew are caught in a sudden storm that shipwrecks and strands everyone on violent and mysterious island.  Lara must then fight to live and develop her survival skills in order to make her way through the island and solve its many mysteries.  The stunning visuals and incredible set pieces, coupled with some very talented voice acting and superb animation all make for an engaging story and experience, despite a few plot holes and inconsistencies between the narrative and game to game moments.  Where the game truly shines though is through its top-notch world exploration and gameplay mechanics.

The game begins with introducing the concept of survival mechanics, in which Lara must learn to hunt and collect resources from her natural surroundings.  Building on that, players then learn to apply these survival instincts towards exploration and combat, to which players can choose a stealthy tactics or a very heads-on approach.  Similar to that of a Metroidvania, players will obtain and learn new skills as they explore this interconnected island, which will then allow them to access previously blocked areas of the world.  And as players progress through the game, complete tasks, and collect treasures, they will gain experience allowing them to upgrade various hunting, survival, or combat skills.  Soon players will be scaling cliff side walls and shooting rapid fire arrows like nobody's business.  That isn't to say the island won't try to put up a challenge, as there are many a scenario of exhilarating and cinematic thrills.  Many of these are controlled by quick-time events and simple button presses, but they offer enough stunning animations and general excitement to be forgiven for their scripted sequential nature.

Lara zip-lines to what is a precariously placed aircraft on top a steep mountain.  What could go wrong?

The last and perhaps most important aspect of a Tomb Raider would have to be of course the actual tomb raiding.  Tombs act as small contained environments with a certain them and puzzle to overcome in order to reach their riches.  The neat aspect of this game is that there are both tombs required to progress through the game, as well as completely optional tombs in which players would need to explore the overworld to locate and find.  These tombs offer a nice change of pace to the game's fast paced action and demonstrate some great creativity in their tightly constructed designs.  The only real bummer to the tombs is that many are over too soon and you wish there were more to enjoy.  Thankfully, 2015's sequel, Rise of the Tomb Raider, delivers exactly that.

Released in the US on November 10th, 2015, Rise of the Tomb Raider delivers much of the same experience as the previous entry, strikingly so.  To the point that even the narrative even hits the exact same story beats.  That isn't to say this is necessarily a bad thing.  Just that there isn't much to discern to two games (much of the reason that they share the same spot on this Top 100 list).  The main difference is that this particular entry takes place in a much more frozen tundra and delivers a more polished experience, including many more tombs.  There are also more options in which to apply stealth tactics and Lara must now read ancient scripts and text to gain language experience in order decipher tougher inscriptions, which is a neat little addition that really adds to her character.  If you enjoyed the first game in this reboot, this is just more to love.  And there's nothing wrong with that.

Another precariously placed vehicle on a mountain top...wait, how did a boat get up there?

And with this, Lara Croft is once again a respected figurehead, pushing forward the path of the industry.  What holds next for our esteemed explorer?  It seems Crystal Dynamics has entered a new partnership with Marvel to take on producing games in their franchise.  But considering the tremendous success this Tomb Raider reboot has found, the 2013 entry selling 8.5 million copies alone, it's safe to say that she'll be back sooner than later.  And this time, as a fully realized tomb raider to be sure.