Lara Croft (Alicia Vikander) is the independent daughter of an eccentric adventurer who mysteriously vanished when she was a teen. Determined to forge her own path, she refuses to take the reins of her father\u2019s global empire just as she rejects the idea that he\u2019s truly gone. Against her father\u2019s final wishes, Lara leaves everything she knows behind in search of her dad\u2019s last-known destination: a fabled tomb on a mythical island. Her mission will not be easy; just reaching the island will be extremely treacherous. Against all odds and armed with only her sharp mind, blind faith and inherently stubborn spirit, she must learn to push herself beyond her limits as she journeys into the unknown. If she survives this perilous adventure, she could earn the name Tomb Raider.
Tomb Raider, known as Lara Croft: Tomb Raider from 2001 to 2008, is a media franchise that originated with an action-adventure video game series created by British video game developer Core Design. The franchise is currently owned by CDE Entertainment; it was formerly owned by Eidos Interactive, then by Square Enix Europe after Square Enix's acquisition of Eidos in 2009 until Embracer Group purchased the intellectual property alongside Eidos in 2022. The franchise focuses on the fictional British archaeologist Lara Croft, who travels around the world searching for lost artefacts and infiltrating dangerous tombs and ruins. Gameplay generally focuses on exploration, solving puzzles, navigating hostile environments filled with traps, and fighting enemies. Additional media has been developed for the franchise in the form of film adaptations, comics and novels.
The gameplay of Tomb Raider is primarily based around an action-adventure framework, with Lara navigating environments and solving mechanical and environmental puzzles, in addition to fighting enemies and avoiding traps. These puzzles, primarily set within ancient tombs and temples, can extend across multiple rooms and areas within a level. Lara can swim through water, a rarity in games at the time that has continued through the series.[20][68][78][79] According to original software engineer and later studio manager Gavin Rummery, the original set-up of interlinking rooms was inspired by Egyptian multi-roomed tombs, particularly the tomb of Tutankhamun.[68] The feel of the gameplay was intended to evoke that of the 1989 video game Prince of Persia.[80] In the original games, Lara utilised a "bulldozer" steering set-up, with two buttons pushing her forward and back and two buttons steering her left and right, and in combat Lara automatically locked onto enemies when they came within range. The camera automatically adjusts depending on Lara's action, but defaults to a third-person perspective in most instances. This basic formula remained unchanged through the first series of games. Angel of Darkness added stealth elements.[78][79][81][82]
The gameplay underwent another major change for the 2013 reboot. Gameplay altered from progression through linear levels to navigating an open world, with hunting for supplies and upgrading equipment and weapons becoming a key part of gameplay, yet tombs were mostly optional and platforming was less present in comparison to combat. The combat was redesigned to be similar to the Uncharted series: the previous reticle-based lock-on mechanics were replaced by a free-roaming aim.[87] Rise of the Tomb Raider built on the 2013 reboot's foundation, adding dynamic weather systems, reintroducing swimming, and increasing the prevalence of non-optional tombs with more platforming elements.[88]
After the critical backlash of The Angel of Darkness, Eidos decided to take production of the Tomb Raider series out of Core Design's hands and give it to another subsidiary studio. Production of the next game was given to Crystal Dynamics in 2003, a studio that had made its name with the Legacy of Kain series.[79][95][96] Eidos CEO Ian Livingstone stated that while the critical failure of The Angel of Darkness was a major reason for taking the series away from Core Design, the decision was motivated by their inordinate struggles with developing for the PlayStation 2, and by how many members of the Core team had complained that they were "burnt out" on Tomb Raider. He added that "for a UK company, moving the development of its prized asset from Derby to California was a big decision to make but, as it turned out, absolutely the right one to make".[91] One of the main priorities for both Eidos and Crystal Dynamics was to regain the fanbase's trust in the brand, along with helping the series reclaim the status and selling power it had before The Angel of Darkness' release.[97] Their main goal was to put Lara back inside tombs, with their physics-based engine enabling more intricate puzzles.[83] Legend was well received, and was the first game in a rebooted trilogy.[98][99] After Legend was finished, the team decided to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the series by remaking the original game, rebuilding the environments and redesigning the story to fit in with the events and gameplay of Legend.[67][68] Alongside the development of Anniversary, an entry for seventh-generation hardware was in development, although it used established gaming architecture from Legend and this caused problems for the development team.[100] This released as Tomb Raider: Underworld in 2008.
During this period, a second development team was working on a second reboot of the series and character, which put emphasis on a darker and grittier interpretation of the character.[58][105] Another priority was presenting Lara as a more human character, putting her in vulnerable situations, and showing how she begins her journey to becoming a "tomb raider" through both narrative and gameplay.[106] The reboot, simply entitled Tomb Raider, was met with critical acclaim at launch in 2013, and became the start of the "Survivor Trilogy".[107][108] A sequel, eventually revealed as Rise of the Tomb Raider, was in development a few months after the reboot's release.[33][109] In response to criticisms about a lack of classic tombs, more optional and story-based tombs were incorporated into the game.[110] It continued the team's new portrayal of Lara, showing more sides to her character and her growing obsession with discovering the truth.[62] In 2018, Shadow of the Tomb Raider was released to coincide with a new film starring Alicia Vikander as Lara Croft, simply titled Tomb Raider, taking heavy inspiration from the 2013 game of the same name.[111][112] Shadow was developed by Eidos-Montréal as Crystal Dynamics completed Marvel's Avengers, though Crystal would provide secondary support. The game concluded Lara's origin story. A "Definitive Edition", featuring all 7 DLCs for Shadow was released in November 2019.[113]
Finding an account of a World War II era Japanese military expedition to the island that sought a way to harness the power of the storms as a weapon, Lara decides to explore an ancient tomb on the coast, where she finds the remains of a high-ranking samurai who had committed seppuku. It is revealed, in a message he left, that he was the general of the queen's Stormguard, the Oni that defend the monastery. The Queen's intended successor had taken her own life to prevent herself from receiving the Sun Queen's power, leaving the Queen trapped in her body after death, her rage manifested into the island storms. Lara realizes that the Ascension is not a ceremony to crown a new queen, but rather a ritual that transfers the original Sun Queen's soul into a new body, and that the process destroys the host's soul. Himiko's spirit wants to escape its current body, and Mathias plans to offer Sam as a new host. Lara returns to the survivors on the beach to find that Whitman has betrayed them, abducting Sam and handing her over to Mathias.
Nearly 17 years since developer Core Design dropped Lara Croft into her first tomb, a parade of sequels and major motion pictures have spawned, solidifying Tomb Raider as one of the most iconic video game franchises of all time.
Where as some titles might just have these side missions unlock concept art and the like, this XP can be used to upgrade Lara's weapons and abilities. Some locations even contain tombs that act as mini-levels to complete, awarding even more XP. Found an interesting item? Examine it closely and unlock a secret that'll net more XP. The whole experience is complemented by a beautifully stylized menu system that neatly lays out your completion percentages in everything that's possible in the game.
Lara Croft is a Tomb Raider, an archaeologist who explores ancient sites in search of valuable artifacts, who is hired to retrieve an artifact from a tomb in Peru, which turns out to be one of three parts of the Atlantean Scion. Soon betrayed by her employer, Lara Croft travels to Greece, Rome and Egypt to recover the other parts before this powerful device falls into the wrong hands.
The Sold-out version of this game is missing the audio tracks. There is however a "fix" for this by searching the web for stella's tomb raider site it has tons of info and patches on making this game work and including the missing audio.
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider dates itself terribly with its Y2K techno aesthetic and corny time-dilation tropes. Ancient civilizations such as those explored by Lara Croft or Indiana Jones were obsessed with miracles and mythology, not explicit science-fiction technology. The Holy Grail or Tomb Raider's Dagger of Xian can channel higher powers, but they don't create power. Ignoring this distinction runs the risk of misunderstanding why ancient tombs and temples are so engrossing in the first place.
Based on the 2013 video game, and featuring Alicia Vikander as the latest incarnation of a character who's been around for 22 years, "Tomb Raider" surprisingly plays like a throwback to the classic late-'80s/early '90s era of action filmmaking, represented by the likes of "Cliffhanger," "The Last of the Mohicans," the first couple of Indiana Jones films, and Jackie Chan's "Armour of God" series. From the animated prologue, wherein the title character's archeologist father, Lord Richard Croft (Dominic West), tells of an ancient, cursed tomb supposedly containing the all-powerful, weaponizable remains of the Japanese shaman queen Himiko, through its gracefully executed chases and emotional moments, to its finale set on an island riddled with booby-trapped ruins, "Tomb Raider" is better and more original than anyone could have expected.
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