The First Lady Returns

Copyright (c) Noelle Adams. All Rights Reserved.

April sees the return of Lara Croft, the undisputable First Lady of G aming, in Tomb Raider: Legend, exactly 10 years after the character made her social debut, so to speak, in the original Tomb Raider.  

I began this month’s column with the intention of focusing solely on the positive contributions made to gaming by the Tomb Raider series. Looking closer, however, it was impossible to ignore the fact that Tomb Raider reflects both good and bad gaming trends in the last decade.  

Tomb Raider’s obviously paved the way for more female leads in games. As a woman it was refreshing to finally play a character of my own sex, instead of a swaggering marine or burly barbarian. I’m sure I wasn’t alone in my feelings. It must be true even for girls who played Tomb Raider solely to swan dive Lara off the highest outcropping onto rocks below.  

Lara Croft was not a ditzy damsel, or feisty support character to aggravate the male lead. She was confident, intelligent, athletic and beautiful. Without Lara there may never have been the likes of Cate Archer in No One Lives Forever, Jade in Beyond G ood and Evil, or Syberia’s Kate Walker. Lara, initially, was a good role model.  

Unfortunately, as marketing gained importance in the gaming industry, its influence descended like smog to distort Lara as a character. The sense of her intelligence and independence were lost with the realisation that games could be sold simply by pimping her curves.  

If Lara Croft heads a family tree of female gaming leads, a branch of her descendents includes all those sultry bimbos with a double-D bra size, a wardrobe of bondage leather, and a desire to slash and shoot their way through innumerable opponents. Think Playboy-posing BloodRayne. Think Deathtrap Dungeon, which pushed sexist fantasies to their offensive extremes.  

In the case of Tomb Raider, fans saw through the ‘Sex Sells’ strategy. They grew disillusioned with how superficial changes in hairstyle, clothing and breast size were increasingly promoted to disguise increasingly bad games. This when the original Tomb Raider was an innovative game that fuel-injected the Action-Adventure genre into the 3D-era.  

Most disappointing of all was the mutilation of Lara’s history. Over 6 games she transformed from an adventurous loner who consciously deserted a life of plush privilege, into a Daddy’s girl paralysed without male assistance.  

This said, Tomb Raider’s greatest contribution to gaming was that it took the pastime mainstream. Postergirl Lara became the first female character to stand alongside game icons like Mario in the public consciousness. Tomb Raider’s popularity even helped establish the PlayStation as the most popular console of its time. Of course, such commercialism was unpalatable for many gamers who saw industry hunger for money driving all decisions regarding the series.  

Tomb Raider played a vital role in a decade of growing gaming acceptance. After years of character prostitution, I’m hopeful that Tomb Raider: Legend, even if borrowing wholesale from Prince of Persia and other hit Action-Adventure series, at least returns Lady Croft to her rightful, respectable place.