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Lara Faces Family-Friendly Redesign
Eidos is suggesting that the modern videogame icon Lara Croft may undergo a more family friendly redesign.
The publisher’s suggestions have come forward as the recent release of Tomb Raider: Underworld missed sales expectations by some £20 million, while developer Crystal Dynamics has been subjected to layoffs to focus the team's output to the core IP.
It is suspected that Lara’s popularity – as a character – is fading particularly in the US. And, as the commercial success of all Tomb Raider games have always had a degree of dependence on Lara’s image, this may prompt a fresh face for the heroine in her next title.
“We need to look at everything, as we develop the next game. Look at how Batman changed succesfully, from the rather sad character of the Michael Keaton era to the noir style of The Dark Knight,” said Eidos CFO Robert Brent, speaking to British broadsheet The Times.
The Tomb Raider franchise has been through a popularity rollercoaster in its 12 years, hitting the heights of Lara’s image on the cover of the (now defunct) lifestyle magazine and “fashion bible” The Face, while the heroine’s sixth adventure, The Angel of Darkness, was critically panned and failed to make an impact at the retailers.
The franchise then enjoyed a revival as its development moved from Core Design to Californian outfit Crystal Dynamics, which released Tomb Raider: Legend in 2006 to critical praise and commercial success.
Now, as Crystal Dynamics’ Tomb Raider: Underworld missed its sales targets – despite positive reviews – Eidos is pondering that Lara’s image needs to cater to different markets.
Lara enthusiasts will no doubt know that the full-figured archaeologist had previously gone under the knife to more directly appeal to her current audience.
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Copyright 2006 - 2009 Future Publishing Limited, Beauford Court 30 Monmouth Street Bath, UK BA1 2BW
England and Wales company registration number 2008885
I'll miss big-boobed Lara. I am not an outright fan of the series but I have always had a soft spot (no puns intended, however far-fetched) for her character. Sure, it's all Very Wrong if you want to be all PC about it, but we have grandmothers anf feminists for that (an now my girlfriend is gonna kick my ass). Besides, Lara's tomb-robbing ways have always struck me as more immoral than her hotpants. As has her habit of speeding along all those creatures on their way to extinction. May she jangle her mammaries for years to come.
The first Tomb Raider game was very good in its time. It had some moderate action and lots of environment exploration and interaction. It was new in itself, at least in 3D. The character of Lara Croft was the cherry topping, nothing more. She neither made the game better, nor worse, all she contributed was free advertisement due to "big breast attention whoring".
Time has passed and the game is not that good anymore, other franchises have taken over. Especially Uncharted is a better game. Eidos can't compete with that by sticking some plastic boobs to an inferior product. No Lara Croft redesign is going to change that. Games are sold either on being really good games, or having really big licenses, such as Star Wars or professional sporting leagues and their idols. Lara Croft is not in that territory, she can't carry a game. Because she never was loved for being Lara, she was dragged in front of us for our amusement. We laughed at her more than with her. In the last years, so many mediocre products have been marketed only on her name, that nobody thinks of quality anymore when we hear Croft. She is nothing more than a sideshow freak attached to questionable games. A distractions we are supposed to look at when making our purchasing decision.
Uncharted surpasses Tomb Raider not only on issues of camera, combat & pacing but on virtually every level. Its slick, accessible and certainly looks better. Uncharted 2 is upping the ante even more, Eidos seem incapable of addressing series-long issues. Sure Naughty Dog might gain its inspirations from sources but they have a uncanny knack of making a better job of it.
From now on for me its Uncharted forever - its looking the most interesting evolution of the action-platformer. And given the recent news about poor sales it shows clearly the hardcore can no longer be arsed with the house of Croft.
Yaknowk, I tried the demo for Underworld ... maybe it was Legend? (after not playing any since #2) and the thing that really got me was:
janky control scheme (some of those jumps were overly fiddly)
nausea inducing camera movement (some games just get to me - this is one of em)
and
Horrifically unclear pathing / progression within the level (I didn't know where the hell to go!)
So making an unclear, frustrating AND puke inducing game doesn't seem like a good way to make money.
eh, let her die. She's never been anything special. How long can big boog novelty really last!
The reviews weren't THAT positive... I think it's the gameplay that needs a redesign, though I suppose making Lara a bit more realistic would be all right, too. Making her more cartoony is not the answer.
This seems to me to be a refusal by Edios to accept responsibility for over-conseravtive design and a badly out-dated engine. It's the recent games that have done this, not Lara.
For better or worse Lara is one of gamings biggest and most recognisable brands, and substantially messing with her could be a mistake. Edios would be much better redisigning the engine so that the combat isn't the totally skilless, random, insulting and frankly shite pile that it currently is.
TR's current standard of platforming and exploration is fine, I and others I know enjoy it plenty. But the whole affair is badly tainted by the random combat and totally AL-less NPCs. They really haven't changed since the PS1 original, human enemies walk set paths and return fire while unflinchingly absorbing 50 rounds, animals charge at you in a straight line (also absobing rounds) resulting in point blank circling, firing and falling over with the camera pointed in the wrong direction. She's supposed to be skilled and agile yet the appalling mess of combat is just embarassing.
They can re-design Lara all they want but if the 1990-odd game mechanic remains the same it's all wasted effort.
Having played the demo of Underworld after not playing any of the games since the first one all those years ago i was pretty surprised to see the combat hasn't really moved on in the slightest. I would agree that this is really the only seriously broken bit of gameplay (from the limited amount of gameplay i have seen).
If Eidos are wishing to pander to the tastes of female gamers, just plonk her into a pair of Ugg boots.
I wonder what they have in mind with "family-friendly". Wouldn't it be better to design a new character instead of trying to force Lara Croft into all sort of directions that will potentially alienate fans and might very well not attract new players at all? The reason the game sold "poorly", I think, is because 2008 had a lot of good releases/competition.