- This article is about the series. For the game, see Tomb Raider.
Tomb Raider is a series of video games, comic books and movies, centering around the adventures of the British archeologist Lara Croft. Since the release of the original Tomb Raider in 1996, the series developed into a lucrative franchise of related media, and Lara went on to become a major icon of the video game industry. Even Guinness Book of World Records have recognized Lara Croft as the "Most Successful Human Videogame Heroine" in 2006. Six games in the series were developed by Core Design, and one (the most recent) by Crystal Dynamics. All the games were published by Eidos Interactive, which holds the rights to the Tomb Raider trademark and characters. To date two movies, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life, have been produced starring Angelina Jolie as Lara Croft.
Lara Croft
- Main article: Lara Croft.
The central character in Tomb Raider is the hard edged, British archeologist Lara Croft, a female Indiana Jones in search of ancient treasures. According to the official backstory, Lara's interest in archeology was sparked at an early age, but her confinement to the upper society to which her parents belonged prevented her from actively taking up the profession. All this changed when, after a skiing trip in the Himalayas, her plane crashed and Lara was left to fend for herself as the sole survivor. The experience altered her life completely and she began to travel the world, learning about the ancient civilizations of the past. As a result, she was disowned by her father, Lord Richard (Henshingly) Croft, and she began to work as an archeologist for hire, acquiring artifacts and rare treasure for some of the most wealthy collectors in the world.
Lara was created by one-time Core designer Toby Gard, and grew out of a number of ideas discarded in early concepts. She appears almost invariably with short brown pants, a green top, holsters on both sides of her hip for dual wielded pistols and a small brown backpack. Over the course of the series, she has undergone minor adjustments, such as smoother facial features, reduced breast size and free moving hair.
Several real-life persons have taken on the role of portraying Lara Croft in flesh, most notably British actress Rhona Mitra (in the early days of the games' success), and Angelina Jolie in the Tomb Raider movies. In addition, playing Lara at game conventions is a popular type of modelling work, although the majority of fans feel that these women scarcely do justice to the character as they only tend to focus on the sexual side of the character.
Ten years after the release of the original game, Lara is still one of the most durable and recognizable video game characters. Alternatively viewed as a feminist icon or a sexist stereotype, the impact of her character on popular culture is undeniable.
Game features
Overview
The original game, titled Tomb Raider: Featuring Lara Croft, debuted on the PlayStation, Sega Saturn and PC. It was one of the titles responsible for PlayStation success in the mid 90s. The games present a world in 3D: a series of tombs, and other locations, through which the player must guide Lara. On the way, she must kill dangerous animals and other creatures, while collecting objects and solving puzzles to gain access to an ultimate prize, usually a powerful artifact. In later games, Lara's targets become predominantly human, which has sparked some criticism from gamers who feel the games became too violent.
Tomb Raider is an earlier example of the 3D genre. The game is a third-person shooter since Lara is always visible. The player's camera follows her, usually over her shoulder or from behind. Up until Tomb Raider Legend the game was characterized by the cubic nature of the world in which Lara inhabits. Ledges, walls and ceilings sit at 90 degrees to each other, although the game designers use some clever tricks to make this less obvious.
A reason for this orthogonality can be explained by the fact the creators took the 2D platform game genre and extended it to a 3D world. This is shown through Tomb Raider's gameplay, which is very reminiscent of older platform games like Prince of Persia and Flashback that had a heavy focus on timed jumping interspersed with combat. Each game has introduced new weapons and moves; by the fourth game, Lara could backflip off ropes and turn around in mid-air to grab a ledge behind her. The most recent game, Tomb Raider: Legend, introduced a grappling hook that Lara can use to make her own rope-swings, and also attack enemies Indiana-whip style.
Standard moves in Lara's range of abilities include the somersault, a roll, climbing techniques, the ability to swim, a dive maneuver and a handstand. The last two abilities are purely aesthetic and serve no other function in the game. In Tomb Raider III, a sprinting move was introduced that allowed Lara to quickly speed up while a bar in the lower corner of the screen drained her stamina.
The storyline is usually driven by the quest for a powerful artifact, with Lara in a race against a sinister shadow league who want to obtain the relic for their own purposes. These artifacts usually possess mystical powers and may be of supernatural, or even alien, origin.
Timeline
The following versions have been released so far, listed in chronological order:
- Tomb Raider (1996) - PlayStation, Sega Saturn, PC, N-Gage, Pocket PC
- Tomb Raider: The Atlantean Scion
- Tomb Raider: Unfinished Business (Tomb Raider Gold)
- Tomb Raider II (1997) - PlayStation, PC, Mac
- Tomb Raider: The Dagger of Xian
- Tomb Raider: The Golden Mask
- Tomb Raider III (1998) - PlayStation, PC, Mac
- Tomb Raider: Adventures of Lara Croft
- Tomb Raider: The Lost Artifact
- Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation (1999) - PlayStation, Sega Dreamcast, PC, Mac
- Tomb Raider Chronicles (2000) - PlayStation, Sega Dreamcast, PC
- Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness (2003) - PlayStation 2, PC
- Tomb Raider: Legend (2006) - PlayStation 2, Xbox, Xbox 360, PC, PSP
In addition to these Tomb Raider games, there are 2D versions on the Game Boy Color handheld console:
- Tomb Raider: The Nightmare Stone (2000)
- Tomb Raider: Curse of the Sword (2001)
and one for the Game Boy Advance:
- Tomb Raider: Prophecy (2002)
List of Tomb Raider games
Tomb Raider
In Tomb Raider, adventurer Lara Croft has been hired to recover the pieces of an ancient artifact known as the Scion. After returning from a hunting trip in the Himalayas, Lara Croft is contacted by Jacqueline Natla, a conniving businesswoman who convinces her to recover a mysterious artifact from the tomb of Qualopec in Peru. Wasting no time, Lara sets out on her quest to recover what she later discovers to be only a fragment of the ancient Atlantean Scion, a talisman of incredible power. After discovering the fragment, things get ugly when Lara finds herself face to face with one of Natla's hired goons, who informs her that she has possession of only one third of the artifact. Using her cunning wits and athletic strength, Lara escapes. As she delves into the reasons why Natla would double-cross her, she uncovers a mystery that reaches back before the dawn of recorded time to the treachery that destroyed the Atlantean civilization and the disasters that struck the world when it fell.
Lara visits:
- Vilcabamba: A civilization that flourished for hundreds of years in the Peruvian rainforests of South America. Guide Lara through the lost Incan city while battling wolves, bats, bears, raptors, and more.
- Europe: The Golden Age of Greece, and later Rome. Here Lara battles lions, alligators, crazy monkeys and more as she explores ruins of this ancient civilization. She also races within the Labyrinth for the second piece of the Scion with a man named Pierre DuPont, who unfortunately entered before Lara did.
- Egypt: Where the vast power of Egypt rose with the pyramids. Lara explores buried pyramids and a hidden sphinx while fighting pumas, crocodiles, and some surprising mystical monsters.
- Atlantis: The pyramid of Atlantis where the mystery unfolds.
- The interior of Lara's home is also present as a training level.
Tomb Raider II
In Tomb Raider II, Lara searches for The Dagger of Xian: an artifact hidden in an ancient Emperor's palace within the Great Wall of China. Legend has it that whoever drives the Dagger of Xian into their heart, acquires the power of the Dragon. Three parties covet this dagger — but for entirely different reasons. Lara Croft, forever the adventurer, is one of these. On her travels she will encounter the other two.
Lara visits:
- The Great Wall of China where Lara will fight tigers, birds and spiders to find the doors of the Emperor's palace.
- Venice where Lara will swim through the city canals and visit Bartoli's Hideout and an opera.
- An Offshore Rig, from which Lara must find a way out.
- The wreck of the Maria Doria, taking Lara underwater to a ship wreck.
- Tibetan Foothills with their cold climate.
- Temple of Xian where the mystical dagger is found.
- Lara's home is also present as a training level and as the final level, with an external training ground and a maze.
Tomb Raider III
Tomb Raider III opens millions of years ago, when a meteor survived the plunge through the Earth's atmosphere, impacting the then-warm climate of Antarctica. The first people to discover this land were a tribe of Polynesians. Despite the now-freezing conditions, there was an abnormal abundance of life and the tribe settled, worshipping the meteorite crater for the powers it appeared to hold. Generations later, though, catastrophic events forced them to flee in terror. Today, the same area is being excavated by the research company RX Tech, who are picking up unusual readings from the meteorite's impact zone. It is in this zone that they uncover the body of a sailor from Charles Darwin's voyage on the Beagle. It seems a few of his sailors had explored the interior of the crater.
Following a story from one of the sailors' journal, RX Tech have started to take a particular interest in not only the crater area, but other parts of the globe where the sailors traveled to...and died in. One of these places is India - where Lara is currently searching for the legendary Infada artifact. Unaware of its true history, she only knows that in local beliefs it was supposed to hold great powers and has been revered by tribes there throughout the years. Soon she will discover a whole lot more.
Lara visits:
- India. This part of the game takes Lara into a jungle and then into a mystical temple ruins. She also rides along the river Ganges and goes into the caves of Kaliya.
- South Pacific Islands. Among beautiful scenery Lara fights tribal warriors, finds a crashed plane, goes kayaking and goes into the Temple of Puna.
- Nevada where Lara tries to get into the secret Area 51.
- London. Lara crosses rooftops, goes down into the London Underground metro system and later visits the British Museum.
- Antarctica. Lara travels through the mines into the Lost City of Tinnos and then to the meteorite cavern where the story ends.
- Lara's home is also present as a training level.
Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation
In Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation, Egyptian legend tells of Horus, son of the light, who outwitted the evil god Set and imprisoned him in a secret tomb. Five thousand years later, Lara Croft discovers the lost tomb and unwittingly unleashes the evil god, fulfilling the ancient prophecy of his return to plunge mankind into darkness. In a race against time, Lara must use all of her wit and skill to reimprison Set and save the world from Armageddon. Pursued at every turn by her arch-rival, the unscrupulous archaeologist Werner Von Croy, Lara embarks on a journey of discovery across Egypt, where she must overcome the most ingenious puzzles and infernal traps ever devised, and face terrifying evil from beyond the grave...
Lara visits:
- Cambodia. Young Lara is trained by her mentor Werner Von Croy in how to pass obstacles of the Angkor Wat temple.
- Egypt. The rest of the game takes place here. Lara visits many places: inter alia, the Tomb of Set, the Valley of the Kings, the Temple of Karnak, the Hypostyle Hall, the Tomb of Semerkhet, Alexandria, the Temple of Poseidon, the Lost Library, the Temple of Isis, Cleopatra's Palaces, the Sphinx Complex, Menkaure's Pyramid, The Mastabas, the Great Pyramid and the Temple of Horus. She will also ride a train.
Tomb Raider Chronicles
Tomb Raider Chronicles begins just a few days after The Last Revelation. Lara's body has never been found, but she is presumed dead. After her burial ceremony, three old friends of Lara, Jean Yves, Winston and Father Patrick Dunstan, reminisce about Lara's earlier adventures. The game consists of four new sub-adventures that bring Lara back in time to Rome, a small Irish island, a high-tech building and a Russian submarine. Each adventure has its own feel and characteristics. In Ireland Lara has to find her way without any weapons, whereas the Russian sub can be compared to an episode of the X-files. Rome is said to be the classical Tomb Raider action, and in the high tech building the keyword is stealth.
Lara visits:
- Rome where she fights lions and gladiators to recover the original Philosopher's Stone.
- Russia where Lara breaks into a military base and then into a submarine in order to find the Spear Of Destiny.
- Ireland where a teenage Lara steals away on a boat bound for the Black Isle, facing ghosts and evil spirits once she arrives.
- In the VC Industries building Lara fights her way to the artifact called the "Iris" which had been taken from the Angkor Wat Temple by Werner Von Croy in The Last Revelation, during the training level set when Lara was 16.
Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness
In Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness Lara becomes a fugitive, accused of the murder of her former mentor, Werner Von Croy. Pursued by the police, she follows clues left behind by Von Croy and unravels the mysteries surrounding a series of grisly murders called the Monstrum killings — of which Von Croy's is only one. The trail of murders and strange occurrences in the Paris underworld brings Lara into conflict with a dark Alchemist named Eckhardt and a sinister alliance of powerful dark sorcerers (or alchemists) called the Cabal. At the center of these mysteries are the Obscura Paintings - five 14th century pieces of religious art that Eckhardt is desperate to reposses. The paintings are said to conceal pieces of a powerful artifact which is said to have the power to revive the Sleeper: the last of the ancient Nephilim race, offspring of humans and angels, originating in Turkey. Lara must now find the remaining paintings and stop Eckhardt.
Lara visits:
- Paris, where Lara runs from the police, meets Von Croy's friend Margot Carvier, goes to a club, and finally visits the Louvre and a secret tomb beneath it.
- Prague, where Lara needs to get into Mathias Vasiley's apartment (he is the victim of a Monstrum Killing, and is mentioned in Von Croy's notes).
- The Bio Research Facility. This features the first level in the Tomb Raider series where the player plays a different viewpoint character, Kurtis Trent. On the way to Eckhardt's Lab the player visits the Vault of Trophies - an underwater cave with gigantic statues.
Tomb Raider: Legend
In Tomb Raider: Legend, Lara will find herself globe-trotting as usual, rivalled every step of the way by corrupt forces led by a nemesis from her past, Amanda Evert, as she searches for a valuable English artifact.
Lara visits:
- Bolivia, Peru, Tokyo, Ghana, Kazakhstan, Cornwall, England, and Nepal
Tomb Raider: Legend is the first Tomb Raider game to have been developed by a different developer, Crystal Dynamics. Core Design were the developers of the previous Tomb Raider games however, they were sacked by Eidos due to the poor reception of The Angel of Darkness. Lara's original creator, Toby Gard, also worked on Tomb Raider: Legend. Toby left Core after the first game due to creative differences between himself and Core executives in regard to Lara's over-sexualized image.
Future Installments
The success of Legend makes it very likely that Crystal Dynamics will return with an 8th installment in the Tomb Raider series. No details have been revealed just yet, but most fans are expecting a continuation of the Legend storyline with Lara searching for her mother, a quest involving the realm of Avalon. Tomb Raider 8 is likely to be released on Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and PC in 2007. Rumoured developments include a longer story mode and larger Croft Manor with outside area. Core Design, who were replaced as the creators of the Tomb Raider series, were working on a 10th anniversary edition of Tomb Raider, but have confimed on their official website that the project has been cancelled by SCi [1].
Tomb Raider Level Editor
The Tomb Raider Level editor is a tool released by Eidos with the game Tomb Raider Chronicles in late 2000. Since then it has enabled players to design new levels of their own, set in locations from the original games or in new locations.
In the years after its initial release, there have been many programs released by amateurs designed to enhance and expand the level-editor's capabilities. These "tools" enable a designer to create and sort their own texture files, and to change, create, combine, or animate objects and sounds in a level, among other things. Some people are involved with the level editor, but never actually build levels. Instead, they compose high-quality music, provide voice-overs, design outfits, enemies, and objects for use by any level-builder. In fact, modified versions of outfits and objects appearing in the two most recent Tomb Raider games, The Angel of Darkness and Tomb Raider: Legend, appeared before the games themselves hit the shelves.
In the middle of year 2003, members of the Eidos Tomb Raider forums held a petiton requesting Eidos to release the Tomb Raider Level Editor source code. This petition, started by the forum moderator, Dhama, was a failed attempt. Even though it was ignored by Eidos, hundreds continued to sign it until the end of 2004.
The Level Editor Community is still very active, and high quality level sets are released every few months. Many have observed that the custom levels look better than the official levels, because they are built with passion by the fans themselves. Currently there are more than one thousand six hundred custom levels released on the internet and there are many highly anticipated levels which are in the making. Level designers often release previews of their levels, using screen-shots and movies.
Each month, the German Tomb Raider community website, Lara's Levelbase publishes an online magazine about upcoming levels and interviews, called the Tomb Raider Tribune.
Even before the official Level Editor was released, an unofficial Level Editor had been designed by Tomb Raider fans. This impressive creation had been growing alongside with the official community, but was often considered forgotten, though there are many unofficial custom levels, including some for Tomb Raider Chronicles.
Movies
Most recently, the idea of Tomb Raider was extended beyond being just a video game, including the 2001 movie Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and the 2003 sequel Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life, both starring Angelina Jolie.
A fair percentage of fans of the game argue that the movie adaptations are a poor tribute to their video game heritage, though Jolie, after some initial published criticism mostly centered around her being an American playing a British character, was considered an ideal choice for the role of Lara Croft.
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001)
A member of a rich British aristocratic family, Lara Croft is a "tomb raider" who enjoys collecting ancient artifacts from ruins of temples, cities, etc. worldwide, and doesn't mind going through death-defying dangers to get them. She is skilled in hand-to-hand combat, weapons training, and foreign languages - and does them all in tight outfits.
The planets of the solar system are going into astronomical conjunction (which occurs every 5,000 years), and a secret society called the Illuminati is seeking an ancient talisman called The Triangle of Light that gives its possessor the ability to control time. The Illuminati need a certain clock/key called the All-seeing Eye to help them in their search, and they have to find it in one week or wait for the next planetary alignment to find it again which will be in another 5,000 years. Lara happens to find the All-seeing Eye hidden in a wall of her mansion. The Illuminati steal it, and Lara gets an old letter from Lord Richard Croft, her deceased father, telling her about the society's agenda (Her father was a defected member, who hid the key). Now, she must retrieve the key and find and destroy the talisman before the Illumanti can get their hands on it.
Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life (2003)
Lara Croft returns in the sequel to the original video game based film. This time, she is trying to find Pandora's Box which supposedly contains one of the deadliest plagues on Earth, before evil scientist Jonathan Reiss can get his hands on it. The key to finding the Box, which is hidden in the mysterious Cradle of Life, is an orb that is supposed to be some type of a map. When Croft goes to get the orb, it is stolen by Reiss' henchman and so she recruits an old friend, Terry Sheridan, a former mercenary who had spend his last couple of years in prison in Siberia, to come to help. Lara and Terry embark together on an adventure that spans continents in an attempt to regain the orb.
Tomb Raider 3 (working title)
Plans for a third movie were revealed in early 2004, but according to CNN they were ultimately cancelled by distributors Paramount Pictures, due to the box office failure of Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life the previous year. However, a third Tomb Raider film has been reportedly to go underway. What could come as a shock to Tomb Raider fans, as the second Tomb Raider film, Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life, bombed in theaters and a previous report released shortly after stating that a third film was scrapped, IGN has reported on April 20th, 2006 however, that Tomb Raider III is on the drawing board, and Angelina Jolie is going to be reprising her role as Lara Croft. In the article, Ian Livingstone, co-founder of Eidos and creator of Tomb Raider is quoted as saying in a British tabloid newspaper, The Daily Express, "Paramount has optioned [Tomb Raider III] and Angelina has agreed to star in the third." A source tells The Daily Express that "Angelina is already in training to make sure she gets rid of her post-pregnancy bulge," and "She wants to be in tip-top shape and look better in Lara's outfit than ever." It is currently unknown when production will start on Tomb Raider III.
(Source: http://filmforce.ign.com/articles/702/702457p1.html)
Comic books
Tomb Raider has been licensed to Top Cow Productions, which has published a large number of Tomb Raider stories in comic book form since 1999. There have also been frequent crossovers with other Top Cow publications such as Fathom, The Darkness, and Witchblade.
The debut issue of Tomb Raider was the number one-selling comic book of 1999.
Original novels
Ballantine Books, in conjunction with Eidos, began publishing a series of original novels based upon the video game in the spring of 2004, beginning with The Amulet of Power by Mike Resnick, which was followed by The Lost Cult by E. E. Knight in August 2004 and the violent The Man of Bronze by James Alan Gardner in January 2005. These books generally follow the continuity of the video games (particularly Angel of Darkness) rather than the movies, although Lost Cult does contain a couple of oblique references to Cradle of Life. Man of Bronze differs from the first two books in that it is told in first person from Lara Croft's point of view; it is also considerably more violent.
Ballantine's contract only called for three novels, and it is not yet known if the book series will continue.
External links
- Tomb Raider - Official site.
- Tomb Raider Chronicles - Lara Croft pictures, news and media.
- The History of Tomb Raider
- The Croft Codex - The one and only high-quality website for TR fan fiction.
- Tomb Raider all releases.
- Lara Croft Online Tomb Raider: Tomb Raider 7 - News, pictures, downloads, and an active forum.
- TRSearch - Unofficial site about level editor
- Tomb Raider Community: Tomb Raider Legend
- Tomb Raider Girl
- Tomb Raider Inc.
- Tomb Raider Central.Net - Fantastic Source For All Tomb Raider: Legend Related Material.
- Codename-Croft.com - Tomb Raider game help, news, all things Lara Croft/Tomb Raider
- Tomb Raider Series at MobyGames
- Croft Storm - A place to show off your Tomb Raider fan work
- Lydia's Games Site - Information on the new game as well as everything you need to know about the earlier games.
- Free Raiders
- Tomb Raider Link Directory - Large directory of Tomb Raider website links
- WikiRaider.com