I’ve been revisiting older games lately, but not retro games. I’ve been returning to that era of gaming that showed the world video games can take themselves seriously, and be taken seriously. I’m talking about the seventh generation of video games(2005 – 2017). I reckon Tomb Raider’s high-intensity reboot in 2013 is a great example of what many developers were doing in this generation. By 2013, many of the people working at Crystal Dynamics and Eidos Montreal, will have grown up with Lara Croft. This is more than just having nostalgia for something, and therefore putting in a lot of work. It’s that the nostalgia makes us work and toil however we can manage, to pull that old thing forward through time, and make it more fully realized with each press of the defibrillators.
I like to think of this Tomb Raider as Crystal Dynamics saying, “This is what we meant.” Because I don’t know about you, but my 9 year old imagination was totally picturing stuff like the reboot when I thought about what the rest of Tomb Raider must be like after the cave at the beginning.
I’m not really sure why I even decided to play this game. Whatever the impulse that made me install it one last time, I’m grateful for it. It’s just been a nice stroll down memory lane. When I originally played the game around release, I hadn’t quite yet destroyed my life by being so in my 20’s, and so my memory of Tomb Raider is a happy one from a happy time. This playthrough has been the one where I’ve most connected with Lara Croft. I’ve always appreciated her as a character, but this was the game where they made her human. I did enjoy seeing the new and improved Lara in 2013, and seeing her become the Tomb Raider, but I never fully registered her transformation from just some character that is recognizable, to a character that is a believable person. This is the same thing that Cory Barlog did with Kratos. Like my ex-girlfriend’s sucker fish that I ended up getting stuck taking care of, some of these characters grow beyond the tank they arrived in, and need to be transferred to a bigger tank. They’ve understood the assignment here, and absolutely nailed it. This game feels like Tomb Raider fully realized. You almost don’t need to make any more Tomb Raider games, but that’s a whole ‘nother kettle of ballparks.
Epilogue: I’m currently poised to get the platinum, but I’m in the classic “why the hell am I doing this?” territory of getting a platinum. I only need to mop up a few more odds and ends to pop the final “get everything” trophies, but first I need to do something that genuinely makes me question my life and what I’m doing with it. I need to get to level 60 in multiplayer, I’m currently level 49. I don’t think I really need to explain any further, you know what’s happening here.