As a rare evergreen tree in the gaming world, the Tomb Raider series from 1996 to the present has accompanied us for 25 years. In this ever-changing industry, not actively innovating and changing means death and decline, and although the old IP that can accompany players for decades has existed, but now it can have such a strong vitality, all of them have undergone restarts and changes ("God of War" series, "Fallout" series, "Resident Evil" series). What is the core of the genes of the Tomb Raider series, and what helps it stand out? Let's go back to November 1996 and look back at the past and present lives of this series.
Blockbuster
The Tomb Raider series was developed by the "Core Design" studio founded in 1988, and although the studio is now closed, the young people in the studio at that time were talented, relaxed and communicative, and more like a community than a game studio. The studio is filled with artistic and technical speculation. In 1996, they were acquired by Edios, a company that had just entered the game industry, and took over the development of the first project, which immediately became a global hit, which was Tomb Raider. The original 7 million copies were enough to illustrate how successful the game was at the time, and Laura became the face of the video game.
The success of the original Tomb Raider is so great that the two main factors cannot be separated,
1. Advanced and excellent 3D expression technology and levels
2. Lara's natural advantage as a female character in the theme of adventure
It's hard to judge what 1996 was, but the times and sales speak volumes for the groundbreaking success of Tomb Raider. In the last century of the horizontal board pass scroll, in a 3D game, you can run, jump, shoot, decrypt and run stably at the same time, which is enough. No other reason is needed, this is a good, avant-garde, highly technical game. You know, at that time, Nintendo had just launched its first 3D Mario game " Super Mario 64 " .
More importantly, "Tomb Raider" created the first female protagonist in the history of video games, and the theme is an adventure and decryption theme that contrasts with women. This was a pioneering feat at the time, and the image of Laura became an insurmountable peak in history. Edios is also very clever, squeezing the value of Laura's character in the development and cooperation of the ip sequel afterwards. Indeed, there are very few games that, like Tomb Raider, have almost all of their resources focused on one person. In the world of gaming, perhaps only Mario can touch Laura in name only.
In short, the above two points laid the foundation of the Tomb Raider series, and are also the tradition and bloodline of the series to this day. The technical ability and level design of the Tomb Raider series have always been in the first echelon, and the classic image of Laura continues to this day. It's normal not to have played Tomb Raider, but it's normal not to hear of LauraCraft.
Stagnant
After the first generation tasted the sweetness, Edios naturally asked the CD to hit the iron while it was hot. Although the construction period was tight, in just one year, CD handed over "Tomb Raider 2: Xi'an Dagger". Compared with the previous game, there is no breakthrough innovation, the basic exploration framework, game mode and combat system have not changed at all, just add bricks and tiles to the props and maps, but thanks to the huge appeal of Laura's character, sales quickly surpassed a generation and achieved success.
The work has continued to be the same since then, under the pressure of Edios, the Tomb Raider series has been produced in the form of new year goods until the fifth part, which has overwhelmed the staff of the CD, and their love for Laura has gradually worn away under the pressure of capital. In the fourth generation of Tomb Raider 4: The Final Revelation, CD's initial idea was to write Laura to death (Akira Toriyama directly called the insider) to bring the series to a successful conclusion. But Edios certainly wouldn't agree, and Laura eventually escaped death in Egypt. The fourth part, the final creator of the original Tomb Raider series, combines the action elements of decryption, gunfights and driving, and the plot and performance have reached the peak of the series.
From the beginning of the series in 1996 to the "Tomb Raider 5: Chronicles" in 2000, the entire series has almost no substantive breakthrough in gameplay, and only the scene has changed. At the same time, although the narrative of the tomb series has accumulated in the past five years and the story has been spread layer by layer, the connection between the works is too little and the depth is too poor. Laura's character is still on the surface, and what people care about about laura is not her inner change and growth in this character, but what clothes she wears and whose voice she changes. Laura's character is still the calm, determined goddess of war. After five years of worldview and characterization, it is still stagnant.
Change of dynasty
The sixth "Tomb Raider: Dark Angel" was developed for three years before it was released, during which the development process was very chaotic, and the departure of the creator made the positioning of the work unclear. Tomb 6 is accompanied by an inexplicable mirror, and the operation feels extremely strange. The entire story also takes place in the city rather than the wilderness tomb. The beginning of the game has the elements of RPG, with a certain growth system, carrying things or pushing boxes can increase Lara's physical strength, and after upgrading, you can climb and jump to some areas. However, the new system is too blunt and mandatory during the game, but it adds many restrictions to the game, and it is also very counterintuitive. This made the sixth installment the most failed work in the series. The game's final sales were 2.5 million copies
This is also the last song of the Core Design version of Lara, originally they pinned their hopes of restarting the entire series on the sixth part, planning to make a new trilogy to carry out a reform, and some traces of the production team can be seen in the game. But after such a failure, in 2003, Edios handed over the production of the game to another studio, Crystal Dynamics. The Laura we see now is from this studio.
Prior to the well-known Tomb Raider 9, the company produced three series of works, namely Tomb Raider 7: Legends, Tomb Raider 1: Remake, and Tomb Raider 8: Underworld, which are interconnected to form Laura's "Mother-Seeking Trilogy.". All three of these films have been maintained at a good level, saving the reputation of the series. In particular, the remake of a generation has gained a very high reputation (but there is a saying that the decryption of this part is really too difficult, and it is basically impossible to pass without looking at the raiders). Compared with the previous work on THE CD, the most significant change in the work is the deepening of the excavation of the character of Laura, and the most important family and origin can be completed (this setting is still used in the new trilogy and continues to excavate). Laura's image has also changed greatly, the past twist flower has become a medium ponytail, the curve of the face is also soft, no longer as narrow and tough as in the past, Laura in this period has begun to change from "superman" to "human". The market has proved that this direction is correct. Under the condition of ensuring that the operation is optimized and the gameplay remains unchanged, the sales of all three films have reached expectations. Crystal Power also eventually completed the characterization of Lara as a girl in the new trilogy.
Back to the top
In 2009, after the events of Uncharted 2 winning GOTY and Edios being acquired by SE. Crystal Power finally decided to reboot the series and settled down to develop it for five years, until March 2013, when it came up with the new Tomb Raider 9. The excellence and importance of this work is second only to the first game of the series (the name is not subtitled as in the past, but like the first part, only "Tomb Raider", which shows that the series has restarted and the determination is great. Called Tomb Raider 9 just for easy differentiation). In terms of sales, it also created the highest peak of the series, as of 2017, it has created 11 million sales worldwide, and laid the core of the new Tomb Raider's gameplay and plot framework, and the subsequent "Rise" and "Shadow" have continued to unfold on this basis.
The new tomb also has the highest score in history
The difficulty and proportion of exploration and decryption in the old tomb period are greatly reduced in the new tomb. The key points of map decryption in the previous game are hidden in the environment, regardless of the materials and puzzles without marker hints, and it is entirely up to the player to discover them. Although the puzzles in the new tomb are also ingenious, the difficulty is greatly reduced thanks to the white markings. At the same time, combat accounts for at least half of the game's time, which is unimaginable in the previous games in the series.
As the highlight of the new work, the battle system of the tomb is undoubtedly very good, and the diversity and strategy of weapons are guaranteed. The feel and characteristics of various weapons have been pinched just right, and the series's signature double guns have been replaced with bows and arrows that are more suitable for desert island environments. With the introduction of the character's growth system, Lara can finally upgrade her skills and modify her weapons.
Not only that, the performance and plot of Tomb Raider 9 also reached the peak of the series, not only surpassing the previous game, but also higher than "Rise" and "Shadow". Laura's image is so vivid for the first time, and the players play Tomb Raider for the first time are so scared, touched and nervous. Crystal Power deeply portrays how Laura has gradually grown from a college student, experiencing inner struggles and tasting the taste of grief, and gradually growing into a warrior. While this is complained about because Laura kills too many people, the series's excellent performances are thin and the atmosphere of evil horses and secrets mask these problems.
Two years later, the tenth part was launched, and on the basis of the ninth part, it had better pictures, more tomb exploration and a more complete combat system. However, the sense of plot substitution is quite different from the previous game. In "Shadows", these problems become more and more serious, and the sophisticated pictures and majestic performances form a sharp contrast with the thin and boring plot, which has become the lowest rated work in the trilogy. But in any case, the trilogy is more complete about the growth of Lara's character, from childhood to middle age. But the transformation of game content from decryption to combat inevitably creates some problems. This series is undoubtedly in the first-line game echelon, but it has never been able to become a "god work". The main reason for this problem is the conflict in the plot setting of the new tomb.
Where is the road
The above-mentioned Lara killing too many people has been complained about, which seems to be a brush stroke, but in fact it is a very serious position problem, which directly affects the sense of substitution of the "Tomb Raider" series and Laura's moral camp.
There is nothing wrong with the status of archaeologist when expeditions are the main game content, but when the game content becomes combat, this murderous behavior will conflict with Laura's own character position (correspondingly, see the treatment of the archaeologist's image behavior in The Adventures of Jackie Chan). This is especially evident in "Shadows", where Laura kills a large number of people almost in a commotion, inexplicably blackening and inexplicably recovering. The plot has no depth at all. In addition, unlike Drake, the treasure hunter, Laura does not feel suitable where to go. It seems that Laura is like a murderous maniac + ruin destroyer in the name of treasure hunting.
This is not my bar, the game character and world view are very important in the combat game, especially in the game of killing, this extreme contradictory and antagonistic performance, behind the character and world view must not be lacking in the description of the character and world view. That's why so many games kill monsters, such as Resident Evil, DOOM, Dead Space, The Witcher, and so on. In the game of killing, the contradictions and confrontations of people who fight each other are extreme and irreconcilable: FPS has an important background of war; in the "Killer" series, killing is the task of the protagonist; in "Big Cousin", it is the outlaw who shoots and kills; in "Watchdog", it is the judicial sanctioner who robs the rich and the poor; "Far Cry" and "Radiation" These are all apocalyptic backgrounds, and also add a system such as moral value to restrain the player's behavior, and such games often have a deep discussion of social morality and humanistic emotional issues.
And Tomb Raider lacks these things, and the lack of a strong sense of discord in the ninth generation is to put Laura on a desert island, unconstrained by morality. In "Rise" and "Shadow", Laura's motives and the opposition of "Holy Trinity" are not so strong and pure, and there is no need to kill at all. Under the condition that the gameplay and map design are becoming more mature, this fundamental conflict of settings has become the core problem of the Tomb Raider series. In Tomb Raider: Shadow, there are many people who hate Laura's approach, which is very dangerous for the entire IP.
In short, the new tomb embarked on the road of game film and television, focusing on the performance of scenes and battles. This is the path that most games have taken, and it is the trend of the times for AAA masterpieces. God of War 4 proves how far this direction can go, but the Tomb series still lacks a solid script to this day, and it has not yet resolved the core contradictions in its own background setting. I'm looking forward to seeing this problem in the next installment in the series.
Although some shortcomings have been said, it is undeniable that the new Tomb Raider series is absolutely excellent. As the grand finale of Epic Plus Fifteen, friends who have not played the series can take this opportunity to experience the charm of Laura's sister who has accompanied us for 25 years (it is estimated that old players will call her Laura sister). If you don't care about the picture quality, the ninth part must be your best choice, which is also the most real and beautiful Laura in the series.