Tomb Raider (series)

Tomb Raider logo.

Tomb Raider is a series of video games, comic books, novels and movies, centering around the adventures of the female fictional British archaeologist 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. The 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 the latest two by Crystal Dynamics. All the games were published by Eidos Interactive, which holds the rights to the Tomb Raider trademark and characters of the franchise. To date two movies, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life, have been produced starring American actress Angelina Jolie as Lara Croft. The Tomb Raider video games have together sold over 30 million units, making it one of the highest selling video game series of all time. The highest selling Lara Croft game was Tomb Raider II, which sold over 8 million units. They all have a close relationship in terms of style to Indiana Jones.

Lara Croft

Main article: Lara Croft

The central character in Tomb Raider is the hard edged, British archaeologist Lara Croft, a female character similar to Indiana Jones in search of ancient treasures.

Lara's evolution through the Tomb Raider series.
From left: Tomb Raider I, II, III, The Last Revelation, Chronicles, The Angel of Darkness, Legend, Anniversary.

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 blue 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, enlarged (and later 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 actresses Nell McAndrew (who was an official model) and Rhona Mitra (in the early days of the games' success), and American actress Angelina Jolie in the Tomb Raider movies. In addition, playing Lara at game conventions is a popular type of modelling work. Karima Adebibe is the current official portrayer of Lara. 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.

Continuities

There are two different continuities to the game series. The first encompassing the first six games, and the second starting with Legend and including Anniversary. Although Anniversary is a remake of the original Tomb Raider, the story has been revised to fit into the second continuity. The first continuity is often referred to as the Core Design continuity and the second is usually referred to as the Crystal Dynamics continuity, based on the company that developed each game. Differences between the continuities are particularly apparent in Lara Croft’s backstory, as well as her personality. Croft Manor also looks extremely different between the continuities. It could also be stated that there are additional continuities in the Tomb Raider series as the movies and comic books have significant differences from the games.

Game features

The original game, titled Tomb Raider: Featuring Lara Croft, debuted on the Sega Saturn, PlayStation and PC. Despite being released first on the Saturn, 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: The Angel of Darkness 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. Tomb Raider: Legend, introduced an electromagnetic grapple that Lara can attach to metal objects and can, amongst other things, be used make rope swings and pull metal objects (and enemies) toward her. 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. In Tomb Raider: Chronicles, Lara was able to somersault/roll out of crawl spaces higher than ground level. 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. Often in the series, the antagonist uses the artifact or bits of it to create terrifying mystical monsters, creatures, and mutants in which Lara must defeat throughout the journey.

List of Tomb Raider games

Charts

The following versions have been released so far, listed in chronological order: Main Games

• Tomb Raider (1996) - Sega Saturn, PlayStation, PC, N-Gage, Pocket PC, Mac Charts: US-No.1, UK-No.1
  • Tomb Raider: Shadow of the Cat & Unfinished Business (1998) - gold edition of Tomb Raider, PC, Mac
• Tomb Raider II (1997) - PlayStation, PC, Mac, Charts: US-No.3
  • Tomb Raider: The Golden Mask (1999) - gold edition of Tomb Raider II, PC, Mac
• Tomb Raider III (1998) - PlayStation, PC, Mac, Charts: Us-No.4
  • Tomb Raider: The Lost Artifact (2000) - PC, Mac - stand-alone bonus title comparable to the "Gold" editions of I & II
• Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation (1999) - PlayStation, Dreamcast, PC, Mac Charts: US-No.1, UK-No.1, EU-No.1
  • Tomb Raider: The Times Exclusive (1999) - PC - stand-alone bonus level created by Core and the The Times in celebration of the anniversary of the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb (equivalent to the gold editions)
• Tomb Raider Chronicles (2000) - PlayStation, Dreamcast, PC, Mac Charts: US-16
  • Tomb Raider Level Editor - PC - The Pc version features a disc with the Tomb Raider's Editor, equivalent to the gold edition's
• Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness (2003) - PlayStation 2, PC, Mac Charts: US-27, UK-15
• Tomb Raider: Legend (2006) - PlayStation 2, Xbox, Xbox 360, PC, PSP, GCN Charts: US-No.2, UK-No.1, Eu-No.2
  • Tomb Raider: Legend (2006) - a 2D version for the Game Boy Advance
  • Tomb Raider: Legend (2006) - a 2.5D version for the Nintendo DS
  • Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Legend (2006) - ExEn/Java
• Tomb Raider: Anniversary (2007) - PlayStation 2, Windows, Mac, PSP, Wii and Xbox 360

Upcoming Games:

• Tomb Raider: Underworld - for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Windows.

Other Games:

• Tomb Raider (2000) - Game Boy Color
• Tomb Raider: Curse of the Sword (2001) - Game Boy Color
• Tomb Raider: The Prophecy (2002) - Game Boy Advance
• (2003) - ExEn/Java
• (2004) - ExEn/Java
• (2004) - ExEn/Java
• (2006) - ExEn/Java

Other Upcoming Games:

• Lara Croft's Poker Party - ExEn/Java (to be released)

An interactive DVD was released by Bright Entertainment [1] under license from Eidos in 2006, called Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Action Adventure. The game takes advantage of standard DVD player audiovisual capabilities, and the remote control. It has puzzles and action elements, while the story is based on The Angel of Darkness.

Crystal Dynamics' 10th anniversary remake

On June 16 2006, Eidos announced that Crystal Dynamics is working on a 10th anniversary remake of the original Tomb Raider for PS2, PSP, and PC.^[1] The game uses an enhanced Tomb Raider Legend game engine. Eidos's head of brand management Larry Sparks said it is "a one-off title" that would appeal to existing Tomb Raider fans, as well as attract new ones. The game was released on June 5 2007 (June 1 in Europe) on PC and PS2 under the title of Tomb Raider: Anniversary, and the PSP version was released on August 7 2007. More recently the game was released on the Xbox 360 on October 23 2007 (October 26 in Europe), and the Nintendo Wii version was released on November 13 2007.

Future installments

After the success of Legend (more than 2.6 million units sold worldwide in five weeks^[2]), Crystal Dynamics are planning an eighth installment in the Tomb Raider series. (See Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Underworld)

Tomb Raider Level Editor

The Tomb Raider level editor, Room Editor, is a tool released by Eidos Interactive with the video game Tomb Raider Chronicles in late 2000. Later, it was made available free to download off the Internet. Since then it has enabled players to design new levels of their own, set in locations from the original games or in new locations. Today, there are over 1,000 custom levels you can download & they are still being made today.

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)

Main article: Lara Croft: Tomb Raider

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 Illuminati can get their hands on it.

Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life (2003)

Main article: Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life

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, work on a third Tomb Raider film is reported to have started. IGN 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) In a recent interview at the Science Museum in London (during a celebration of the icon of Lara Croft), an Eidos representative confirmed that Paramount had hired a script writer to create a script for a third Tomb Raider film, and said this was a "healthy start". There are also rumours suggesting that the third film, if developed, would tie into the story of Tomb Raider 8.

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. The series ended in 2004 with the release of its final and fiftieth comic book. There are "One shots" occasionally released and talks of the comic being reintroduced in a year or two. 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. In late 2006 Top Cow released the Tomb Raider Compendium. This was a large, single volume, collected edition of the Tomb Raider comic series. The book encompasses all 50 issues (well over 1000 pages), as well as a cover gallery featuring select covers, most of them done by Adam Hughes. It is a full size, color, high quality paper reproduction of all the issues. This collection, however, does NOT include specials, minis, and one-shots from the series. This would probably explain why the compendium has "Volume One" written on the side.

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.

Animation

Main article: Re\Visioned: Tomb Raider Animated Series

GameTap aired a ten part animated short series called "Re\Visioned: Tomb Raider Animated Series" from July 10th, 2007 to November 13th, 2007. The series is comprised of various artistic talent's renditions of Lara Croft. Minnie Driver provides the voice for Lara Croft.

References

External links

• Tomb Raider - Official site.
• Tomb Raider Chronicles - Media and information from the entire series.
• Wikiraider - Wiki dedicated to the series.