Tomb Raider creative director Nick Hughes says breaking Lara Croft down is key to her humanity. Picture: IGN Source: Supplied
Remember Lara Croft? That well-endowed kick-ass heroine with a steely demeanor and a cool turn of phrase?
So does Tomb Raider?s Creative Director Noah Hughes, whose new approach to the character has drawn raised some eyebrows from critics for being too disempowered, too vulnerable, and ultimately too unlike the Lara we?ve known for the past sixteen years.
But Hughes maintains the team's new approach is vital to understanding a character whose humanity struck him from the first time he played Tomb Raider back in 1996. ?When I played the first game,? said Hughes, ?it felt like she was human, right? She was very polygonal but it was the first time I felt like I was playing a real human character.?
It was Hughes? appreciation of a unique humanity in Lara that inspired him to tell her origins story, dumping a 21-year-old Lara on an island where she is pursued by horrors she is not yet emotionally equipped to deal with. ?I thought, what would be the modern equivalent of that feeling? It?s not polygons anymore. It?s the emotions; you need the emotions to make it feel like she?s a real person.?
So what exactly is there to Lara aside from her cockiness, her supreme athleticism and her? physical extremities? There is an argument to be made that these things define Lara Croft, and without them she is indistinct, a nobody. But Hughes sees Lara?s determination in the face of overwhelming odds to be her defining ? and most admirable - characteristic.
The key to the new game is having Lara overcome emotional and physical obstacles, says Hughes. Picture: IGN
Source: Supplied
?She has amazing willpower, that force of will to do whatever it takes. She?s a character who, at first glance, has no business succeeding on this island. This island should defeat her. And what?s inspirational to me about Lara is to see her overcome all these obstacles.?
Certainly, from what we?ve seen in an extended demo at E3, Lara overcomes her obstacles with an Aron Ralston-esque will to survive. While her vulnerability feels truthful, casting a truthful female character adrift in a world where she is preyed upon, threatened, and frequently reduced to tears, sets a tone that could be construed as exploitative. How will Crystal Dynamics tread that fine line between Lara as helpless victim and Lara as heroine?
?What?s great about an origin story is that people are familiar with the character,? says Hughes. ?It allows people to see hints of who she?ll become. If she started the same, she?d have nowhere to go, so the fact that she starts so differently from the Lara you recognise, and then you start to see that glimmer of Lara Croft? people will see that spark inside her that is familiar.?
While the extended E3 demo offered only glimpses of the woman within, Hughes is keen to stress that this is a starting point in the game, and therefore uncompromising in its honesty.
?We want to show her as human. To see her be scared, to see her get hurt, to see her have relationships with people. But we also needed an adventure that changed this person into something that is much more like the Lara Croft people remember. What we?re trying to do by grounding her and starting where we do on the island is to invest you in that experience.?
Of course, it?s not just Lara?s character that has been dramatically adjusted for the reboot. The straight third-person action of yesteryear is gone, replaced with a cut-scene-punctuated experience more evocative of Sony?s cinematic Uncharted series. Hughes is well aware that fans will scrutinize the change, but is certain it was the right time for a fresh take on old gameplay.
?It was important we started with platforming and exploration and combat and puzzle-solving, all the things that make a Tomb Raider game great, but also look at our engine and our skill-set, and also what other games are doing, games that have evolved game design. There are a lot of amazing action adventure games out there.?
Lara returns as a battered and bruised "victim" in the latest game. Picture: Kotaku
Source: Supplied
Hughes is also eager to clear up any misconceptions around hand-holding in the game, addressing the more choreographed sequences we?ve seen in the extended E3 demo. ?Early on in the story, we do need to walk you through some events that really help ground you in the character, ground you in the world.? But he looks at these guided experiences as investments, to be used carefully and sparingly. ?Interactivity is what we (as game makers) do differently from movies, and the last thing I want to do is have a movie with some button inputs.
The way we look at it is, let?s get you immersed, get you invested, and then get you back on the sticks and then give you some challenge.?
The most emotional experience a player can have in a game, Hughes believes, is when both the character and the player are pulling in the same direction.
?If I genuinely want the character to succeed, if I genuinely care about her,? says Hughes, pausing to laugh at his own disclosure. ?If I?m scared she?ll fail. That?s when I?m the most sweaty-palmed.?
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