The China Mail - 30 years on, 'Tomb Raider' reboot sees Lara Croft through a 'modern lens'

Taking on the most famous heroine in video game history is a "tremendous responsibility", Raul Siqueira, director of "Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis", told AFP in an interview at the Gamescom video game convention in Cologne, Germany.

Journalists and influencers were given a preview of the new game -- a remake of the very first "Tomb Raider" -- that is scheduled for release on February 12.

In the 20-minute gameplay sequence, Lara Croft -- still in her famous blue top and brown shorts -- explores an abandoned tomb in Greece, battling panthers and dodging giant swords falling from the ceiling.

The British adventurer makes her acrobatic moves against a background of realistic graphics, complete with her trademark sarcastic quips.

"Lara is a very complicated character with a lot of nuance. So yes, we've adapted and changed some of the lines, but we didn't go as far to change the story," Siqueira said.

Released in November 1996, the first "Tomb Raider" delighted a generation of players with its 3D graphics -- cutting edge at the time -- and its fearless heroine, who came to personify the entire games industry.

- 'Not an object' -

Siqueira, 36, said the first "Tomb Raider" had a big impact on him personally.

"There was a lot of cool elements... the fact that Lara was a different protagonist, the first female protagonist of a game that I had ever played," he said.

Lara may have beaten a path for more female heroines and encouraged young women around the world to pick up a controller, but in the early days the publicity for the game leaned heavily on her shapeliness.

With the market for video games now expanded well beyond the stereotype of adolescent boys, the team behind the new game says this time they are focusing on Lara as a strong character.

"The way we're rebuilding Lara, we're trying to respect the fact that she's female, and we're just trying to make her powerful, not as an object of sexual attraction," said the game's art director Arek Tomaszewski.

Eight years after the last instalment "Shadow of the Tomb Raider" and ahead of an all-new entry planned for 2028, "Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis" aims to revisit the original adventure "through a modern lens", Siqueira said.

Published by the video game division of Amazon, the game was developed jointly by US firm Crystal Dynamics and Polish studio Flying Wild Hog, both owned by the Swedish group Embracer.

It took more than three years of work, including a complete rewrite of the script and Croft's dialogue, now voiced by the British actress Alix Wilton Regan.

- Same old Lara -

The new game aims to draw a new audience to discover a title that has felt the passage of time.

Gamers of 2026, accustomed to modern controls and graphics, would find it very difficult to play the original, Tomaszewski said.

Created by the British company Core Design, the "Tomb Raider" series lost its lustre as the quality of new editions declined over time.

It was restarted from scratch in 2013 with a new trilogy dubbed "Survivor", chronicling the adventures of a younger, less experienced Lara.

The latest outing continues that story, Siqueira said: "The Lara that we saw in the 'Survivor' trilogy is the Lara in 'Legacy of Atlantis'," he said.

"It's just the beginning of her career as a Tomb Raider was 'Survivor', that's how we show her first adventure's beginning, and this is her much later in life at the top of her game."

J.Thompson--ThChM