The Redemption of Lara Croft

It's 1997 and the June issue of trendy British music and lifestyle magazine The Face hits newsstands across England. The front cover, one usually decorated with portraits of Madonna, Prince or David Beckham, now showcases a woman called Lara Croft.

She's not a sexy model in cosplay; she's a CG render of the UK's leading digital lady herself. She's grinning, gripping onto her trusty twin pistols, with the headline reading "bigger than Pammy, wiser than Yoda."

The eight page article is the first of its kind: a piece documenting gaming's most fashionable character and featuring an exclusive 'photo shoot' of Lara adorned with big brands like Gucci, Jean Colonna and Alexander McQueen.

It's only taken a year for Lara to go from bedroom beauty to mainstream magnet, nabbing eye-catching models, lucrative advertising campaigns, and becoming the new face of video games.

Whether you liked Tomb Raider or not, Lara was here to stay.

Fast-forward a handful of console generations and we're now approaching Tomb Raider's 15th anniversary. A lot has changed over the years - not just with Lara's look, but her back-story, her development and her audience. She's gone from being a 12-year old's fantasy to a feminist symbol.

She's moved from the dreary town of Derby in England to sunny California, been on the receiving end of two blockbuster productions and, for better or worse, been rebooted twice.




Original concepts went from a male Indiana Jones rip to a braided South American woman called Laura Cruise, but after a management choice to make her more 'UK friendly,' a British Lara Croft was born.

She was different from most female video game characters: an intelligent, affluent, athletic and, of course, rather well-endowed archaeologist that gamers reveled in playing.

Trekking from Peru to Atlantis, Lara's quest for something called the Scion was an eventful one. From exploration of ancient tombs to being double-crossed by the very people who hired her, Tomb Raider took action-adventure games to a whole new level.

Pointy polygons in place, Tomb Raider became an overnight success, selling 8 million copies worldwide and bringing Eidos Interactive out of a pretty sticky financial situation. The game was praised by critics and fans alike for its revolutionary gameplay, graphics and storyline.

Lara Croft became the poster-child of the PlayStation, with her game becoming one of the first titles to release in PlayStation's Platinum series. The future for Lara was looking bright.




Continuing her tour of the world, Lara ventures to China, Venice and even Tibet in an attempt to track down the Dagger of Xian, a weapon used by an ancient Emperor of China to command his army.

Her enemy, however, becomes the Venetian Mafia, whose leader's obsession with the dagger leaves Lara against some trigger-happy competition.

Lara had become a household name. Now dubbed Tomb Raider II Starring Lara Croft, the second game surpassed Tomb Raider's sales almost immediately - but not all critics were as impressed by Lara's latest adventure as they were the first time around.

Reviews were generally positive, hitting high 8s and 9s and complimenting the story and involvement. Not everyone was impressed, however, with critics questioning Core Design for its decision to focus on cosmetic improvements rather than innovating on Tomb Raider's core gameplay.

It didn't make much difference, of course – Tomb Raider II sold by the bucket-load and Lara Croft was gaining more of a foot in mainstream media than any other video game character had managed yet.




Tomb Raider III was where gamers' love affair with Lara started to dwindle. While the second game had received mostly favorable reviews, many commented on its lack of innovation. Tomb Raider III headed down the same route, with many comparing the third installment to an expansion pack. She had become over-exposed and over-sold.

Everywhere you looked there was Lara's well-known smile and circled-shades staring straight back.

A darker affair, Tomb Raider III: Adventures of Lara Croft saw Lara on the hunt for Meteorite Artefacts. Starting in the jungles of India, through to Nevada, the South Pacific, Antarctica and even London, Lara eventually discovers the true use of the artifacts before preventing them from being used to accelerate human evolution.

But the introduction of sprinting, monkey swinging, crawling and quad biking wasn't enough to win over Lara's fatigued fans, with questions over why Lara's gunplay seemed to be focusing on armed goons rather than the original's dangerous wildlife starting to roll in. Complaints aside, Tomb Raider III was hailed as the most definitive game in the series.




In a bid to bring Tomb Raider back into the limelight, Lara Croft's name was dropped from the box of The Last Revelation as she was popped on a one-way flight to Egypt.

Delving deeper into Lara's origins, the game opens with Lara and German mentor Werner Von Croy on a trip to Cambodia. Predictably, it all goes horribly wrong, with Werner ending up trapped inside the Angkor Wat temple and presumed dead. Unfortunately for her, he isn't, and upon uncovering an ancient tomb with an Egyptian god inside, she finds a possessed Werner battling against her.

Managing to stop the Egyptian god Set from unleashing the apocalypse, Lara's reluctance to trust Werner saw her trapped in the tomb. Was this finally the end for Lara?

Again, the game received mostly positive reviews, but it was a mixture of 7s and 8s rather than the critical love the first game had received.

Still, the market stood strong. Even with the press criticizing The Last Revelation for being "more of the same," the game still sold millions.

Forums were rife with speculation over Lara's fate, with a vocal audience directing anger and frustration towards Core Design and Eidos over their choice to kill off a much-loved character.

But there was still more to come.