A Grittier Kind of Croft Comes Our Way March 5th
Watch the newest Tomb Raider trailer here.
It’s nice to be made aware of the fact I’ll go broke during this holiday season and then stay broke through the first quarter of 2013. Aiming for early March, Tomb Raider hands us a gift for our patience in the form of a new gameplay trailer.
The visuals are a sight to be seen, most definitely, and the game insofar has me wanting to grab hold of a controller…But goddamnit does this thing look like Uncharted. From armed foreign thugs to shit constantly crashing down on your head, the thin line stopping Lara from tossing quips at bad guys would be the title’s grittier reality. The gritty reboot has almost become a parody of itself within the film industry, but Crystal Dynamics may not be wrong to run with it.
Amongst the exploding and shouting and perpetual running, there’s this tiny moment after Lara shoots a man dead where instead of posing in victory or firing off a one-liner and instead of suddenly donning a cliched mask of determination to be worn into the next fight, she just looks…changed. She looks shocked, disgusted, scared out of her mind, and simply affected. A starkly sobering instance the likes of that surely doesn’t belong in a dumb, high-octane actioner (ex. the timeless Tomb Raider films).
I don’t think I’ve ever seen any virtual version of Lara so humanized. I’ve had to toughen my hide with a layer of cynicism each time a new Raider crops up so that the disappointment wouldn’t scar me. I’m shelving the cynicism (and the “Looks like Uncharted” crap) and finally caving into my excitement this go-around. Besides, I need to work through my phobia of metaphorical scars.