As with Rise, the new Blood Ties is preoccupied with Lara's orphan status, and her drive to follow in her father's footsteps. Perhaps sensible, in an age which seems to demand origin stories rather than ready-made heroes, but I'm not convinced it requires her to be quite as dour as it does. The new games have repositioned the character as a relative newcomer to Indiana Jonesing, and as someone uncertain of herself who steadily grows in confidence the more buildings she falls off. It's a smart enough reinterpretation of Lara's relationship with her homestead: she has left an old life of comfort behind in favour of the hazard-strewn road. In 2016 we can empathise with her when she's wearing torn clothes and making things from sticks and stones, but perhaps not if she's Richie Rich. Perhaps this is why Blood Ties gives us a ruin, instead of seeing Lara living in extreme opulence attended by her very own manservant. I must admit to being somewhat distracted by curiosity and some outrage about how such a prime piece of real-estate could possibly remain unsold and uninhabited in these property-starved times, but I suppose the Tomb Raider series stems from a time when wealthy figures were considered aspirational rather than hateful. The Manor shifts between spooky and sad, clearly influenced by the unsettling homecoming of Gone Home, and perhaps very quietly having something to say about how much legacy was thrown out of the (tree-damaged) window with 2013's Uncharted-inspired do-over. The artists go to town with spooky halls, musty wine cellars and ancient oaks collapsed through plate-glass windows. Why Lara does not simply kick down the doors in a place that is already in a terrible state is a question that is never posed nor answered.īlood Ties is conceptually interesting not just because it tweaks the Rise formula into something new, but also because it's preoccupied with Lara's own history and identity.Ĭroft Manor's latest iteration is that of a stately home gone to seed, abandoned for years following the death of Lara's parents and her own decision to take up a life of adventure. It's slow-burn and hung around gradually gaining access to locked-off bits of the manor. There's a little bit of crate-pushing and a couple of walls get smashed with a crowbar, but otherwise action it is not. It's not actual point and click, of course, but the principles are there: find objects, open doors, glean clues from notes. One is Lara's Nightmare, a fairly routine zombie-shooting survival mode, and the other a standalone adventure called Blood Ties, which leans towards a point and click adventure/mystery game in almost a Broken Sword flavour. Lara's sprawling homestead was absent from 2013's hard reset Tomb Raider, but is now the centrepiece of the new 20 Year Celebration DLC. The rebooted Tomb Raider stars a Lara Croft who forever sounds like she's just been told to go to bed early, and the Anniversary add-on recently added to it retains the same dour spirit despite being themed around a return to the famous Croft Manor. I'd hoped that the 20th anniversary add-on for Rise of the Tomb Raider might hark back to that, both as a link to the past and because nu-Lara has earned her stripes now. You're moping again, aren't you?īeing altogether a bit dour is hardly a problem exclusive to Lara Croft when it comes to our modern-day action heroes - hello Nolan Batman, hello hello Season 6 Buffy, and most recently hello joyless Adam Jensen 2.0 - but I sorely miss the more enthusiastic, unflustered Lara of yore. It's a celebration! 20 years of Tomb Raider! Lara, it's your birthday! Time to throw on some gladrags and.
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