Tomb Raider (series)

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Tomb Raider
The original Tomb Raider logo (above) and the newer logo (below).
Genre(s)	Action Adventure
Developer(s)	Core Design (1995 - 2003) Crystal Dynamics (2003 - present)
Publisher(s)	Eidos Interactive
Official website	http://www.tombraider.com/

Tomb Raider is a series of action-adventure games, comic books, novels, theme park rides, and movies, centring around the adventures of the female fictional British archaeologist Lara Croft. Since the release of the original Tomb Raider in 1996, the series developed into a lucrative franchise of related media, and Lara went on to become a major icon of the video game industry. The Guinness Book of World Records has recognised Lara Croft as the "Most Successful Human Videogame Heroine" in 2006. Six games in the series were developed by Core Design, and the latest three by Crystal Dynamics. All the games were first published by Eidos Interactive, now Eidos officially became part of Square Enix on 22 April 2009, meaning Square Enix owns the rights to the Tomb Raider trademark and characters of the franchise ^[1]. To date two movies, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life, have been produced starring American actress Angelina Jolie as Lara Croft.

The Tomb Raider video games have together sold over 35 million units,^[2][3] making it one of the best-selling video game series of all time.^[4] Future Tomb Raider games will be published by Square Enix.

[edit] Lara Croft

The central character in Tomb Raider is the British archaeologist Lara Croft, a female character similar to Indiana Jones in search of ancient treasures.

Lara's evolution through the Tomb Raider series.
From left: Tomb Raider I, II, III, The Last Revelation, Chronicles, The Angel of Darkness, Legend, Anniversary, Underworld.

Lara was created by one-time Core designer Toby Gard, and grew out of a number of ideas discarded in early concepts. She appears almost invariably with brown shorts, a green or blue sleeveless top, holsters on both sides of her hip for dual wielded pistols and a small brown backpack. Over the course of the series, she has undergone minor adjustments, such as smoother facial features, enlarged (and later reduced) breast size and free moving hair.

Several real-life persons have taken on the role of portraying Lara Croft in flesh, most notably British actresses Nell McAndrew (who was an official model) and Rhona Mitra (in the early days of the games' success), and American actress Angelina Jolie in the Tomb Raider movies. In addition, playing Lara at game conventions is a popular type of modelling work. Alison Carroll is the current official portrayer of Lara.

Ten years after the release of the original game, Lara is still one of the most durable and recognisable video game characters. Alternatively viewed as a feminist icon or sexual fantasy, the impact of her character on popular culture is undeniable.

[edit] Canon

A map indicating places visited by Lara Croft during the video games and movies:
     Tomb Raider      Tomb Raider II      Tomb Raider III      Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation      Tomb Raider Chronicles      Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness      Tomb Raider: Legend      Tomb Raider: Underworld

Over the course of time, the Tomb Raider series canon has undergone various changes or retcons. These changes correspond to the series entering a new medium, such as comic books or film, or being taken over by a new game developer. For example, in the first Tomb Raider game manual, Lara Croft is said to have survived a plane crash in the Himalayas at the age of twenty one, and was later disowned by her parents, who are still living.^[5] However in the comics, Lara lost both her parents and her fiancé in the crash. The films make no mention of a plane crash, Lara's mother died when she was too young to remember, and her father died under different circumstances.

When development of the games was transferred from Core Design to Crystal Dynamics, some of the changes made by the films were incorporated, such as Lara's relationship with her father. Additional changes were made as well: unlike the films, Lara's memories of her mother play a key role in the Crystal Dynamics games.^[6][7]

No official explanation of the differences has been given, making the canon of previous entries unclear in relation to the current Crystal Dynamics games. However, Lara Croft's new back story, apart from the instruction manual, does not contradict previous games.

[edit] Game features

The original game, titled Tomb Raider, made its début on the Sega Saturn, PlayStation and PC. Despite being released on the Saturn first,^{[verification needed]} it was one of the titles responsible for the PlayStation's success in the mid 1990s. The games present a world in 3D: a series of tombs, and other locations, through which the player must guide Lara. On the way, she must kill dangerous animals and other creatures, while collecting objects and solving puzzles to gain access to an ultimate prize, usually a powerful artefact. In later games, Lara's targets become predominantly human, which has sparked some criticism from gamers who feel the games became too violent.^{[citation needed]}

Tomb Raider is an earlier example of the 3D genre. The game is a third-person shooter since Lara is always visible. The player's camera follows her, usually over her shoulder or from behind. Up until Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness, the game was characterised by the cubic nature of the world in which Lara inhabits. Ledges, walls and ceilings sit at 90 degrees to each other, although the game designers use some clever tricks to make this less obvious.

A reason for this orthogonality can be explained by the fact the creators took the 2D platform game genre and extended it to a 3D world. This is shown through Tomb Raider's gameplay, which is very reminiscent of older platform games like Prince of Persia and Flashback that had a heavy focus on timed jumping interspersed with combat. Each game has introduced new weapons and moves; by the fourth game, Lara could backflip off ropes and turn around in mid-air to grab a ledge behind her. Tomb Raider: Legend introduced an electromagnetic grapple that Lara can attach to metal objects and can, amongst other things, be used to make rope swings and pull metal objects (and enemies) toward her.

Standard moves in Lara's range of abilities include the somersault, a roll, climbing techniques, the ability to swim, a swan dive manoeuvre, and a handstand. The Handstand is purely aesthetic and does not serve any other function in the game. Although the Swan Dive seems useless, it is very useful when a player wants to get from a higher ledge to a lower ledge and does not want Lara to lose too much health (This is especially useful in Tomb Raider: Legend, Anniversary and Underworld but can also be slightly useful in prior games.). In Tomb Raider III, a sprinting move was introduced that allowed Lara to quickly speed up while a bar in the lower corner of the screen drained her stamina. In Tomb Raider: Chronicles, Lara was able to bar-swing and somersault/roll out of crawl spaces higher than ground level.

The storyline is usually driven by the quest for a powerful artefact, with Lara in a race against a sinister shadow league who want to obtain the relic for their own purposes. These artefacts usually possess mystical powers and may be of supernatural, or even alien, origin. Often in the series, the antagonist uses the artefact or bits of it to create terrifying mystical monsters, creatures, and mutants which Lara must defeat throughout the journey.

[edit] List of Tomb Raider games

[edit] Charts

The following versions have been released so far, listed in chronological order:

Main Games

Other Games:

• Tomb Raider (2000) - Game Boy Color
• Tomb Raider: Curse of the Sword (2001) - Game Boy Color
• Tomb Raider: The Prophecy (2002) - Game Boy Advance
• Tomb Raider: The Osiris Codex (2003) - ExEn/Java
• Tomb Raider: Quest for Cinnabar (2004) - ExEn/Java
• Tomb Raider: Elixir of Life (2004) - ExEn/Java
• Tomb Raider: Puzzle Paradox (2006) - ExEn/Java

[edit] Tomb Raider Level Editor

The Tomb Raider level editor, Room Editor, is a tool released by Eidos Interactive with the video game Tomb Raider Chronicles in late 2000. Later, it was made available free to download from the Internet. Since then it has enabled players to design new levels of their own, set in locations from the original games or in new locations.

[edit] Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Action Adventure

An interactive DVD was released by Bright Entertainment [1] under license from Eidos in 2006, called Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Action Adventure. The game takes advantage of standard DVD player audiovisual capabilities, and the remote control. It has puzzles and action elements, while the story is based on The Angel of Darkness.

[edit] 10th anniversary remake

On 16 June 2006, Eidos announced that Crystal Dynamics was working on a Tomb Raider 10th Anniversary Edition remake of the original Tomb Raider for PS2, PSP, and PC.^[8] The game uses an enhanced Tomb Raider Legend game engine. Eidos's head of brand management Larry Sparks said it is "a one-off title" that would appeal to existing Tomb Raider fans, as well as attract new ones. The game was released on 5 June 2007 (1 June in Europe) on PC and PS2 under the title of Tomb Raider: Anniversary, and the PSP version was released on 7 August 2007. More recently the game was released on the Xbox 360 on 23 October 2007 (26 October in Europe), and the Nintendo Wii version was released on 13 November 2007.

[edit] Future developments

In an interview with GamingIndians.com, Ian Livingstone, Life President of Eidos Interactive,^[9] announced that the next Tomb Raider was currently in the works. Livingstone stated "I think [it] will surprise a lot of people and reinvigorate the franchise."^[10]

[edit] Music

The basic instrumentation for the Tomb Raider scores is orchestral, though the games adopt different instrumentation and tone with each instalment in the series. The majority of Tomb Raider music has been created using electronic technology, such as samples and synthesizers (though the Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness soundtrack was performed by the London Symphony Orchestra).^[11]

Score sheet showing the performance of the most important Tomb Raider music notes from the first Tomb Raider videogame main theme, all music notes are one octave higher played on a tempo of 97 bpm.

[edit] Tomb Raider to Tomb Raider Chronicles

The symphonic sounds of the earlier games were created using Roland Corporation's Orchestral Expansion board for their JV series modules (JV-1080 Synthesizer Module & SR-JV80-02 Expansion Board [2]).

The first 5 games of the series were using stings very often to warn the player about the danger to come. Other short tracks were used after the player discovers or reveals certain areas or objects. Most recognisable audio of which is a short vibraphone sound which is played when Lara finds a secret object. The sound has been used in the first five Tomb Raider video games, including Tomb Raider: Anniversary, though it has some insignificant sound variations. ^[12] Many compositions of the early games were using the vibraphone, Nathan McCree and Peter Connelly having a predisposition for this instrument while composing for these games.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness

Angel of Darkness is the first game to bring underscores, previous games using stings and full scores only. The 6th game combines the style of Danny Elfman Batman scores with the classic Tomb Raider style. For the first time in the series the game, the score has been performed by a real orchestra (London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by David Snell) ^[11]. Although the game hasn't been considered the best of the series, the music of the game was very well appreciated. For the orchestration the oboe, cor anglais, harp and flute were selected.

[edit] Tomb Raider: Legend

Legend plays a new kind of music style with underlying beats, just like the electronic dance music, that sometimes has small parts of electronic-like orchestra, but instead of recreating the atmosphere of a real orchestra, Troels uses lot of echoes for the orchestral sounds, just like in the Metal Gear Solid videogame series^{[citation needed]}.

Legend's title track starts off with the first few notes of Lara's original theme used in all of the games before this one, being played with slight ornamentation on a Middle-Eastern duduk. The lyrics of the main theme are from a Gaelic folk song named Ailein duinn by Capercaillie.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Tomb Raider: Anniversary

Folmann's work for Anniversary is different from that of Legend, as it has no underlying techno beats or electronic effects, and no underscores. Folmann uses more complex instrumentation and composition in his scoring, acquiring more woodwinds, instrument articulation, and ambience. Folmann leaves somewhat of a trademark in his Anniversary music by adding a significant amount of chimes throughout the score. Troels composed the music in the style of an electronic orchestra. Some recognisable themes from the first game, composed by Nathan McCree, such as "Time to Run," "Puzzle Theme," and "Puzzle Theme II" have been recreated.

The main theme for Anniversary can be described as a celebratory version of the original theme from Tomb Raider, as similar chord and instruments are used in the piece. The song starts off with a heavy crescendo of woodwinds and low strings playing the famous Tomb Raider melody, and then breaks off into an almost playful arc, featuring parts of the original harp composition from the Tomb Raider theme. Pizzicato strings, cascading pianos and celeste, chimes, and glass instrumentation are prominent throughout this version, implying the fresh and modern twist that Folmann and Crystal Dynamics have placed in Anniversary.

[edit] Tomb Raider: Underworld

Troels Brun Folmann composed the main theme of the game, and is the music supervisor for Underworld while O'Malley is scoring the bulk of the music. Underworld's music is purely orchestral in style.^[13]

There are pieces that do not loop, meaning they will only play one time and will be triggered on specific events. The score is made more of musical fragments, similar to the first five games of the Tomb Raider series, and there will be less constant music than in Legend.^[13]

The first seconds of the main theme are the well known four-notes of the first Tomb Raider game main theme. The end of the main theme gets louder than the beginning by adding choirs and percussion. It then drops into a solo performance of the same four-notes reminiscent of the Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness main theme.

[edit] Movies

The idea of Tomb Raider was extended beyond being just a video game, including the 2001 movie Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and the 2003 sequel Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life, both starring Angelina Jolie.

A fair percentage of fans^[who?] of the game argue that the movie adaptations are a poor tribute to their video game heritage, though Jolie, after some initial published criticism mostly centred around her being an American playing a British character, was considered an ideal choice for the role of Lara Croft.

[edit] Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001)

A member of a rich British aristocratic family, Lara Croft is a "tomb raider" who enjoys collecting ancient artefacts from ruins of temples, cities, etc. worldwide, and doesn't mind going through death-defying dangers to get them. She is skilled in hand-to-hand combat, weapons training, and foreign languages.

The planets of the solar system are going into an astronomical conjunction (which occurs every 5,000 years), and a secret society called the Illuminati is seeking an ancient talisman called The Triangle of Light that gives its possessor the ability to control time. The Illuminati need a certain clock/key called the All-Seeing Eye to help them in their search, and they have to find it in one week or wait 5,000 years for the next planetary alignment to find it again. Lara happens to find the All-Seeing Eye hidden in a wall of her mansion. The Illuminati steal it, and Lara gets an old letter from Lord Richard Croft, her deceased father, telling her about the society's agenda (her father was a defected member, who hid the key). Now, she must retrieve the key and find and destroy the talisman before the Illuminati can get their hands on it.

[edit] Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life (2003)

Lara Croft returns in the sequel to the original video game based film. This time, she is trying to find Pandora's Box which supposedly contains one of the deadliest plagues on Earth, before evil scientist Jonathan Reiss can get his hands on it. The key to finding the Box, which is hidden in the mysterious Cradle of Life, is an orb that is supposed to be some type of a map. When Croft goes to get the orb, it is stolen by Reiss's henchman and so she recruits an old friend, Terry Sheridan, a former mercenary who spent his last couple of years in prison in Siberia, to come to help. Lara and Terry embark together on an adventure that spans continents in an attempt to regain the orb.

[edit] Potential third movie

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Warner Bros. has confirmed a third movie is in the works with Dan Lin as producer. Time Warner acquired film rights upon increasing its stake in Eidos in December 2008. The film is still in early stages with no writer or director yet, but the report indicates it will be a reboot that will re-imagine Lara Croft's "origins ... love interest and the main villain". The report also indicates Angelina Jolie may not be returning to the role of Lara Croft, and that a new actress might be cast after a writer and director are attached to the project.^[14]

[edit] Comic books

Tomb Raider has been licensed to Top Cow Productions, which has published a large number of Tomb Raider stories in comic book form since 1999. The series ended in 2004 with the release of its final and fiftieth comic book.

[edit] Original novels

Ballantine Books, in conjunction with Eidos, began publishing a series of original novels in the spring of 2004, beginning with The Amulet of Power by Mike Resnick, which was followed by The Lost Cult by E. E. Knight in August 2004 and then The Man of Bronze by James Alan Gardner in January 2005. They generally followed the continuity of the video games (particularly Angel of Darkness) rather than the movies, although Lost Cult contained references to Cradle of Life. Man of Bronze differs from the first two books in that it is told in first-person narrative from Lara Croft's point of view.

Ballantine's contract only called for three novels, and it is not yet known if the book series will continue.

[edit] Theme park rides

The film Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and subsequent sequel, having been distributed & licensed by Paramount Pictures were fair game for inclusion in the six Paramount Parks, theme parks owned and operated by Paramount (and later, CBS Corporation. As such, three "Tomb Raider" rides were opened at various Paramount Parks: Tomb Raider: The Ride (both a HUSS Giant Top Spin at Kings Island and a flying roller coaster at Canada's Wonderland) and Tomb Raider: FireFall (a suspended HUSS Top Spin at Kings Dominion). The Paramount Park's sale to Cedar Fair, L.P. was accompanied by a loss of rights to the Tomb Raider name, and subsequently, Kings Island's "Tomb Raider: The Ride" and Kings Dominion's "Tomb Raider: FireFall" were renamed "The Crypt" (to which there is much controversy)^{[citation needed]} while Canada's Wonderland's "Tomb Raider: The Ride" was renamed "Time Warp."

With its investments and licensing pulled from the former Paramount Parks, the Tomb Raider ride franchise was started anew with Tomb Raider: The Machine at Movieland Studios, Italy. The ride, manufactured by Zamperla, looks very much like the HUSS Top Spin ride, but is actually a new ride called a Windshear.

The original (and only indoor, themed) Tomb Raider: The Ride at Kings Island was celebrated for the way it turned what is generally a typical "boring" thrill ride like a Top Spin (something found at most carnivals) into a highly interactive, themed dark ride complete with lava pits, volcanoes, icicles, and a giant goddess carving on the wall with laser eyes.^{[citation needed]} The ride was synchronized to a specially-made Tomb Raider soundtrack and featured the real, six armed "Durga" goddess and water vase from the first movie, as well as the monkey warrior statues that come to life in the film.

[edit] Animation

GameTap aired a ten part animated short series called Re\Visioned: Tomb Raider Animated Series from 10 July 2007 to 13 November 2007. The series is comprised of various artistic talent's renditions of Lara Croft. Minnie Driver provides the voice for Lara Croft.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Tomb Raider - Official site.
• Tomb Raider Chronicles - Media and information from the entire series.
• WikiRaider - Wiki dedicated to the series.
• Tomb Raider Wiki - Wiki dedicated to the series.