Tomb Raider: the history of the franchise from the first game to the reboots

Tomb Raider he has recently completed his own 25 years old, and to celebrate the anniversary of one of the most famous icons in the world of video games, we at Tech Princess have decided to take stock of its history, from the birth of the first video game of the franchiseuntil recent times, when the saga has evolved to enter a new phase of his life.

The first Tomb Raider: a story that became an icon

The very first video game in the Tom Raider franchise was launched in the now distant October 25, 1996 by Core Design on the SEGA Saturn console, and then landed on PlayStation e PC a few weeks later. On the Sony home console, the game had an expected success and the Japanese giant took it under its wing, making it an exclusive for the years to come.

Originally Lara Croft was supposed to be a tough and punk heroine, but this vision, strongly desired by her creator, was soon diluted for marketing reasons, in favor of a design sexier and more feminineAnd; a decision that dismissed the original designer Toby Gard from the project in 1997, which will return only in 2000 to work on the first reboot of the series with Crystal Dynamics, or Tomb Raider: Legend.

In any case, Tomb Raider was immediately received in a very positive way by players and critics, also thanks to the playful formula of the game, completely innovative for the period. In fact, in the first Tomb Raider all the elements that would have made the saga great were already present, from advanced platforming, passing through environmental puzzles, up to even a healthy action component to season everything.

The game sold an impressive 7 million copiesa real record on all fronts for the time, and from that moment on the road towards the standardization of the archaeologist was already more than smoothed.

From success to the first reboot

Although during the first cycle of Tomb Raider video games, which lasted until the 2000s, sales were always very high, it became increasingly evident that the game was becoming a continuous repetition of the same ideas, something particularly evident in Tomb Raider Chronicles, not to mention the production disaster it was Angel of Darknessa particularly weak stock from a technical point of view.

At that point the franchise was taken off Core Design and was assigned to Crystal Dinamicswho created the first reboot of the series, Tomb Raider Legendreturning to the origins of the game and re-hiring Toby Gard, the original creator.

The game was a huge success, also thanks to a renewed action component, Lara’s improved agility and the generally inspired atmospheres that characterized it.

The same sadly cannot be said of the two Legend sequels, namely Anniversary e Underworld, which sold a modest quantity of copies, destroying what had been the excellent starting point constituted by the reboot of the saga. When the software house was bought by Square Enix, it was therefore necessary to think again about the franchise, with the second reboot of Lara Croft’s adventures, released in 2013

Square Enix and the “new” Tomb Raider

This time the operation of reboot the developers opted for was even more radical, as noted by the absence of the subtitle in the name of the game, which is simply called Tomb Raider. To change was first of all Lara herself, who abandons the super woman characteristics of the past to become a more human character, with her frailties and insecurities about her.

A strategy to bring the heroine closer to the public, which served to tell her origins in an unprecedented way; a winning bet, considering the success of the title. At the same time a great focus was placed on the action componentalso the daughter of the success that Uncharted was having in those years, an element that particularly pleased the public, given that the title sold 11 million copies worldwide.

To follow we had Rise of The Tomb Raider (2015) e Shadow of The Tomb Raider (2018), that complete the new Lara Croft trilogy, which all in all managed to prove to be more than satisfactory titles, despite some high and low narrative, especially in the third chapter.

It is not currently known how the series will evolve from this moment on, and if the software house will start a new trilogy starring our favorite archaeologist. What is certain is that now, after years, the saga is finally in good health, and the existence of a new page in Tomb Raider history is more likely than ever.