Evolution of a Cyber
Heroine
Lara Croft
From the outset Toby
Gard, the creator of Lara Croft, had a very strong concept of who he
wanted Lara to be – his goal was to make a very different kind of
games character. A very real looking woman who would be in contrast
to all other female games characters to date. Women in games had
been limited to damsels in distress or dominatrix style vixens whose
sole purpose was to be a tease. Lara on the other hand was going to
be taken very seriously.
To begin, Toby’s goal was to make a psychopath this
super amazing dangerous killer that was extremely dangerous and from
whom people would want to run away but at the same time she would be
awfully polite.
The original in game model was made of 400 polys, and
this was defined by the PlayStation’s limited ability to draw frames
per second, a decent number of frames had to remain for the
background and the enemies. With this limited ability to draw and
create Lara her physical attributes would have to be really
exaggerated in order to make it very clear in game that she was a
woman.
There were simply not enough polys to define Lara’s
joints so the original model had no toes, nor fingers, not even a
mouth or jaw.
She was always meant to have long hair as well (she
did in cutscenes, the Lara model for these was of a higher
resolution of 800 polys) but hair required physics simulation and
the team did not have enough time to create a programme to handle
this so in game, Lara had a small bun. Lara’s long hair did not
appear in game until Tomb Raider 2.
Lara also started out as a munitions expert, she was
meant to have a rocket launcher on her back and carry grenades. Due
to technical difficulties, the grenades never made it into the game
but were a welcome addition to Tomb Raider: Legend. Lara’s signature
weapons were also meant to be dual uzis but as these were not
available until the end of the game, the weapon that everyone came
to associate Lara with was her dual pistols. Lara has really
evolved now.
She is built from 7000 polys, the Lara in Tomb
Raider: Anniversary, can express mixed emotions, has a realistic and
vastly expanded movement set. Her body moves fluidly and naturally
and her hair has movement. She looks real.
She also interacts dynamically with the environment,
her clothes show damage and dirt, her hair and outfit become wet
when she swims, her breath steams in cold air. The moves that she
can perform are still based around the original set but she can
string multiple moves together and her athletic abilities have
increased. She will use backflips and rolls to dodge enemy fire, use
handstands to climb ledges, she can also climb vertical poles, swing
around horizontal poles and will also jump upon and balance, like a
perch, on the smallest isolated platforms.
Lara also has more kit at her disposal. A gadget that
was shown in one of the original Tomb Raider cutscenes, the grapple,
has now become a reality in game. Introduced in Tomb Raider: Legend,
Lara can use the grapple to swing across chasms and pull objects
towards her. For the first time in Anniversary, she can also use the
grapple to climb walls.
>> How the series began
>> Even more beautiful renders!
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