It seems Eidos is worried that Lara has had her day in the sun. Tomb Raider Underworld underwhelmed the publisher with sales figures falling $20 million short of estimated. Apparently 1.5 million copies in the first six weeks of a game's launch just isn't enough these days, especially when Lara was expected to shift closer to two million. It seems that America has fallen out of love with our favourite tomb raider, while Europe is still unquestionably captivated by her charms.
So what's to be done with Lara? Well, Eidos boss Robert Brent has hinted at a bit of a makeover for the queen of the khaki shorts, in an interview with The Times newspaper.
Brent said, "We need to look at everything, as we develop the next game. Look at how Batman changed successfully, from the rather sad character of the Michael Keaton era to the noir style of The Dark Knight."
Batman has had an edgy makeover, but Angel of Darkness took Lara down the same road and failed miserably. Maybe that idea needs to go on the back burner Mr. Brent. However, the competitive US market seems to be disillusioned with the Tomb Raider series and unless Eidos does pull off a revamp, Lara may have to take early retirement.
Brent added, "Europe was fine, but America was not as anticipated. You would normally expect Tomb Raider sales to be split half and half between Europe and North America, but this time America was considerably below that."
As a result of Lara's poor performance, Eidos is rethinking the look and play of future Tomb Raider games, including a possible makeover of Lara herself, to make her more female-friendly.
Now, that's all well and good, but I'd say that Lara is pretty female-friendly already. Well, she is a woman for a start and you don't get many of those to the gaming pound. Okay, so she may have two substantial assets, but so does Barbie and nobody could say she alienates the female market.
Lara appeals to both men and women and transcended the world of games even before she became a movie star in the shape of Angelina Jolie. I think the whole ‘female-friendly' thing is a Holy Grail that industry big cheeses have invented for themselves and going down that route could kill Lara off for good.
Here are my top five things Lara doesn't need:
1. Girlyfying – Lara definitely doesn't need to start wearing pink. That would be a bad move and under no circumstances should we be able to pick out cute outfits for her, although we've already dabbled in that with unlockable costumes. She's sexy and kickass at the same time and that's how we like her – take that away and you've got some dumb bint who can't swim very well.
2. Annoying sidekicks – is there a Tomb Raider player out there who didn't want to shoot the sidekicks on Lara's comm. link? Frankly, I don't want to hear the comedy black man saying "daaaamn," followed by the uptight British guy. TR is about Lara and we don't need peripheral characters thanks.
3. Back story – the more enigmatic Lara is, the better she works as a character. I want to hear her footsteps echoing around tombs in exotic locales. I don't want to hear her bleating on about the death of her dear papa and the betrayal of her best".snore. Oh belt up Lara, get swinging on that rope and grab the crystal thingy.
4. Love interest – NOOOOOOO! This comes back to the enigmatic bit. Sorry, pining after Mr. Amazing isn't part of the deal Lara. Girls want to be her, boys want to be with her and that spell will be broken if she's mooning after some bloke as they run around in his and hers combat pants.
5. Sticky stuff – now walls, hedges and doors all come under sticky stuff. We're sick of Lara getting stuck on stuff, it's just so 1996, dahling! Come on people, we want her to be able to get through a mission without snagging on a bit of the scenery. It's not too much to ask.
My top five things Lara can't do without:
1. Ponytail – remove Lara's trademark hair and you're in for trouble. Where would Princess Leia and Louise Brooks be without their iconic hair? Nowhere, a mere blip on the media landscape. So don't touch the hair.
2. All her assets – the only reason we're still talking about and playing the Tomb Raider games is because Lara's hot and can handle herself. Ample bosom, small shorts, and big guns – it works for me and a hell of a lot of other people. We don't need Lara the waif and we don't need to butch her up or god forbid turn her into a man. She's about the only woman in the games world who doesn't feel the need to go into battle in a thong and for that we salute her.
3. Tombs – it may sound obvious, but Angel of Darkness proved that sometimes the men in suits take a complete leave of their senses. We want tombs, ancient civilisations, curses, bits of crystal that fit together to make one big bit of crystal that fits into a hole and unleashes hell. It's worked before and it can damn well work again. Take the girl out of the tomb and you're left with yet another Bourne-alike.
4.Top notch combat controls – now if I was Lara Croft, I'd make sure I was adept at some martial arts, you know, just in case I get knocked out and hey presto, lose all my weapons. She needs some cool kung fu moves for close combat, as well as the ability to shoot straight when necessary.
5. Story – I'm afraid it's time to stop focusing on making everything look pretty and get some quality storytelling going. And I don't mean the usual flange we have to wade through. Definitely no family saga crap, just some decent cut scenes, cool set pieces and a cracking ending. Invest in some good writers and who knows what could happen.
I don't want to imagine a gaming world without Lara, but it looks like she could be skating on thin ice. Well if a revamp it must be, let's hope Eidos don't f**k it up.
Most played: Mass Effect
Most wanted: Mad World