20 years, 30 video games, two (and one on the way) movies, countless novels and comic books. Lara Croft is part of the cultural zeitgeist at this point, with gamers and non-gamers alike knowing the character and loving the character.
My affection for Lara Croft started early in my life; introduced to her on the original PlayStation that belonged to my best friend’s (of the time) older brother. It was the first sleepover that I was ever allowed to go to, and I didn’t sleep that whole night. I wanted to get as far as I could, in case I never had the chance to play it again. Her brother, though, let me keep the memory card with the save on it, meaning I had a little more time with it before they moved later that year.
I got back in touch with Tomb Raider video games when I was I college, and was immediately reminded of that sleepover. I was beyond excited though, when in 2010 it had been announced that an origin story had been in the works for two years. A few delays later, the game hit shelves in March of 2013.
A survivor was indeed, (re)born, and a new generation found a new heroine. A year later, the next story in Lara’s adventure was announced, and a trailer premiered at Microsoft’s 2014 E3 conference. Soon after, however ‘exclusivity’ news followed.
Exclusivity. (Le sigh.)
My thoughts about Rise of the Tomb Raider’s exclusivity are thoughts I’ve already put out there. (See THIS blog.) But, in case you don’t want to click over there, here’s an excerpt that summarizes the general gist of my feelings about it:
The following is a highly fictionalized version of the conversation that I’m assuming went down before Microsoft sealed the deal to gain the time exclusivity of Rise of the Tomb Raider.
Square Execs: Hey, we’ve had some troubles lately. We don’t want to have to wait a year to recoup our money, and yet we want you to do another Tomb Raider, but we’re only supporting you with half the money we provided last time around. How’s that sound?
Crystal D People: Um, that might not work. We’ve got X, Y, and Z planned. We want to make it bigger, make it more awesome, and add some tombs you actually have to explore to get farther ahead in the story. We can’t do it on that kind of budget. Lara’s fans are passionate; they’ll be there.
Square: Weeeell…
Phil Spencer (Sporting what I assumed would be a Tomb Raider themed t-shirt): Wait a minute, Square’s cutting support for a sequel? But the TOMBS! I’m a super big fan of Uncharted* and we don’t have anything that’s that awesome, but we should!
Shawn Layden: Well, we did just spend a boatload of money to get Destiny content first, and we’ve had issues of our own lately. Not with the PlayStation, but everything else Sony sells. And Uncharted 4 is happening. Are you looking to deal? We can offer $X to help you publish.
Phil: We can offer $X1+$X1 to help you publish and keep it exclusive to Microsoft platforms for X months!
Square: Sold!
Crystal D: This probably isn’t going to go over well, but hopefully people will realize that this will help us make the best game we can. After all, we love Lara and want to give her and the fans the adventure they deserve.
Phil: Yeah, tombs! Awesome t-shirts for everybody! (Appears with a box of Battletoads t-shirts.)
So, there’s that. I’ll admit, after the decision was made to release the game on the same day as Fallout 4 I was worried about how the game would sell, but was pleasantly surprised that it nearly sold out in the first week at work. And then, the worry came back this summer when there was no news about the PlayStation 4 version at PAX East or E3, and Crystal Dynamics was uncharacteristically silent about it, even with the #TombRaider20 celebrations in full swing.
July 19th, 2016
Those fears were last week when I woke up to see that not only did Rise have a release date on the PlayStation 4, they put out the news that those who would buy the game on that system would be getting a special 20 Year Celebration edition.
More than just a generic Game of The Year version of the game, Crystal Dynamics announced that Rise of the Tomb Raider: 20 Year Celebration would not only come with all previously released content for Rise of the Tomb Raider on the Xbox One, but would also include a co-op experience for Endurance Mode, a new difficulty level, a 28 page art book filled with official art and art from the Tomb Raider community, PS VR support to explore Croft Manor, and the ability to play Expedition Modes using classic models of Lara Croft.
And more. I’m super excited about the opportunity to actually get in and explore Croft Manor, since the option really wasn’t there in the base game of Rise of the Tomb Raider when I played on the Xbox One.
You may be asking yourself, ‘What? You played it already? Why are you buying it for the PS4 again? And at $60, which is waaay too expensive for a year old game? Why are you giving those sellouts money?’ (Real conversation at work a few days ago, sadly.)
The Bottom Line
-I love Tomb Raider, and I really want to see a third game. Rise was huge, and fun, and I’m still working through trying to find all the collectibles and tombs, and finishing all the challenges on the Xbox One.
-Not even going to address the use of the word ‘sellout.’
-$60 is too much? Not in my opinion. The season pass is $30 by itself, including Baba Yaga, Blood Ties, Lara’s Nightmare, Expedition Cards, outfits, and more. We get a new difficulty level, a new mode, and new ways to play the game.
Maybe I’m just easy to please, but I’ve spent $60 on far more games that deliver far less value.