Hey there, I've just
completed (though not 100%ed) the New Tomb Raider game and thought I
should provide a somewhat lengthy review of it, not just as a game or
a gaming experience, but through the feminist critique people threw
at it during those initial trailers. Because the complete experience
of the game is vital to most readings of this game in particular,
there'll inevitably be spoilers, even though you've already figured
out how the game will turn out. Also, while I'll try to be academic
about it, large chunks of it will have to do with my own personal
experience of the game. So yeah. Have fun!
Preamble: Things Left
Behind
You figured it would happen
eventually.
Last year I posted the first
part of an aborted analysis I was going to do on the issues of
gender equality in video games, particularly in the protagonist
archetype. Effectively the nub of my analysis is how the gaming
heroine experience changed, from barely existing, to distaff
counterpart, to the mixed blessing of the 'Girl Power' era, where
action girls were created that amazingly missed the point, before
moving to a worrying trend where, far from being equal, female
characters would be lightening rods for serious abuse in a misguided
attempt to be 'serious' or 'edgy', while male characters seemed to be
the same bulletproof action hero fantasy figures they always were,
just with even massiver muscles. I stopped that, mainly because I
didn't feel I'd researched enough feminist theory to really do it
justice, but it is something I maintain is the case.
The first game I planned to
talk about was Metroid Other M, a painfully misguided game which
tried to make a character who never speak never shut up. The biggest
problem wasn't that though; it was the rampant misogyny, shown mainly
the strange patriarchal complex Samus developed at the start of the
game, obsessing over the 'perfect military mind' Adam, doing
everything he told her to despite having no reason or incentive to do
so, and not daring to touch the equipment she has unless Adam says
its okay, and being so obsessed she runs through a volcanic area,
burning herself alive until Adam lets her turn on the Varia Suit she
already had! Then there was
the bloody maternal metaphor, which including such things as Samus
being drawn by a distress signal called a “baby's cry”, which was
hamfistedly monologued about for a good five minutes. It read like
the developer shockingly realised Samus was a woman and was like “Oh
no! What do women do? Have Babies? Alright, there's our central
metaphor, we are aware of gender issues!” And then there was the
Ridley fight, where she developed a PTSD that seemed to serve no
purpose but act as a trigger for abuse sufferers and I could go on
for an eternity about it. It was living proof that a bad story badly
told can ruin what was otherwise a very fun game.
The
other game was the then-upcoming
Tomb Raider, and I'm glad I waited until I put
the controller before I
touched it. The main dilemma with the game is obvious. The
game is pitted as a reimagining of not only the series' gameplay, but
primarily the series' protagonist, the unflappable Lara Croft. She's
always been a polarising figure in feminist debate, considered
possibly the greatest emblem of the 'Girl Power' era; she kicked
mountains of ass, was a smart, interesting character and was in the
business of tomb raiding entirely for herself, however that was
offset by her image, which was cheesecake and increasingly exploited
to drum up sales (a running gag went for a while in the 90s about
just how big Lara's breasts would get, given they got bigger each
game). Sexualisation in video games was hardly a new thing in video
games; even Metroid had it if you beat the game fast and complete
enough, but it was one of the most prolific and successful examples.
It was difficult to really condemn or celebrate her as a feminist
figure without coming to complications about representation, she was
too strong to be sexy and too sexy to be strong, apparently.
As an eight year old
struggling with the complicated all weapons code and accidentally
making Lara blow up in Tomb Raider II, all of this went way over my
head, as did most of the sexualisation stuff. It was something you
heard about and giggled about like you did about anything adult when
you were that age; I was too young to understand it enough to be
affected either way. Regardless, I loved Tomb Raider, and tried
really hard to beat it and let her get the Dagger of Xian.
After reminiscing, I kind of
want to play it again, regardless of the fact Lara is a tank in a
tank top in that game. The gameplay was fun and the writing slightly
better than one could expect from that era.
I was also too young to
realise certain problems with the action girl era. I just thought
they were cool and wondered why there weren't more of them, then
shrugged and went on to play Mario.
I really got into the later
three games before this latest reboot (Legend, Anniversary and
Underworld), coded by Crystal Dynamics (who completely incidentally
designed the Gex series of games, which were far too awesome to fade
away). The pacing was quicker, clearly inspired by the Prince of
Persia: Sands of Time series and their flowing parkour style of
platforming (Incidentally, the last game Core Design, the original
makers of Tomb Raider made was called Free Running and somehow was
stodgier than the Tank-like Tomb Raider games they made previously).
Lara's wit also quickened and sharpened too, the return of series
creator Toby Gard probably having an effect on the direction of the
series. They were fast fun, full of secrets and cool things and had
enough of a plot to string together the more impressive physics
puzzles and set pieces.
There is a point to this
preamble, I assure you.
After the allegedly
disappointing sales of Underworld in 2009 (It sold 2.6 million
copies, so take what you will from the 'allegedly'), there was much
speculation as to the matter of why it didn't sell, and in the end
they put the blame on the alleged bulletproofing of the character,
internally dubbing her “Teflon Lara”. She never felt in any
peril, or at least in any believable peril and despite no parkour
platformer ever having serious peril and threat as a part of it
(Prince of Persia in particular making it near impossible to lose
with various timeshifting and magic powers), the decision was to
reboot Lara Croft as a younger, more vulnerable figure who it was
hoped you'd care for more than a climbing running avatar.
The result of this is
already clear to people who saw the reactions to the trailer for
“Tomb Raider” (named pretentiously as such like all reboots to
imply the earlier game never happened. See Also: Prince of Persia).
What was meant to be an attempt to portray Lara as less badass and
more fragile was taken out of proportion by pretty much everyone
(including me). The trailer had over 50 screams and grunts of pain,
there seemed to be a bizarrely fetishistic amount of pain, and most
covered in the press there was an unfathomably uncomfortable scene
with overtones of sexual assault and sexualised violence. None of
this was helped by Ron Rosenberg actually saying they 'try to rape
her' in an interview shortly afterwards, and various other things
that caused a majority of feminists to want to lynch the bastard
(including me). It is a shame he positioned the story as because it
meant a large amount of the other things shown in the trailer were
ignored, such as the new gunplay system, hunting, and some more
traditional platforming parts.
Blaming all this on a
misunderstanding of the project he was in charge of is a bit of a
fools gambit and doesn't justify anything he said or implied, but
there was a lot of it. His comments about how Lara becomes like a
wounded animal in a flight or fight scenario or how the player
desires to protect Lara probably sounded innocuous in what he
understood of the game, failing to realise that pretty much
everything he said exuded an unfortunately putrid misogyny,
effectively implying to an unknowing crowd that we are both playing
the damsel in distress and her knight in shining armour. In short,
the way he worded it made it sound like some kind of male power
fantasy that somehow leapt out of the TV and into your lap. Couple
this with the Hitman Absolution trailer and it doesn't surprise
anyone other than the team at Square Enix and Crystal Dynamics that
there was a huge debate about misogyny in video games (including me,
well, partly).
The thing is, what the
project designer says is one thing, and the complete opposite
reaction by Rhianna Prachett, the lead writer is quite another, but
in the end it is down to the finished product and the way the game is
played to reveal something about the video game Zeitgeist and whether
it's still as hostile to women as was perceived back in June.
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