Tomb Raider: Survivor Trilogy

Everything lost is meant to be found. In this Tomb Raider reboot, we explore Lara Croft’s origins as a researcher of anthropological and archeological studies.

The franchise has come a long way since I last played Tomb Raider: Anniversary (2007) on the Wii. For those unfamiliar with the gameplay, this 3rd-person adventure game set the prototype for Uncharted and Assassin’s Creed.

I want to preface this section by saying that I’ve been a lifelong fan of Crystal Dynamics and their handling of this franchise. Moreover, I’m a fan of Naughty Dog games like The Last of Us. The first game was released in 1996, and it seems like improvements are always beings made.

While it isn’t exactly possible to obtain 100% completion on the first go, each game provides a free fast travel option, making it simple to revisit crypts as you upgrade weapons and skills.

Each game is generally consistent in terms of controls and tools. There’s a base camp practically every twenty feet, so you never have to worry about being stuck in combat with no upgrades.

The reviews from major gaming companies such as IGN have been overall excellent. Yet no fandom is without its set of gripes, and my goal is to provide a simple yet comprehensive guide to this reboot series.

Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition

Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition is the 10th installment and the start of the survivor trilogy. This game is true to the style of those before it, but the last of its kind so far. The sharp, gritty art style of this title perfectly embodies the aesthetic of the brand. Though it made me seasick, I liked the wobbly camera. Most of the game is super dark, which can sometimes make it hard to see.

The story begins where it always has before: in the heart of the conflict. Lara and her team are searching for the Lost Kingdom of Yamatai after shipwrecking in the Devil’s Triangle. The main storyline of this game revolves around escaping the island with her team.



We meet Jonah, Sam, and Dr. Whitman. Whitman completely fumbles the bag, resulting in Lara killing someone for the first time.

Lara doesn’t have long to process her first kill before being thrust into the throws of survial. She tries to rescue Sam but is foiled by Mathias—leader of the Solari.

By the way, the canon in this universe differs from that of the movies. In Tomb Raider (2001), starring Angelina Jolie, Lara’s mom died earlier on. In this timeline, her mother died much later in a plane crash in the mountains.

One drawback that I’m not the first to mention is that there isn’t a whole lot of intentional tomb raiding in this game; it’s more like falling into tombs on accident and struggling to escape them.

“I hate tombs,” exclaims Lara after crawling through a mass grave of skeletons. It’s no good omen, as for the rest of the game, her teammates drop like flies. Talk about character development...

Lara learns of a "fire ritual" called the "Ascension" used to select the Sun Queen's successor. The "Ascension" transfers Himiko's soul into a new body, which will burn her to death if unsuccessful and destroying her soul in the process.

After fighting her way through the Solarii fortress and infiltrating the palace in time to witness Mathias beginning fire ritual, Lara is overpowered by Mathias and his men. The flames are extinguished by a great wind, marking Sam as Himiko's rightful successor.

I don't know what the budget was for this game or how it was dispersed but the cutscenes, especially those with Mathias. After rewatching this scene on Youtube, I realized it had nothing to do with my FPS and everything to do with the cuts in animation.

Lara narrowly escapes captivity once again and returns for her friends, whose attempts to reach Sam have resulted in their capture. Aided by Whitman—who managed to negotiate some degree of freedom with the Solarii—Lara returns to the palace to rescue Sam as Roth commandeers a helicopter to get them out. Lara tries to force the pilot to land as a second storm brews up, striking the helicopter and forcing them to crash. In a confrontation with Mathias, Roth saves Lara’s life and by shielding her from a battle axe.

Lara can’t shake her intuition that the storms are generated to keep everyone trapped on the island. She meets up with the other survivors, who have evaded the Solarii long enough to secure a salvage boat. They are joined by Whitman, who claims to have escaped.

Lara heads for the Endurance wreckage to meet Alex and salvage the needed tools to repair the boat. She finds him trapped under the wreckage, but Alex forces her to flee from the cultists and sacrifices himself so she can escape with the tools.

In an ancient coastal tomb, Lara discovers the remains of the Stormguard general who had committed seppuku. In his final message, he reveals that Himiko's successor took her own life rather than receive power, leaving the Himiko trapped in her body.

Lara returns to find that Whitman has betrayed them after all, taking Sam and offering her to Mathias. Lara, Jonah, and Reyes race to the monastery, with Lara arriving just in time to see Whitman killed by the Oni and Mathias starting the Ascension ritual.

For what is most unfortunately the only time in the series, Lara uses her badass signature dual pistols to destroy both Himiko and Mathias.

With the storms finally dispersed, the remaining team members are rescued by a cargo ship. As they sail home, Lara states that she is not returning home just yet, for that there are many more myths to be uncovered.

I might be in the minority for saying this, but I preferred this title to its successors. I felt the writing to be more organic. The NPC dialogue is hilarious: “How did she get a machine gun?”

There are very few puzzles at all, save for the complex elevator mechanism toward the end of the game. You’ll still have to use your brain to survive on the harder difficulty settings to conserve ammo and resources.

Completing the main story only puts you at about 60% completion, so if you’re interested in exploring secret crypts and discovering new artifacts, you can.

Playing for Sport

It was the rose colored lenses of a child that made Lara Croft the ultimate female hero. Yet as an adult, I found myself beginning to question the ethicacy of Lara’s studies. Who’s funding these expeditions? When we eat the rich, is the Croft family included?

The Croft dynasty is one of the richest estates in the UK. Don’t take my word for it, ask Forbes. Lara’s net worth sits around $1.3 BILLION–more money than both Jay Gatsby and Tony Montana.

The traceable lineage of the family is essentially made up of colonizers. If you thought the British Museum was controversial, you should take a look around Croft Manor.

Embracing a more progressive worldview, there was a lot of dissension within the community over how to shape Lara’s character. Her appearance historically has centered around her laughibly proportioned bust designed explicitly to appeal to the male gaze. But if you can’t reduce a cartoon heroine to sex appeal and her tortured past or steal artifacts from indigenous people, how badass can you really be?

“The extraordinary is not in what we do, but who we are.” So far, it’s been the Crofts stepping up to the plate no matter the cost.

Rise of the Tomb Raider

Given the stark contrast between the first and third installments, ROTR seamlessly bridges the gap between Definitive Edition and SOTR. Following the events of Yamatai, Lara Croft is struggling to understand both her role in her father's legacy and her supernatural experience on the island.

One of the most blatent criticisms of this series is the devolution of Lara's reputation as a signature dual pistol sharpshooter to a Katniss Everdeen style bowslinger.

At this point in time, Crystal Dynamics began to pass the baton to Square Enix. There are significantly more puzzles in this game than in the last. Lara’s art style has evolved, and the color scheme is richer. Jonah, who was pacific islander in the first and third titles, is black in this game only.

“Everything Lost is Meant to be Found”

The story picks up on the outskirts of Syria, with Lara on the quest to locate the tomb of Constantinople. She is interrupted by a soldier named Konstantin, and we learn the name of the supernatural paramilitary group called Trinity. These agents break in to Croft Manor and steal her father’s book that leads to the Divine Source.

The gameplay actually begins with Lara and Jonah making their way through a Siberian snowstorm to a Soviet era gulag in order to retrieve the stolen book.

After infiltrating the gulag, things get a little buck wild. Konstantin’s sister Ana–who clearly has tuberculosis or some other terminal disease–is apparently also a homewrecker.

Lara discovers that Jacob is the leader of the Remnants, the descendants of the Prophet's followers. Trinity repeatedly attacks the Remnant, justifying the slaughter as the will of God.

Lara sets out to find the Atlas, an artifact that shows the way to Kitezh. Sofia, Jacob's daughter, warns Lara of the Deathless Ones, the immortal guardians of Kitezh. Lara finds the Atlas located in the archives beneath the ruins of a Cathedral and is later reunited with Jonah.

This time Jonah is captured, and Lara returns to the Gulag to find both him and Konstantin. Jonah is stabbed in the chest, and Lara brings him to Jacob for healing. Upon witnessing Jonah's rapid recovery, Lara realizes that Jacob is the immortal Prophet.

With help from Sofia and the Remnant, Lara battles through Trinity towards the chamber that houses the divine source. Konstantin ambushes Lara along the way, but she mortally wounds him. As he dies, Konstantin reveals that Lara's father did not commit suicide but was assassinated by Trinity.

By this time, Ana has already retrieved the Divine Source. Jacob and Lara try to reason with Ana, who responds by saying that “another Croft does not have to die.”

As the Deathless Ones close in, Ana activates the Divine Source but Lara smashes it to pieces, causing the Deathless Ones to perish. Jacob, whose immortality is lost, joins half the other supporting characters in kicking the bucket.

In a post-credits scene set two weeks before Lara and Jonah leave Siberia, Lara accuses Ana of killing her father. Ana denies it, admitting that Trinity gave her the order, but she couldn't kill him because she loved him. Before she can reveal anything else, she is sniped from afar. As we see Lara’s face in the reticle, the sniper is ordered to stand down.

If the player reloads their save file after finishing the game, Lara is seen telling Sofia about Jacob's passing.

By the end of this game, Lara's finally developed a clear sense of purpose: to investigate more of the world's mysteries and do whatever it takes to thwart Trinity's plans.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider

At first, Lara seems to be portrayed as a nerd and somewhat of a know-it-all. But the gameplay portrays her as less streetwise. For instance,
At a Trinity excavation site, our hero uncovers a temple containing the Dagger of Chak Chel. Lara does what every fictional archaeologist is notorious for doing: she swipes it.

I understand that at this point in time, Lara’s still somewhat of an amateur archeologist, but the events of this game and every game so far take place in the present day. But has she never seen The Mummy (1999) or The Evil Dead (1981)?

The quippy comments are almost too much. “If you hadn’t made me leave I’d probably still be in there taking pictures.” Probably, for what we’ve seen so far.

Dr. Dominguez is the Big Bad in this game– the leader of Trinity and supposed Kukulkan of Paititi. He aims to undo the cleansing–a Mayan apocalypse that Lara triggered and create a world in his image, Thanos style.

Right on cue, the city is hit by a tsunami and we can only assume that thousands of people die. While swimming underwater, tens of adult bodies are lifelessly floating. Climbing up the building, we watch a child fall to his death while screaming for his mother to save him.

While the first two games centered Lara as a champion, it’s one screw-up after another while Jonah follows her around like a lost dog.

Straight from the jump, I knew the writers were going to try to force me into pitying Lara for making a rookie mistake. But at this point, I’m comprehending less and less what makes Lara and her team any different from Trinity. To make matters worse (if only relatively), Dominguez steals the dagger and escapes in search of the Box of Ix Chel.

Of course, Lara is determined to track Dominguez down at once, so she sets off in a helicopter with Julian. By this point, she should be on every international no-fly list. If I’m playing Would You Rather and one of the options is to board an aircraft with Lara Croft, I’m picking the second option. Predictably, the helicopter crashes and the pair are split with miles of jungle between them.

The jungle is brutal. In order to gain passage, you have to battle a jaguar using only the default bow. In the final cutscene, Lara backs herself into a corner. After seeing its mate slaughtered, a second jaguar squares up with Lara, but decides on a whim to spare her. Jag was playing the long game, apparently, and stalks Lara for an eventual second round.

The character customization offers skins from both Tomb Raider 2 and Angel of Darkness. I actually preferred the classic skins at first, as Lara’s character art in this game was a bit generic for my taste, lacking in the angular facial features that made her a household name.

I don’t know why I went into this game so determined to pick out its flaws; most aspects have improved over time. The Skill menu was artistically separated into four colorful and visually pleasing quadrants.

Kids, Don’t Try This at Home

As an Anniversary superfan, I was thrilled to visit the Croft Manor of the Survivor universe. The mission starts with Lara playing on an elaborate backyard playground built to resemble a ship.



In the following cutscene we get a glimpse at the Croft family dynamic. After effectively scaling the mansion, young Lara overhears an argument between Lord and Lady Croft about time spent traveling away from the family. “One more month,” pleads Richard. We can see where Lara gets her zeal.

One pretty major continuity error was the fact that everyone in this remote city spoke perfect English. Yeah yeah, it's a European title looking to cater to a target audience of English speakers, blah blah blah. You can’t tell me it isn’t odd that Lara can decipher ancient texts but doesn’t speak a word of Spanish.

Some of the puzzles were tricky, but most were just irritating. The oil puzzle, for instance, was time more time-consuming than hard.

The soldiers and cult members in this game are one-dimensional and dumb. After disguising herself so far as to wear a mask (with no attempt to hide her signature ponytail) Lara and Unuratu gain entrance to the temple in attempt to steal the box.

It’s a trap, and Unuratu is captured. Lara also encounters strange humanoid monsters identified as the Yaaxil, guardians of the Box, and their leader Crimson Fire. Lara learns that the Box was taken centuries ago by Andres Lopez, a missionary sent by Trinity.

Dominguez is actually the leader of a cult dedicated to Kukulkan and Unuratu's brother-in-law Amaru, who was taken by Trinity as a child. Unuratu directs Lara to the Box, but Lara finds it is missing. Their success is short-lived, as Unuratu is killed by a lone bullet shot by Commander Rourke. Before she dies, Unuratu implores Lara to complete the ritual but warns her not to let the Box influence her.

Rourke attacks Lara and Jonah, who decipher the Box's location: a nearby mission established by Lopez. Amaru admits that he ordered her father's death to prevent him from finding Paititi and revealing it to the world. It’s maybe a fair assessment.

After finding the box, Lara and Jonah escape the third cataclysm: a massive earthquake that causes a landslide. Again in Paititi, they help the new heir Etzli lead an assault on an underground temple. They plan to disrupt Amaru's ceremony while avoiding the fourth cataclysm: a volcanic eruption.

Etzli was a bright light in an otherwise dark and depressing game. When Lara returned without Unuratu, the kid held it together better than I expected. But when she returned a second time without the box, even I was waiting for him to call bullshit. Yet he entrusted her with defeating Kukulkan, the logic of a preteen at the end of his rope.

Lara encounters the Yaaxil and Crimson Fire, enlisting them to help her stop Amaru. So now I’m fighting alongside this species I spent the last three hours blowing to pieces. No one seems to question anything about it, and the Yaaxil becomes this ex deus machina. Lara Croft just so happens to be Ix Chel, taking Unuratu’s place.

Rourke and the Trinity Council are slaughtered by the army while Lara makes her way to the temple summit. Amaru begins the ritual and absorbs Kukulkan's power.

After overpowering Amaru, he transfers Kukulkan's power to Lara as he dies. Though she considers using the Box to revive her parents, she sacrifices Kukulkan's spirit to the Crimson Fire and ends the Cleansing.

Once everything is said and done, Lara technically stays to rebuild the city, but it reminds me a lot of Job in the Bible. Sure, his entire family died, but he got a brand new one! But hey, look over here at these snappy new graphics! Finishing the main story gets you 20% completion.

Final Thoughts

I’ll give credit where credit is due: it’s apparent that a lot of hard work went into this game. The team takes the time to travel to these locations to develop storylines that respect the culture and heritage of the people they represent.

Square Enix sold the franchise to Embracer Games one month after teasing a new title. While I have no reason to believe they would leave an entire fandom to rot, the $300,000,000 purchase price was significantly lower than what I would have guessed.

The extraordinary is not in what we do, but in who we are. Maybe it’s time to take the Croft legacy in a different direction. Drop the naivety and bring back the witty, sardonic, badass we all know and love.

But seriously, bring back the dual pistols.

How to Play Tomb Raider Survivor Trilogy:

Tomb Raider Survivor Trilogy is available for purchase on Sony PS4. The Tomb Raider Remastered Trilogy will soon be available on all systems, including Nintendo Switch.