With Tomb Raider IV-VI Remastered set to launch on February 14th, we had the exciting opportunity to speak with former Core Design developers Andy Sandham and Richard Morton. As level and narrative designers for Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation and Tomb Raider: Chronicles, they took us on a deep dive into the evolution of Lara Croft's characterization during her darker era in these games. 

Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation marks the beginning of a deeper insight into Lara Croft’s character.  In the first three games, Lara is primarily after an artifact of interest and, in the process, stops villains from using those artifacts for their own plans. In The Last Revelation, whilst her primary motivation remains the same – going after an artefact of interest, she is forced to try to repair the damage made by her reckless behaviour.  

The game begins with young Lara and her mentor Von Croy embarking on an adventure in Cambodia to find an artifact called the Iris. Lara cautions Von Croy to respect the ancient warnings, but he dismisses her concerns as mere superstition, boasting about his reputation as a renowned archaeologist-adventurer. Lara, recalling his own earlier words, points out that disrespect is the route to carelessness. Their adventure ends with Von Croy’s overconfidence permanently injuring his leg. 

Q: How did the story of Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation come to be? What were some of the inspirations behind it?  

RICH: I think The Last Revelation storyline was born from our desire to rein things back a little from the globetrotting exploits of Tomb Raider III (TR3), we really wanted the story to be much more cinematic and involved than previous Tomb Raider games and to also explore an area of the globe in much more detail; we chose Egypt as the main location not only because it has such a rich ancient history, but also because there are vast areas still uncovered, and we could fill in those gaps with our own locations, puzzles and traps. As usual the Indiana Jones movies (especially Raiders) played a huge part in inspiring the storyline, but also the old 1930’s TV serials such as Tarzan and Flash Gordon. 

ANDY: As well as the team wanting to return to Egypt as Rich has said, it’s well documented that Jez (Core Design boss) wanted this to be set in Egypt, to return to the “roots” of Tomb Raider, so that gave us our initial direction, and we knew we wanted an antagonist that was at least equal to Lara, pursuing her through the game effectively as a driver for the player. So that gave us the starting point. From a plot perspective, the problem with scriptwriting for games back then was that we’d design a level and be mostly through making it before approaching Vicky Arnold (our in-house scriptwriter for Tomb Raider I-III) to add in some plot around it – a real nightmare for Vicky basically, and kudos to her for managing it so amazingly on the first three Tomb Raiders.  

On Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation (TR4), this was the first time the team could plan out the script from the outset, the plot, the theme, and the levels we wanted to include – a bit like handing over the keys to the sweetshop to the designers, really. We’d set out our stall with TR3 and understood the mechanics and the engine and had proved ourselves as a team – now it was time to make OUR game.  

Seven or eight of us from the core team sat in a room for two weeks, (not the programmers, obviously – programmers are notoriously allergic to plot) and we pitched in with the levels or setpieces we wanted to create, and this kind formulated the areas of Egypt we wanted to tackle, and some of the major plot beats. I then took these beats and wrote the connective tissue and got to write the dialogue basically because this was seen as another job on our already tight workload, and nobody else wanted to do it. My students find it highly amusing that this was an “unwanted job” when we look at the number of narrative designers attempting to get a break in games these days! So, a coherent plot that organically linked all the levels together got a real push forward in TR4, which is why I think it’s a fan favourite. 

I’d note that a lot of the setpieces, as ever, were inspired by our favourite films - the whole team, but primarily myself, Rich and Pete (Duncan) were huge cinephiles, so there’s a lot of references you can tick off. Generally, we took inspiration from the Indy trilogy, Aliens, Die Hard, The Matrix, and even sneaking the garage out of Reservoir Dogs into a level. Terminator 2 was also a big influence, inspiring us more generally with the strong female character gradually understanding the gravitas of, and taking responsibility for her actions (more on that shortly). It’s interesting to note how “games being influenced by films” has flipped to “films influenced by games” in modern times, with most tentpole blockbusters having some recognisable “homage” to video game plots or characters – don’t get me started on the “not going to make it” Jeep chase out of Jumanji 2 !

We also wanted to make Lara slightly more of a fallible everyman – we all felt she was strong but not entirely “likeable” in the previous games. Some efforts to tackle this included my efforts to write “save the cat” moments, i.e. moments where she would go back to help people rather than a relentless inhuman pursuit of artefacts. I was also keen to write in some humour, basically to lighten her character somewhat. I should note Lara still had to be an out and out hero, that was one of her character pillars – but was now more fallible (as per her mistake at the start of the game, which effectively became her “ghost” that follows her through the plot.) 

And in addition to this, we also wanted our antagonist, Von Croy, to be more than a cookie cutter villain – we wanted less black and white, more shades of grey, a kind of flip side of the more complex Lara character. This kind of fed out organically across TR4 and TR5 as I was writing the NPC’s, minor characters and bad guys. For the most part, I aimed to give characters strong understandable motives and objectives even if the player didn’t agree with them, such as the soldiers in the Cairo level, and the Russian sub Commander in Tomb 5 (“we shall not kill indiscriminately”). Writing in an attempt to add a little more 3 dimensionality to these characters, it was not always entirely successful, but it was a start. 

I should also note we had our own professor of history, Kieran, fact checking all our Egyptology 101–remember the internet was in its infancy at this point! Much visiting of libraries and museums (we were British museum regulars) to find inspiration and hunt down the info we needed. 

Q: How did you approach developing the dynamic between Von Croy and Lara, and what do you think Lara's warnings to Von Croy reveal about her character at such a young stage in her life, especially given that the Black Isle adventure from Chronicles takes place in the same year? 

RICH: Yeah, we knew we wanted to Introduce Von Croy as a strong and complex character, who would start as her mentor and ultimately become her nemesis (then going full circle in Angel of Darkness) We looked at everything from the Belloq character in Raiders to the dynamic James Bond has with his enemy criminal masterminds, having the cautious rapport and constant sly snipes at one another. Even at a young age Lara was a force to be reckoned with! 

ANDY: We wanted Von Croy to be an ongoing antagonist throughout the game, and of at least the same intelligence as Lara to make him an able threat, something reasonably new in games at the time. Von Croy was almost always one step ahead of Lara (a bit like Belloq in Raiders, as Rich says); it’s really only Von Croy’s own (or Set’s) greed toward the end which is his downfall. This mirrors the original series, really, in that the games tend to specify that the artefacts (or “MacGuffins”) became something that were sought after for greed, or for revenge, and usually ended in no good for these (frequently male) characters that have attempted to claim them. You’ll note Lara has locked all the artefacts in a hidden room in the mansion in Tomb Raider: Chronicles (TR5), to keep them out of trouble. Is the room Lead-lined, I hear you ask? Fingers crossed! 

With regards to her warnings to Von Croy, although much of this dialogue was written to support the gameplay (we needed antagonism between these two to drive some of the sequences such as the timed chase), at the core of this, she is warning him about being irresponsible, and he’s effectively ignoring her as he believes he is “wise” and his actions are without consequence, leading to the dreaded “chocolate orange”* trouser snagging sequence, where he is forced to face the consequences of his actions, and they do not bode well for Von Croy! This theme of “taking responsibility for your actions” is at the core of the plot for Tomb Raider 4, and although this was discussed in the early plot meetings as part of the more “grown up” Lara, I think there are a lot of reasons why this gradually worked its way right into the DNA of the game, which I’ll discuss later. 

With regards to the Black Isle episode, in hindsight, you could say that if Lara experienced the black isle adventure first, she has already observed how greed and hubris can lead to self-destruction, as observed by the greed for eternal life in the Cossack that leads to his destruction, but that, unfortunately would be a complete fabrication on my part, but it sounds good, so I’ve left it in. 

*This is what the team used to call the receptacle for the artefact at the end of the tutorial, much to Phil’s (who built and animated it) chagrin. 

Q: In The Last Revelation, Lara’s overconfidence causes her to repeat the same mistake Von Croy made years earlier with the Iris when she removes the Amulet of Horus from the Tomb of Seth. Was it intentional to mirror Von Croy’s mistakes in Lara's actions, and how does this parallel reflect her character’s evolution throughout the series? 

ANDY: As mentioned, the initial tutorial really shows how Von Croys hubris and irresponsibility believing there are no consequences for his actions. In fact, Lara has really been written as the “adult” in this sequence. When we flip back to adult Lara, it’s the reckless Lara we know from previous games (i.e., character traits like her unrelenting pursuit to destroy endangered species). So this game Is where we ended up kind of arcing Lara – through this usual recklessness, through to finally realising she actually has to take responsibility for her actions, effectively sacrificing herself to prevent global destruction, “growing up” in the process*, and cyclically becoming the teacher – teaching Von Croy about the taking responsibility for your actions. I’ve talked to Rich about this recently, and I think the interesting thing here is that we now recognise that subconsciously (and to some degree consciously) the overarching themes of taking responsibility for your actions was due to several personal reasons across the team at the time. Some of the team were starting to have young families, new homes, real lives outside of pizza boxes and 3AM crunch, and we recognised we were at the centre (or at least orbiting the centre) of games as the beginning of this massive global cultural phenomenon, and I think that we also recognised that we were at a stage on the world platform that not only Lara, but the game industry had to “grow up” and start taking responsibility for its actions with a view to future generations. Certainly, there is some evidence in my own writing here that I was becoming quite jaded with the whole, male oriented, shooty industry (“I’m tired Jean – give a girl a break”). I should also point out before I get too far up my own rectum, that me and Rich also discussed the fact that Lara still spent much of these two games continuing to shoot quite a lot of endangered species and innocent NPC’s, but the longest journey starts with a single step, right?  

*(and her sacrifice, “death” and consequent “rebirth” at the end of TR5, but I’m not even going to start thinking about the possible implications of that here) 

RICH: Yeah, as Andy says, it was an intentional decision by us to mirror Von Croys mistake, that even Lara can get caught up in the moment and not realise the consequences until it was too late, I think after The Last Revelation Lara becomes much more cautious in how she approaches this type of decision. 

Q: Would it be correct to state that Von Croy's pursuit of her throughout The Last Revelation adds a nice layer of depth, representing the concept of being chased by a forgotten lesson?  

ANDY: Yes. I’d like to say I cleverly planned this “nice layer of depth”, but I didn’t. It’s really a byproduct of her character arc from reckless through to responsible. The lesson chases her, and she finally (fatally) learns it - theoretically also teaching Von Croy about the errors of his earlier actions in the process and allowing him to arc. (Although there’s not much evidence of Von Croy having arced in the later games) 

RICH: Yes, that’s correct, we wanted Von Croy to be the constant reminder embodied as her nemesis 

With the pressure of releasing a game every year, it’s no surprise that the Core Design team was already thinking about how to wrap up The Last Revelation and take a well-deserved break before tackling the next chapter for the PS2 era. This led to the decision to end the game on a darker note. However, this choice also paved the way for a fresh start for Lara Croft, creating exciting opportunities for the character's future development. 

RICH: Yes, I remember coming up with the idea to kill Lara or at least try and engineer the story so the player might believe Lara was dead, leave it on a literal cliff hanger. This wasn’t down to exhaustion, we wanted a way to leave the player wanting more and hopefully be enthusiastic for the PlayStation 2 Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness, which was to continue the story of how Lara survived, you’ll know of all the deleted cutscenes and game levels featuring Lara’s new mentor Putai. 

Q: Chronicles explores different phases of Lara’s life, including a segment where she retrieves the Iris, as well as showcasing her first paranormal adventure on the Black Isle. How did you approach writing the story, and what was the most appealing story element of those four short adventures?  

ANDY: Much of the initial approach on Chronicles was based around a “greatest hits” package, really created as a kind of “wrapping up” of the Lara legend, not only for all the players and fans who had supported our efforts up to this point, but also as an “adios” from the team. This “greatest hits” concept also had the benefits of allowing us to re-use assets to limit crunch and get it out of the door – so we sat down and had a look at what we’d accumulated over the series (young Lara model, catsuit with added Matrix shades, artefacts, etc.) and planned around that for the most part. I Created a “framing story” in the old Amicus portmanteau horror style of which I was a huge fan, characters sitting round a fireplace in a gloomy old mansion in as storm, to add an air of gravitas to the proceedings, and allowing me to link the various unrelated levels/stories without having to tie them together coherently (as per TR4) 

A lot of the level ideas came out of what we had planned for TR4 before it became specifically Egypt focussed. The Black Isle was my level, so that was probably my favourite – e.g. writing Father Patrick, in the Father Ted mold (“manifestations, that sort a thing”) – although I’m pretty sure writing Pierre and Larson was a very close second. I had a ball writing them, although I think, historically, you may find I was the only person having a ball on tomb 5.  

The FMV cutscenes went out to an external rendering company (paid by the duration of the cutscene, so you’ll note how abrupt some of them seem), so that was just a basic handover of the script with no Pete Barnyard glowering at me over any of the complex bits, and everyone on the team just wanted it written and done, so I basically got to noodle about amusing myself and taking liberties with some of the classic characters, which for the most part, the team had a lot of fondness for. We’d been through a lot with them (and them with us, if being locked in the refrigerator is anything to go by). 

RICH: Because Chronicles was born out of necessity it kinda interfered with our plans to have break between The Last Revelation and TR PS2 (Angel of Darkness) of at least a couple of years. So we agreed to make Chronicles as a way of having a new Tomb Raider game, without it breaking our plans, so we used it to further hammer home to the player that Lara was Dead, setting the games tone with Lara’s wake with Von Croy and others talking about their past adventures with Ms Croft. In a way it was a breath of fresh air because it allowed us to deep dive into Lara’s past, to see events that had been talked about but not shown, and to have a bit of fun with it. 

Q: What do you think motivated Lara to break into Von Croy Industries to retrieve the Iris, beyond the obvious reason? 

RICH: The Iris was a MacGuffin that was meant to be a long-standing bone of contention between Lara and Von Croy, with it passing between them throughout the course of their lives, I’m not sure we ever found out its true power or its true origin, was it even from earth? The first time the player sees the Iris is in Lara’s Mansion in the Treasure Room. 

ANDY: As above, I can say that we wanted to get all of our artefacts into one room in the Croft mansion as a greatest hits for the players – “ah, I remember the level where I discovered that!” type of thing. So that and the fact that we could re-use the Von Croy model, and with Rich wanting to make a Matrix level with an Argyll/Die Hard type character directing the action, it all, suddenly, fell into place. (sometimes it was that simple!) 

Q: In Chronicles, Lara’s friends gather at Croft Manor to share stories of their adventures with her, and we get to see the return of our favorite duo, Larson and Pierre, for one last adventure. The dynamic between Pierre, Larson, and Lara is incredibly entertaining. What inspired the decision to bring them back? 

ANDY: So, Andrea Cordella (designer of the Rome level) was really more gameplay (as opposed to narrative) focussed, so that pretty much gave me free reign with what I could do script wise on that level. We had the Pierre and Larson models, and wanted to fit them in somewhere, so this seemed like the ideal place. The relationship between Larson and Pierre was entirely played for laughs – I felt a bit of levity was needed to offset the gloomy shadow of Lara’s death in the main cutscenes. Although it irks some players that it all goes a bit slapstick, I’m still incredibly proud of a lot of the gags in that sequence (“You were kicked in the head by a horse, Oui?”- “how’d you know about that?”), although I should note there is still, to this day, much intrigue and depth behind the comedy – Tom (Scutt) recently sent me a message he had received on LinkedIn from an irate player asking why Pierre decided to take Larson for a milkshake. Why specifically a milkshake? She fumed. Sometimes it’s best to leave some mysteries unsolved… 

RICH:  As Andy says, we felt there was a bigger story to tell between them, it would have been great to base much more of a prequel game around their exploits as a trio of young adventurers, but the opportunity never arose. It was fun to play around with those characters again. 

Q: Is there a message you’d like to share with fans who will be experiencing Tomb Raider IV-VI Remastered for the first time? And what is the one tip or piece of advice you would give to newcomers to this era of games? 

RICH: I would like to sincerely thank all the fans of Tomb Raider and Lara, of both the original games that made the remasters possible, and the new Tomb Raider games. It’s a true honour to have worked on a games franchise from the ground up, to be part of the team that created such an iconic series, seeing it grow in many directions and being a part of it. I’d love to revisit the series one day… you never know Angel of Darkness 2 (or Tomb Raider: The Lost Dominion) never got made, maybe it should! 

My advice to newcomers of the Tomb Raider series… look everywhere, don’t leave a single dark corner unexplored. Also stay on your toes, you never know when an enemy will jump out, or the floor will fall away from under you! 

ANDY: Starting with one tip or piece of advice for newcomers to this era of games – and interesting Rich is talking about “dark corners” as I’d say, specifically on my levels – turn the brightness up! (unless the remaster team has taken pity and already done this for you!) 

Regarding the two games, although Tomb Raider 4 was a labour of love and a fan favourite, recently re-evaluating Tomb Raider 5 made me realise this was possibly the title where the team were all at the top of our game from a design and technical perspective – we knew the engine inside out and were pushing it to its absolute limits, with some outstanding AI, music, SFX and, (of course) design and script all leading to an unsung gem – I’m still kind of amazed we created these two games with such a small team, And perhaps that’s why it still resonates with players – because our personalities and passion shows through. So hopefully these remastered versions will still resonate with you, the new players - please enjoy both of these games that our little team poured their heart and soul into for a couple of years – and hopefully the new team have had as much fun recreating as we did the first-time round! 

Adios Lara! Don’t let me hold you up! 

And if you’d like to learn the basics of designing games and levels like the original Tomb Raider series, with Tomb Raider examples and anecdotes aplenty, please (shameless plug) purchase a copy of my new, just released book, collecting together 20 years of industry game design and 12 years of teaching this knowledge to eager (and consequently industry employed) students! 

LINK HERE: 

www.routledge.com/9781032644707 

Discover more from Andy Sandham on social:

• YouTube

• Linkedin

If you want to check out Richard Morton’s work, visit his website. 

Video Games

Tomb Raider IV: The Last Revelation

Tomb Raider V: Chronicles

Tomb Raider IV-VI Remastered