New sequences unveiled by game developer Crystal Dynamics show her at the mercy of a group of mercenaries, one of whom tries to rape her, it being up to the payer to ‘save’ Lara (above, played by Angelina Jolie in the Hollywood movie).
Executive producer Ron Rosenberg says that the new storyline to the character is to make the players “root for her in a way that you might not root for a male character.”
There have been those who have take offence at the narrative move, deeming it sexist and at odds with the majority of other games on the market.
Mary Hamilton writes in The Guardian:
“As a player, I don’t remember having many problems projecting myself as Lara – and I don’t particularly want an avatar in a game that needs protecting. Players aren’t expected to want to protect Nathan Drake in Uncharted, or John Marston in Red Dead Redemption, or Max Payne – so why Lara?
“Rosenberg seems to suggest it’s because she’s female – and it’s hard to see that as anything other than a sexist approach, an assumption that men can’t lose themselves in stories with female protagonists and/or that female gamers simply don’t exist.”
Does this move victimise a character who’d otherwise to this point been seen as a strong female video game character, albeit it one mostly know for the size of her breasts?
