Thoughts on Uncharted and Tomb Raider

When I first saw information about the game Uncharted I thought it was a good idea to have a treasure hunting videogame, and frankly, it was about time.  There had been Tomb Raider, which was mildly entertaining; but it was so shameless in its over-sexualizing of Lara Croft that I felt like a creep even looking at it.  There had been mild attempts at bringing Indiana Jones to the computer, but there hadn’t been anything that utilized the great story elements we’ve seen in gaming over the past 10 years.

When I at last got a chance to try Uncharted out, I wasn’t disappointed.  In fact, what surprised me was how much I got into the characters, and into watching the story like it was a movie.  In fact, after I stopped playing the game, I looked it up on Youtube and saw the way the rest of the first game progressed.  As soon as it was done, I went right onto 2.  Uncharted 3 happened to come out right after that, and I went on to watching it as well.

The stories were so good, in fact, that I would have paid to watch them, though I had little interest in playing them.  Don’t get me wrong, I had fun playing them, but I’m a bit incompetent when it comes to these games, and I know I would struggle through them, getting Nathan Drake killed over and over again before I could get to the next part.  This both breaks the mood of the story, and makes it all go tediously slow when I’m trying to just get on with the story.

When Tomb Raider made a comeback I was skeptical.  However, the clips I saw portrayed Lara Croft as more of a sympathetic character, and downplayed the huge boobs and perfect figure.  Don’t get me wrong, she is extremely attractive, but the game focuses more on her capabilities and her competence.  They’ve taken what was a pretty chauvinistic character and actually turned her into a feminist model of strength.

And in the case of both storylines, the side characters are wonderful as well.  They bring out real emotions in their central characters, and create engrossing storylines themselves.  The ongoing love interest in Uncharted is something I can really believe; and is frankly more mature than 99% of the relationships portrayed in movies.  Lara Croft does not have very close relationships, and that fact plays rather strongly in her character throughout the first two reboot stories.  She is prepared to always move on without someone, though I’ve often get the sense that she’s wanting to reach out to someone she can connect with.  At least that’s the reading I get from the actress’s performance in the motion capture.

At any rate, I recommend anyone to just watch these games the way they would binge watch a show.  And if they can have the patience to play them, they should purchase them as well.