TOMB RAIDER

Reviewed By: John Gocke
Used with permission from AlMenconi.com

GAME TECH INFO

Computer Platform: PC / PlayStation / Dreamcast
Produced by: Core Design
Price Range: $10-40/ea.
ESRB Rating: Teen
Patches / Upgrades: on Web site
System Requirements: P60, 8MB RAM, DOS 6.0 and/or Win95, SVGA, Sound blaster, 2X CD

Genre: Action
Christian Rating: 2 of 5
   (offensive)
Gameplay: 5 of 5
   (excellent)
Violence: 4 of 5
   (barely present)
Adult Content: 2 of 5
   (heavy)

STORYLINE

Lara Croft of 'Tomb Raider' You as the player are in the unique third-person perspective position to control a female “Indiana Jones” named Lara Croft. She travels the world to raid ancient hidden buildings for treasures and complete exotic quests. Lara is sent on a number of missions that are packaged as sequels. Each mission has a similar format and function and the locales in the series are changed and sold separately.

VIOLENCE

Lara is well armed with a variety of weapons, such as handguns and rifles that she uses to kill people competing for the same treasures as well as hostile animals that she encounters on her quests. In comparison to overtly violent games, the blood and gore of this game is mild. VIOLENCE is not the focus of the game (see Sexual Content).

ILLEGAL/HARMFUL BEHAVIOR

She illegally raids ancient tombs and temples and kills other treasure seekers.

LANGUAGE

None.

NUDITY/SEXUAL CONTENT

Lara Croft was artistically programmed from a live model who wore a skintight rubber outfit. The lifelike cartoon character is extremely well built and scantily clad as she jumps around in a variety of positions that reveals her well-endowed body. When falling down or being hurt, Lara makes a plethora of sexy moans that someone listening in the next room could easily assume that sexual intercourse was taking place. There are popular sites on the Internet with codes to transform Tomb Raider into “Nude Raider” stripping Lara of what little clothes she had been wearing. This added “feature” has made the “Tomb Raider” series best sellers.

OCCULT/SUPERNATURAL

None.

CONCLUSION

"Tomb Raider" is designed to infatuate adolescent boys with a sexy girl they can control and to be titillated by her voluptuous body and sensual moans and groans. When I scanned the Internet for references to “nude raider,” I found literally thousands of postings by young boys wanting copies of the code and pictures of Lara in full frontal and rear nudity. While the game itself is not overtly violent or perverted, these “extra” features make it highly suspect.

This game receives a 62% (D-) due to its underhanded sensual overtones and nudity.

One comment about the occult/supernatural. In the first levels of the game none seem to be present. In a later stage of the game however, a part is presented that felt very “dark” to me. It's the point where there's a movie explaining that the woman that ordered Lara to collect part of a ring turns out to be some kind of alien. During some kind of “trial” she is sent into a kind of “hell”. In a later level she is “resurrected” and appears as a flying “demon”. Definitely a minus for an otherwise great game. My Ratings: [2/4]
—Paul, age 32

…I certainly didn't interpret Lara's “moans and groans” as sexual in nature. Feminine, yes; sexual, no. Perhaps they seemed that way to the reviewer due to the lack of female action characters in games - a male grunt in the same circumstance would seem perfectly normal because we've heard the style of sound effect many times before… My Ratings: [4/5]
—Peter, age 20

I liked very much the first 2 games, but I find then it becomes quite repetitive… I'm not a Christian, but I feel annoying the use of female models to captivate audience and boost sales, 'cos I feel this is lacking of respect toward women. One good thing, I found there's so many things to do in the game - and the puzzles are really a great way to stimulate logical reasoning - that hardly I had time to look at Lara's body. A nice game, but I played better ones. My Ratings: [3/4]
—Andrea Costa, age 34, non-Christian

Comments from Young People…

I think this is a great game. The games are inexpensive and fun to play. The violence is very mild compared to many other games of this type. It's mostly just lions, tigers and bears sort of stuff with the occasional bad guy. Her figure may be offensive to some especially females, but they will fix that in the new games to come. My Ratings: [4/5]
—Justin, age 17

Hrmm… Well as a teenager I must say that Lara was made to attract my age group. But as for the “nude raider” it is in no way endorsed by Sony or EIDOS. It was originally an April fools joke by a popular magazine. People took it very seriously (which is now very plain to see). In fact Sony has sued the original people (nuderaider.com) to hack into the game. They where taken to court and they had the site closed down. But Sony can't be held responsible for other people. The game does kind of reference such things though. My Ratings: [4/4]
—Gene, age 13

Just thought I should point out that the “nude codes” mentioned are created by people who mess with the game files. No such thing was inserted by the original programmers, not even as a “secret.” I do, however, agree, that the character's sexuality, is wrongly emphasized by her impossibly proportioned figure, and her outfit. My Ratings: [3/4]
—Marc Berry, age 16

It should be mentioned that while the “Tomb Raider” series' star “Lara Croft” is somewhat over-endowed, the “Nude Raider” code this site mentions is not built into the game. This is actually a result of some sick individuals who have hacked the games code and replaced the characters textures with pornography. My Ratings: [3/4]
—Sam, age 17

I personally really enjoy playing “Tomb Raider” for the gameplay. According to Edios, "Tomb Raider's" creator there is no nudity code at all in all 4 of them. But people have taken pictures of her and have done unapproprite things with graphic editors on their computers. Also as a teenage guy I think the moans are just moans they don't stike me as sensual moans but that's my opinion. My Ratings: [4/5]
—Ben Wachter, age 14

The designers did NOT make the game with the intent of releasing the “nude raider” patch. That patch was created totally independent of them, there are no “codes” in the game that allow you to disrobe Lara. The deveplopers of “Tomb Raider” cannot help that other people have hacked into their game with an unofficial patch, but that doesn't mean that the game is not offensive. My Ratings: [2/3]
—Heath, age 15

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this Christian Spotlight review are those of the reviewer (both ratings and recommendations), and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Films for Christ or the Christian Answers Network.