The adventure continues ....
If the player wards off the attacker, Lara escapes the small space just before it caves in; putting distance between her and the pursuer. The prospect of moving forward isn't any more attractive than sticking around, as Lara must now navigate through a flooded corridor that houses only a small pocket of air.
Holding her head at an extreme angle to secure oxygen for herself and the torch, she loses her footing every few steps, dunking down below the surface and emerging with a panicked gasp. The camera work here is cinematic - intentionally poised behind Lara so that we see her anxious face every time she looks back to ensure that she isn't being followed.
Drawn to an expansive room by the sound of breaking waves, Lara is introduced to a franchise staple, .... what would be traditionally described as a puzzle. "Puzzle" isn't the best way to characterize these challanges, however, Crystal Dynamics' prime directive is to interpret all core mechanics through a lens of survival.
"The main philosophy of Tomb Raider is to take the key action adventure pillars that all games in the genre are held up to, and to put them through our filter of survival and action," explains lead designer Daniel Neuburger. "Survival being thematic and having some gameplay implications, and action being the overall pacing and tone."
As a result, these "survival escapes" are less contrived than traditional puzzle scenarios. While rooms of relics make obvious that the island has history, the chance of Lara stumbling upon long lost and wholly fuctional mechanisms - of ferreting out keys and pulling levers to timed doors - is significantly less. Lara must instead appropriate practical devices for her own means.
This scavenger's den seems to have purpose - a space for the natives to sift through flotsam and jetsam for useable items carried in with the tide. A light source indicates an exit from the seaside cave but is blockcaded by a row of explosive barrels. The quickest exit would be to light the barrels on fire with her torch, but in such a confined space the consequences would most likely include death.
Lara has alternate means of lighting up the barrels, however. "This is a dynamic world," Neuburger continues. "We are living by the rules of a real world even though it is an unreal situation. We still live by fire, water, and physics. Lara has to be smart, resourceful, and solve her way out of these various survival challenges we put in front of her."
The room is cluttered with objects large and small, including many bouyant cloth-covered crates. Lara could light the candles on fire and let the escaping tide pull them toward the barrels, but she quickly discovers a waterfall along the path that would extinguish her traveling torches.
Lara finally spots a rusty shark cage used as a sorting device for scavanged items. Enough experimentation uncovers a means to manipulate the cage through a counterweight system. Lara loads several crates inside and directs them to drop atop the explosive containers. A massive explosion welcomes in fresh air.
The illusion of triumph lasts only a few moments, as Lara's careless use of explosives triggers a cave-in. Sprinting toward the light that signifies salvation, Lara tumbles down a fissure in the collapsing pathway and must scramble up a steep path to escape. The player is in control through the entire ordeal, frantically alternating between shoulder buttons to move up the incline, dodging falling boulders with button prompts, and trying to find a safe path through the chaos with analog controls.
As if the escape wasn't desparate enough, the scavenger finds Lara once more, grasping for her legs while continuing to maintain that he only has the best of intentions. If you are successful in helping Lara kick free, the man will fall victim to the rapidly collapsing tunnel. If you are unsuccessful, a massive boulder pins Lara's legs, giving her a moment of conscious thought to reach toward the camera ..... before another boulder crushes her skull. It is a shocking and ultimately disturbing moment.
If it isn't obvious at this juncture, Tomb Raider is openly embracing an 'M' rating. To make people care about Lara again, she can't wear that teflon coat. She has to be human. Fragile. Mortal. The consequences for failure must be real, and they must be jarring.
Successfully avoiding death this time around, Lara breaks through to the surface before collapsing. Her birth from the cramped tunnels isn't one of inherent safety, however. Before Lara lies a scene of terrifying granduer. Stepping slowly towards a cliff's edge, we get a view of a breathtaking ocean vista littered with ships, planes, and wreckage from centuries past. While Lara now has room to breathe, she seems to have jumped out of the frying pan and into the fire!
In another scene, after returning to camp at a cliffside village, Lara hovers over the body of her mentor, Conrad Roth. He had been gravely injured and rendered unconscious. Lara patches up Roth with supplies she's scavenged, hoping for the best. But, she's painfully aware that the situation is out of her hands.
Roth is awakened by a storm that rages outside their base camp. He commends Lara for the fine work she did on his wounds. Gently prodding, he states the obvious. He knows that he isn't going anywhere, anytime soon. Both Lara and Roth know the implications of the statement. Lara has reason to be distressed. The pair had plans to travel to a radio tower high above the village in hopes of signaling a rescue. That task now falls squarely on Lara's shoulders. She alone must make the trek.
"Yes, I was afraid you were going to say that," Lara confesses in a candid moment of self-doubt. She looks away from Roth, as if embarrassed. While Lara has latent strength of character, she's made a habit of reling on other people. Roth plays a key role in Lara's growth and self-discovery. He makes a meaningful attempt at reassuring her, reminding her that she is, in fact, a Croft. Roth hands Lara a blood-red climbing axe. "I don't think I'm that kind of Croft," counters Lara, accepting the tool and the burden with a look of defeat. "Let's hope I'm a fast learner."
Surprising even herself, Lara proves capable of climbing to the radio tower, although an undisclosed stretch of time has passed. Lara awaits an incoming plane that responded to her S.O.S., .... her heart filled with hope. The sound of sputtering engines signals the craft's arrival, but a glance over Lara's shoulder makes it obvious that the plane isn't poised for landing. Lara begins to sprint at full speed, hurling herself head over heels down a steep slope, the wreckage in hot pursuit.
The player remains in full control as the scenario unfolds, ...... something that, in past games, would have been reserved for a cutscene. Lara gains momentum as the player navigates her to relative safety, trying to find a path in the hillside that will leave her the least bruised and broken. If she survives without being pancaked by a turbine or impaled on debris, one final command will secure her grip on the cliff's edge, keeping her from plummeting into the ocean below. After the plane's wreckage ejects into the ocean, Lara climbs to solid ground. She's survived another attack by the island!
We're left pondering the mystery of the island once more. Why is it impossible to escape the island's gravitational pull? Why has its shore become a graveyard of dilapidated vessels? Why do the natives want the remaining 'Endurance' crew? Lara's fate is inextricably tied to unearthing the secrets of her geological captor, and as she becomes more adept, there is no doubt she will discover the truth ........ rational or otherwise.
