Lead Writer for Tomb Raider Announced!
Article By: Andrew Jones
Crystal Dynamics announced today that Mirror’s Edge writer Rhianna Pratchett is the lead writer for the March 5, 2013 Tomb Raider reboot.
Darrell Gallagher, the head of Crystal Dynamics said Pratchett, “…[H]as brought a depth and credibility to Lara, a heroine who will really connect with today’s gamers.”
Pratchett echoed that sentiment, saying, “[Re-writing Lara Croft] was going back to the genesis of videogame action heroines and exploring how to make such an iconic character meaningful and relateable for gamers today.”
Pratchett, who is appearing at Comic-Con San Diego this Saturday, has also contributed to Ubisoft‘s Prince of Persia, and has won a Writers’ Guild of Great Britain ‘Best Videogame Script’ award for her work on Overlord.
The focus on writing Lara Croft in Gallagher’s and Pratchett’s terms seems to redirect talk over cryptic past comments regarding an attempted rape scene in the game. Last June, Kotaku quoted Crystal Dynamics Executive Director Ron Rosenthal as describing Lara Croft’s character as the kind, “You’re going to want to protect.” A suggestive trailer (‘Crossroads‘) led many to believe that Rosenthal was hinting at sexual assault. Gallagher quickly engaged in damage control, stating, according to Fox News, “Sexual assault of any kind is categorically not a theme that we cover in this game,” and that Rosenthal’s comments were “…[M]isunderstood.”
We’ll have to wait and see if Pratchett’s treatment of Tomb Raider will further downplay all that attempted-Lara-Croft-rape talk that was going around last month, but March 2013 can’t come soon enough to raid some new school tombs.
Andrew Jones is our newest Ellenwood-ep.com/games contributor who prefers MK3 over UMK3, cookie dough over cookies, and video games over video game movies. Follow him on Twitter @AndyBlankJones
