Tomb Raider Walkthrough and Guide

Time flies, considering it's been over fourteen years since I first played the original Tomb Raider on the Playstation. I have to admit I didn't get too far in the game - something about a Tyrannosaurus Rex scaring my pants off (although Lara's shorts always remained on, no matter how many 'secret nudity code' rumours circled the magazines back in the day - and there were no guides nor internet to help me through.

Things are unimaginably different now, with free strategy guides available for everyone from day one of a game's release, as is the case with this very guide before you; like music, FAQs and videogame guides have become water for the masses, and most people don't think nor care about who provides them with their elixir of life.

In any case, I didn't have too many expectations of the new Tomb Raider reboot; if anything, like most people I was hoping for a decent Uncharted clone starring a beautiful Lara Croft. It was a pleasant surprise to find out that the game's lifeworld is much more than this. The numerous linear sections notwithstanding, the open areas in which one can hunt animals and collect an extremely large amount of collectibles make up for the cheesy bits of storytelling here and there.

As with other guides, I've previously talked about lifeworlds and what happens when one plays a videogame. In essence, your own personal or existential lifeworld temporarily merges with the game's lifeworld, which is by definition soaked with meaningful (read: functional) movements, semantic content in the form of story progression, and is by formula a rewarding experience in order to be entertaining. Staying too long in such unrealistic worlds can lead to devaluation of the 'real world', although this phenomenon only occurs among a small minority of gamers.

Even though Lara Croft possesses no powers that transcend human nature per sé, she's still a fairly obvious superhuman in every other respect: She's got some anthropological insights that put professors in the field to shame, she's tougher and braver than you'll ever be, her heart is in the right place and she's just as beautiful as my girlfriend.

I hope you enjoy the game, and if you also enjoy reading this guide, perhaps the only thing I as an author expect in return is the insight that guides like this are the product of very hard work and that they should not be taken for granted.

Steve