It's long been known that the original Tomb Raider devs were sick of making new games by the time they got to the fourth one. So, it's no wonder that Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation ended by implying that Lara Croft was dead.

Now, almost three decades later, the original devs from Core Design reflect on that move to kill Lara off, at least temporarily. It turns out that this major decision was made far more chaotically than you might have expected, with different accounts of how it all went down - but one fact remains the same: the devs were sick of making new Tomb Raider games.

Tomb Raider Devs Walk Us Through The Decision To Kill Off Lara Croft

This comes from the upcoming book, The Making of Tomb Raider: 1997-2000. Ahead of its release, Radio Times has shared some of the interviews with devs, where they discuss the decision to kill off Lara.

"We were sick of Lara and wanted to kill her," says designer and writer Andy Sandham. "I wrote it up and gave the initial story outline doc to Adrian [Smith, producer] and Jez [Jeremy Heath-Smith, producer], fairly certain that they would get bored and not read the end bit. I’m guessing this is what happened. I do remember Jez shouting at us about it at some point later on. Probably when he’d seen the FMV."

Designer Richard Morton remembers it a little differently, saying that the death of Lara came about because they "didn’t know how to end the game." He also said that the death was always supposed to be temporary, and that she would be revived in a PS2 game. Others back this up, too, explaining why we never actually saw Lara die on screen.

However, most agree that the decision was at least partially influenced by the devs' exhaustion. "I suspect there was an element of all of us thinking, ‘Oh, my God, if we kill her off, we don’t have to make another one,'" says programmer Tom Scutt. "We were all like, ‘Right, I cannot imagine doing this again.’ So I think we were all quite keen to take her out, essentially."

It's easy to see why the devs were so frustrated. They had pumped out game after game non-stop, with a new Tomb Raider game being developed by Core Design every year from 1996 to 2003. Yes, the devs didn't even get a break after killing off Lara, and were immediately put to work on both Tomb Raider: Chronicles and the ill-fated Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness.

Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation Like Follow Followed Action-Adventure Systems Released October 31, 1999 ESRB T For Teen // Animated Blood, Animated Violence Developer(s) Core Design Publisher(s) Eidos Interactive Franchise Tomb Raider 6 Images Close
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