Interactive Friction: Tomb Raider (2013): Episode 15: (long, sharp, death scream)

With this, Interactive Friction has now complete two different games. As a result, it is now the most successful Let's Play project I have ever worked on. I hope Sam and I can continue this for years to come, especially with what we have planned for future seasons.



In this episode, Sam makes a very interesting suggestion: This game may have been better off if we cut out a lot of Lara's supporting cast and make it a more personal tale by only having a small cast of primary characters. If we cut down the cast to Lara, Roth, Sam, and Mathias, we may have been able to better focus the tale around her personal growth.

These four characters are really the only ones that are core to the plot. Without any one of them, the game would be lesser. Unfortunately, the rest of the survivors from The Endurance do not add much to this game's story at the very least. (Time will tell if they become more important in later games, but that's irrelevant to our conversation.)

The other interesting thing about Roth, Sam, and Mathias is that there is a lot of interesting interplay that could come from focusing on this smaller cast. They all represent some aspect of Lara's character. Sam is the innocent girl that Lara starts out as in the story. Mathias demonstrates the kind will and cunning required in order to survive the island and its trials. As the mentor, Roth shows how these two can be balanced to stay alive without losing one's basic humanity. In the vein of classic Freudian psychology, they could represent the ego, id, and superego respectively.

As for the ending of the game, it lacks any sort of subtlety whatsoever. I honestly felt a little pandered to, because it felt like the didn't trust me to understand what they were obviously going for. Still, the game did so well up to that point that it works well enough to finish out the campaign.

Then they bring up that Lara's dad died while exploring paranormal phenomena of some kind. I'm not against that kind of sequel bait, because the story in this game does get a satisfying conclusion. However, it would have made more sense and felt less like bait if it brought up at the start and expanded throughout the game.

Thank you, listeners, for staying with us for this second season of Interactive Friction. We will be taking a brief hiatus for now, but stay tuned for Season 3. This show is far from done.

Interactive Friction: Tomb Raider (2013): Episode 14: (Speaking Japanese)

In this episode, Lara is (of course), on her own against hordes of evil Japanese soldiers.



Since we're coming up to the finale, I think it's time to talk a little about the supernatural stuff in the game. Like its contemporaries in Indiana Jones and Uncharted, Tomb Raider incorporates the paranormal into its story.

As we have seen in the playthrough, Himiko is always an influence in the plot. She is what is preventing anyone from leaving the island, by using the storm to crash any incoming and outgoing vessels. Now, we see immortal Japanese warriors fighting to defend their queen. If any doubts still existed at this point, they will be quelled at the finale.

What I would have liked more in this story is for the existence of the supernatural to be more ambiguous. One of my favorite tropes in fiction is whether not spooky happenings are truly paranormal in nature, or a complete coincidence. As someone who watched The X-Files, my biggest criticism of the show was that there was almost never any mystery as to whether or not supernatural forces were at work. As the audience, we know that some monster is at work, which makes Scully's skepticism seem unreasonable. It would be more interesting if there was enough leeway to allow for both interpretations, with evidence of the paranormal being easily explained away or circumstantial at best.

The same problem exists here as well. We're given so much evidence that Himiko is real and truly the one behind everything that any skepticism from the supporting cast comes off as remarkably flimsy. It would do more for both them and Lara's character if there was less certainty as to whether or not there were supernatural occurrences. That small room for doubt would make for some really interesting play between Lara and both her friends and the player.

To me, it seems like a missed opportunity.

Interactive Friction: Tomb Raider (2013): Episode 13: Revelations

In this episode, Sam reveals a startling fact that leaves me absolutely stunned.



Not much of note happened in this episode. However, we did discuss a little bit about level design. This section of the game both demonstrates an area of good level design, and of poor level design.

The first it that platforming section at the start of the episode. As Sam points out, there is a very obvious sense of progression as the player ascends. Furthermore, the camera keeps the goal in view, so that it is clear where players are supposed to go. Lastly, it gives us opportunities to take advantage of the new pulley we obtained, by letting us traverse ziplines faster and pull heavy objects toward us.

On the other hand, the arena in the middle of the video does not play to the strengths of Tomb Raider (2013)'s combat. Though it looks like a plausible area, which it should be commended for, it is not terrible fun to play in. Like most cover-based shooter, Tomb Raider's central mechanic is taking cover and avoiding damage in order to recover from injuries. Given that the arena's only form of cover is the staircase in the center, this makes players significantly more vulnerable than they are in other parts of the game. This is doubly confusing since we're now in the portion of the game where Lara is supposed to feel empowered.

The other problem with that arena is that the number of enemies is not really scaled to the size and lack of cover. I felt almost claustrophobic during the ambush, because I could not get away from the fray in order to heal up.

The Tomb Raider Season will be finish this week if all goes according to plan. We already have our next season in mind. As for what that is, you'll have to stay tuned in order to find out.

Interactive Friction: Tomb Raider (2013): Episode 12: Pully in My Pocket

In this episode, we fight a video game boss battle. Also, a bad guy has a katana.



Since the subject came up in the episode, I think it'd be fun to talk a little bit about katanas. As I said, katanas aren't nearly as effective as fiction seems to think that they are. They're actually pretty bad compared to most other swords. (Disclaimer: I'm not a historian, or even a weapons expert. This is just knowledge gleamed from the internet and my own independent research.)

The myth of the katana originates, of course, from Japan. In that country, katanas were seen as status symbols. Forged from fairly low-grade iron, it took the work of a very skilled blacksmith to make a katana that would be viable in a combat situation. As a result, owning one meant that you were a person of well-enough repute to either afford one or have a wealthy noble pay to have one made. Either way, it marked you as a member of the upper-class.

But this is not the only reason the weapon achieved such a mythical status. In order to properly use a katana without subjecting it to the kind of undue wear and tear that could easily damage it, one needed to be highly trained in its use. No ordinary schmuck could wield a katana for long. Even a master-crafted one would need to well-maintained to sustain viability as a combat tool. For this reason, being trusted with a katana meant that you were not only a member of the upper-class, but also skilled enough to wield such a weapon. In a isolated country, such as Japan back in those times, this meant a great deal. When they eventually began trading with the west, it was only natural for such myths be traded as well.

Western swords are different. Not to say that the process of making a weapon is easy. If you look online, you'll see that there is a lot of work in making a sword. But because the materials available in western regions were better, it is easier by comparison for a blacksmith of any skill level to make a weapon that can do its job. Anyone could become an apprentice smith and gradually pick up the art. This comparatively lower barrier of entry meant that we didn't see swords as inherently mythical.

And because these weapons were easier to make, they were also easier to maintain. Again, it is mcuh easier to learn how to wield a western sword without damaging it than an eastern sword. Even should damage incur, it was not too difficult to pay a smith to replace the sword. Weapons in the west only became legendary because of what their wielders did with them, not because of any inherent properties or training of the wielders themselves. That's why even though western swords tended to be better weapons, Japanese swords are the ones seen as superior in fiction. Not a useful fact, but an interesting one.

Anyway, we were playing Tomb Raider.

I really appreciate the scene in the ship, where we call back to the intro of the game. It is a good way to bring into focus just how much Lara has had to change without overly saying it. The symbolism is perhaps a little too overt, but it is nonetheless a nice touch.

And Alex, how can we forget about Alex. We said as much in the last episode, but it feels weird for him to exist in this game, because Lara completely negates his character arc. They both start out as average people from an average life, but while Lara grows up and teaches herself how to survive in this situation, Alex becomes a victim. He tried to help, but fails to do anything more than get himself killed.

I suppose it is a nice touch that the woman isn't the victim in this game, but it just doesn't work for me. The other strange aspect is that his only contribution to the plot is to give Lara a secret admirer. In most stories, Alex would be the damsel-in-distress, the woman that the main male protagonist would be trying to save. In Tomb Raider, it's the reverse. Despite being the exact same thing, it feels so patronizing here, especially since we already have a damsel-in-distress (ie, Sam).

Interactive Friction: Tomb Raider (2013): Episode 11: Tomb Wader

In this episode, we go through the dumbest segment in the entire game.



The number of factors that have to align just right in order for this ship in the mist to exist on the island is great. Mathis's men need to first get motivated enough to want to build a ship. There are two big problems that would get in the way. First, they would need to spend most of their time finding food for their legion. Should that hurdle be passed, then the other problem is that nobody would see the point, since every ship that enters and leaves this island gets wreaked.

Assuming that we solve those problems and get enough motivated people to join the effort, how do they get enough materials in order to construct it? We barely gather enough scrap in our time here to build all of our weapon attachments. There are also dangers in gathering all of these materials from other crashed vessels.

On top of those problems, we also have the logistical problem of building that of high off the ground. What purpose does that serve? What factors would lead to the decision to make it so much further up than you'd ever need the ship to be?

And if all of THAT gets taken care of, and they managed to build the ship, why are they so eager to shoot it up in an effort to kill you? Is Lara that important that all of this clear effort can so casually be discarded? Are the people here that crazy that they'd abandon such a large project?

It doesn't make any sense. Not that it's a bad segment, but it just doesn't follow any stream of logic.

Interactive Friction: Tomb Raider (2013): Episode 10: As Good As It Gets

In this episode, we are relevant and topical for the first 5 minutes.



Many of the comments we make in this episode form the groundwork for suggestions and observations made in following episodes. Aside from that, most of it stand pretty well on it's own, and does not need to be elaborated on in the post.

It's inevitable that a Let's Play series will have an episode like this. It can't really be helped. Fortunately, with Sam's editing, we should keep this kind of commentary-lite to a minimum,

Interactive Friction: Tomb Raider (2013): Episode 9: Going Hollywood

This is the point where Tomb Raider starts to utilize more of the tropes from standard Hollywood action movies.



The game has an interesting, yet appropriate and subtle, tone shift either at around this point or slightly before it. In the very beginning, Tomb Raider takes queues from classic survival stories. We see how this heroine and her ragtag bunch of misfits learn to use the environment they find themselves in to stay alive. Inspiration is drawn from shows like Lost (the first season), and other media of that ilk.

Then, in the middle of the game, the tone shifts somewhat. The more "comfortable" (for lack of a better word) Lara grows with killing the people coming after her and doing what she has to in order to survive, the writers stop relying on those kind of survival stories for inspiration. Because we've already seen how Lara can survive, we no longer need any further evidence of it.

For that reason, Tomb Raider is now free, in this last half of the game, to go the route of more pulpy, adventurous stories in the vein of Uncharted and the Indiana Jones films that they are clearly dedicated to. These stories rely much more on spectacle and flare. Details can be left unexplained if they are not relevant to the broader arc, and action takes the day.

I stand by what I said in the episode about the shift being a little abrupt, but I understand what they were trying to do. This was always marketed as an origin story to take a relatively normal girl and transform her into something resembling the Lara Croft we knew from the other Tomb Raider series. Simply put, no one could possibly becomes that hardened without under great ordeals, so this second half is meant to give Lara the ability to overcome adversity. She's already a survivor, but now she can turn herself into a hero. It's not a bad idea, it just needed some slight changes to get right.

Interactive Friction: Tomb Raider (2013): Episode 8: The Mark of a Good Seaman

In this episode, we begin to talk a bit more about the side characters in the game.



This is also our first experiment with doing some slight editing of the footage. Mostly, we cut segments of combat, or of loading screens, where nothing interesting was happening in the game and we weren't making any observations or commentary. Without Sam's editing, this episode would have been a half-hour long, as is evidenced by the fact that "We're 14 minutes in," when you've only seen 7 minutes worth of show.

Watching both the uncut and cut versions back to back, it's obvious that the cut version is noticeably better. In the future, we hope to further improve our craft, resulting in better videos from here on out. Feel free to let us know your thoughts in the comments, as all feedback is appreciated.

Interactive Friction: Tomb Raider (2013): Episode 7: Uncomfortable Deaths

In this episode, Sam and I talk about some of the more uncomfortable parts of the game.



As I said in the episode, Tomb Raider (2013) makes most of Lara's deaths look much more brutal than we're used to seeing in video games. The ones we show off in this episode are the most gruesome, but they are not the only such fatalities on display.

I believe that the reason the deaths in these games are so uncomfortable because of the way the game lingers on them. In most games, the developers would be in a hurry to fade to black before we see the character start to suffer, and begin to start at the last checkpoint (or save game). Though resets are pretty quick in Tomb Raider, we also see, in vivid detail, just how much Lara suffers as she slowly dies. The death isn't immediate, and that suffering is uncomfortable to watch.

The way theses scenes cause discomfort in the player is clearly intentional. Not only does it provide an even stronger disincentive to fool around in these scenes (more than usual), but it also helps to sell the feeling that the island is a giant hazard, just doing its best to kill Lara. It is a very interesting way to make the mechanics reinforce the story.

The voice acting, animation, and shot composition are also top-notch in both the deaths and the cauterization scene. Though that scene isn't a death, it's another fantastic scene how Lara is beginning to change her way of thinking in order to survive on the island.

Interactive Friction: Tomb Raider (2013): Episode 6: "I Hate Tombs" - Lara Croft, Tomb Raider

In this episode, we discuss the puzzle design.



Puzzle design in video games is very difficult to get right. In the ideal world, each individual puzzle room will show you everything you'll need to know in order to understand how to solve the puzzle. Because every person things has their own way of thinking, it is incredibly difficult to do this without outright telling the player how to solve it.

Lean too far in the direction of making the puzzle abstract, and there is a risk that the player won't have the first clue in how to solve it. Going too far in the other direction, and make the solution obvious, will make the player feel stupid.

Tomb Raider seems to do a very good job of towing that middle ground. Most people I know didn't have too much trouble solving these challenges, but they still felt smart for solving them. Again, that's difficult to get right. Even with Uncharted, Sam felt that the puzzles were a little on the hard side, but not overly so. I, on the other hand, felt like the puzzles were too easy. That's not saying that Sam's any more or less intelligent than I am. It means that the puzzles in Uncharted were better suited to the way I think than they were to Sam's. This difference in people is what makes good puzzle design so hard, and Tomb Raider should be applauded for how it gets that right.

Interactive Friction: Tomb Raider (2013): Episode 5: National Ubisoft Tower Climbing Day

In this episode, we climb the only tower that exists in this entire game. Despite that, I still take a potshot at Ubisoft and their goddamn towers.



We spent a fair amount of time talking about the scene where Lara sits while the pilot of the rescue plane is slaughtered right in front of her. To be clear, not everything we discuss is necessarily a problem. And even if it is, it might not even be a big concern worth addressing with anything more than a passing glance. This is one of those complaints.

Though we occasionally have portions of the game where we have a rough idea of what we want to talk about, the vast majority of our commentary is completely spur of the moment. Because of that, there is absolutely no connection between how often or how long we speak about a specific topic or mechanic and how strong our feelings about it are. We might end up spending whole sections talking about relatively minor complements and complaints. Likewise, we could mention major problems in passing if the conversation doesn't lend itself to us talking about them.

For example, when I discussed how silly it is for different animal hides to make different bags in Far Cry 3, I do not think that making every animal produce a general hide to make whatever would have improved the game. In fact, it would make the game worse because one could get all the bags at the start. With the pilot issue, it is not a huge problem since he's a minor, irrelevant character. However, it is worth pointing out just to acknowledge it and move on.

Interactive Friction: Tomb Raider (2013): Episode 4: No One Shops At Radioshack...

In this episode, we remember Radioshack for a brief moment, further reminding ourselves of its irrelevancy. It's so irrelevant, that Chrome's built-in spell check thinks it's a typo.



For the record, Tomb Raider is the very first game I've ever played that used automatic cover. Personally, this game sold me on the mechanic. I'd like to see more games used a feature like this in the future. As somebody who has played many cover-based shooters and action-adventure games in the vein of Uncharted, I think that there could be many uses. In those games, I often find the cover mechanics to be a little sticky. With automatic cover, I could imagine adding a new sense of mobility to a lot of games, as we see in a number of sections in this game.

On that topic, we mention Uncharted a lot in this episode, and the comparisons for this game is unavoidable. In the way that Naughty Dog took much inspiration from the old Tomb Raider games when making Uncharted, Crystal Dynamics took a large amount of inspiration from Uncharted when making the new Tomb Raider reboot. Still, even though they both have the same sense of style, there are enough differences, both big and small, between the two franchises to give them their own flavors.

Lastly, I cannot take credit for "What do they eat?" That's something I took from Shamus Young after watching a lot of Spoiler Warning, another Let's Play series that you might enjoy. Generally speaking, it is a good question to ask in order to see how much a writer has fleshed out their world. If the explanations for how people acquire resources stretch credulity, then the odds are that the game world in question wasn't thought out very well. There are always exceptions to rules like this, but it can be a reasonable barometer.

Interactive Friction: Tomb Raider (2013): Episode 3: Dressed For The Occasion

In this episode, we talk about playing pretty dress-up with video game protagonists.



It is a nice touch that Roth is the one who duel-wields pistols instead of Lara. Roth is the one who taught Lara everything she knows about fighting. He's the grizzled veteran who's gone through tough situations before, not Lara. It's a sign of how tough he is as a fighter. Once Lara eventually gains experience after enduring all of these trials, she's earned her ability to do the same in the game's finale.

The other big thing we talk about in the beginning is that unlike Far Cry 3, the game does an excellent job of telling you why our protagonist does not or cannot just stop and leave. In Far Cry 3, there are several points in the game where Jason could resolve all of his problems and leave the island, but instead deliberately chooses not to for completely contrived reasons. In Tomb Raider (2013), Lara is always put in circumstances that not only explain why she has to keep going, but why she can't hand the reins over to people who might otherwise be more experienced.

Furthermore, because Roth is a Lara's mentor, and she is born into a family of adventurers, she has enough people in her life that it makes sense for her to naturally pick up skills like basic first aid and combat. Jason Brody might be able to get by with Grant, but the game never explicitly states why he is just so good when he's never shot a weapon of any kind before.

The rest of our commentary this episode stands on its own. This was a pretty good episode and we made a lot of good commentary on it.

Interactive Friction: Tomb Raider (2013): Episode 2: The Titular Archaeologist

First off, this episode was supposed to be posted yesterday, but both Sam and myself completely forgot to do so. For that, I would like to apologize to you guys who are watching us.



Early on in what can be generously referred to as my game criticism "career," I wrote this article comparing the collectibles in Tomb Raider to those in Assassin's Creed 3. As I said in this episode, the collectibles in this game, namely the diaries and the artifacts, really add depth to the world, the side cast, and Lara herself. Whereas in AC3, all of it was frivolous. I feel this is worth pointing out because so many games do so little with collectibles that they are almost entirely pointless.

I said my criticisms regarding Sam in a general sense here, but we'll go into further detail as the game progresses. For a game that has such a well-written female protagonist, to rely on the damsel-in-distress trope feels strange and tiresome in comparison. Sam's one of the worst types of damsels, so it comes off as even more irritating.

Like Sam, Whitman feels like another tired trope, that of the incredibly obvious betrayer of the team. His motivation is also one of the worst. Survival isn't why he betrays us, it's because he wants to be the one to document all of this. It's so bad that it's laughable.

One of the last scenes we see in this episode is the uncomfortable "rape" scene. I can somewhat understand why this scene exists, because it helps to reinforce the kind of opposition Lara will be facing as the game progresses. These men are so deranged that they think nothing of forcing another into a sex act unwillingly. Furthermore, it gives him an excuse to get close enough for Lara to be able to grab the gun in a plausible manner, making her first kill. In the end, it does work, but it still could have probably be handled better.

As we also mention in the episode, the time between our first kill, and the first fight against human beings is on the small side, for good reasons. In the ideal world, the developers would have been able to hold off on giving us pistol ammo. However, I do believe the transition was handled with much more skill than Jason Brody's was in Far Cry 3.

Though we missed in during our conversation, Lara has a very good line right after her first genuine fight. When climbing up the rope ladder, she is talking with Roth on the radio. He says "[Killing those guys] can't have been easy." She responds with, "It's scary just how easy it was." That's really all you need. Even though the transition was somewhat rushed, the acknowledgement that the character is better in violent situations than could or should otherwise be expected helps alleviate that tension.