Edios found itself fielding animal rights activists who didn’t care for Lara ruthlessly gunning down big game. Scientists calculated her body-mass index – something nobody ever did for Pac Man – and loudly claimed nobody with those dimensions could walk upright, much less jump around. Some feminists vilified her over-objectified figure, others lauded her attitude and independence. As far as Eidos was concerned, Lara single-handedly took them from a $2.6 million deficit to a $14.5 million profit in just one year. They were damn well going to take advantage of the most unique opportunity in marketing history: a virtual sex symbol.
Toby Gard had a problem with that. The Lara Croft he invented wouldn’t pose nude for anybody, and wasn’t some airhead fashion model. She was cool and refined, confident, sharp witted and exceedingly deadly. She was also the property of Eidos. Decisions on the selling of Lara were made in Wimbledon, not Derby. Disillusioned by the complete lack of creative control over his own character, Gard left Core.
His team went forward, delivering Tomb Raider II almost exactly one year after the original. Everything the first game did, the encore did better.
This time, Lara was on the trail of the Dagger of Xian, an ancient Chinese weapon that, when stabbed into one’s heart, literally bestowed the power of a dragon. Competition came from Venetian mobster Marco Bartoli, a man committed to fulfilling his family’s long history with the Dagger by using it on himself. Their deadly chase led to the sunken wreck of the luxury liner Maria Doria and a Tibetan monastery before returning to the Dagger’s hiding place under the Great Wall of China.
Core went into the sequel with improvements in mind and a game engine optimized to let them create the franchise’s defining entry. Dynamic lighting and atmospheric effects gave eighteen huge levels more weight than any other game on the market could grab at. More enemies stood in the way, including a few very tenacious Great White sharks and a fire-breathing Bartoli-dragon. Lara added assault weaponry and grenade launchers to her arsenal, and driving to her repertoire. Vehicles could be picked up and dumped anywhere, Grand Theft Auto-style. Lara cruised the canals of Venice in a stunt-heavy motorboat and painted Tibet red in an armed snowmobile. They could even spare the extra 46 polygons to animate her braid in-game.
If Tomb Raider financially put Edios into the black, Tomb Raider II made the black darker, deeper, and bigger. Eight million copies shipped. Edios and Core were now firmly in the Lara Croft business, and the goal became a new Tomb Raider every November. Like clockwork.
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