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When the god Osiris was murdered by Set, his body was lopped into pieces and scattered across the land. This was bad news for Osiris, but it was good news for game designers. And look at this: several thousand years later, here's a new Lara Croft adventure in search of a handy structural conceit. What's your reward for completing this level? Well done: your reward is a foot. Now, see if you can find the rest of the body. Go!Maybe Osiris isn't the only one who finds himself fragmented these days. In Crystal Dynamics' big budget Tomb Raider games, Lara is a victim of some serious Nolanisation. She bleeds as she scrambles over rocks, she cries about all the wolves she has to kill with her bow and arrow, and the best she can hope for at day's rest is the chance to suffer afresh tomorrow morning. A cut-scene throws in an aside explaining that this new, more human Croft used to work at the local boozer; maybe in the sequel we'll see her shopping for home contents insurance.
In the land of download games, however, the classic Lara is still at it, brutalising wildlife, turning ancient ruins to dusty shrapnel, and maintaining an interest only in that which glitters and shines. Med packs litter the sand and Keeley Hawes is doing her best Poppins impression in a soundbooth somewhere. Forget The Dark Knight treatment: Lara's bite-sized adventures are the equivalent of a Saturday morning cartoon, and they're the better for it.
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