So I've finally gotten around to playing Tomb Raider...

[Ferisar]

I think it's a very unfortunate suspension of disbelief. I don't even know why it got so much attention from the game since it bothered me as well. I kept waiting and waiting for her fix it, and she never did. It's only worse because she's in view of the player almost literally every second of playing the game, so it's hard to just dismiss it. I am guessing that during her first campfire she "fixed it" off-screen, but it's still annoying that they never showed that happening.

The game, besides that, is excellent though. You just have to dismiss a few things as minor annoyances.

 

[Furioso]

Yea I agree with you, the new Tomb Raider does a horrible job of connecting gameplay and story, if I remember correctly she later freaks out over someone else not getting proper medical attention for his wounds or something to that effect, meanwhile I guess you can walk off impalement. Even if she did find medical equipment it's not like a band-aid will fix a hole through you.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

Only two hours or so in. It's fine so far. Bit heavy on the QTEs. Seriously one fight had four QTEs, that is like five QTEs too many. But I digress...

Okay so this one thing is really bothering me, and it's going to seem very fussy and petty, but it's driving me nuts. You know in the very beginning, when she falls down, and that iron rod goes RIGHT through her side, right? That major puncture wound. And she's staggering around and bleeding and moaning.

And then right after that she's leaping around and jumping and rolling and taking headers off 10 foot high cliffs and running about and scrambling along the ground and SERIOUSLY could they not have taken 30 seconds to show her at least doing some cursory video-game level first aid? I mean she's sloshing through torso deep filthy water at one point and she STILL hasn't attended to this very serious wound, which is no doubt now violently infected. That's assuming she's not still back on the beach, bleeding out, and this is all a fever dream.

Seriously it bothers me SO MUCH just patch up your fucking wound!

Don't worry, it comes full circle. She forgets about the wound up until a part way late in the game, and then suddenly she's staggering around like a normal human would after receiving a wound like that. Really annoying too, because the game feels like, "Oh yeah, that's right. Totally forgot she had that until right now."
So glad I'm not the only one who spent the entire game going, "Wait...she shouldn't be able to move like this after that!"

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

in game time how many days does she spend in the island?

It's been at least 20-24 hours at this point. Enough time for blood loss to have killed her, given she never bound the wound or did anything to staunch the bleeding.

The wound in question probably wouldn't have been quickly lethal as it avoided major circulatory systems. That means she would basically be facing other causes of death. Starting from the quickest cause of death and moving down:

1) Complications arising from damage to intestine, stomach, or kidney
2) Myriad infections.
3) Death caused by indirect result: e.g. loss of mobility due to damaged abdominal and back muscles.

That said, given that her level of activity would guarantee that the wound would open and bleed again and again and that she sustains several dozen similarly catastrophic injuries, the fact of her survival can only be attributed to the fact that it's a game. Any one of the wounds she suffers is perfectly survivable but each one would degrade her ability to survive the next. Hell, by twelve hours on the island, she'd be struggling to move much less run and fight after suffering stabs, deep tissue bruising, significant head injury, dozens of cuts and scrapes and the crippling emotional drain of her situation.

 

[octafish]

Can you say Indiana Jones? Lara has always been Dr Jones Jr with estrogen.
It ain't the years it's the milage.

 

[Dalisclock]

I would have been bothered by this except for the fact it's just one of numerous ways the game play and story don't really match up. Particularly the whole part about Lara being freaked out the first time she kills someone but right after that she's killing dudes left and right and all that pathos seems conspicuously absent.

Or the fact that pretty much everything she does will cause a mountain drop down on top of her, like the universe just hates her.

Though I also found it weird that the US Coast Guard would be operating in an area that's supposed to be in the South/East Pacific, which is a long way from their normal areas of responsibility. You could have made it the US Navy or the Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force(the Japanese Navy) and it would have made a lot more sense. Especially since they use the same equipment, so all the game makers would have to do use different colors and decals on the aircraft.

 

[Abomination]

I would have been bothered by this except for the fact it's just one of numerous ways the game play and story don't really match up. Particularly the whole part about Lara being freaked out the first time she kills someone but right after that she's killing dudes left and right and all that pathos seems conspicuously absent.

Or the fact that pretty much everything she does will cause a mountain drop down on top of her, like the universe just hates her.

Though I also found it weird that the US Coast Guard would be operating in an area that's supposed to be in the South/East Pacific, which is a long way from their normal areas of responsibility. You could have made it the US Navy or the Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force(the Japanese Navy) and it would have made a lot more sense. Especially since they use the same equipment, so all the game makers would have to do use different colors and decals on the aircraft.

What, Asians patrolling the South-East Asian seas?

Don't be absurd. We all know America is only nation that gets to call in the cavalary to save the day. That's why it's called the American Cavalry.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

My memory could be fuzzy, considering I haven't played the game in the few months, but I seem to recall...

Spoiler

That Lara sticks the head of an arrow into the campfire during the first night and cauterizes her wound, quite painfully I might add.

While not a perfect solution, it would enable her to keep going without bleeding out. Of course, I could be completely confusing this with a different game, if so, just carry on and ignore this post. But even if correct, there are countless other unrealistic aspects of the game.

Actually, I think that happens way WAY later in the game. Like 5 gameplay hours later, and it's a different wound entirely.

The scene you're talking about happens after she injures herself going down a waterfall, and to tend to her wound seeks out a nearby helicopter in a shanty town which she thinks has a first aid kit on board. It doesn't, but it has a zippo lighter, and she uses that to heat the tip of one of her arrows and cauterizes the wound.

Then again, I don't remember the first camp fire scene that well, so you might in fact be right, and she might have done the same thing there, but I really don't remember it happening, and if it did they didn't seem to make a big deal out of it during the cutscene.

 

[DanielBrown]

Watched through a 30 minute gameplay(skimmed, rather) and she was holding her side, walking slowly, screaming when falling for a good 20 minutes after the puncture wound. However, when she got to the first camp she had forgotten about it and only wanted to get warm. I also remembered her using an arrowhead to close the wound, like another poster, but apparently she was fine again after getting some heat and food.

Can't say it matters in the long run. She gets beaten worse than a piñata in the game.

 

[Blood Brain Barrier]

Were they even really going for realism?

That was the aim. The game was a reaction to criticisms of Lara's superhero-like abilities and image, which I myself don't see a problem with.

 

[Catfood220]

I think it just shows that women are just much tougher than men. Lara takes a potentially life threatening injury early on in the game and just walks it off after 3 minutes. Joel from The Last of Us takes a similar injury during the game and is out for weeks, this despite being able to cure gunshot wounds by continually bandaging his arm. The big wuss.

Games are not overly realistic to begin with, it wouldn't be much of fun a game if Lara had sustained the injury and then lay there bleeding out for 10 minutes. In fact that would be pretty grim.

 

[Maximum Bert]

Were they even really going for realism?

That was the aim. The game was a reaction to criticisms of Lara's superhero-like abilities and image, which I myself don't see a problem with.

When a game maker says that I always take it with a pinch of salt I think they meant realism as in hollywood style action hero bullshit realism here. If they went for proper realism it wouldnt have been a very long game (and I dont really want to play a realistic game to be honest mostly as it wouldnt be much of a game.)

There is a disconnect between story and gameplay but I always expect that I just dont notice it anymore as pretty much every game in existance struggles with that. Also complaining about that wound but not about how she is able to shrug off bullet wounds by hiding behind cover? apply the same logic and its easy to see why she could survive that wound it regened itself after a set period of time dosent matter if it reopens it will regen again. Its stupid but hey its a videogame and a Tomb raider one at that they have never been the ones to sweat the small stuff like reality.

 

[NathLines]

I had tons of fun with Tomb Raider. I just found it to be a joy to play. A realistic story however, it is not. You have to completely suspend your disbelief for this game; Lara just walks off injuries and slaughters her way through hundreds of respawning bad guys.

She's also the best bowman in the entire world, apparently(I have good aim D=).

 

[carnex]

Finally someone else points out the ridiculousness of that game. I mean, there is video game logic, but this breaks even that. I was pointing this out from the very start. It wouldn't be so bad if they didn't try to present her as weak and scared from time to time and throughout whole advertising campaign. But even not tending to her wound is better then when she tends to them later on when she is at an millimeter from death with mildly heated arrowhead.

You mean just like when Nathan was shot in Uncharted 2 and was jumping around in no time?

Why...video games, of course.

1) This if far, FAR worse.
2) Nathan Drake was never portrayed as anything but badass who would go toe to toe with every singe superhero ever sans Superman and Captain Marvel. Basically a superhero on his own. Lara was portrayed as anything but that.

 

[carnex]

[
prometheus wound logic. you know, where she is doing sommersaults right after having a cesarean.

That's almost 100 years into the future. Who knows what medication will be available then. To loosely quote book "Bill, the Galactic Hero"

"Take three of these and you will laugh as they saw your head off"

 

[MrBaskerville]

O_O

How do you people keep noticing thos litte details...

Seriously. Not flaming. More like praising. I dont get it...

It's not even a little detail. They make a big show of her getting impaled, and then quickly ignore the fact it ever happened beyond the small circle of blood on her shirt that should be rapidly growing unless she has Wolverine level healing abilities.

And I'm not taking the piss either, I know this is a video game and we can't be attending to reality all the time, but they could've shown her do a half-assed bandage or just...ANYTHING. It's all I can think about now. She made fire! She found food! Big deal, she's dying from that goddam sucking chest wound!

Sure, in Far Cry 3 Jason Brody got shot like three times while running away in the beginning and I was like "pfft, realism schmealism" but they didn't do a brief cut scene of a bullet punching through his side and leaving a big gaping wound, it was just standard FPS "Herp a derp I'm getting shot, better hide behind a rock for a minute" style damage. By making a big deal of the rod through the side, they made it a big deal in my head, and then proceeded to never address it again.

Boo! Hiss!

Later in the game, something similar happens and you are unable to climb ledges until she suddenly decides to fix the problem. But you probably shouldn´t think too much when you play this game, it´s just a bit of dumb fun, not something that should be taken too seriously.

Oh and don´t waste your time on gathering resources, that´s a complete waste of time as most of the upgrades are fairly insignificant.

 

[Bertylicious]

Well I don't know if I'd go so far as to say it was completely ignored; if you look at all the cutscenes throughout the game she is habitually holding her side.

Lara Croft is an action hero though! That's why she gets impaled, which is probably some sort of metahpore, and bandages herself up but it's only when she finally removes the bandages, which were clearly what was actually making her ill/rubbish, that she becomes super baddass enough to beat a man to death with a climbing tool.

The only way it would have been better would have been if she had a boyfriend on the crew, who was also a nurse, that superglued her guts back together in a cutscene and then later was killed by the villian by being put in a fridge and kicked off a precipice.