Lara Croft Game Model Progression

Graphics for games have got a lot better in the last few years - the last twenty years especially. Game engines have gone from using extremely low poly models to extremely detailed ones that don't make the engine lag and are much quicker to make than they used to be. This also means that you can make much more detailed textures, and with the lighting and rendering this can make everything in the game look a million times better.

In the video above you can see just how much video game character Lara Croft has evolved over the last 17 years over multiple consoles. Her outfits and hair has changed slightly throughout, but always keeping to her style and being obvious who the character is - this is one of the reasons why she is so iconic and memorable. She has even improved as a character, going from a more oversexualised but badass character to a much more realistic and less demeaning but still capable version of an interesting female protagonist. She is also a lot younger in the most recent game, showing an earlier adventure and how she got so involved in the sorts of adventures she has, which may have had an impact on the sexualisation of her character, although there are still probably many studios that wouldn't really let that stop them.

I feel like this is very positive character development, especially considering the prejudices in the gaming and animation society involving women. Hopefully this shows how the industry is slowly changing, with female characters actually feeling more like real people and not just sexualised objects and graphical representation of the developer's fantasies.