All right, well, that much is true: the Twitter account of the official Tomb Raider series is enough to throw players into frenzy. Whether it be the original, the test version, or the remastered, one thing remains clear: Lara Croft, in her absolute best, survives a building explosion. Where the gritty debate begins, though, is in the opinion of the players about the street cred of fiery Lara as opposed to Kurtis Trent flippantly flicking away his cigarette into the canal as if he owned the whole place in Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness.
Okay, so this scene is practically national lore. The building goes up in flames, Lara gets away by the hair on her chinny-chin-chin, and somehow she manages to look glamorous while doing so. It definitely is a full-blown Classic Tomb Raider moment. Now, Kurtis is standing there all smooth like he just launched an evil act camping in the way of littering into the waters. Toxic? Maybe a little. And the players are split: some really believe that Lara’s fiery exit wins it all, whereas others are saying there is no beating Kurtis’s cool factor.
Patch 2 talks. Aahh, that tweet really took me back. Players started immediately dissecting the footage for all its flaws, mentioning water texture improvements or even geometry corrections. Some also pointed out that his haircut had changed from Patch 1. Such an insane dedication. I mean, who else but a Tomb Raider fan could notice that?
Can we just say something about the funniest comments being found in the replies? One of the players called Kurtis an “aura farmer,” which… honestly? It’s true. Then there was a fellow who was entirely insensitive about the cigarette flick, yelling, “BRUHHH THATS TOXIC ðŸ˜ðŸ˜.” Within a few seconds, everyone was throwing tantrums, begging for Patch 2 updates, for life apparently cannot go forward without its coming.
Then the emotional side must come into play. A few players admitted that they waited until playing it with modern controls to fully understand The Angel of Darkness, designating it a masterpiece. Several others just straight up shouted, “AOD is forever in our hearts.” And honestly? Mood.
How many times can one say it, though? From Lara’s team to Kurtis’s team, one thing’s for sure: The company sure knows how to entertain their players even two decades later. The fact that people still really analyze every single pixel of the game and debate the character moments while begging for further updates is proof of this franchise’s staying power.
So yeah! Lara, being Lara, was the one running away from explosions. Well, Kurtis? That’r fellow walked away without a scratch and left players arguing about him to this day. Different kind of power move, I say.
Seriously, does it matter who “won” the scene? Nah, m’dear. Tomb Raider keeps generating a pool of its players who become so much invested into it and so passionately engaged that they have actually prepared for a thorough dissection of anything and everything random. If that’s not a legacy waiting to be, then I don’t know what is.
I should probably get on playing Angel of Darkness again now and really start judging Kurtis’s cigarette toss—for science, or something.
