September 21, 2011

Tomb Raider 30-Day Challenge Day 21: Favorite Way to Kill Lara Croft

UPDATE: This month-long challenge has officially finished, but you're still welcome to post your comments below at any time. We'd love to hear what you think.

Poor Lara. How she suffers at our inept hands. The video below—one of more than 7,000 that turn up when searching for 'Lara Croft deaths' on YouTube—shows some classic Lara deaths, but you're welcome to nominate sequences from the newer games as well.

Update: A few people asked about the Tomb Raider: Legend "Unfortunate Mishaps" video after I mentioned it in my comment (below). In case you missed it, I've uploaded it on YouTube.

23 comments:

  1. It's hard to choose just one, but I think one of the funniest is when Lara takes a long fall into lava in TR2. She crashes to the ground then stands up before falling down again with a groan. Huh!? Crystal Dynamics obviously sussed the fans' perverse interest in these crazy death animations since they included plenty of them in the new series of games and even created the unlockable "Unfortunate Mishaps" video for Legend. It looks like there will be many even more gruesome deaths in the upcoming Tomb Raider. I just hope they're not too horrific. I'm kinda delicate.

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  2. Swan diving off Floating Islands in TR2.

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  3. I love to throw Lara into a pit with spikes, when riding the truck in the Valley of the Kings/KV5 level. I just love the loud explosion. And I also like every other spike related death in the games. By the way, in my old computer, when playing TR3, Lara's blood was pink, so the spike killing was even better :D

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  4. Well... when I was younger, I used to spent a big amount of time by killing Lara Croft. I love her, but... you know:) I think my "most favorite way to kill Lara" is swan dive from some high place and not fall in water.

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  5. "Favorite" way to kill Lara?! I flinch if it happens by accident; why would I want to kill her on purpose? LOL! Well, I did always sort of find it funny when she would fall into lava, stand up, and then die in the earlier games.

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  6. I agree, why would I wanna kill her?

    Although if I had to choose my *least guilty* way of offing our heroine, it would have to be the Midas touch.
    At least Miss Croft goes out in gold. Heck, Stella's TR1 walkthrough even recommends it!! :D

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  7. Hmm. Can't think of a single death in the CD games that amused me. I quite liked letting her have her brains bashed out by Mr. Torso in TR1. Drowning in the classic games was always fun (watch Lara thrash and choke) and impaling on spikes is a classic. However, a swan dive off a high place onto rocks was my favourite, that, or a fall from some place so high that her death scream starts to repeat.

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  8. Definitely swan-diving onto a hard surface holds some sort of warped satisfaction...the other one off death was when she stands on a huge stone hand before turning into gold. I can't remember the game or what had to do to make it happen, but it was pretty cool to see.

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  9. LOL I like this question!
    My fav death of Lara is when she falls from a long distance and then she screams then a bone crushing crack follows!

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  10. When I was young and way too scared to play the real game, I played Lara's Mansion and frequently swan-dived off the stairs. Then I found out how to get onto the roof, where I dived from the roof to the gravel beneath. I still find it funny to this day XD

    I once had a glitch in Legend where Lara dived off the cliff in Ghana and just kept falling, through all the scenery and just continued falling in gray space. All her limbs were moving and she was still screaming, it was hilarious XD

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  11. I'm still a fan of killing Lara by means of jumping off the last level of Tomb Raider 1 9The Great Pyramid) where you have to fight the oversized mummified monster. I love how huge that level was. :3

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  12. The Midas hand. There is this wonderful clonky sound when she falls.. that's also completely out of sync in TR1

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  13. Call me a sentimental fool but I don't like to see her die ... when I realize she's going to, I immediately go to the menu screen and reload.

    However, I have to admit that I thought it was funny how she died underwater ... all that twitching ...

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  14. Hmmm. Maybe I take this game too seriously...

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  15. I would say making her catch fire in TR1... It's so funny how a cheap pixelised set of flames appeared out of her shorts!

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  16. climbing to the highest point in a stage (preferably lost world in TR1 with the trex) and just dive off. lol its just something i do when im about to call it quits for the day, have her dive off something high and watch her hit the ground. and the midas hand, when i first seen it it was just amazing, i mean, she watches herself turn into gold, lol. that's mean but thats what the topic says.

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  17. I have 2 definite ways. In Angel of Darkness swan diving off of high places. I love her scream, and ragdoll moves. In Eckhardt's lab, after you get the sprint jump ability, I love sprinting and jumping back up the slope and flinging up on the spike! Good times. I used to kill her all the time, about 7 of my saves are dedicated to cool death areas!

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  18. Turning Lara in to gold through Midas' touch is definitely my favourite way to kill Lara. And when I am angered because something goes repeatedly wrong, I choose death by swandive. Or another cool way to go: getting eaten by the t-rex.

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  19. Poor Lara...

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  20. There are two anonymous, I copy!, but I'm going to write my comment:You are right, poor Lara, everything and everyone hurts them, deaths which I like are:

    * If you die in the water, turn all.

    * If you die falling, it fracture

    * If you die falling using the jump of the Swan dive, it fracture but turn your head face-up.

    * If you die by jumping, puts his head in his legs and then throws to the ground on the side.

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  21. By far, the coolest Lara death effect in is TRLR when she gets stung by the poisonous scorpions. They way that they made it to where the player gets a blurry POV is really fun. But the best instant death is swan diving from a super high place, like the torso platform in TR1. And if you swan dive into the water that Lara can walk on in TRLR, she immediately just crunches up, haha.

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  22. I love making her swan dive too and the death scream is awesome, but I have to admit when she falls in Underworld she starts flapping her arms and legs. The first time I saw her I couldn't stop laughing only to choke out 'Do you think you're a bird now Lara?'

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  23. This is hard, as I don't like killing Lara, but the gold animation in Anniversary is funny, the way she looks down and gets all surprised. It's also funny when the T. Rex eats her (again, form Anniversary). Generally though, I prefer a living Lara to a dead Lara.
    -GrtGreekBear

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