Tomb Raider 1-3 Remastered opens with a noteworthy content advisory, cautioning players about the presence of “offensive depictions of people and cultures rooted in racial and ethnic prejudices” within the trilogy.
The message explicitly condemns these depictions as “inexcusable” while also affirming the decision to retain them in their original form to acknowledge their “deeply harmful” nature and facilitate a learning opportunity.
Although the statement does not specify the exact aspects of the games to which it pertains, fans of the series point to instances such as Tomb Raider 3, where stereotypical representations of South Pacific islanders engage in hostile encounters with Lara Croft using bows and arrows.
The full text of the warning reads as follows:
“The games in this collection contain offensive depictions of people and cultures rooted in racial and ethnic prejudices. These stereotypes are deeply harmful inexcusable, and do not align with our values at Crystal Dynamics.
“Rather than removing this content, we have chosen to present it here in its original form, unaltered, in the hopes that we may acknowledge its harmful impact and learn from it.”
Such statements remain relatively uncommon in the realm of video games, although similar practices have been adopted by online streaming platforms to flag problematic content in older TV series and films that are now widely recognized as offensive.
Tomb Raider 1-3 Remastered is set to launch on PC, PlayStation 4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S on February 14th, coinciding with Lara Croft’s birthday.
Among the enhancements in Tomb Raider 1-3 Remastered are a photo mode, the option to switch to more modernized controls, the replacement of flat 2D sprites with 3D items, as well as improvements in lighting, animations, and other visual aspects.
