It feels strange even having this as a discussion, but the developers of the upcoming Tomb Raider game have felt it necessary to clarify one thing: the scene in the above trailer (2:20) in which Lara Croft appears to narrowly escape being raped is not, in fact, an attempted rape.
The scene has stirred up a bit of controversy lately, as some argue that rape is not appropriate subject matter for a game. Regardless of where you stand on that, the head of developer Crystal Dynamics has released a statement claiming that despite how it looks, they're not classifying the scene in the trailer as attempted rape.
"One of the character defining moments for Lara in the game, which has incorrectly been referred to as an 'attempted rape' scene is the content we showed at this year's E3 and which over a million people have now seen in our recent trailer entitled 'Crossroads'," wrote Darrell Gallagher.
"This is where Lara is forced to kill another human for the first time. In this particular section, while there is a threatening undertone in the sequence and surrounding drama, it never goes any further than the scenes that we have already shown publicly. Sexual assault of any kind is categorically not a theme that we cover in this game."
So there you have it. No matter what it looks like, that guy was definitely not planning on raping Lara Croft, because gamers cannot handle such subject matter in a mature and empathetic way. The sad thing is, that's probably true.
What do you think? Tell us in the comments or on Twitter.
[via Kotaku]
