10 Alternate Endings That Would Have Fixed Broken Video Games

8. Tomb Raider Chronicles

Tomb Raider Chronicles Boohoo, Crofters is dead. After apparently snuffing it at the end of Tomb Raider 4: The Last Revelation, Lara's bestest chums unite for a memorial service and reminisce about the adventures she had in the past. In other words, the developers churned out another Tomb Raider sequel and needed an excuse to make loads of different levels that made sense from a narrative standpoint. You couldn't just leave a hot property like Lara dead really. There's always a way to bring someone back in a prequel thingy, and Tomb Raider Chronicles wasn't really a bad game, it's just the fact that its ending was completely obvious and never really addressed ever again in Tomb Raider canon. Original Ending Lara's adversary/mentor/apparent friend Von Croy is in Egypt, catching some rays and doing some digging in the temple where Lara is meant to have died. A young boy approaches him, excitingly pulling Von Croy into the tomb. Here he finds Lara's backpack, and with great dramatic aplomb and a delightful foreign accent, proclaims 'we've found her!'. So yeah, Crofters ain't dead. Or is she? Have they found her dismembered body? Have they found what used to be Lara Croft after she died of starvation under a rock? Who knows, it was never actually addressed. It did have an effect though - it made Lara go all gothy and moody and stuff and star in a game called The Angel of Darkness, which was pants. Alternate Ending We find out Lara's fate. I can only assume that there was meant to be another game after this one that filled in the blanks left by Chronicles, but since it didn't come along, this ending left a very unsatisfying feeling in the old chest cavity. In this ending, we see Von Croy and co digging in Egypt, gradually breaking into the tomb. As the wall crumbles away we see a familiar silhouette approaching with pistol in one hand, treasure in the other. We find out (after a brief moment's reunion) that Lara has been busy in the tomb while she waited to be rescued - she discovered that the mysteries of Egypt have not yet all been discovered, that Set €“ the big baddy from The Last Revelation €“ is still at large and there's plenty more tombs to be raided yet. Alternate Alternate Ending Lara emerges from a handy exit about a mile away from the tomb where she accidentally left her backpack. She then moves to begin a long trek across the desert, but unfortunately inputs the wrong combination, does a somersault into the air and explodes into little pieces.
Contributor
Contributor

Dan Curtis is approximately one-half videogame knowledge, and the other half inexplicable Geordie accent. He's also one quarter of the Factory Sealed Retro Gaming podcast.