10 Video Games That Saved Franchises From The Brink Of Doom
7. Tomb Raider (2013)
Franchise on the brink? By the early 2000s, Lara Croft’s star had dimmed. Once the queen of action-adventure, she’d become a relic herself, and The Angel of Darkness all but buried her. Marketed as a bold, edgier reinvention, the PS2 debut was anything but. Clunky controls, awkward pacing, and fridge-like platforming made it feel like a parody of what came before.
Combat was stiff, stealth barely functioned, and the much-hyped noir narrative was smothered under bad voice acting and bland design. Angel of Darkness wasn’t just a misfire - it was a spectacular flame-out. The franchise was left wandering in the wilderness, with many assuming Lara had raided her last tomb.
Saved by: Tomb Raider (2013)
The series was handed to Legacy of Kain developers Crystal Dynamics, who began rebuilding with the Legend, Anniversary, and Underworld trilogy. All solid efforts - even underrated - but they never quite made Lara feel essential again. That changed with Tomb Raider (2013).
Reimagined as a gritty survival origin story, the game blended stealth, cinematic action, crafting, and character growth to deliver something genuinely fresh. Lara wasn’t a superhuman gymnast with twin pistols - she was a wounded, resourceful survivor, and the series was all the better for it.
It didn’t just modernise Tomb Raider - it made her matter again. Suddenly, Lara was going toe-to-toe with Drake, not chasing his shadow.