Trigger Happy
naturalistic milieu of the Tomb Raider series, the bolted-on possibilities of movement that are added in each sequel only serve to remind the player how odd it is that Lara can run, swim, crawl and jump, but cannot punch or kick an assailant, for instance. She cannot even sit down, although given her lecherously siliconenhanced curves, it is probably just as well, for she would never get up again.
This is not to say that expanded physical possibilities in human characters are bad—in themselves they are good—but their introduction poses other problems of design that must be attended to. In Zelda 64, for instance, Link’s inability to punch or kick is never an issue, for by the time he is first in danger he already permanently owns a sword. A sword is better than a fist, so the player doesn’t feel that anything is missing. By contrast, Lara Croft often goes about unarmed among enemies, having had her guns confiscated, and so her unwillingness to punch and kick is frustrating.
To complain about these aspects in a game, of course, is not incompatible with happily accepting that the heroine must on occasion do battle with a slavering Tyrannosaurus rex. There is a crucial difference between axiomatic principles of the fantastical world
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