Last week, Aspyr released the second major update for Tomb Raider I-III Remastered, and while it’s added a new outfit, it’s also supposedly removed some content according to multiple player reports.
Although there does not appear to be any mention of this in the latest patch notes, Tomb Raider fans on social media and elsewhere have highlighted how “Lara’s pinup” posters in the fourth level of Tomb Raider III (titled ‘Sleeping with the Fishes‘) have now disappeared from the first room of this level. Unsurprisingly, there’s been a mixed reaction to this discovery online.
These same posters were featured in all their pixelated glory in the original game and were apparently in the earlier versions of Tomb Raider I-III Remastered, before the most recent updates.
On the PC front, modders have been quick to restore these posters in the remastered version of Tomb Raider III.
Aspyr hasn’t commented on this particular change in Tomb Raider, so there’s no definitive answer as to why it has been removed.
However, it’s worth noting Crystal Dynamics added a statement to the trilogy remaster mentioning how it chose not to remove content from the game that did not align with its values, as it would rather “learn from it”. Here’s that same statement in full:
“The games in this collection contain offensive depictions of people and cultures rooted in racism 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.”
Notably, the ‘Open Lara’ developer (who was actually hired to work on the Remastered trilogy) has reshared a link on social media to the mod which adds the posters back into the remastered version of the game.
When Tomb Raider I-III Remastered launched in February, critics and fans were incredibly happy with the final product. The Nintendo Life review labelled it one of Aspyr’s most accomplished projects to date, successfully giving three of gaming’s most iconic titles a much-needed update.
