Tomb Raider 2 reveals new details on the 26th anniversary of its original release.

Tomb Raider 2 would not have been the same without Winston, Lara’s butler

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Despite being one of the most iconic elements of the classic Tomb Raider 226 years after its original release in 1997, its creators have confirmed that Lara Croft’s Butler, the faithful Winston, joined the game at the last moment. One of those ideas that arise during the development of a game and end up becoming one of the keys to a project.

Winston quickly became one of the most beloved and popular elements of Tomb Raider 2 because his role was basically to follow Lara throughout the Croft mansion to offer you a good tea. Unsurprisingly, what the gaming community tried to do was play hide-and-seek with him or leave him locked in a room in the mansion. Including the freezer.

A last minute decision

In a recent interview, the programmer Gavin Rummery confirmed that it is an element that was added to Tomb Raider 2 when the game was almost finished. Apparently the idea was French cheerleader Jocelyn Charmetwho thought that Lara Croft, like British socialite, he must have had a butler to serve him tea wherever he went (via GamesRadar). It only took “three days” to add Winston to the game, Rummery says. Only three days of work in exchange for a lifetime tormented by the figure of Winston lurking around the corners.

“Winston was a last minute addition to the game,” says Rummery. “Joss was French, and to him this is what upper-class Brits would have. Originally, I was skeptical that Lara was the type of girl who wants a butlerbut we found the excuse that he would come with the house”. trick to lock it in the fridgeNo one on the team came up with such a thing. It’s all fan inventive.

“I don’t know who first thought of locking it in the freezer, but I didn’t really realize it was a thing until the game was released and people started doing it to prevent Winston from following themexplains Rummery. “Level designer Heather Gibson had just added the cold room as part of an attempt to add interesting things to Lara’s house. It hadn’t been designed to be used that way at all!”

While we continue to learn new details about this classic, it should be remembered that there are a new Tomb Raider reboot underway at the hands of Crystal Dynamics in collaboration with Amazonn. Amazon would have recently taken over the rights to Tomb Raider, so it would also come with Lara Croft series and movies for Prime Video.

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