Tomb Raider writer calls Lara Croft a 'female Batman'

Modern Lara Croft has been described as a 'female Batman' by Tomb Raider writer, Rhianna Pratchett.

She claimed Lara had evolved into a character that is hard to relate to due to her heroic traits.

Pratchet said her aim in the upcoming game was to focus on Lara's human qualities, such as empathy and friendship.

"It's pretty challenging but I think Crystal Dynamics were fairly flexible with what we could keep from old Lara - what we thought was important - and areas where we wanted to evolve her more, or bring in some traits we hadn't previously established," Pratchett told VG247.

"I particularly wanted to bring back the humanity of the character, her warmth, empathy, friendship, and more human qualities. Because I think as old Lara has evolved, she has become more of a 'female Batman'.

"The more heroic and teflon-coated you get, the harder it is to relate to that character, so we wanted to go back to her human side. There's still a lot of old Lara's background in place, so we've carefully interwoven our new stuff in there."

Pratchett also went on to state that the script for the upcoming Tomb Raider is 90 pages long.

"I worked on the cinematic script, which covers the core cut-scenes, so it's approaching about 90 pages, which is about the length of a movie.

"But not all of that will feature in non-interactive cut-scenes. Some of it will appear in smaller interactive scenes.

Tomb Raider will launch in early 2013.