Tomb Raider: An Interview with Tomb of Ash

One of the many panels at EGX 2024 was dedicated to the recently announced Tomb Raider IV-VI remastered collection. Hosted by Manchester-based Ash Kapriyelov, a Tomb Raider preserver who runs Tomb of Ash, an award-winning videogames blog and an official Tomb Raider fansite outlet, who was joined by voice talents from the games, Jonell Elliot (Lara Croft) and Eric Loren (Kurtis Trent). It turned out to be a fascinating chat that was entertaining and informative. 

I have a soft spot for the original Tomb Raider, so I was delighted when Ash agreed to talk to me before the panel to discuss his fandom of the series, why Tomb Raider is so important to him, the state of the series in modern times, and much more. 

To start off the interview, I felt it was important to get Ash’s opinion on this new collection of remasters and if he was surprised that it was happening, considering they are not the most beloved games of the series. 

“Ironically, those are the ones that actually got me into the fandom. I started with the classic, least favourite, Tomb Raider 5. No one likes it except very few people, including me. I still find it one of my most favourite Tomb Raider games. When the first three remasters had done very well within the first three months, we knew that they had sold very well. You could see that in the charts and strong reviews they received. So I was pretty sure that 4 to 6 would happen. I was under the impression that four and five would have happened separately, with 6 being released later, because of the amount of work it would need. It was the first and last PS2 game Core developed. But it’s all three games. I didn’t expect it to be that soon either, within the year, but here we are.”

Ash has a very strong presence online through his social media accounts and YouTube, and I was intrigued to find out more about this and the work he is doing. 

“So my YouTube channel includes all kinds of Tomb Raider media. This includes things like interviewing developers, voice-over actresses, and actors. It has some recaps of the events that I would go to, like EGX, game release announcements, or game demos. We went for the Rise of Tomb Raider event in London. Was it Rise of Tomb Raider? No, it was Shadow of Tomb Raider. And then Rise of Tomb Raider was actually at E3, which was also available on my channel when I went to E3.

It also includes some passion projects of mine, like animated films, where I would work with Lara’s voice-over actresses and the writers for the game. The most recent one would be Tomb Raider: The Myth of El Hawa, which is written by the guy who wrote Tomb Raider 5. His name is Merti Schofield. So he wrote the script for it, with Jonell Elliot reading the script. That film includes what was happening to Lara between the events of Tomb Raider 4, where she’s missing, presumed dead, and Tomb Raider 6, where she’s suddenly alive. And with Tomb Raider 5, we kind of play through the memories of her friends, like we still don’t know what happened. So there was this plot gap going on, and because of the rushed development of Tomb Raider 6, it was never explained what was going on in this chunk of time. So with this animation, we provided an official but canon explanation of what had happened. 

There’s also developer streams, so I would play the original games with the developers, where either I or the audience would ask them questions. This would be live on Twitch, but the VOD would go back onto my YouTube. We also recently played the first three remasters with the original developers, getting their opinions as we went. We’ve done two batches of those streams. We had Tomb Raider one, two, and three, and then the gold packs, which were developed by Eidos Studios back in the day. So we had those guys watching their remasters and having their reactions, which was quite interesting. So yeah, all kinds of old Tomb Raider stuff are there.”

After hearing what Ash had said, I was taken aback by the amount of opportunities that he’s had to work with the developers and voice talent of the games. I had to find out that with him being a fan of the games, how surreal it all must have been for him. 

“It is. I think my craziest period was probably between 2016 and 2020, when me and Peter Connolly, the composer for Tomb Raider four to six, were working on a music album. I was his executive producer, head of communications, and project manager. So I was working with Peter, who did all the music and arrangements, and he hired Hans Zimmer’s musicians—not Hans Zimmer himself unfortunately, but his musicians. We even had Julie Elvin doing vocals, who is known for her work on Horizon Zero Dawn. So that was probably the most surreal project. And this is when I did some tattoos of the early concept design of the album for myself to celebrate that.

I still kind of can’t believe that actually happened. Then coronavirus happened, which was another can of worms, as I had to then ship 3,000 CDs on my own as they all arrived at my house. There were CDs, figurines, all the posters, vinyl, books, t-shirts, and lots of merchandise everywhere. It was all on me, because the others couldn’t as they were self-isolating. I did it in eight weeks while also working full-time. So that was a crazy time. But I still cherish it. It was a very surreal experience.”

Hearing all of Ash’s experiences got me thinking what exactly it was about Tomb Raider that caught his imagination. 

“It’s quite interesting when people, particularly nowadays, talk about how Lara Croft needs to be relatable. They need to look a certain way to kind of convey relatability and realistic perks to her and all that stuff. The thing that the original Lara was made was for the males, gays, not gay, gays, you know, and for them to basically get all excited about those triangular breasts. But the thing is, with me, a homosexual, that’s not important. For me, it was mostly the escapism she provided, as the games were so complicated and vast. 

I grew up in Central Asia, where it’s illegal to be gay, and you will get put in prison for up to twenty years, and you will not leave that prison. Plus, as coming from a wrong ethnic background, not a predominantly ethnic background where that country is pushing towards, I hope I explained that correctly, as in, they’re quite nationalistic, let’s say it that way. So, even though I’m the national of the same country, they would see me as a foreigner because of the way I looked. I would get physically assaulted on the streets, so video games for me were like a massive sense of escapism.

I would dive into The Sims, Black and White, and Tomb Raider because they were such big and complicated games, and Lara was this woman who just goes on an adventure. I then started reading her biography, where it said that she was born in the upper class and her family didn’t like that she wanted to do all this tomb raider-ing adventure stuff. Her family wanted her to get married to this Earl of somewhere, and she was like, No, I want to go on an adventure. Lara’s family reacted by zoning her and removing all her funds, in which Lara didn’t care and went on her adventures. 

And it was kind of just an F you to society by doing her own thing. And only recently, I kind of realised that maybe that’s also why I kind of feel more relatable to Lara than any gay character in video games, because this was so subtle with the whole I don’t care what my family thinks. My family is quite homophobic, and I don’t care what they think; I do my own thing. So did she. Back in the day, I didn’t relate that to myself, but I was thinking, you know, oh, I wish I could do that, you know. So, yeah, it’s hard to say what exactly, but I think it was a combination of escapism and also Lara’s character, who’s this strong person who kind of doesn’t care.”

I appreciated Ash’s honesty and openness, and it took me back a little as I just expected Ash to answer the last question with “because it had a big dinosaur in it.” 

“I do like my dinosaurs, but I’m more into ancient Egypt. So Tomb Raider 4, which is set in Egypt, is one of my favourite games. But the fan favourites are Tomb Raider 1, 2, & 3. I mean, one has dinosaurs in it, predominantly, and two and three still have dinosaurs, but those are my least favourite games. I’m the opposite of everyone else. But yeah, not the dinosaurs; it’s everything else the games have to offer.”

On a more serious note, it was refreshing to hear Ash’s experiences with the game and that he got such positiveness from Tomb Raider.

“I learnt English because of it. That’s how I mostly picked it up—by talking to people online. I found that the Russian community is very toxic and condescending to each other. So even though I had the basic knowledge of English, I decided to join the conversation on Planet Lara. I think that was the site back then, and now here I am, in the UK with this accent!”

Ash has mentioned fondness for many of the Tomb Raider games so far, but I wondered if he had a particular, all-time favourite game from the series.

“I don’t have one. I do like Tomb Raider 5 a lot, because that’s when my passion for Tomb Raider started. I do love Angel of Darkness for the entire plot. Yeah, it’s very buggy; it’s terrible in terms of gameplay, but it has a very nice plot. If it were released these days, it would have turned into a completely different game with all the patches that come out nowadays. Back then, you couldn’t do that, sadly.

I do like Tomb Raider 4 because of Egypt, obviously. And I do like the original Tomb Raider. I don’t like two or three, but I do like the add-ons for those, the Golden Mask and The Lost Artefact. They are amazing on their own. I love them. The Lost Artefact, in particular. It has intricate secrets to them, which I really, really like. So yeah, basically all but Tomb Raider two and three.”

I needed to get to the bottom of why, out of all the Tomb Raider games, what was it about two & three that didn’t gel with him?

“I think I know what’s the problem with Tomb Raider 2. It’s very action-orientated, and the enemies just spawn at you. They can just appear behind you out of the blue, out of thin air. And I hate that when they’re not already placed in an area. Like in Resident Evil, it kind of made sense. When you open the door, there’s a loading screen, and things can reappear. But in Tomb Raider, it didn’t make sense because you have no loading screens for that level, but something just appears behind you. It made me jump quite a lot. Annoyingly, the reason why they added all the respawning is because someone complained that the first Tomb Raider didn’t have enough action, so that was their answer, and it was too much.

But Tomb Raider 3—it’s probably just too long. There’s too much to do. I do like some bits of both of those games. Don’t get me wrong, there are some nice levels. I like Backhand Monastery in Tomb Raider  2, for example. In Tomb Raider 3, I do like the Nevada bits and some of the London bits, which everyone hates, but I liked it. India, I’m not particularly a fan of. I did like Shiva’s enemies there. But I’m not sure what I particularly dislike. I think it’s mostly the action, and that the games are a bit too big because you kind of don’t understand what you need to do, and you kind of get bored a little bit. There’s also less engagement in three, I think. I don’t want to shit on them, because I do respect the people who made them. It’s just my least favourite.”

I turned my attention back to the new remasters, and I wanted to know which one Ash is most excited to see the differences in.

“It will be Tomb Raider six, mostly because I saw bits of four and five already. I’ve been a little bit involved with the development of that for a few months, and I left when they started working on six, so I didn’t see what’s happening there. That one is probably the most exciting.

I just want to see what Kersey Strangler looks like and Janice, everyone’s favourite French prostitute, who is just an NPC in there, but she became a big icon. I don’t know why but I love her. So it’s Tomb Raider six, but I will play them all. I definitely will play them all.”

I was expecting this answer, especially as The Angel of Darkness is the most broken of the three. I asked Ash if there’s a particular change he’s hoping to see in the remaster of this particular game.

“I just hope there’s no bugs, which I’m pretty confident there won’t be—not game-breaking ones anyway. I really hope they will add quite a lot of missing things, like fans have done in their patches. There is a Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness restoration project, which you can download on my website, which is done by the guy called Reborn and Shadows.

That one fixes basically all the bugs, improves controls, makes the game playable, and makes FMVs clear and beautiful, but it also adds a lot of content that was cut out from the game, including some plot-related stuff, which is quite nice. So I hope a lot of that will make it into the remaster. But unfortunately, I have no idea what’s going to happen there.”

While I had the opportunity, I wanted to find out about Ash’s thoughts on the reboot series of Tomb Raider—whether he had played them and what his feelings were towards them.

“I have played them all, yes, but I am not a big fan of them. I did like the last one, The Shadow of the Tomb Raider. I think this was probably the most Tomb Raider out of the three. When I played the first one, I was a bit more open-minded at the end. I was like, okay, fine. This was her trauma. She was growing up. Next game, she’s going to be Tomb Raider, the one we all love. And yeah, there will be this mom and dad story thing going on, which is not in the original bio. But you know what? Just let it go. It’s fine.

Then in Tomb Raider: Rise of the Tomb Raider, in which she’s growing up again. Then the third one, she’s still growing up. Although she’s the most grown-up in the third game, she’s still developing as a character. It’s like, for the love of God, how long does she need? How much time does she need? It’s been like ten years! Also, I think the writing in them was just… Yeah, I don’t know. It’s too dramatic. It’s too Batman-like. I think Uncharted is more Tomb Raider. I know I’m getting cancelled for saying that, but I don’t care anymore. I mean, Uncharted is fun. That’s the thing. You enjoy it. There’s a wit from Nathan Drake, and there’s all these characters that bounce off each other. It’s fun to play. There is some drama every now and then, but it’s not consuming this entire game. It’s just fun.

Whereas in the reboots, there’s too much; there’s no wit. There’s no sarcasm. There’s no fun. And she swears. Lara Croft should not say shit. She also should not say elevator. She’s British. She’s supposed to say lift. Things like that. The small things, but they just ruined all that.

I did like the previous reboot that they’ve done, which was Legend, Anniversary, and Underworld. Though I didn’t particularly like Legend. That was very short. Anniversary, that was sacrilege, because Tomb Raider is not like that. But Underworld, which I really loved, even though it was a buggy mess, didn’t sell very well, but I liked it. That was the most Tomb Raider, which was done by Crystal Dynamics. And at the end, when she settled that mother thing, I was very excited. That’s it. No more family arc. Great. And then we had the reboots.”

With Ash’s not so favourable thoughts on the reboot, I asked him in which direction he would like to see the series go in.

“I just want her to be a tomb raider. I just want her to raid the tombs, not have this family drama going on. It should be an adventure rather than about her personal life. I don’t know why it needs so much depth to her character. If you want all these complicated stories, just play The Sims and make your own family and write their bio. That’s what I would say. If you want relatability, play The Sims. But you know what I mean? It’s just too much on the character, too much in the drama, less adventure. It should be the opposite.”

For my last question, I was intrigued by Ash’s thoughts on whether we will see any more film adaptations and whether he’s enjoyed any of the previous ones.

“I actually haven’t seen the 2018 one, and I also haven’t seen the anime. I realised that I didn’t like the first two films with Angelina Jolie. I mean, they are okay. They have the sense of adventure with them, but I think that’s what introduced this whole family arc to it, particularly the first one. The second one was just a bit all over the place, a mess. Just over the top action. It’s a bit like one of those low-budget action films. I did enjoy the soundtrack though.

I’m trying to be more open-minded towards the games now, whenever they are released, so I don’t stress about this as much as I did with Rise of the Tomb Raider, for example, or Tomb Raider Legend. So that’s why I don’t watch the films, and I was not that interested to begin with.

So will they make another one? It will depend on the next game and if it will sell well. I mean, the reboot and the remasters sold amazing. So they definitely made the money back and will attract more of an audience. So possibly, but personally, I don’t really care about the films.”

I shared my enjoyment of the last Tomb Raider film and pointed out that it was much better than previous efforts.

“I was told I would like it, but I just don’t want to… Like, I mean, it’s very hard to get the adaptation right. And a lot of the time, directors say things like, Oh, if we make it too close to the game, no one’s going to watch it. I mean, Fallout, that was good. And I just don’t trust them to do that. It seems like they’re hiring writers that never played the games, or if they have played the games, then they were forced to write it in a particular manner.

I actually have a script, like a draft script for the first Tomb Raider film, which was completely different in which I did publish on my website. It came from one of the guys who worked at Core Design. They were sent this copy of the script for approval, and it ended up with me eventually. So I scanned it in, and that one sounded incredible, but it was only like a hundred pages long. That one I would actually watch, but I just try not to engage with any media based on video games, unless it’s a video game that I don’t particularly feel attached to, like Fallout, which I loved the TV series. Resident Evil, on the other hand, no thanks.”

To round off our chat, Ash shared all the links to where you can find him and all of his content. 

“Yeah, so for all my social media, it’s @TombofAsh. You can find me on BlueSky, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitch. My website is tomb-of-ash.com. That’s where all my Tomb Raider media resides. My archive of stuff that I find and publish, including unreleased builds, early versions of the levels, that kind of stuff, which is very difficult to find, but I’m very proud to be able to do that.”

A massive thanks goes to Ash for being so friendly and generous with his time. If you have any interest in Tomb Raider, then I would strongly urge you to check out Ash’s website, as he has amassed quite an expansive ‘tomb’ of materials related to the games.

I would also like to thank you for reading this interview, and if you have any thoughts on what you’ve read or on the franchise in general, then please reach out by email or on our socials!