Croft Manor

Croft Manor
Tomb Raider location
Genre	Action-adventure game
Type	manor house
Notable locations	Surrey, England
Notable characters	Lara Croft Winston Smith Bryce Zip Alister
First appearance	Tomb Raider (1996 video game)

Croft Manor is a fictional English manor house that appears in the universe of Tomb Raider. It is Lara Croft's residence place, among the several estates of her family. The manor is located in Surrey, a county in the South East of England..

Models

Hatfield House, one of Croft Manor models

Several buildings have served as models for this manor. This is particularly the case for Hatfield House, a country house , of Jacobean-style, near the town of Hatfield, in Hertfordshire. For example, that is where outside scenes of the two Lara Croft films with Angelina Jolie were shot, which serves as her home in the film. Subsequently, the outside of Lara's manor in the video game Tomb Raider: Underworld is based on Hatfield House. About interiors, in Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life, the Long Gallery and the library were used for filming the scene where the MI6 agents meet Lara and give her a task to retrieve Pandora's Box. The Bo Ken self-defense practice scene was filmed in the entrance hall of the house. Also, AL9 5NQ appears as the postal code on many letters in Rise of the Tomb Raider: this is the actual address of this house.

But for the 2018 movie Tomb Raider, the choice fell on Wilton House. It is another country house, of Palladian and Gothic revival style, at Wilton, in Wiltshire.

Appearance in video games

Role of the manor

In most games where is appear, this manor takes the role of tutorial level, to teach the gameplay to the gamer. In this case, it is optional, out of the main story and playable at any time .

Instalments by Core Design

Tomb Raider (1996 video game)

Further information: Tomb Raider (1996 video game)

In this level, the gamer can only explore the inside of the manor. He can discover the library-music room (with a piano and a harp), the entrance hall (cluttered with crates), the gym and the swimming pool. The Ark of the Covenant is visible, discovered by the archaeologist (it's a wink to the movie Raiders of the Lost Ark).

Tomb Raider II

Further information: Tomb Raider II

That time, the area to explore is bigger, mainly because the gamer cans go out, in the garden. In addition, the manor is present in two different levels. As previously, it cans be visited as an initiation level. But it also appears in the last level, "Home sweet home".

The initiation level comportes several new features, such as the presence of the butler, Winston Smith. This helpful old man slowly follows Lara Croft in all her movements in the level, with a tea tray. On the first floor, there is not much to do. It is possible to visit the bedroom (with elements only accessible in the last level), the bathroom, the attic and the library-music room.

At the ground floor, the gymnasium has been transformed into a ballroom, with armours, where a button enable to listen to music. Nearby, the swimming pool is useful to swimming training. Also, a kitchen has a big fridge, idal to locking up the butler. Finally, under the stair, a door leads to the treasure room. Completely plunged into darkness, it contains various artefacts collected by the archaeologist, such as gold, chests, Bastet statues... and the Ark of the Covenant (see the previous chapter).

Outside, the timed assault course helps to discover Lara's different movements, thanks to a climbing wall, a swimming pool and a zip line. Then, a hedge maze hides in its centre a button to open the treasure room door.

At the "Home sweet home" level, the heroin, seatting on her bed, cleans up the Dagger of Xian... when an alarm goes off. The manor is besieged by Marco Bartoli's lasts men (a mafioso, her enemy in this story). Thus, the gamer can open the cupboard in the bedroom (thanks to a key) and use the firearm rack to equip Lara. Mafiosi attack her in the garden, but also on the balcony, now accessible. So, she pushes them away. Once the work is done, Lara is about to undress to have a shower, however she turns and notices the camera and exclaims (breaking the fourth wall): Don't you think you've seen enough? (She then picks up her shotgun and shoots the camera. The screen then goes black and shows the credits.),.

Tomb Raider III

Further information: Tomb Raider III

Once again, the manor serves as an initiation level. This one has been totally changed, maybe because of the attack at the end of the previous episode.

Thus, in the bedroom, cupboard contain not firearm rack, but only a torch box. The library fireplace hides a passage to a secret room, that leads to the attic. In this room, a lever opens the door under the stairs, whose opening time is limited: the gamer must be fast enough to pass. Inside, there where the treasure room once stood, there is a living room and a big aquarium, at the bottom of which there is a key.

Again at the ground floor, the kitchen still contains a big fridge, convenient to locking up the butler inside. Next, the ballroom was divided in two different rooms: a dining room with a button to listen to music and a gymnasium (such as in the first episode). Nearby, the swimming room enable you to practice swimming; behind the diving board, a button open a shelf in the hall, hiding a secret alcove. Inside, another lever temporarily opens a sliding door in front; it's another speed defy... to discover the treasure room. Which abrite several items collected by the adventurer, in various episodes of Tomb Raider:

• A T-rex head on a mantelpiece (this animal is present in the first three episodes)

• The Atlantean Scion, broken up, from 'Tomb Raider I'.

• A Bastet statue, from Tomb Raider: Unfinished Business.

• The Dagger of Xian, from Tomb Raider II.

• A strange golden head, wich evoque the Golden Mask of Tornarsuk from Tomb Raider II: Golden Mask. But maybe it's a humorous allusion to the Golden Idol, from the movie Raiders of the Lost Ark.

• The Iris, from The Last Revelation and Chronicles.

Outside, the maze has been replaced by a race track, to use a quad. Then, the timed assault course it's similar to that of the previous episode. But after the zip line, Lara can recover her guns and shoot her butler, who is equipped by protective clothing. Finally, on the entrance portal, a button opens it, to go to adventure.

The Last Revelation

Further information: Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation

It is the first episode where the manor does not appear. The gameplay phase is directly included in the first level, at Angkor Vat. Actually, this choice was motivated because the development team no longer had any ideas to change the manor and create a different level from previous episodes.

Chronicles

Further information: Tomb Raider Chronicles

The manor only appears in cutscenes; it looks like the one visible in Tomb Raider III. But it is not possible to know if it there have been big changes since. The initiation phase is included in the first level, in the backstage of an opera house, at Rome.

In the main menu video, a short scene shows the entrance of the manor. In the background music, you can hear an excerpt from the main theme of Tomb Raider I, by Nathan McCree.

Also, at the start of the game, several Lara's former friends are meeting in the manor. Guided by Winston, they enter the treasure room behind a secret passage. Then, they admire many trophies found by the adventurer, such as the Philosopher's Stone from Rome, and reminisce her past exploits.

The Angel of Darkness

Further information: Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness

Here again, the manor does not appear; the gameplay phase is directly included in the first level, at Paris.

Instalments by Crystal Dynamics

In this trilogy, the manor is comptletly different from before. It looks a bit like the one that appears in two first movies. It once belonged by the archaeologist's parents. After her mother's disappearance at Nepal and her father's alleged dead at Cambodge, the latter's body was not found. Therefore, young Lara could not inherit this house. Thus, her dishonest uncle Lord Errol Croft tried to get it, but she legally fought against him. If she won her lawsuit, she broke up with her living family.

Legend

Further information: Tomb Raider: Legend

As in the first three levels of Tomb Raider, the manor is used to train Lara. But it is only fully accessible after the first level, in Bolivia, and no longer just the lobby. In the fully accessible level, the gamer musts solve puzzles, find essential tools for the game and get secrets item of this level (Croft' coats of arms), in bronze, silver and gold.

This hall is distributed over two floors, with a double stair which leads to two galleries. On the ground floor, a fireplace heats a living room, with on the mantelpiece the portrait of Lara's parents: Amelia et Richard Croft. Near there, a large glass wall separates the technical suite, where Zip, her tech expert, is working and a strongbox holds the grappling hook.

Still on the ground floor, two corridors leave the lobby. One leads to the swimming pool, ornamented in Greek revival style. At the top, under the glass roof, on one of two platform, the gamer cans get the binoculars. In the swimming pool, a tunnel ends in the gymnasium. Here, it's possible to train with horizontal and vertical bars, the grappling hook, ladders... In addition, a courtyard, the only place to visit outside, connects the gymnasium to the entrance hall.

At the first level, the gallery on the left leads to two corridors. The first links the library, where her research assistant Allister is working and Lara cans effect searches. One shelf hides the electric lamp and another a secret passage leading to the bedroom. In gothic style, this room is divided into three parts. The central part, with a corridor links the gallery, contains a small living room and a hideout, behind the Gorgon's portrait, with the pair of guns. On one side, an alcove shelters the bed. On the other side, an alcove with the wardrobe presents the different outfits, unlockable over the progression in the game.

During the story, her ennemy Amanda Evert uses a monstrous entity to attack the manor. She wants to get the Ghalali key, essential to replenish Excalibur and brought from Ghana by Richard Croft. Instead, she finds informations about a fragment of the sword in an old Soviet base in Kazakhstan.

At the end of this episode, the adventurer back home with the reconstituted Excalibur. She will do the same with a similar sword at the end of Underworld, that one that caused her mother's disapparition when she was a child. We don't know what she's doing with these swords, she probably keeps her at home.

Anniversary

Further information: Tomb Raider: Anniversary

Here, the manor is similar to that of the previous episode and is used for training. But as this episode is earlier, Zip and Alister are not working on it yet. Nevertheless, new places are accessible, such as a music room or a hedge maze (like in Tomb Raider II). In addition, the entrance hall is cluttered with crates (like in Tomb Raider I)..

Underworld

Further information: Tomb Raider: Underworld

In this episode, the manor is accessible at two different levels. But the gamer cans not go all the time, as before. The visible sections are similar to those of the Manor of Legend.

This first level is a prologue, where Lara is in an underground tunnel when she hears an explosion. Leaving through a secret door, she arrives in her room and discover that everything is engulfed in flames. Thus, the gamer musts discover character's movements to escape, across a corridor leading to the lobby. But there, Zip wants to kill her with a gun, before to be stopped by Winston Smith, the butler. The rest is a great flashback, starting a week earlier, to understand these dramatics events.

Clues found during her exploration of Bhogavati in Thailand reveals to her that her father has already explored this place and brought the second Thor's gauntlet (Járngreipr) at the manor. On site, the butler takes Lara into the family crypt, hidden by a secret door in the technical suite. Based on these clues, she finds a hatch under her grandfather's grave. After crossing a chapel beneath her manor, she finds a secret office. Here, the gauntlet is protected by two undead "thrall" tigers brought from Thailand.

Passing another door, she arrives in the tunnel from the first level. So, the gamer musts redo the sequence until the scene with Zip. At that moment, Lara discovers that she has a doppelganger, her identical evil twin, who exploded the manor and attacked Zip. In fact, this latter confused the doppelganger with Lara. Then, the creature kills Allister. She was designed by Amanda and Jacqueline Natla (an Atlantean queen) to steal the spectral stone to controls the monstrous entity, that the heroin obtained at the end of Legend.

Finally, Tomb Raider Underworld: Under the Ashes, downloadable extension available on Xbox Live, also takes place in the manor.

Reboot by Crystal Dynamics and Square Enix

Tomb Raider (2013 video game)

Further information: Tomb Raider (2013 video game)

Here again, the manor does not appear.

Rise of the Tomb Raider

Further information: Rise of the Tomb Raider

In this episode, the manor is accessible on two different levels, disponibles by DLC.

At the "Blood Ties" level, Lara musts look for her manor to find evidences to obtain the right to own it. Indeed, her dishonest uncle Atlas de Mornay explain in a letter he cans direct it. This, until it is proven that both her parents are dead (her mother is only considered as missing). She wills therefore explore it from top to bottom to discover many secrets. The level starts in her father's office. It is possible to visit the library (holding her father's strongbox), her mother's painting studio, the partly ruined cellar (with a cellar wine). In a hidden crypt with Croft's graves, she finds her mother's tomb and prove that both her parents are indead death.

At the level of "Lara's nightmare", she confronts an army of undead.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider

Further information: Shadow of the Tomb Raider

The manor appears in a flashback sequence, during Lara's childhood. It is especially possible to climb the manor and walk on the roof.

Appearance in films

Lara Croft: Tomb Raider

Further information: Lara Croft: Tomb Raider

The manor is used for many scenes. Lara inherited it from her father, Richard Croft, whose a memorial was erected in the courtyard. In this film, like the following, the butler is called Hilary. He's an employee in the manor, like Bryce, the technical assistant. During the film, the manor is attacked by the Illuminati, came to fetch the clock.

Lara Croft: Tomb Raider – The Cradle of Life

Further information: Lara Croft: Tomb Raider – The Cradle of Life

During the scene where the MI6 meets Lara and asks her to find the Pandora's box, many place of the manor appear: the Long Gallery and the library. The Bokken self-defense practice scene was filmed in the entrance hall.

Tomb Raider

Further information: Tomb Raider (film)

At the start of the film, Lara sees the manor, her father's heritage, threatened with being sold if she does not claim it. With a heavy heart, she comes on site and enters her father's grave. Inside, she discovers a video made by him before his death, detailing his research on Himiko, a shamaness-queen of Yamatai, who may have the power to dominate life and death

Gallery

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  Facade of Hatfield House

• 

  Hatfield Palace

• 

  Wilton House, decort for the film Tomb Raider (2018).

References

This article "Croft Manor" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Croft Manor. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.

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