And there's nothing wrong with this, in the context of the time. I mean, it was just a cool game with an unrealistically competent protagonist, just like many others. On the other hand, if Lara Croft was a new thing, first being released now, the writers would screw up the game by adding a ton of heavy handed bullshit about how great it is that a female character is doing this, and how woke it is, etc, with wokeness baked into the games core. See for example TLOU, which released an M rated DLC about a young teen's sexuality. Sorta creepy.
See, I disagree with you about TLOU's DLC. For one, what does it matter that its M-rated? Its a shooter, of course its M-rated.
And its backstory. Its not really about Ellie and Riley's sexuality - if Riley was a guy, would anyone be taking about how its about Ellie's sexuality? Of course not. I doubt most people who have a problem with the DLC would still have a problem with it if Riley was a white guy, because its only about Ellie's "sexuality" because she's a lesbian.
Like seriously, there are movies or books that have 14 year olds kissing all the time. Its all normal behavior for a 14 year old. Nobody cares then, nobody should care now.
I also really doubt that Lara Croft would be made that way if it was a new thing.
Honestly, most modern female protagonist games are the exact opposite of "wokeness backed into the games core." If I arrange my Steam library by female protagonist and latest release date....
I get Republique VR, Bright Memory, Neoverse, Hellblade Senua's Sacrifice, Yume Nikki, Reigns: Her Majesty, Time Recoil, Shuyan Saga, Mages of Mystralia, Nier Automata, Tales of Berseria, The Turing Test, Goetia.....
This is just a sampling, but all of these are recent games with female protagonists and none of them scream "woke" to me.
Now, the game "Star Crossed" does look kinda woke, but its an Indie Game from this year and I have no idea where I got it. Same with "Neo Cab." Maybe even "Life is Strange," is woke, I dunno, I haven't played it yet but I'll be playing it soon.
But games like that are very much the minority.