The Tomb Raider Team Reacts To Conan O’Brien Failing At Their Game

Conan O’Brien’s Clueless Gamer series has become infamous for its ability to entertain while showing exactly how a game shouldn’t be played. One of the earliest and most memorable episodes featured the 2013 reboot of Tomb Raider. The episode aired about a month before the game released, and featured Conan absolutely failing at the game at every opportunity. The team had been working on the game for more than four years, and though it wasn’t the first look at the new Tomb Raider for most gamers, it was one of the most viewed.

We asked the team what it was like to see the piece and how they felt about watching Conan O’Brien fail at their game and murder Lara over and over on TV.

Brian Horton, game director
That was one of the most exciting pieces of pop-media, I think. We were so excited that it was happening. I was watching it going, “I can’t believe this is happening.” I knew when it was done that it was going to make a big splash. I just felt like, “Oh my god, that was crazy.” And it was! When it aired we were all watching it thinking, “That was insane!” And his reactions were hilarious.

It was funny – it was his funniest bit in all of his Clueless Gamer bits, still, and he still talks about it. Obviously, we don’t want Lara to die like that over and over and over. It was a bit, right? I guess if I took it out of the comedy aspect of it, it was terrible to watch her die over, and over, and over again. But it was just too damn funny for me not to laugh the whole time it was happening.

Noah Hughes, franchise creative director
That was amusing.

Game Informer: Was it frustrating?

No! What you don’t want is to have a legitimate player experience caught in that loop. I’m sensitive to that as a game designer and the repetition of characterization. If our average player is dying repeatedly that much in one level, then that’s not ideal [laughs]. But, in the context of messing around, it’s its own issue.

Rich Briggs, brand director
That was one of the best pieces. You want to talk about creating an experience that people identify with and become immersed in and care about? His reaction to when Lara was dying and how invested he was getting into it when he kept killing her in the water scene? He cared! He cared about Lara. That was our most viral piece of anything we did with the campaign.

Darrell Gallagher, head of western studios
That was fun. I was laughing. We all watched that actually. We had a great laugh and watched that multiple times. It was great fun to watch, to see him play it, and he’s hilarious. There are probably some people who have played it that way and died that may times on that sequence. He was probably representing a segment of our consumers.

Camilla Luddington, Lara Croft’s voice and motion capture performer
It reminded me of me playing the game, because I kill myself so many times. It was so funny. I’ve met him a couple times now and every time I see him he always tells me that he is secretly, but not so secretly, is completely in love with the character. It did disturb him when he killed her so many times. But, the worst part of what they showed was definitely one of the most gruesome moments in the game, the way in which she gets killed, impaled on that stick. It was really fun to watch him play it. I think he might do it again for the second game.

For more on Rise of the Tomb Raider, check out all of our coverage by clicking the banner below.