I can understand the lever mechanism, but why had the locked doors external keyhole boxes? Later games demonstrated that a door with directly usable key (or other unlocking item) is possible to be programmed in the engine. So why couldn't it be done from the start? It has very little gameplay value to have remote "lockboxes". Well at least unless you require multiple items to open a single door.
How exactly did all those animals manage to get into certain areas and remain there, seemingly for thousands of years, without any source of food?
How did two dinosaurs survive for 65 million years in the great wall of Chine without a source of food or anyone noticing them? Surely Lara could have made far more money revealing their location than she ever could from finding the dagger.
I'm afraid you've been misled. She only plays for sport.
How did Lara manage to get away with killing all those people in several different countries and places. In Europe, where self-defence laws are less flexible than in the US, she would likely have had to go to court and demonstrated she killed in self-defence. Even if she didn't, you'd assume there would at least be a mention of the police looking for a woman who had gone into several countries and slaughtered people there.
For at least Tomb Raider II, I theorize that the places where Lara gunned down the most goons was territory held by Fiamma Nera. The Oil Rig and the shipwreck are isolated enough to not require much explanation. For the Venice stages, I presume the Fiamma Nera are feared and have enough clout that the police simply didn't respond, and the Fiamma wanted to handle Lara themselves. (And didn't want the police in their territory anyways.)
What happened to the man accidentally locked in the chamber with the dagger in the introductory video? It wouldn't have been as bad if they had showed a skeleton somewhere, but the cutscene at the end of the first level suggests the door was waiting for the right person and the right time to arrive, not that it could be opened arbitrarily to rescue someone who got stuck inside.
Why did the army in the introductory video give up just because the dragon had been destroyed? They clearly had the numerical, tactical and material advantages. They could have conquered their enemies by brute force if they wanted. Why didn't they take the dagger back and use it on someone else? No-one could doubt the power of the dagger as they had seen what it could do, and they had the military advantage so waiting for the transformation wouldn't have been that bad.
Probably the sheer shock of seeing their supposedly invincible monster defeated broke and demoralized the troops, while invigorating and inspiring the ones they were fighting against.
Why are there no bodies on the Maria Doria? The ship crashed and we are told everyone on board died, but not even a single fragment of bone is ever found.
If the Maria Doria landed in air-filled caves that were warm enough for people to survive in, they had enough fuel still on board for fires to burn continuously for several decades and both fish and plants to eat, why couldn't they have lived and created their own civilisation like in the film The Goliath Awaits?
What exactly are the secrets and who put them there? It's as if somebody knew in advance what was going on and decided if Lara could collect all three per level she'd be given weapons and ammunition.
Why did Lara not expose the dagger to the world, rather than keep it buried in the basement as later games showed? She could have made herself a household name for the rest of time if she was able to prove magic existed beyond a doubt. If she isn't earning money through the treasure, how is she earning money? Eventually she'd end up destitute.
It was explained in the first game's backstory that Lara made money via writing about her travels and adventures in books and journals, during which she uncovered several very archaeologically significant sites, and possibly proved several myths to be fact. In fact, her introductory cutscene in the first game features her on a magazine cover, with the caption "Croft Bags Bigfoot" - with sufficient evidence on-hand, she could've easily sold the story to that magazine (and possibly others, unless said magazine paid handsomely for an exclusive deal on the story) for a pretty hefty price. And in Tomb Raider III, Sophia Leigh talks as though Lara is a renowned celebrity (she certainly is treated as such in the intro to Chronicles), whose exploits are very well-known, so Lara obviously has prestige, even beyond the fields of archaeology and adventuring.
