Everyone’s favorite buxom archeologist Lara Croft is back in her new game, simply titled “Tomb Raider”.

“Tomb Raider” is a prequel to the eight games that came before it, showcasing Lara’s transition from an innocent girl trying to make her mark on the world, to the hardened adventurer we know her as now. It’s available on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360, starting at $59.99. This is the first Tomb Raider game that has received an M (mature) rating from the ESRB.

The game takes place in the Dragon’s Triangle, south of Japan. Lara is part of the Endurance expedition searching for the mythical land of Yamatai, when their ship suddenly crashes on an island and is split in two. Lara and the rest of the survivors must then find a way to escape the island and its crazy murderous inhabitants.

Unlike previous games, a prompt pops up at the beginning of the game telling the player how to do what they need to do. These prompts can be patronizing to experienced players and are way too common in today’s games.

At the beginning of the game, Lara gains the iconic weapon in this game, a bow, which is featured predominately in the box art and most of the game trailers. In games prior, Lara’s signature weapons were twin pistols, which are absent in this game until the very last scene.

Gameplay is solid, with many options to get from point A to point B. A major issue though is the addition of Lara’s Survival Instinct, which highlights enemies, collectables and creates a temporary waypoint to the current objective.

Having a waypoint cuts exploration down dramatically while in previous games, the player is left to their own devises to figure out how to get to the next area.

Combat focuses on cover based shooting, which it does relatively well. Killing animals and enemies grants the player experience which is used to upgrade skills, and salvage which is used to upgrade weapons.

These two additions allow for further gameplay customization, but by the end of the game the player unlocks most, if not all of the abilities and weapons, making the player’s early choices ultimately useless.

There is quite a lack of puzzles to solve during the game. Most of the puzzles are allocated to tombs hidden around the map, but shows the player where they are. Solving a tomb puzzle rewards the player with extra salvage and a map of collectables in the current area.

The main story is very short. The added collectables and challenges have no effect on the game other than extra experience. By focusing on collecting everything the player can gain  a few hours of gameplay, but it still only contains about 15 hours overall.

Although it’s short, the story is great, and creates a sense of intensity and despair as Lara fights her way off the island. Character development is definitely a strong suit in the game, and none of them feel like a cookie cutter character from other sources. Most of the character development happens through pre-recorded videos that Lara finds after escaping imprisonment. This not only allows the player to get to know the characters, but also Lara as she takes comfort in the videos of her friends from a simpler time.

As the game progresses, Lara becomes more hardened, as she is forced to kill more and more people in order to save herself and her friends. Scars start developing as she takes damage from fighting, her signature blue tank top becomes torn and faded, and her facial expressions change from a frightened girl to that of a survivor who will do anything to make it off the island. By the end of the game she is a completely different woman, the woman we all know as Lara Croft, Tomb Raider.

Overall the game is good, but it definitely could have been better. If this were the first game in the series, it would have been perfect, but since it’s built upon a franchise that is 17 years old, it had a lot to live up to.

“Tomb Raider” receives 4 stars out of 5.