Reboots of anything as beloved and iconic as Tomb Raider are always difficult. I have never been a fan of the title or its protagonist Lara Croft, but this bold new reboot — simply titled Tomb Raider — left me very impressed.

Tomb Raider begins with a young Lara Croft on an expedition to locate a lost Japanese kingdom – once island home to the fabled Sun Queen Himiko. Unlike the majority of modern games, which begin with a helicopter crash, Tomb Raider shakes things up with a good old-fashioned shipwreck, leaving Lara Croft and her crew stranded on the island they were looking for.

This sets the scene for what is one of the most exciting and traumatic games to grace our screens in recent years.

Gone is the Lara Croft that was based primarily on sex appeal. This new Lara Croft is more realistic and smarter than the one who started ransacking tombs way back in 1996.

The Lara at the beginning of the game is several shades weaker than the Lara that players will find themselves with at the end of the game. The transition from young, frightened archaeologist to iconic adventurer plays out brilliantly in the game.

Lara initially struggles with the notion of survival, but she becomes much stronger as she begins to uncover mysteries of the island, hunt animals for food with her bow and arrow and kill hostiles with a variety of weapons. This adds to her XP, which in turn provides skill points required to learn new tricks such as crafting to survive the island.

Even the enemies sense her swelling strength. At the beginning, they often refer to Lara as a little girl. By the end, though, they describe her as the woman who single-handedly took down hordes of their strongest men.

The game’s brilliant pacing is matched by some pretty impressive visuals. Graphics on the PlayStation 3 version I tested looked sharp and the environments were simply breathtaking, especially when you are running across collapsing bridges or swimming in the choppy river waters during a thunderstorm.

Tomb Raider is an incredibly executed game, exciting and intriguing without giving the player too many frustrations along the way. It is an absolute must-play and hopefully the start of a brand new Tomb Raider franchise for many years to come.

Verdict: 4.5/5

Rating: M18

Platform: Xbox 360 (S$69.90), PS3 (S$69.90), PC (S$59.90)