Lara Croft was redesigned for “Tomb Raider.” Photo courtesy of Square Enix / Crystal Dynamics.

After more than a decade of being known as a fanboy fantasy first and an action hero second, Lara Croft has received a much needed (and much publicized) reboot.

Crystal Dynamics did away with the awkwardly large, pixel breasts and impractical short-shorts and redesigned Lara to be practically dressed, realistically proportioned and more beautiful than ever before.

She is still Lara, but the design definitely makes more sense and is decidedly more appealing to all demographics of gamers.

“Tomb Raider” is an origin story that places Lara in the same rank as Nathan Drake of the Uncharted series in regards to platform game action heroes.

Starting off at the still-tender age of 21, Lara sets off to find adventure and put her skills as a young archeologist to work. Though Lara is sharp, she must have more than brilliant intellect to stay alive after her ship, Endurance, wrecks in a violent storm and leaves her and her crew on a mysterious island.

Reminiscent of the island of “LOST,” the island they land on has a shady history and equally shady characters inhabiting it that seek to capture and kill the “outsider” Lara.

For an origin story, the writers couldn’t have done better for  Lara as the dangerous situations she is put in makes it understandable how she becomes the tomb raider we’ve all come to know. Forced to take human lives and go through brutal injuries early on, it is tough to watch at times, but pushes the player to keep playing to see the outcome.

One problem early on, however, is just that. Lara progresses from being in shock over killing one man, to ruthless killer of many men right afterwards.

You can’t engage in melee combat early on other than simple dodging, making it near impossible not to die when an enemy gets too close. It would seem that this is because she may at first lack the strength to do so. However, Lara can stealthily sneak up and strangle an enemy from behind.

The choice is an odd one on the developers’ part, because to strangle someone takes far more strength (and brutality) than to engage in regular hand to hand combat. But Lara is able to quickly strangle with ease.

Only after using acquired skill points to “upgrade” to melee attacks is she able to do simple tasks like hit enemies with her ice axe. That’s right – no longer does Lara double wield guns. Her makeshift weapons include bow and arrows and the ice axe before later finding and using various guns. The choice makes sense considering her surroundings and are surprisingly easy to use.

In terms of controls, navigating as Lara is relatively simple and fluid and is accessible even to novice players. However, gunfights tend to drag out longer than necessary at times and can actually detract from the story. In particular, early on enemies overuse grenades and molotov cocktails. You may find yourself dodging more explosives than bullets, meaning the gunfights are drawn out even longer.

Battles break down to: dodge grenade, try to find cover, aim, get a shot or two in, dodge another grenade, rinse, repeat. It is more than a little annoying and anytime a game makes the player want to put down the controller it’s not a good thing.

Voice acting overall is pretty good. Camilla Luddington has a very crisp and pleasant voice. But the awkward and constant mispronunciations of Japanese terms and names is more than a little noticeable for a character who is supposed to be an archeologist. Lara’s companions are completely forgettable cliches, but it doesn’t detract much since they are not the focus and the voice acting is not bad.

Where “Tomb Raider” really shines is in overall gameplay. The action sequences in running from imminent  danger are actually surprisingly fun and are broken up by puzzle sequences to open tombs or progress in the story. The backgrounds are as gorgeous as the character designs and make it interesting to explore the island.

Overall, “Tomb Raider” does Lara Croft justice. The storyline clocks in at roughly 10-12 hours but there are plenty of extra tombs to discover and treasure to hunt down for 100 percent completion. It offers a lot of replay value for those who have to find everything and it’s a relatively short title for those who  have limited time.

On the short side, it offers insight into what made Lara Croft a survivor above all else. It portrays her as uncertain and at times even frightened, which is refreshing. While the writers could have shied away from portraying any weakness in Lara for fear of drawing out cries of sexism, they chose to be realistic and flesh her out fully.

Lara is back, flaws included.