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" Next year&amp;#039;s Tomb Raider resets the action adventure series with a grittier, survival-focused reboot as Lara Croft embarks on her first adventure after she is deserted on a mysterious island following a shipwreck. Previous looks at the game - courtesy of the last two E3 Expos - both feature in its opening three hours, which see Lara captured almost immediately after arriving on-shore before swiftly escaping, and later setting up her first camp and establishing contact with her fellow crew members. Our hands-on, however, gives us our first proper introduction to how combat and exploration work, with the former - perhaps unsurprisingly - feeling similar to that of most other third-person shooters on the market.  Stealth not exactly Lara Croft&amp;#039;s strongest suit The bow appears to be Lara&amp;#039;s signature weapon in this reboot, and while it&amp;#039;s certainly the ideal weapon for taking out deer, unfortunately we felt the stealth approach against the crazed inhabitants of the island - who are out searching for our survivors - was often too unreliable and frustrating to get right. Bunched-up enemy sentries meant that picking off seemingly isolated enemies without detection was difficult, with most situations resulting in flares being shot into the sky and assault-rifle-wielding goons promptly giving chase. They could be easily dispatched with the bow from there, thankfully, meaning that getting detected only places you at an inconvenience. There&amp;#039;s the opportunity to use surroundings as part of combat - burning lamps can be shot to trip over enemies - but these opportunities were few and far between in these early stages. It&amp;#039;s a shame, because when it did come together, Tomb Raider&amp;#039;s stealth is very satisfying.  There&amp;#039;s also the worry that the campaign takes too many cues from the Uncharted school of design, littering cutscenes with Quick Time Events (there&amp;#039;s a particularly excessive section near the start where you hammer the triggers to escape a cave) plus an obvious priority on gunplay over stealth at certain points. One particular moment is the climax of our playthrough, where Lara assaults a gorgeous, snow-capped WW2 bunker in the shadow of a radio tower. Tight corridors, a room jam-packed full of enemies and an encounter with a lone heavily-armoured soldier meant going gung ho was the only way to go.  A joy to explore While these Uncharted-style combat scenarios and bouts of QTEs are serviceable in their own right, Tomb Raider only really comes to life when you&amp;#039;re left to your own devices. Sandwiched between these action-heavy sequences are more areas that allow exploration and a wider scope to find your own path onward. These moments are a particular highlight because there&amp;#039;s great care in environmental design, with topography and routes that feel carefully handcrafted and enticing to explore. The settings themselves - including ancient temple ruins scattered in dense forest, and an abandoned, mountain village - feel wonderfully rustic, weathered and also eerie to walk around.  Both these areas in particular do a great job at letting players proceed in their own time, letting them collect salvage off the beaten path and upgrade their equipment. An extra ten or so minutes exploring nooks and crannies rewarded us with a stronger bow early in the game, for example. These areas can also be investigated in a new light later on using equipment obtained during the story, providing incentive to briefly detour from the more linear main story path and revisit previously-visited places. Returning to the mountain village with a climbing axe, for example, allows the player to climb higher ledges to access new areas, including one of the game&amp;#039;s many secret &amp;#039;Tombs&amp;#039;; a compact, brief but taxing room with a weighted pulley puzzle which rewarded players with an updated map of the local area that exposed extra secrets.  Another highlight from our time with Tomb Raider was narrative delivery. Alongside the usual bout of scattered letters and relics that are found off the beaten path, video cameras discovered as part of the story provide insight into crew members, acting as a welcome means to flesh out their personalities and motivations even though they&amp;#039;re scattered across the island. Another nice touch is that Lara will mutter to herself when you settle into a camp and tinker away at upgrades, usually about both her ongoing objective and current predicament, and it is a neat way to humanise a character going through a particularly stressful situation. Despite some unoriginal and occasionally frustrating approaches to combat, Tomb Raider is shaping up rather nicely. It&amp;#039;s a departure from the Tomb Raider of old, certainly - it&amp;#039;s more linear and with a tighter focus - but it still appears to satisfy an appetite for adventure. &amp;gt; Read our Tomb Raider interview with developer Crystal Dynamics Tomb Raider will be available on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC worldwide from March 5, 2013.  "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/gaming/previews/news/a442625/tomb-raider-preview-three-hours-with-lara-crofts-first-adventure/>