Rise of the Tomb Raider shows Lara Croft as an intellectual as well as an action hero

When we last left Lara Croft, she was on an island of shipwrecks, having lost her innocence as a young woman. She had killed her attackers in the name of survival. Not just one of them, but a whole bloody army of them. Lara Croft grew up fast — as if she were on a speed run through her own life — in the Tomb Raider reboot of 2013. And now she’s ready to do more of the same as a somewhat older and more intellectual explorer-adventurer in Rise of the Tomb Raider, which debuts as an Xbox timed exclusive on November 10.

I’ve seen the first couple of hours of the game in a preview for the press arranged by Microsoft and Square Enix, which are taking the game to the Xbox One and Xbox 360 game consoles first. Rise of the Tomb Raider is one of Microsoft’s big bets to expand the audience for the Xbox One, which is still being outsold about two-to-one by Sony’s PlayStation 4. The great thing about the new game is that it continues the development of Lara Croft as a character, it has a deep story that takes you on a grand adventure, and it has plenty of beautiful places to explore. Above all, it explores Lara as a full human being, rather than just a swaggering and cocky female hero.