Tomb Raider (2013)

Crystal Dynamics' 2013 reboot restarts Lara Croft as a twenty-one-year-old on her first expedition, shipwrecked on an island off Japan with a cult, a storm that will not let anyone leave and no relevant experience. The pivot was to survival action: a bow as the primary weapon, campfires for upgrades, semi-open hub areas gated by equipment, and a scavenging loop that gradually converts a frightened archaeology student into someone competent with a climbing axe. It is much more of a shooter than any previous Tomb Raider, which was the main criticism at the time along with the gap between the story's insistence on Lara's fragility and the body count she racks up. What it undeniably got right was moment-to-moment feel: the traversal is tactile, the set pieces are well-directed, and the bow remains one of the best-implemented in games. The optional tombs are thin here - Rise of the Tomb Raider fixed that - but the Definitive Edition's lighting and the TressFX hair tech still look current.