Players have immediately noticed that Lara Croft in the "Tomb Raider" reboot, releasing 2013, doesn't portray the sexual image she was known for in the past. Rather than being a gun-blazing explorer, players will "want to protect" the new Croft.

"When people play Lara, they don't really project themselves into the character. They're more like 'I want to protect her.' There's this sort of dynamic of 'I'm going to this adventure with her and trying to protect her,'" executive producer on Tomb raider - Ron Rosenberg - said to Kotaku.

Players will also be looking at Croft differently, Rosenberg added, describing players as her "helper." Players will root for her in a way they wouldn't root for a male character. It's also intentional on the developer's part to make her more real, and less fantasy, compared to past games and the image she projected.

"The ability to see her more as a human is even more enticing to me than the more sexulizing image of yesteryear. She literally goes from zero to hero... we're sort of building her up and just when she gets confident, we break her down again," Rosenberg also said.

Of the events that will transpire in Tomb Raider, Croft will see her best friend kidnapped and - to some controversy - be the subject of a rape attempt. In the E3 gameplay trailer, there was a scene which hinted towards the incident. "[S]he's forced to either fight back or die," Rosenberg said.

Rosenberg isn't worried about controversy and says Tomb Raider shows a more mature and darker Croft. He described it as an origin story; in Tomb Raider, Croft is just 21 years old. "We're not trying to be over the top, shock people for shock's sake," Rosenberg added.

Tomb Raider promises to be different to past games in the series by offering open ended gameplay. Players can choose to approach situations in different ways, Metal Gear Solid-style. At E3 Croft was shown escaping from the scavenger camp, killing animals to survive and being genuinely shocked at seeing scenes such as tied up dead humans.