Lara Croft has been gone a long time.

While she's had plenty of games over the last decade, just one Tomb Raider game, Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light, managed to reach the high expectations set by fans of the globe-trotting adventurer. That's what makes this reboot so important. Crystal Dynamics is attempting to revive a franchise that has been so beaten down by mediocrity that many thought it could never recover.

Darrell Gallagher, the studio head of Crystal Dynamics, seems confident. While playing through the first portion of the game, I spoke with him about some of the challenges the team has faced in rebooting Tomb Raider.