As a child, I looked up to Lara Croft. She was smart, brave, and beautiful. Lara broke out of the rich girl stereotype and pursued her dreams. Aside from her unrealistic proportions and illegal tomb robbing, Lara is a relatively positive role model.

Like any fan, I tried my best to learn more about this woman I admired. I owned a PlayStation, but I lost interest in Tomb Raider 2 shortly after the tutorial. The game was difficult and required a set of skills that I didn't have. I turned to comics instead, reading about Lara's adventures in the Top Cow series and Witchblade crossovers.

As I grew older, I have played each new Tomb Raider demo, hoping that the next one will finally capture my interest. Lara has certainly charmed me, yet I never seem to want to play her games. How could a series with such a compelling character frustrate and bore a gamer like me?

I recently played the Tomb Raider: Anniversary demo. It was well-received by critics; the PC version scored 83 on Metacritic. The various revisions to levels and mechanics from previous games sounded promising. I wanted this to be the Tomb Raider I had been waiting to play and love.

At first I was impressed by the shiny new graphics and fluid animations. Clearly motion capture had greatly benefited this series, as Lara now moved with the grace of a real gymnast. Anniversary felt like a next-gen experience and I was thrilled to be immersed in a fantastic set of ruins.

Yet Anniversary soon fell prey to the same faults that caused me to grow tired of its predecessors. I was utterly alone, aside from the sparse enemies who scared me half to death. The graphics were so seamless that I had a hard time figuring out where to go. For example, there were two exits from the starting area, but the most obvious exit seemed to be a ladder cruelly just inches out of my reach.

I felt that the game was rather unforgiving. I got stuck at one point and I had nowhere to turn for help. My feeble attempts at finding a solution caused me to fall into a river, where I was swept downstream and over a waterfall to the beginning of the level. I had the distinct feeling that these puzzles were catered to fans of the series: those who knew how to solve the puzzles could solve them easily; those who didn't were out of luck. While I do appreciate puzzles in games, I felt that I was thrown into the lake without first learning how to swim.

I don't believe that Tomb Raider: Anniversary is a bad game. Tomb Raider fans would likely find it to be a welcome addition to the series, given the lovely graphics and next-gen upgrades. However, I may have reached the point where I give up on the Tomb Raider series. I'll always admire Ms. Croft, but perhaps I'll have to appreciate her from afar.