Tomb Raider: Underworld

As a die-hard fan of the Tomb Raider series I naturally had to have this game, the more so after reading the glowing reviews on Amazon. They turned out to be mostly true -- the game definitely is a feast for the eyes and lavishly rich in detail. Wherever you look, elaborate ruins, statues and vegetation abound. There are only 20 or so "levels" in six distinct areas to explore, but each one of them is spectacular. This is a satisfying reward for me (finally) getting a shader 3.0 video card. The game won't run on older hardware.

More good things first: Lara's interactive capabilities have further improved from her previous two adventures, her movements look more lifelike thanks to motion-capturing and scripted events, like pushing vegetation out of the way. More important is her extended repertoire of useful moves: She can now balance on horizontal poles as well as swing from them, stand on narrow ledges, climb alcoves by jumping from wall to wall and use her grappling hook more effectively (how about enabling her to use grappled objects as jump-off or -up points, once she's reached them?) So I'm happy to say the "next-gen" experience begins to approach something like the natural "feel" of the classic series, where YOU played the game -- Tomb Raider Next-Gen often feels more like the game is playing you! Thankfully there are no "Press this button now"-events, and no boss battles. The developers achieved their goal of re-invigorating the core qualities of Tomb Raider -- exploration and immersion. (But: If you're going to use new action keys, dear developers: Please include a comprehensive training level for newbies -- thank you! It greatly helps with the immersion when you don't have to look up the "throw away-key".)

For the most part, it simply looks & feels gorgeous. But the overwhelming richness in detail seems to have some inherent drawbacks -- the blocks of the world aren't obvious any longer, but they're still there. Just try to stray from the predestined path, and you'll know what I mean -- invisible walls everywhere; things & ledges Lara won't grab, low obstacles she can't jump over and even solid objects she'll fall through. There are some funny videos on Youtube -- but it's not really fun to encounter in a Tomb Raider game. This has been an issue since "Legend", but "Legend" and "Anniversary" combined don't have as much appetizing content as "Underworld", and the player stays hungry like the poor kid in front of the gourmet shop. Right now, all that detail is fake -- maybe we'll need next-but-one-gen computers to really use it? Good looks are a great device to keep players hooked, and I'm definitely saying: This game is a "must-see". But in terms of game-play the "next-gen" approach still has to match the classic series. And maybe it never will.

The story: It's quite good by Tomb Raider standards (meaning: the "meat" of the story is the most convoluted bundle of myths yet), but honestly it's the least I care about. I'm beyond my teen years, I'm used to skipping cut scenes... But in Next-Gen, they can't be elegantly avoided (and they're often great-looking respites from having to go through the motions :-(). To me, the classic Lara was never more than a cool placeholder for the player. Only when the series started to get old, the focus was shifted on Lara as a "personality". And I really, really, don't want to know her IQ or her cup size, but for the sake of the game I wish she'd get over that fixation about Mommy & Daddy for good. I kind of miss the humorous touch.

Some people have claimed the game is too short (true, it's the shortest of the Next-Gen games) and that it looks a bit rushed in terms of hidden objects and replay value -- I still haven't found all of them. But one more or less serious "bug" is the reload-checkpoint system that "forgets" where you moved objects before you died. I wish someone would take the time to make proper savegames possible again. On the other hand, I am getting used to the camera -- it's simply a matter of training. But -- Lara should be conveniently TRANSPARENT again when she blocks the camera! I have no idea why this still isn't implemented.

Conclusion: Go get it, even if it isn't perfect -- it's a great eye-opener. I'm already looking forward to the next one. Let's hope this quality and attention to detail can be sustained or even improved upon, and the Implementors find time & ways to make Lara's paths ever less linear.

I'm a big Tomb Raider fan, have played all the previously released games, including gold games, and I must say, this game is most like Tomb Raider AOD: A great story, stunning new graphics, and out of control controls. Although this game doesn't contain as many texture glitches as AOD, the setback is that the camera is completely out of control. It's like they put the game on 2x speed compared to Tomb Raider Anniversary, which completely takes out the pleasure of playing the game, and just makes you confused and even sometimes nauseous. The story is interesting, and in line with the previous game Tomb Raider Legend, although in this game you have no idea where to go, because the textures are too realistic and the camera is in your way. It's just really, REALLY disappointing how they managed to screw this game up so badly in gameplay, like so many new games, always such a hurry to make it before some deadline.

I really enjoyed Tomb Raider: Legend, I was so enraptured in Lara Croft that I instantly got Underworld. And by far, this ranks up with Legend quite close but the length of the game diminished some of the enjoyment out of it. On the plus side, the graphics are absolutely WONDERFUL. I've never seen a Tomb Raider game with this much detail in the graphics and Underworld has it in spades from jungles, to ancient cities and ruins and even underwater and the mythical lands of Norse mythology. One other thing that really impressed me the most was that I learned that the creators went to great lengths researching Norse mythology and how it ties into other legends of the world. Wow, such an achievement. I'd say Underworld is an amazing game that is almost up to par with Legend, but a longer game would definitely made me more happier.

I have been a Tomb Raider fan for years now and when Tomb Raider Underworld was said to be the best Tomb Raider yet i couldn't wait for its release. However it was unfortunately short, it only had 1 more additional level than legend which therefore means that it only had 8 maybe the creators are trying to tell us that the number of the Tomb Raider is the same amount of levels e.g. Tomb Raider Legend was the 7th in the series and it had 7 levels and Tomb Raider Underworld being the 8th has 8 levels. Although it was short the game wasn't all bad it had once again a very strong storyline which makes it almost impossible to stop playing the game although i found that the emotion in the game at points was put across poorly. The graphics were amazing as always and the game play is fun and interesting especially with the new weapons that she finds over the course of the game. The makers have really focused on design and movement with this game making it seem more realistic and of course as any Tomb Raider fan will know that this one contains blood. I am still with Tomb Raider 2 being my favourite but they are getting closer to the greatness they once had and who knows maybe my opinion will changed within a few years.

The story and atmosphere are decent but not great. Most of the gameplay is puzzle platforming. This sometimes gets a bit repetitive, but there is enough variation and cutscenes to prevent it from getting too tedious. The balance between platforming and other types of gameplay is better than in TR-Anniversary (which was all platforming) but maybe not quite as engaging for the masses (and me) as the 2013 reboot (which had more action). The platforming difficulty is generally good for most of us, but on the easy side for hardcore gamers. I struggled with some parts, but always got through after a while. Some environments look really nice (Thailand), but others have rather bare and bland level design. The combat is fairly bad, as expected with this series. The checkpoint save system is also annoying, but not too bad.

Though some of the veterans will scoff, I find the optional "field assistance" hints an improvement over the previous games that offered no help at all - now I am less likely to need to look up solutions online when I get stuck. There is still big room for improvement in this area though. At least there are difficulty settings for specific things like enemy health and fall damage.

Lara's controls are a bit mixed. In some ways they are fine, but they also feel a bit nervous and she moves less natural (less inertia and animation flow) than in TR-Anniversary. As usual, sometimes the controls don't do what you want, causing many accidental deaths. Also, the camera behaviour can be disorienting, and the FOV is unpleasantly low. At least there is no mouse acceleration. The HUD is bad - you have to open your PDA to change weapon and see how much ammo you have. None of these flaws are game breaking though.

Tip: To improve the graphics beyond the max ingame settings, i suggest forcing AF to x4 (ingame AF setting does not work) and AA transparency to 4x supersampling in nvidia control panel.

I would say this is a game to get when on sale, and only if you are OK with a lot of puzzle platforming.