Tomb Raider: Underworld

"An Underworld Outing"

Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness was Lara's first PS2 (next gen) outing and it proved to be a failure, both in substance and expectations. It was graphically glitchy and to be honest plain boring. On January ninth 2009, Eidos announced that this PS3 (next gen) outing failed to meet sales expectations. Are we simply walking the past or is the struggling economy to blame?

Tomb Raider: Underworld simply picks up where Tomb Raider: Legend left off. Lara is in search of a way to enter Avalon where her mother has apparently been sucked in to whilst protecting her young daughter. Following a lead, Lara finds a Norse temple in the Mediterranean Sea where she in fact discovers that the Arthurian world Avalon and the Norse underworld Niflheim are actually the same world.

After fighting some of Amanda's hired help, Lara catches up with her and much to her surprise finds that she has in her possession Natla herself, Queen of Atlantis and the main ‘bad guy' from the very first Tomb Raider. Following Natla's advice, Lara goes off in search of Thor's hammer, a great weapon wielded by the God himself, where with its power she can open up the underworld to find her mother. However what is Natla's plan and is she just playing Lara to accomplish her own endgame?

I was impressed with Tomb Raider: Legend's storyline, but to my surprise Underworld surpasses it by miles. It is interesting, addictive and most of all shocking. Don't get me wrong there are of cause points that blend in with predictability then all of a sudden something happens that throws yours predictions way off course. It's a storyline of intrigue, of a bombshell of a murder and who would have guessed blowing up Croft Manor would work in favour of progression rather than sacrilege.

I think that the most successful part of Underworld's storyline however is the way it utilises the full potential of all of its major characters. It simply isn't just about Lara Croft, but it captures the emotion on both sides of the coin. Is Amanda really as malicious and demented as she first seems? Perhaps not if you take into account a strong sense of team work that appears and a great device used is the many flash backs slotted in to create a gem of a Hollywood blockbuster that never falters and never really dies. There aren't any cliff hangars in this one, but it does answer all the questions raised from past outings.

The PS3 is one powerful machine and so you'd expect that graphically Underworld would be top notch . . . and thankfully it doesn't disappoint. The thing is though, did Lara need another makeover? Well despite this she looks great. Now in her eighth major release, Lara is older, more mature looking with no rough edges and graces the screen with a powerful serenity. She fits into the game directly well and is really artistic perfection. The other NPC's all look great too with a smooth transition onto the new console matching Lara's resonance and design. All the faces look fantastic with a lifelike texture adapting to the environment with ease, so if it's raining you can actually see the raindrops affecting the character's appeal.

Dynamic lighting is the key feature in producing scenery and level design to such a high quality, often dream like and majestic. There isn't as much globe trotting in here as there has been in previous jaunts, but the huge levels of Thailand and Mexico has a stunning atmosphere to them, almost as if they each have their own little personality. The weather is also used to fantastic effect resounding a mood, enhancing its ‘personality'. Thunder and lighting is a great example of how Crystal Dynamics have taken the core power of the PS3 and incorporated it into the story. It is also unusual, but interesting that a chunk of the game is also played out inside Croft Manor forming an creative visual aid but forms a part of the shock events of the plot.

In a huge step forward, full motion capture has been used in forming the entire animation in Underworld, and its never looked so lifelike. Balancing upon beams and swinging through caverns in the Arctic have never looked better and the obvious if not needed improvements is evident throughout. However abnormally whilst one area flourishes another seems to fall short. In battle, with more than one enemy, the games mechanics do become much slower and the animation is off, often broken and coming across as naff work.

The in game music seems to have been taken very seriously indeed with individual orchestral musical scores reverberating through each of the levels giving them a unique quality. It is a very fascinating choice, but one that requests respect. Mixed that with tremendous voicing abilities of Keeley Hawes (who voiced Lara in both Legend and Anniversary) a whopping effort can be clearly seen in the music department and it is most definitely one that works splendidly.

Crystal Dynamics really got the ball moving on the right foot with Tomb Raider: Legend creating an adventure game that combined sexy action throughout. Sadly the Gameplay balance is heavily distorted in this one. Picture this. The beginning of each level is loading and hmm what's this? Not only do you have the trademark pistols but in fact you can pick what costume to wear and what other weapons to use throughout that particular level. And look at the choice! Shotguns, assault rifles, tranquiliser guns and many more. Ooh this is exciting.

Putting the sarcasm aside, it tries it really does but ninety nine percent of all the shooting and combat is pointless, done to just add something extra and you have to question was it really worth it? It's not that enjoyable really. New dimensions have been added such as multiple targeting, head shots and the ability to enter combat in the air whilst jumping or hanging on to a ledge with one hand, shooting in the other. But whilst this is all nice, Tomb Raider just isn't an espionage game and the feeling arises that they are just trying to do too much in one bag.

The camera (again) here is absolutely awful and it is so bad it can simply put off some gamers who aren't prepared to stick with it. It flies all over the place and often jams into a jerky motion that can cause anyone's head to explode. To make things worse the controls are just too sensitive often meaning that you'll kill Lara on the simpliest of jumps. And then to contradict it completely at times it just doesn't recognise that yes you did press that jump button and now the stupid bint has gone and impaled herself on the spikes sticking up out of the ground.

Puzzles make a welcomed return, most of them much bigger than usual and make up more of the levels. The problem is that they are just too easy. It lacks a real challenge and to really simplify things an option in the pause menu actually reveals what to do if God forgive anybody gets stuck and needs help. This most certainly is no Tomb Raider IV: The Last Revelation.

As refreshing as they were back in Legend, thankfully the interactive cutscenes, where you have to push the correct sequence of buttons, have now been replaced. In moments of danger the game decelerates into an impressive style of slow motion giving the game a more tense feel as players much react to get out of the way of that specific danger. Sadly other new inclusions such as the new chimney jump is just a rip off move stolen from the Prince of Persia games and modified to fit into the Lara Croft engine.

Apart from the Treasure Hunt mode there are little unlockable features of particular interest and even then, Treasure Hunt mode is just a replay of the game with the main focus shifted on collecting the ‘relics' you missed on the first play through. To be honest it's not like you can miss them with the majority of the little stones simply lying in your way rather than hiding away in some tiny crevice where you have to spend ages looking for them. With also a rough estimate for average gamers of completion time totally roughly eight to ten hours, replayability is not very likely unless you have a lazy Sunday to waste.

Playstation 3 owners will also be disappointed to know that that there are no unlockable trophies to obtain and X-Box 360 owners will be able to download from their online store new costumes and new side quests with their very own storylines. This is great news for 360 users but what a kick in the teeth for Sony loyalties where in fact Tomb Raider and Lara Croft are well known to belong. What a shame.

Tomb Raider Underworld is a highly enjoyable game, but it most certainly has key faults that let the whole thing down. The storyline is brilliant bringing back memorable characters that add a whole new drama to events and the pace of the game isn't bad either. Graphics are undeniably effective but despite of all this with a short playing time and dodgy Gameplay notions such as the camera and control system, it really just relies on its franchise name rather than anything of high quality. It just doesn't do anything new and frankly we've seen it all before. If you're after a game that is entertaining, pleasant and doesn't require much attention, then this may be one for you, but if you're after an adventure game with high octane thrills maybe you should look elsewhere.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 02/11/09

Game Release: Tomb Raider Underworld (EU, 11/21/08)