Tomb Raider: Underworld - 360

Tomb Raider: Underworld brings Lara Croft back in an ardent effort to stop what has been a heady descent into video game irrelevance, and with gun fights, motorcycle sprints, and acrobatics galore, Underworld helps elevate the once lauded action franchise out of the dark depths. Unfortunately, this decidedly outmoded adventure isn't enough to lift Lara back to her once lofty perch.

THE BOTTOM LINE: Lara tries to whip out the twins -- get your mind out of the gutter: the "twins" I'm talking about here are 'action' and 'adventure' -- in order to evoke some excitement in Underworld but there isn't enough solid action to back up the platforming. All in all, Ms. Croft's latest effort falls a bit flat with a dated feel; it's obvious that the genre that Lara helped pioneer has long passed her by.

Let's Hear it for the Boys

It's pretty obvious after playing Underworld that Lara Croft simply can't run with the big boys; that's not a knock on her being a woman but more on how dated she feels. Her gunslinging abilities are outclassed by Nathan Drake and she's unable to use the surrounding environment to her advantage like Indiana Jones. Underworld's gameplay also lacks polish, especially when it comes to combat. There's no workable cover system, the melee moves are downright laughable, and the adrenaline power-up is plain useless; combined, this severely limits your options in battle. The poor combat system also means that most enemy encounters are harder than they should be. It doesn't help that enemies have a bad habit of appearing when you're in the middle of a tricky platforming sequence. So, to give you an example, this means that dealing with the wave of angry bats that swoop in while you're clamoring atop a set of ruined pillars under the Mediterranean Sea becomes nearly impossible. Lara can't fire a gun while hanging from a ledge, which leaves her completely vulnerable during these scripted attacks. Nobody said Mother Nature plays fair.

Tomb Raider: Underworld - 360

Camera Obscura

Thankfully, the platform challenges and puzzles fare much better. The fundamentals remain solid but it could have benefited from a bit more work. The level design is phenomenal but it's a little too clever for its own good sometimes: It's far too easy to embark on a series of jumping challenges or climb a wall only to get stuck and not clearly understand where to go next because the next ledge or platform blends too much into the environment. Better camera work would easily have addressed this, providing helpful pans to highlight where you need to go next; however, the camera freaks out in close-quarters and offers no aid whatsoever.

Overall, Underworld is a decent enough effort. It has slick controls, interesting puzzles and a story that's actually pretty interesting. However, it never fully compensates for a lack of compelling action and overall polish. It'll probably appeal to diehard Tomb Raider fans hoping to recapture some of the series' lost magic but most gamers will be better served by competing titles like Drake's Fortune.

PROS: Beautiful locations; outrageous, entertaining story; functional controls.
CONS: Underdeveloped combat mechanics; generally slow pace; some platforming sections need tuning.
Tomb Raider: Underworld - 360
Tomb Raider: Underworld - 360

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cx

You're dead on on some of this, but a few things stood out as "what the hell are they talking about?" items. For one thing...

"Lara can't fire a gun while hanging from a ledge"

Um, yeah she can. The whole "What can Lara do?" pitch that the marketing guys at Eidos seemed to plaster all over the gaming sites touted this very feature. How you could have got this wrong completely baffled me.

"Cons: ...generally slow pace..."

Isn't this the whole point? Tomb Raider has always been an exploration puzzler with gun play inserted to break up the exploration/puzzle solving and not the other way around like Uncharted. That formula tends to lend itself to a slower pace and is the very thing that many fans of the series come back for (the constant action was one of the most complained about aspect of Legend by many long time TR fans).

And the constant comparisons with Uncharted has become a major pet peeve of mine. One's a shooter while the other's an exploration game. They're two different kinds of game meant to be played in two different ways that happen to share some similarities. It's like comparing Half Life and Portal simply because they're both first-person games and take place in similar settings. The comparisons are flawed, so any shortcomings that may be viewed by the comparison does both games a disservice.

Other than these, you're absolutely right. This game could have used some more polish and the devs need to take a hard look at the future of the franchise and whether they can bring it to the next level and not just provide minor improvements that impress no one.

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deadmanwalking

Dated as it may be, I really like this game, I only play about 90 minutes of it but I have always liked Tomb Raider games.......I don't know, the controls fell a bit wonkier than Legend and Anniversary, but you get used to it fast. As far as the pacing is concerned, your spot on. I find it really hard to believe that they wouldn't take a que from Uncharted and pick up the action a bit. It really makes me think that a lot of devs stopped gaming themselves years ago, I mean programing and creating a new game consumes your life for a couple of years and any waking free second you might have you probably want to get away from the monitor, but sh*t man, at least play the big ones.

If Lara is going to survive past this game into the future, they need to bring in the fresh blood in the dev department, ... 3 games in a row that are all very similar is pushing it, and even though I like it, people with a short attention span will not.....Come on guys, just reboot the series and bring Lara into the next gen. for real next time......many of us will buy the game either way, but how about you give us die hard fans something new to chew on, we deserve something for out loyalty.
I really hope the next Splinter Cell goes in a new direction too, I hate when each new game just seems like a remake of the last... Let's here it for the New Idea Club.

masterchief247

The big problems that stand out are the camera, which was supposed to have been resolved in Legend. What happened? This reminds me of Angel of Darkness as far as the camera problems. The other issues are the treasures are VERY hard to find. They blend in too much. Finally, there is awful clipping and colision problems. I saw this in the demo, and hoped it would have been resolved before release, but sadly, it was not.

indyman777

Dang CX man, It's like your reading my mind! Why would they compare it to uncharted? Just like you said different kind of game. And the fact that they didn't know you could fire a gun while hanging tells me that the person doing the writing didn't actually play the game. My point is if you don't like this kind of game DON'T review it0---please!!! It WILL come out! You can't hide a attitude just because your writing. Obviously if you don't want it to be a exploration game first but think that it should be a shooting game first tells me you shouldn't review it. Because you can't, and didn't give it justice. I want THIS game reviewed, not how you want this game to be another kind. It reminds me of action RPG reviewers wanting a turn based RPG to have more action! Come again? Hello, turn based rpg lovers are not wanting a action rpg, just because the reviewer thinks it will be better as one. Same with this game take your one track shooter mind elsewhere. Don't get me wrong I love Gears of war 2, and think it as of now should be in the running for game of the year. But every game is not trying to be a shoot-A-thon. Ingats

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mjd226

I liked the Tomb Raider Series on the Playstation - My Favorites being 1 and 2. This most definitely is a game I will try before I buy.

I agree - Someone didn't do their homework and should have tested the game before saying it can't do something, when it can - Like shooting a gun while hanging from a ledge.

sammykewlguy

It's actually quite cool. It's pretty standard for the first level (which isn't bad) but it eventually becomes really, really cool! The story is awesome and it's just a lot of fun. I had a great time, despite it's flaws. If you enjoyed the rest, you'd like it.

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