	Tomb Raider: Underworld
	Developer: Crystal Dynamics Publisher: Eidos Release Date: Out Now Players: 1	Words By:
For a posh bird Lara Croft has certainly had a chequered past. She’s seen it all, from the highs of the early games to the low of Angel of Darkness, and has been perceived as everything from girl power icon ‘gamer’s darling’ to dreaded ‘oh no here comes another Tomb Raider game’ hate figure. Crystal Dynamics rebuilt the old girl’s reputation with the slick and polished ‘Legend’ a couple of years back didn’t they? So why would they fall into the same trap as Core Design did and release this game, a game that so clearly needed more development time and feedback from people who actually know what gamers want? What do I mean? Well let’s see; for a start this is the best looking Tomb Raider game ever. Never mind Tomb Raider, this is at times one of the prettiest games I’ve seen on PS3 or 360 – period. So why oh why would Eidos insist the game gets shoved onto the shelves when it has minor glitches and bugs galore? – some that are a hangover from the 2 year old Legend like; terrible clipping (Lara and other objects disappear into objects and can see through walls that should be solid), inconsistent controls and reactions (like how she handles grabbing some ledges and doesn’t others that look identical), rough collision detection that makes it look like she’s levitating above or sinking into surfaces, the utterly RUBBISH adrenaline headshot feature (Lara’s answer to Max Payne’s bullet time), and the same old worn out auto-aim shooting mechanic that nobody, yes NOBODY really likes. Oh dear, I’m starting to rant... And breathe.... Nobody understands deadlines and release schedules better than me, but for goodness’ sake, this is Lara we’re talking about, she is, like it or not, “gaming royalty” and needs to be treated as such. I reckon that just releasing a game during this incredibly busy holiday release period is tantamount to lunacy (I’ve never seen a release schedule like it), and although the game is in no way as bad as Angel of Darkness the fact that Underworld has arrived with so many flaws indicates that either Crystal Dynamics or Eidos just don’t care about their prized asset, or that the money men in the marketing department have the final say on everything. The shame of it is that the good bits are very, very good. Lara looks amazing, the updated game engine looks great and with its detailed, almost tactile textures, organic-looking vegetation, lovely water, spectacular settings and complex ancient mechanisms Underworld supplies some genuine “wow” moments. Some of these ‘moments’ almost recreate the feeling you got when you wandered out onto the Sphinx’s head in Tomb Raider 1. The levels are cleverly designed, even to the point that I thought that some puzzles might be too tough for ‘new’ Raiders, but you can get in-game help (‘field information’ via Lara’s backpack), but better that than the virtually self-solving idiot-proof ones that Legend, and more recently Raider-wannabe Drake’s Fortune supplied. Anyone who thinks a Tomb Raider game should be an easy walkthrough should go play something else, and it’s good that the game sometimes makes you think about its puzzles for a while before you can progress. Lara has a vehicle to ride on again (an ATV motorcycle) – and no, don’t groan, it’s actually not bad this time, and feels like it was designed into the levels rather than had special levels designed around it, and is all the better for that fact. Veterans of the series will know that the vehicle usage in Tomb Raider not being up for criticism has to be a good thing. Now, because although I don’t think Underworld is in any way a bad game, but because I hoped for and expected, I’m going to write a list of what I think Tomb Raider fans want; We want: A game that’s been thoroughly tested and retested by a QA team that knows what they’re doing and aren’t afraid to point out the problems to the developers. A developer that isn’t afraid to say “sorry we’ll have to delay it, it isn’t ready”. Big levels with devious puzzles and areas off the beaten track to explore - I long for the bits in the older Tomb Raider games that’d see me take an hour to try and clamber up somewhere just to find out that there was nothing there anyway! – at least the game engine would let you do that, the recent games have so many invisible walls and barriers that exploration is kept to the bare minimum, and the number of secrets on each level (one has 50!) means that most are simply hidden in the clay pots that occupy every single level – wow what a clever secret, what a feeling of achievement when you find it! And finally; a decent shooting mechanic. Lara’s auto lock-on may have appealed to some people when it first appeared and might still to some hopeless, aiming-challenged idiots, but I want Lara to have sections in her game where it turns into a good, exciting cover shooter in the same vein as Recon, Gears of War or even Drake’s Fortune. All this running/hopping around and strafe/shooting tigers is so darned old now it stinks! Underworld even sees you jumping on some enemies to finish them! – do Crystal Dynamics want to do a Mario game next? Do they really think that having to shoot even the dumbest, most basic of henchmen-type enemies 15 times to kill them is fun or exciting gameplay? The “adrenaline headshot” move that they’ve fiddled with unsuccessfully for a couple years is still pretty hopeless and still manages to feel half-arsed and tacked on, and although the slo-mo “situational adrenaline” sections are better all we want are shoot outs as good as in the movies, or even in some of the cut scenes. The half-arsed feeling that parts of the game give you even extends to Lara’s weapons and how she uses them, including the dubious inclusion of a tranquilizer dart gun. “Oooh what a cool idea” I thought, I immediately imagined there’d be an achievement or trophy for getting through a level (or the entire game) without killing a wild animal. Nope – so why put the thing in the game? And why oh why after all these years has Lara suddenly become a “lefty”? Yep, now for no apparent reason and with no explanation she holds a two-handed weapon left handed – why eh, WHY? And her “grapple”. It’s nice that they’ve polished a few of the rough edges off the wall running mechanic, and that you can now use the grapple to abseil down from some high ledges. But why in the name of Thor can’t we have a grappling hook that’ll attach to any sticky-outy object or ledge or beam or tree branch? Why do we have to grapple exactly where the level designer tells us we can, and even makes the grapple rings nice and shiny and stand out like a sore, yet golden shiny thumb? You need to give the gamer some credit, and some freedom to make their own mistakes. I also feel I must mention Lara’s movement, the range of which is more impressive than ever. I love her sprint animation, it really looks like she’s running fast. But in many movements she lacks any grace whatsoever, and while her animation is smooth the actual movement is sudden, too fast to be human - insectlike in fact, to the point where you might if Crystal Dynamics consulted Treyarch and used some moves from the Spider-Man animation library? Lara should be graceful – quick at times certainly, but always graceful, and in Underworld she’s seldom that. Okay, rants and lists of demands done. PS3 owners may have the Tomb Raider-like Drake’s Fortune, but for Xbox 360 owners there really is no substitute for a bit of Lara. All you need to know is that Underworld is a pretty good Tomb Raider outing, free of the previously ubiquitous, annoyingly overlong and often daft boss battles. It’s just not as polished or as evolved as it should be, or as exciting as it could have been due to some outdated and simplistic gameplay.

Best Bits
- The best looking TR ever
- Larger range of movement than ever before
- The motorbike level didn’t make me laugh or cry
- The stupid boss battles are gone – hurrah!

Worst Bits
- Same old shooting mechanic
- Same old glitches
- Spidery movement


by: Diddly