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Lucien21 · 12-14-2008, 03:23 PM

Tomb Raider: Underworld

The 8th in the popular series and the 3rd made by Crystal Dynamics sees Lara hunt around the world for an entrance to Avalon to find her mother. Can she still cut the mustard against recent challenges from Uncharted?

It takes you to various mythical underworld locations collecting artifacts and clues to find Thor's Hammer. Mexico, Thailand, Artic and various underwater locations are all modelled in glorious Hi-res graphics. Although using the same boat location twice was a cop out.

Lara herself is a bit of a looker in those jungle pants in the rain, the water glistening of her ample..... eh suffice to say the graphics are pretty.

However the graphics, pretty as they are are hampered by the same old problems, weird clipping issues where you are stuck in the scenery, bloody annoying camera that doesn't really let you pan around to see where you are going next and invisible walls that make Lara do Marcel Marcaeu impersonations.

They have certainly improved her moves, with the superb animated main character, leaping, hanging, balancing, rapelling, chimney jumping, swinging, jumping and generally traversing the scenery like a gymnast. They have even given her some hand to hand combat moves (god know why as the combat sucks). Underworld excels in the platforming parts of the game, combat was functional, but annoying (certainly not as good as Drake's). The AI was dreadful with most foes just running straight at you.

Plot was ok, but nothing thrilling. It continued Lara's search for her mother (with a rather muted and odd results) and her nemesis Amanda and Natla. I don't think it stood up to the storytelling of Uncharted which had increadable chemisty between it's lead characters, Lara is more of a loner for the majority of the game.

So overall there were some nice ideas in the game (Sonar map was cool), the levels and platforming mechanics were great, combat was less so, and it seemed to round off the plot nicely.

A solid but not spectacular Tomb Raider game.

7/10

12-14-2008, 03:23 PM	#770
Lucien21 Psychonaut Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Edinburgh Posts: 5,114	Tomb Raider: Underworld The 8th in the popular series and the 3rd made by Crystal Dynamics sees Lara hunt around the world for an entrance to Avalon to find her mother. Can she still cut the mustard against recent challenges from Uncharted? It takes you to various mythical underworld locations collecting artifacts and clues to find Thor's Hammer. Mexico, Thailand, Artic and various underwater locations are all modelled in glorious Hi-res graphics. Although using the same boat location twice was a cop out. Lara herself is a bit of a looker in those jungle pants in the rain, the water glistening of her ample..... eh suffice to say the graphics are pretty. However the graphics, pretty as they are are hampered by the same old problems, weird clipping issues where you are stuck in the scenery, bloody annoying camera that doesn't really let you pan around to see where you are going next and invisible walls that make Lara do Marcel Marcaeu impersonations. They have certainly improved her moves, with the superb animated main character, leaping, hanging, balancing, rapelling, chimney jumping, swinging, jumping and generally traversing the scenery like a gymnast. They have even given her some hand to hand combat moves (god know why as the combat sucks). Underworld excels in the platforming parts of the game, combat was functional, but annoying (certainly not as good as Drake's). The AI was dreadful with most foes just running straight at you. Plot was ok, but nothing thrilling. It continued Lara's search for her mother (with a rather muted and odd results) and her nemesis Amanda and Natla. I don't think it stood up to the storytelling of Uncharted which had increadable chemisty between it's lead characters, Lara is more of a loner for the majority of the game. So overall there were some nice ideas in the game (Sonar map was cool), the levels and platforming mechanics were great, combat was less so, and it seemed to round off the plot nicely. A solid but not spectacular Tomb Raider game. 7/10 __________________ I'm not insane, my mother had me tested!