As soon as your feet are on solid ground again, the game will usually give you a checkpoint, meaning that if you die, you'll rarely have to repeat anything more than about two minutes of gameplay. This isn't a big hindrance, though, as checkpoints pop up after virtually every platforming section. You may attempt to take a route to move forward only to find that that ledge wasn't meant to be grabbed, and Lara will fall to her demise. The only downside to the platforming is that on occasion, you'll see things that look very similar to what you've done with Lara on previous levels. The learning curve of what Lara can and can't do with the environment before her is virtually painless, and in no time, you'll be climbing on things that no sane human being would ever set foot on.
With a heavy emphasis on crazy platforming and death-defying feats, the majority of your time will be spent doing some truly great platforming. While the game may not be the best-looking game in the world, the level design is usually brilliant. That's a little harsh, however, as some of the enemy design that shows up later in the game really looks quite nice. While there are some landscapes where the title looks absolutely stunning (several of the ruins in the Mexico level come to mind), most of the game looks serviceable and mediocre, with a nice helping of plastic-looking characters on the side. This is very disappointing considering that the game usually doesn't look that impressive. In a few instances, the game even starts chugging at a frame rate in the single digits. While we finally get a Tomb Raider game that looks like it was designed with the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in mind ( Legend and Anniversary were designed with the PlayStation 2 in mind), it's a game that sometimes has some frame rate issues, with occasional slowdown. That's not to say that Tomb Raider Underworld is a very good-looking game though. These levels often last more than an hour and cover a lot of ground, so the fact that there's hardly any loading is a very nice touch. The impressive part here is that the only noticeable load time occurs when you start the level.
With Underworld, you'll be covering several countries ranging from Mexico to the Arctic.
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While the tale itself is fairly predictable, its delivery and the twists along the way make for an interesting story.Īs with any treasure hunter game or movie these days, you'll find yourself traveling all over the world to uncover the ultimate treasure. While Legend focused on the myth behind the Excalibur sword and Anniversary focused on Atlantis, Underworld focuses on Norse mythology and Thor. Once you have a solid grasp of what's going on in the world of Lara Croft, the story tells your usual treasure hunter tale of weapons of the ancient world and the doom of man. You can view a short movie via the main menu, and it tries to fill you in on what you missed if you didn't play either of the games, but it doesn't do a particularly good job. The story picks up right where Legend's leaves off and manages to use many story elements from Anniversary as well. Crystal Dynamics has opted to stick with what worked well in the previous two entries, so what is presented here in Underworld is a pretty easy, streamlined platformer that manages to be a lot of fun the first time through.Ī word of warning: If you haven't played both of the previous two Crystal Dynamics Tomb Raider games, Tomb Raider Legend and Tomb Raider Anniversary, you're going to be completely and utterly lost when you start Tomb Raider Underworld.
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Tomb Raider Underworld is Crystal Dynamics' third Tomb Raider offering since Eidos had them reboot the series back in 2006.
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