Tomb Raider: Underworld

Tomb Raider: Underworld
From Eidos Interactive

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Product Details

* Amazon Sales Rank: #376 in Video Games
* Brand: Eidos
* Model: 1000044581
* Released on: 2008-11-18
* ESRB Rating: Teen
* Platform: PLAYSTATION 3
* Dimensions: .20 pounds

Features

* Tomb Raider: Underworld for Nintendo PlayStation 3 by Eidos resumes where Tomb Raider: Legend left off and introduces a new, interactive playing environment
* Lara Croft explores a wide array places, such as the Arctic, Mexico, and beneath the Mediterranean Sea
* Environment is much more realistic and interactive -- footprints will be left in mud, for example, but only until it rains and then they will wash away
* Melee combat system that requires players to strategically strike with offensive, defensive, and evasive maneuvers
* Improved AI allows enemies and animals to make decisions based on surroundings, employ ambush and squad tactics, and even retreat if deemed necessary

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Product Description
Tomb Raider: Underworld for PlayStation 3 by Eidos resumes where Tomb Raider: Legend left off. This installment introduces a new, interactive playing environment that gives players a chance to immerse themselves more fully into the game. Players once again take the role of Lara Croft as she explores such wide-ranging places as the Arctic, Mexico, and beneath the Mediterranean Sea.

Interactive Worlds Introduces Realistic gameplay
Unlike the previous games in the series, Lara's environment is now much more realistic and interactive. Footprints will be left in mud, for example, but only until it rains and then they will wash away.

Lara's shirt will also get wet, and she's more likely to lose her grip if she is standing on a slippery, rain-soaked ledge. When the sun comes out, her shirt will dry and the slippery surfaces regain their friction.

In Underworld, Lara also has a lot more flexibility in how she makes her way through a level, as there is often more than one way to get from here to there. She can now climb walls with texture and rocky outcroppings to reach areas she previously wouldn't have been able to access.

All of these additions have been made to give the game a non-linear, open feel. Players can interactive with the environment by doing things they find to be intuitive, and the game will respond in an appropriate way. When Lara interacts with trees, for example, she will push aside leaves using either one or two hands depending on whether or not she's holding something. These details give a lifelike, immersive sensation to the game.

New Melee Combat System
Underworld introduces a new melee combat system that requires players to strategically strike with offensive, defensive, and evasive maneuvers. Lara can now attack enemies with different punches, kicks, knees, and other acrobatic onslaughts.

Items lying on the ground, such as poles that were previously walked on, can be picked up and swung at enemies. Players can also perform a greater variety of actions with weapons; for example, Lara can now hold onto a ledge with one hand and fire a gun with the other.

Realistic Enemy and Animal AI
The AI in Tomb Raider: Underworld has also taken a big step forward--both enemies and animals now make independent decisions based on their surroundings, employ ambush and squad tactics when fighting, and will retreat if deemed necessary.

With updated graphics and a more immersive and realistic gameplay, Tomb Raider: Underworld will have both fans and newcomers excited about the newest installment in this popular video game-pinup franchise.

Customer Reviews

Tomb Raider Underworld
I first booted up a Tomb Raider game when the U.K's Official Sega Saturn Magazine gave away a free demo copy of the original game's City of Vilcabamba level, waaaaay back when in 1994/5. It's thirteen years later and through good (TR: Anniversary, TR The Last Revelation) and bad (TR: Angel of Darkness, TR: Chronicles) I've managed to get my hands on pretty much every TR game since the original. I love them, and I love Lara.

TR: Underworld isn't the best game of the series to date (IMO that crown still belongs to Anniversary), but it's certainly in the top four. Across all boards it excels at what makes the adventures of Lara Croft so damn playable: the level design is exquisite, the story's gripping and the graphics are point-at-the-screen great.

It has some faults, though, and those come in the form of mostly unnecessary gameplay glitches, and a lack of cutscenes to forward the plot.

GRAPHICS: 4/5

TR: Underworld is the game that made me buy a PS3, and, running this game at 1080p through an HDMI cable is a revelation: TR: Underworld looks almost real. Sunlight catches exquisitely bump-mapped rocky outcrops, palm fronds ripple and shake as Lara passes through them, minor henchmen enemies look as good as the main characters, and the surface of water ripples and reacts beautifully to disruptions.

Lara herself is absolutely beautiful (from a technical point of view) and the secondary characters (with the exception of Amanda, who still looks a bit like a PS2 Goth) are every bit as detailed and lovingly textured. Animation, for the most part, is gorgeous.

There are some downers: the design of some of the more prolific enemies in the latter part of the game is repetitive and dull, and the overall tone of the game is dark and, in many places, dreary. Uncharted: Drake's Fortune is a far prettier game - TR: Underworld is as good, graphically speaking - but this reviewer would have preferred more colours than grey, blue and green.

That being said, I caught myself on several occasions saying "Wooooow", genuinely surprised at the quality and the design of the inhabitants and locations of TR: Underworld - this is an extremely beautiful game.

SOUND: 2/5

It's a pity that the developers didn't come up with next-gen sound to go with Lara's first next-gen outing. TR: Underworld sounds like a PS2 game. This is not a major issue, mind you, and the voice acting is very, very good indeed, but the music and sound effects do nothing new and are not memorable. Still, one does not play Tomb Raider for the sound, and what's there does a perfectly adequate job.

PLAYABILITY: 4/5

TR: Underworld does indeed return to Lara's roots of enormous game arenas, almost no hints for cryptic puzzles, and that favoured enter-area-find-relic-use-as-key/weapon-leave-area gameplay that we've loved for over a decade.

With few changes to how Ms Croft moves and interacts with her environment (bar the inclusion of a self-renewing, finite number of sticky grenades in addition to your primary pistols, extremely useful in later levels when baddies come thick and fast), "If it ain't broke don't fix it" works here: for the most part, TR: Underworld controls like a dream.

The downsides come in the shape of lousy enemy AI (you could kill most of 'em with a dirty look), and pointless, tacked-on-as-an-afterthought "hand to hand" combat moves for Lara (use guns!! For heaven's sake, use your guns!!). Mind you, you do have the option to set enemy health to Low - I'd recommend this - and concentrate solely on adventuring, using brief killing sprees as short interludes to the game's main purpose.

As always, the camera causes some issues here and there. And, disappointingly, Lara sometimes gets "stuck" in walls, corners or bits of debris. Although you can get out of all of this with a few creative jiggles of the analog stick and the occasional tap of the circle button, the game's programming does feel decidedly unfinished because of it.

LASTIBILITY: 3/5

As with any TR game, TR: Underworld is something you'll complete, go away from, come back to again, replay, and so on and so forth. I've had one play through and can't see myself going back to it again very soon, but the unlockable rewards and treasure system will see to it that I will. First-time play on a Normal difficulty level totals around ten to twelve hours (without a walkthrough or a cheat guide), subsequent plays will be less.

It doesn't have a Final Fantasy lifespan, and is essentially a shorter game than Anniversary (although this could simply be a lack of cutscenes to forward the plot, making the game "feel" shorter than it is), with some "filler" levels taking less than three minutes to complete first-try.

Still, while you're in the middle of it, TR: Underworld is a great game, a satisfying outing for Lara on PS3, and overall, a worthy addition to anyone's library of adventure games. Overall, I'm giving it a 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Uncharted: Drake's Fortune is slightly better in terms of control and aesthetics (although this is simply my personal preference, not a universally applicable criticism), but it is hard to resist the seductive silence and head-scratching solitude of TR:Underworld.

Recommended.

Lara!
I am a huge fan of the Tomb Raider games, and was excited to learn about a new game.

Graphics - 5/5
Beautiful! It looks realistic. Everything looks great and I loved the details and background. I felt like I was really there.

Sound - 4/5
Decent. Not very memorable, but I liked it. The sound effects were pretty good. The soundtrack was okay, but I used it more as a warning (when the music got louder, an attack would usually follow, and when all my enemies were dead, it would fade again.)

Controls - 5/5
They were pretty good. Lara had more moves, which was fun, although it was annoying when she would sometimes ignore the button I pressed. The camera did tend to get jerked a bit, but other than that, pretty good.

Scariness - 4/5
I can recall times when something would jump out of me and I would scream like crazy, but this only happened a couple times.

Plot - 4/5
The plot continued the "Mommy/Daddy" storyline. It was finally ended (finally!) in this game. I was getting a bit irritated. If another game is put out, there had better be a new storyline. It would be nice if Lara would go after something because she wanted it, not because "I want to know the truth about Mommy."

Fun stuff - 2/5
I love unlocking extra stuff in games through extra points (new outfits, bonus areas, new weapons, cheats) and this area was a disappointment. You pick up treasures and get to unlock concept art, which is not as exciting. I was disappointed.

Overall, I loved the game and would love another. Just one note: please, please, please more motorbike time. I loved having solid levels just riding around my motorcycle in Legend, and I missed it here.

Lots of problems, but still fun!
This is a fun game, and is probably a "must-buy" for those who are long-time fans of the series. For myself however, I'm more a fan of the genre, and not necessarily the series itself, so here's my review of this game.

Let me preface my comments by saying that I have been looking forward to getting this title after having beaten Uncharted many, many times. I had really hoped that this game would be equal to, or better than, Uncharted, so some of my review invariably makes direct comparison between the two, as they are very similar and of the same genre.

Here's a summary overview:

Visuals: The graphics are average on this game; below average for the PS3. In all honesty they are sort of Xbox 360'ish, with very little definition or detail. With that said, the graphics are the best yet in the Tomb Raider series and fans of the series will probably be happy with them, but they are not up to par with a majority of titles being released on the PS3.

Character: Again, Lara looks like she should be on Xbox 360 rather than PS3. She has no facial features, no "character" in her face or body, eyes do not blink, and hair does not flow normally. The way she reacts to the environment is somewhat "last-generation".

The physics just are not there. You'll find yourself walking through plants, and they don't move, like they aren't even there. You'll walk through water and barely make a splash, or ripples for that matter, you will not be wet, nor will you air-dry. You'll walk through walls and get stuck on corners.

When you fall and finally hit the bottom, you'll bounce around like a basketball, or as some have stated a "rag-doll". It just appears that the developers didn't spend very much time on character development, and interaction with the environment.

Sound: The sound is quite good, one of my favorite parts of the game. I'm not really sure what kind of sound it is, since there is nothing on the cover about Dolby Digital or other. My surround system doesn't report Dolby Digital though. I have read online reviews that just say, "surround sound", so I'm guessing it's probably Dolby Pro-logic or Pro-logic II. The soundtrack is very fitting to the environment.

Controls: It can be quite difficult to control Lara, especially when you get into corners. The control scheme is good, but the implementation is not so good. I'm frequently frustrated just trying to get to one spot or another. However, the controls are quite good when navigating puzzles, I rarely fall from a ledge due to controller error.

Adventure: Probably the best part of the game is the large, and somewhat complex puzzles. You'll have to navigate large areas on varying types of ledges, beams, etc... These can be quite challenging and some seem impossible at first. Lara has great moves when navigating the various types of obstacles. Areas are big and mostly non-linear. However there are invisible walls that stop you from going in one direction or another.

Action: The gunplay gets considerable focus on this title - most likely due to the comparison with Uncharted's heavy-duty gunplay, but, still the gun action in this title is not very challenging. The AI is not so intelligent, enemies will stand there and let you shoot them, and they will rarely attempt to take cover. Lara has some cool moves though, like shooting while hanging from a ledge. It's not all bad, but it could have been significantly more challenging.

Overall: I wouldn't recommend paying full price for it at this point in time, unless you are a big fan of the series and must have it immediately (which you probably already do). It's definitely fun to play, but if you haven't played Uncharted yet, get it first, It's a much better title than this offering.

You might also try this game on another console; it's out for almost all of them now, with exception of PS2. The PS2 version will be out at the end of January and it is going to be much less expensive on that platform.

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