Feels like Tomb Raider again.
The game starts off with the explosion of Lara's home. You need to get yourself out of the burning mansion before it all comes down on top of you. The thing is, you set the fire and now your own friends can't trust you. You then jump back a few days before the explosion and eventually you find out why you blew your home up and why your friends do not trust you. The game finally finds its roots with Underworld and below are some examples why.
Graphics = 9.5/10
This is easily the best looking Tomb Raider game to date. The environments are absolutely beautiful to look at and extremely detailed. The rain drops on the ground to the water trickling down the sides of the walls. Nothing looks rushed and you get all of this with a solid frame rate.
Sound = 9/10
As always you get the classic Tomb Raider soundtrack with new musical scores. Find a treasure or an item and hear that old friendly tune from Tomb Raider 1. Sound effects echo throughout the enclosed cavern or a bland muffled gun shot under water. All the effects nicely represent their true life sounds. And as always the character scripts and voiceovers are perfect.
Gameplay = 8.75/10
The game feels nearly identical to Legend. Same basic controls as before. I noticed some things to be a bit different like when aiming your gun you press L2 but you do not see a crosshair. Its like you have to wait for an auto lock to hit your target. You also need to fire by pressing R2 which takes some getting used to. Most of us are used to L1 and R2.
Like Legend you can climb up poles and leap from one to another and just like before its a real pain to aim yourself to jump to the next pole. Many times you will jump right past it and fall to your death.
A new feature is wall scalling and the ability to jump forward on the wall and quickly jump off of it in the opposite direction to maybe grab a ledge or a switch.
Overall = 9/10
The game feels more at its roots in terms of there actually being areas like tombs or caverns to explore for artifacts and you are not being attacked by 50 enemies. These places have been hidden for a long time and you really get that feeling you are in a sacred place and still something could be waiting behind a door that you opened 1000 years later. Tomb Raider: Underworld in my opinion was well worth the wait and definately gets my stamp of approval.
PS3 users need to be aware that their version of the game does not have trophies. Its a damn shame too.