Wonderful and frustrating in equal measure. Not much new in improvements, poor camera once again but great level design.
• Lovely level design • Motion captured Lara Croft animations • Nice puzzles & platforming • Superb visuals & sound
The Bad
• Poor Camera • Lousy Combat • Forgettable story • Clumsy Controls • No big improvements
Tomb Raider Underworld takes Lara Croft on a journey continuing to find her mother and in search of Avalon, the mythical resting place of King Arthur hoping it will explain her mother's disappearance. In her quest this leads Lara to Norse mythology & pursuit of Thor's relics.
Plot
Underworld starts off literally with an explosive start and takes place midway in the game with the Croft Manor being blown up. After that we are taken back a few weeks to the beginning of the game in the Mediterranean Sea to put this puzzle back in place and piece everything together.
Whilst going underwater in the Mediterranean Sea, Lara discovers an ancient underworld temple from Norse mythology and recovers an artifact. In her search Lara comes against two old antagonists in friend turn foe Amanda Evert and villain Jacqueline Natla returning from previous games. Soon after it is revealed by Natla that Avalon and Helheim another Norse Underworld are the same and Lara will need Thor's Hammer to open it. This starts the quest for Thor's Hammer which Lara discovers Norse mythology found in different countries.
Neither the story nor the supporting characters are that strong or well told. What you need to only really know is you are in search of your mother and Thor's Hammer is needed the rest is completely forgettable.
Gameplay
Tomb Raider's strongest feature has always been puzzles & platforming and it is no different here. Underworld has clever albeit somewhat easy puzzles but seeing the whole set-piece of a level design come together following each puzzle solved and watching it unfold is very impressive. Once you complete a whole puzzle and see how the level design and puzzle are intricately blended together along with huge scale can put you in awe and marvel at the sight and truly appreciate what Crystal Dynamic's main focus has been.
The puzzles mainly consist of the same old figuring out how to reach a location and making a mechanism work but it is how you solve it & watch a huge level come together that impresses.
The platforming in Lara Croft can be wonderful and equally frustrating in equal measure.
Lara is able to climb on mostly everything that looks like Lara is capable of. The developers actually made this point while creating Underworld and developed with this as one of the main themes. What Could Lara Do?' - WCLD. Its aim was to let the player decide and think what Lara is possible of doing however in reality areas that are climbable are marked out & easy to spot out visually.
Whilst this works most of the time, there are moments such as when flat based wall stones that are placed at an easy height and easier than much harder structures which Lara should easily have no problem standing/climbing on, Lara actually fails to climb these areas which makes it inconsistent & disappointingly breaks the immersion and intentions of WCLD. Along with invisible walls, this also further restricts Lara to a linear path.
The free climbing is still very impressive and with fully motion-captured animations for the first time, Lara acrobatically moves and climbs realistically & naturally than ever, jumping, sliding, swinging on poles, climbing rocks, and balancing on beams. The free-climbing isn't for example as seamless as Assassins Creed where you can climb anywhere possible but its better than ever even if there are a lot of moments where you think Lara should be able to do that but can't.
Tomb Raider Underworld has two major pitfalls that return and have been an existing problem.
The camera is once again annoying. It is surprising with a long running franchise such as Tomb Raider that the camera one of the fundamentals for platforming genre still hasn't been fixed. You would think the expertise after so long in a genre that the camera would be the least of your worries. Instead the biggest setback is the shoddy camera that holds back the platforming. In every level there is bound to be a moment where the camera makes your life difficult than it should be and sadly the actual difficultly a lot of times comes from this area which is an artificial one.
The camera when climbing between walls in a tight spot can restrict your view, prevent you from knowing what is in your sights and also changes and moves around to unconventional angles.
Next the controls can at times be awkward. Along with the camera at times the controls can leave you mystified. There are a number of moments in the game where you are directing Lara across a level as normally as you would then another moment out of no change in how you are controlling Lara she will do something completely different and fly the wrong way and fall to her death. This can happen a couple of times which forces you to replay sections over again.
Lara also gets motorbike levels again but differently than before. You navigate around large levels and these levels add nice mix of variation and are actually pretty decent, the bike handles well I found these sections enjoyable.
Moving on the least important area of Tomb Raider is the combat which largely consists of jumping around and shooting at the same time to dodge attacks & bullets. The AI to put it simply is dreadful. The shooting has auto aim lock-on and with an adrenaline meter after going full can enable Lara to slow down time and perform head shots. In addition to her arsenal of weaponry Lara can also perform close combat melee attacks. Later in the game when Lara comes against mythical creatures called Thralls these can be used as finishing moves which are more satisfying.
Overall the combat is very weak and something you don't look forward to. It imitates a very poor third person shooter. Thankfully these pieces are short and few and what Lara Croft is not about. Only until the end stages does the combat feel a bit more satisfying only due to acquiring a special powerful weapon which makes you very strong. Whilst this makes the combat no challenge it doesn't really matter since it was poor to begin with and by being able to take on hordes of enemies with such force, the bad-ass Lara Croft feeling it gives you makes those moments worth it.
A strange decision design also has to be mentioned is that during the start of each level Lara can select a secondary weapon she wants to equip with her on her journey. However once you get in game you can change to any weapon at any time making the combat less intense and the design decision baffling.
This brings me to Lara's PDA which she now has more options. The PDA includes the area for weapon selection, journal entries unlocked through game progression. A sonar map that isn't that good & hardly ever useful but once or twice out of the whole game in times of need it can actually help you understand your bearings on a large scale level. The PDA is also the place to look for hints if you're stuck. Field Assistance has two types of hints offered. One gives a subtle hint while the second tells you what you actually have to do.
Developers Crystal Dynamic touted before release how this Tomb Raider would be non-linear. This actually is not the case and disappoints only because CD made a big deal about it. Underworld sure is the largest Tomb Raider game but in terms of linearity the game is definitely a linear one. There a couple of moments where the game alludes you to non-linearity by offering you multiple routes but at the end you need to go back to every place to complete every section. This actually leads to backtracking a number of times and the lack of focus or direction makes this a poor smokes & mirrors execution as demonstrated by the Southern Mexico level where you have to ride your motorbike to different areas which are up to you but ultimately you will have to turn around and go back the way you came and still complete all the mandatory puzzles & sections before you can progress.
Presentation
The presentation in Tomb Raider Underworld is very impressive the best looking yet. The locations & environments you visit are large, varied and look beautiful. At times it is a stunning sight where you can just stand around and admire some of the locations.
The game isn't technically that strong in graphics but visually and by design it is a good sight to look at. The most impressive thing graphically would have to be the lighting and how it casts on the environments. Underworld whilst has lush outdoor environments, it is set in mostly dark underworld areas as in the games name and this is where different light sources & Lara's flashlight can work its magic and add a nice level of atmosphere and immersion. It is the strongest point technically.
Visually it is very nice with beautifully crafted locations & large intricate level design blending together with the art style. The game takes you across different countries some like the lush jungles of Thailand, a stormy Southern Mexico jungle with lightnings and complete underwater levels like the Mediterranean and Arctic Sea and not forgetting the Croft Manor in England.
Lara Croft herself looks better than ever, she looks beautiful and her body is modeled perfectly in addition to fully motion captured animations making her look and move naturally than ever.
Lara now also gets dirty and wet when exploring jungles and going underwater. Lara can at times look a little plastic and bland when there is no lighting. She does look very impressive when she comes out wet and how it makes the skin look.
Furthermore as you progress through the game during every new level you are given a different new choice of outfit to choose what Lara wears and she looks great in all of them.
The environment textures are of decent high quality but not extreme but still very good visually. Shadows at times can still be jagged when cast on characters faces.
The game should run pretty easily. I ran the game on Windows 7 64-bit (no compatibility issues). A decent dual-core processor and a modest HD5750 mid-range graphics card at 1080p fully maxed out, full AA and AF with v-sync turned on, ran with no problems and worked completely smoothly. The 360 controller is also fully supported.
The voice acting of Lara Croft from Keeley Hawes has to mentioned for being top notch once again and performed extremely well.
The musical score played in the background during levels are also very nice and triggered when you reach and discover a new location/ruins. At times they really are excellent and epic. They reflect the theme of each location, its characteristics and the grand scale of locations.
Final thoughts.
Tomb Raider Underworld is the third Crystal Dynamic Tomb Raider game in as many years and its no surprise the little development time is the reason for the lack of big leaps of improvement and jump in quality that was expected.
There has been a short development time in between the last three TR games with each releasing the following year and it shows. When the game could have spent more time improving & refining a lot of core elements, adding a strong story, and also creating something major that truly put Lara Croft alongside the big games which it deserves but instead time is spent on creating stuff like small specific vegetation that Lara reacts once in a while. Whilst this maybe a nice touch the priorities are completely wrong. It is not as important as getting the camera right instead of spending time on less important aspects such as this. Impact on game nothing, total waste of time in the grand scheme of things when more basic important areas are overlooked.
Tomb Raider Underworld is still a fairly good game but one that should have been more.
Looking past the forgettable story, weak support characters and poor combat the main reason, the main setbacks that hold Underworld back is the shoddy camera that is inexcusable considering how long Tomb Raider has been going and the clumsy controls at times which directly hinder and hold back the platforming.
The game does superb visuals & level design along with puzzles whilst easy are intricately crafted together with the beautiful environments and locations. The platforming plays great except for the camera and controls at times but still along with puzzles it is its strongest feature and now with with fully motion captured animations.
The voice acting and musical score also receive deserved plus points for their excellent work.
Tomb Raider Underworld requires patience at times but rewards you with a great platforming experience and impressive level design from rewarding puzzles. Doesn't make huge improvement or refining from previous iterations but overall still an impressive showing with more of the same and the best Tomb Raider yet.
A generous 8/10.