Lara Croft is beginning to feel as ancient as the relics she hunts for.
Underworld takes place after the events of Tomb Raider: Legend. The game itself starts off with Lara's manor ablaze and after you run through a quick tutorial of the game, you're thrown back a week in time. Lara's now in the Mediterranean Sea going off her father's research. She believes that somewhere hidden under the sea is a clue that'll lead her to the mythical land of Avalon. During her search, she'll run into previous enemies as she hunts down Thor's hammer Mjolnir. Unfortunately, the story is poorly written and you'll be hard pressed to care enough about any particular scene to remember.
Swimming deep beneath the surface of the Mediterranean may not have been a good way to start the game off. For gamers who easily get lost and disorientated, they'll be swimming aimlessly trying to figure out where to go next. Their situation isn't alleviated much by the confusing sonar map. Once you find your way inside your first set of ruins, the game quickly takes shape. The level design is as inventive as any Tomb Raider game before it, and its consistent across the game's many locales. Thailand, Mexico, Jan Mayen Island and the Arctic Sea all offer up some wonderful places to explore.
Ironically, the problem lies... in actually exploring. Crystal Dynamics still have yet to learn how to make Lara Croft control as well she should. It's far too easy to jump in entirely the wrong direction, Lara's screams causing you to grimace as she falls to her death. Over and over again. Her movements can be inexplicably interrupted, causing you to let go of everything you're touching on the controller so that you can try to coax her in the right direction again. Shoddy collision detection and glitches make her fall through floors and walls. These problems are also horrifically magnified thanks to a teeth-gratingly obnoxious camera.
Looking around for climbable routes on wall faces also proves to be problematic. Sometimes, your approach is not very clear as grabbable objects blend in with the environments. Again, the camera hinders you more than it helps you, because it obstructs your ability to observe. You may have to experiment and take a leap of faith, letting out a deep sigh as she makes it or a rumbling groan if she doesn't. If you're stuck, Lara's PDA has a field assistant that gives you a vague clue as to what to do next, but usually it's so vague it's of no use at all. It's such a shame, because the level and puzzle designs deserved better direction.
When Lara Croft isn't hanging precariously from a crumbling ledge, wall kicking her way up narrow crevices, or running along walls dangling from her new grappling line, she's firing John Woo style at tigers, panthers, and giant spiders. The combat makes an attempt at being refreshing, as it has you slowing down time using Adrenaline Mode and performing incredibly hard to execute head shots, but the freshness wears off the moment you break the seal. The enemies - animal or human - are bullet sponges taking far too long to kill, meaning you'll grow sick of the same jumping and rolling around to dodge very quickly. To make the combat even more of a bore, the game throws so many checkpoints at you, there's hardly a reason to use a health kit at all. If you're low on health, die in the next battle and you'll restart at full. You also can select your weapon load out before you start each level, but it doesn't matter because you can change your secondary weapon at any time.
There's some treasure hunting to be had, but it doesn't offer up much spice to the game's variety. For every third identical urn you kick apart, you'll be given a diamond for your efforts, but it doesn't matter since you can't do anything at all with these treasures. It's a missed opportunity because the diamonds could be used to upgrade weapons, or instead of collecting the same ancient cup, the treasures could have been different relics offering up bits and pieces of areas' history.
Tomb Raider Underworld is easily the best looking Lara Croft game of the franchise. Although this 2008 game clearly shows its age, the attention to detail cannot be ignored. The game looks its best when its levels when taking in its landscape from afar. Textures aren't that impressive up close, but the excellent usage of lightning gives the game a realistic coat of paint. Jungles are rife with growth and dark caves invoke an intense sensation of claustrophobia. The game also has some beautiful surface water effects. Croft's animations aren't as graceful as they could be, however. She jerks around at times, clips through walls and looks stiff and unreal when she makes certain leaps while climbing.
Audibly, this is where the game really steps it up. Lara's guns are big, so of course they are noisy. They also give off their own distinct reports, and they echo in caverns and are muffled underwater. You can hear the growls of jungle cats many feet away as they warn you of their presence. The grinding of stone against stone demonstrates their weight. You're also granted little chimes whenever you reach a checkpoint or stumble across some treasure. The music is wonderful, composed beautifully and very befitting of a treasure hunting game. The voice acting is decent, but the bad dialogue really doesn't help the performers to win any awards. Lara, however, sounds as iconic as ever.
The best way to describe Tomb Raider Underworld is a painting. The beautiful locales are its canvas. The level designs are its high quality paints. It's developer is the painter simply unwilling to smooth out its rough brushstrokes. It's quiet disappointing, because you know they could do much better. Underworld still offers up a good time for Lara Croft enthusiasts, but those growing tired of the franchise may want to skip this and wait to see if the upcoming reboot provides any significant improvements to the formula. As for any gamer who plays games for the story, you'll definitely want to look elsewhere as Underworld is entirely forgettable.