The gameplay in Tomb Raider: Underworld tries hard to please fans of different game genres. The little visuals details in the game also add to the joy of exploration: Lara pushes plants out of the way of her face as she passes through jungle areas, her body can become wet or muddy and gradually dry off or have the dirt be washed away, and the particle effects done with water, fire, and lighting make a good deal of gameplay enjoyable just to watch. A good deal of the areas begin by presenting the player with an enormous wide open space and subtly steer the player towards the desired direction, all while allowing the player to enjoy how expansive the game world appears to be. In addition to the extent to which Lara herself has been obviously crafted to appeal to male gamers, the environments are gorgeously rendered: the player is treated to huge open vistas in the jungle with temples, towers, and statues on all sides of them, along with massive underwater environments that the player gets to enjoy approaching from a distance and observing all the details. The most striking attraction in Tomb Raider: Underworld is the eye candy. Cut scenes where Lara voices her thoughts or interacts with other characters move the story forward, but ultimately the characters are all exaggerated enough and the story campy enough to where it is difficult to take seriously, the player is mostly just along for the ride and seeing what will happen next rather than nervously anticipating a resolution to the plot arcs. The story is told with an initial gameplay segment set in the burning Croft manor, then flashes back to reveal how events have progressed to that point. She decides to retrace her father's tracks and untangle the myths concerning the underworld that will allow her to reach her mother and discover what has happened to her, all the while fighting off Amanda and her allies who are also searching for the underworld to serve their own evil plans. Laura soon discovers that her father had spent the end of his life searching for her mother as well. The plot in Tomb Raider: Underworld picks up immediately from the previous game, Tomb Raider: Legend, where Lara had learned from her rival and former college friend Amanda Evert that Lara's mother is still alive in Avalon. The story is clearly a take on the classic Indiana Jones formula, playing to the male fantasy of women rather than men: a buxom heroine rather than a macho male hero serves as the protagonist.
Tomb raider underworld pc reviews series#
The series has gone through 2 developers and a number of minor canonical revisions, but the theme of the series has ultimately remained the same: a sexy brunette with exaggerated physical dimensions must travel the world to exotic locales to retrieve mystical artifacts and keep them out of the hands of mischievous villains. The odds are good that even if you have not played any of the games you are likely to have heard about the main character Lara Croft through endless analysis and arguments in the mainstream media over the gaming industry's portrayal of women. But magnificently, this time out our heroine carries a tranquillizer gun – you can finish the game without ever becoming the target of Greenpeace’s ire.The Tomb Raider franchise has existed for 13 years now, with 8 video games in the main series and 2 feature films based on the license. Of course Lara meets tigers, pumas, and other endangered creatures, and of course she can shoot them dead. And thanks to the wonderful design, swimming among sunken ruins is gasp-inducing, with schools of fish zipping about, and even the odd shark attack.
Oxygen conservation is never even a factor with scuba gear on hand for any wet bits (it does mean you can’t drown her, however). This being a Tomb Raider game it’s still the weakest part, but you’re never fighting horrible controls while Lara runs out of air for the 15th time. The rope can even be wrapped around objects and then pulled on to drag them over or turn them from a distance.Įven the swimming isn’t hateful.
When you’re attempting to cross from one end of an arena to the other, and you realise you could get from this ledge to that grip by rappelling down, and then running along and dropping – it all feels like your use of the grappling hook, rather than their prescribed route. Previously it was a rather contrived device: this time it’s much more malleable. Lara’s grappling hook is back, but here again Crystal Dynamics have made a significant step forward.
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