In this first part I am going to tell the story of Tomb Raider Underworld while giving my thoughts about the stand out moments and overall look of the game. The next part of my review will discuss the game play.
The story continues directly after the ending of Tomb Raider: Legend. Lara, off to find a way to get into Avalon, the resting place of King Arthur in order to seek the answers of her missing/dead Mother. The game open ups pretty differently than past Tomb Raiders. Croft manor is on fire and Lara must navigate a way through to find an exit. The first part actually serves as a quick tutorial, which was different, you also have no idea what the heck is going on so that made it more interesting. After the quick tutorial it flashes to one week earlier where Lara is out at the Mediterranean. Lara then finds an under water structure where she faces a giant kraken that needs to be killed in order to get into the next area. I was kind of disappointed in this section, mainly because in all the trailers and demos it showcases underwater combat against a few sharks, perhaps they just weren't in the PS2 version, still I was pretty bummed as there were only jellyfish floating around in this section. As the game progresses Lara comes across Thor's gauntlet. Upon going back to the surface Lara encounters Amanda Evrets(The baddy in Legend) ship, and inside she meets up with her first nemesis, Queen of Atlantis Jacqueline Natla. Natla then tells Lara that she needs Thor's hammer in order to enter the Norse underworld, Helheim, which is just another name for Avalon. I kind of don't like the fact that they used Natla in this game. She was after all the very first of Lara Croft's foes and supposedly Lara had killed her off in the original. But whatever, again this is a whole new developer, so thing's aren't going to follow as before. The next big section is Thailand. Thailand was probably the most beautiful of all the areas in Underworld, very green with lots of detailed plants and a few ferocious Tigers. Here, Lara comes across Bhogavati, which some sort of magical Hindu place (I'd love to elaborate, but I really don't know too much about it). After discovering the second of Thor's gauntlets. Lara is headed back to her own house where she then finds out her father had left a few clues and apparently underneath in a secret Chapel are the clues that lead to the location of Thor's Belt...What a bloomin' coincidence. This part reminded me a lot of the first Tomb Raider movie where Lara is led to find the Clock of Ages in a secret storage area in her home after having a dream involving her Father. It kind of irks me because Crystal Dynamics had changed Lara’s Fathers name from Lord Henshingly Croft to Lord Richard Croft, which was the name of Lara's father in the first Tomb Raider movie. They also made her home exactly as it was in the film, which was cool I must admit, since it's almost an exact 3D replica of the movie mansion. So while that did bother me, it wasn't really a surprise they used a few TR movie elements in this game. As a whole this was only part of what bothered veteran fans as they totally changed Lara's original biography and her entire relationship with her parents. Changes already began as early as the first Tomb Raider movie, and that’s when Core Design still had the rights! Damn...I said I wasn't going to go into the differences and continuities but I already did! ANYWAY hehe, after finding out the Location of Thor's Belt, Lara returns above the ground to her home and it's on fire! This is where the explanation of why it's on fire from earlier comes in. It's Chaos! Lara finds Winston and Zip, and Zip is trying to kill her! Only though, because a clone like Doppelganger created by Natla is the one responsible(of course, they don't know this...yet) after Zip and Winston make it out, Lara stays inside to watch surveillance video only to come in contact with the doppelganger herself. Unfortunately the doppelganger kills Alistair(One of Lara's assistants). Though Lara is upset over the death of Alistair as a women in desperate need of answers she continues onward, which causes some friction between her and Zip. We are now in Mexico, and it's rainy but beautiful, Crystal definitely did a good job at was put lots of focus on the graphics and detail in the locations of this game, and I'm only playing the PS2 version. I can't even imagine how much nicer the PS3 or 360 versions look. This was another section that had a few things cut out of it, supposedly there were going to be these giant Spiders, but nope, like two panthers and a few of the Mythical Thralls(Norse myth glowy like weird creatures). I actually really enjoyed the whole Mexico segment, the whole segment involved Lara's Motorcycle and you actually needed it to finish the levels and complete the puzzles. I really liked that idea it was a nice throwback to past Tomb Raiders where you needed a vehicle of some sort to get through a level or two. We finally find Thor's belt in the Mayan Underworld called Xibalba and we are now ready to go after the Legendary Hammer! The next of Lara's many destinations is Jan Mayan Island. The puzzle in this place was pretty good, it actually me stumped for a few...minutes lol, the majority of the level involves jumping from two swinging pendulums to get across to other rooms, this actually got me dizzy a few times! After the puzzle that encompassed the full level we finally retrieve...THOR'S HAMMAR! So, since we now have...Thor's Gauntlets, his belt and most importantly that blasted hammer we can now head to Arctic Sea to annihilate Natla for the second time! Oh...I totally jumped the gun...the reason we must kill her off is because she plans on using the Midgard Serpent in attempt to destroy the world...again. Cliché right? Ah well, Lara's gotta do what she’s gotta do. As we find the underwater sanctum Lara enters a large chamber with Natla blasting a few bolts at us while we must take down the Midgard Serpent whilst our once foe Amanda is helping us by killing off lots of ogre like thralls. The final part of the game is basically a giant puzzle that takes down a giant mechanism aka The MIDGARD SERPENT! Honestly I thought I was actually going to have a one on one battle against Natla, but after you take down the parts to machine its the end of the game. The final cut scenes roll where Lara throws the big shiny hammer into the breaking machine while it takes down Natla with it (insert big boom shiny things here) and Lara and Amanda finding their way back to the Himalayas where Lara had lost her mother. The final shot is Lara uttering "rest in peace mother" as the camera pans backward while an updated version of Lara Crofts theme plays in the background. *Roll Credits*
OKAY, now to talk about the actual game play of it all. Sorry, this post is totally going longer than I thought it would. In the first level again I was really upset about the sharks not being there, it was one of the highlights the makers of the game were talking about with underwater gunplay and all the fancy physics involved. Yet then again, this is PS2 version, so I'm pretty sure 360 and PS3 had some sharks! My initial thought was; "Oh well maybe the sharks will come later." They didn't. Now one thing that Crystal D nailed this time was how a Tomb Raider puzzle is supposed to work. They got the idea that a Tomb Raider puzzle isn't just a level with a bunch of quick little simple puzzles you solve in each room to get to the next room, a true Tomb Raider puzzle is one that encompasses the entire level. So it doesn't really feel as if you're solving random puzzles, you're solving it just by running around pulling levers and finding keys to get to the next level, rather than figuring out how to push a few blocks over a pressure pad in order to get to the next room, and while Underworld did have a few of those, it definitely wasn't as much as in Legend, because Legend was filled with only those kinds of puzzles. I think they figured this out when they redid the original Tomb Raider, because Anniversary was modeled almost exactly after the original Tomb Raider, so of course the puzzles are going to be done the same way. I must admit, I was stumped on a few of the puzzles in Underworld. Particularly the first one involving the Kraken, once in Mexico(which is a HUGE level) and the pendulum one in Jan Mayan Island. It definitely reminded me of the good ol' days of Tomb Raider where I would spend hours looking for a way to get to the next area and run around in circles forever, but I can't say these puzzles had me stuck for hours, but definitely way longer then the easy puzzles of TR:Legend. So as for the puzzle aspect of Tomb Raider: Underworld, Crystal Dynamics did a pretty good job this time around. Now, time to talk about the combat...Okay, I'm going to say this once; Tomb Raider was never about combat, it's always been more about exploration and puzzle solving, but man, Crystal Dynamics definitely took that a whole new level. I was so surprised at how little action there was in this game! There's literally none in the first few hours and when you finally get to Thailand you get to plink off a few Tigers and then 1 or 2 Panthers in Mexico and a few more Thralls in the rest of the game! Oh and there is quite a few men when you board Natlas boat but they were pretty simple to kill off anyway. Now this is just an estimation, but going back to the original Tomb Raiders, I'd say TR1-5 is about 60% exploration and puzzle solving and 40% is combat and boss battles. In Tomb Raider: Underworld it felt like 85% puzzle and exploration and about 15% combat. Lara Croft definitely did not use her guns much in this adventure. It also wasn't about how little action there was, but the combat that was there so simplistic. Pretty much you ran around and enemy and shot a few shots and that’s it, sure its more realistic, but it almost felt as if you didn't really do anything. The combat kept me wanting more and I kept not getting it. Now while the original Tomb Raiders for the PC and Playstation weren't combat based games, the combat that was there was pretty dang amazing. You actually needed a strategy in order to kill off enemies. Back then Lara Croft's acrobats were very useful, you could fight off over 5 or 6 baddies at once and do so while side flipping, back flipping and rolling around all over the place to dodge enemy attacks, not to mention the enemies back then were a lot harder to kill. The combat in Underworld reminds me a lot of Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness...pretty much in that game you could run around and fire your guns as fast you could to kill an enemy, but instead of doing that here, enemies died pretty quick with out the need to button smash the R1 button while Lara Crofts acrobatics moves were pretty pointless...pretty to look at...but not needed. It's kind of a bummer because I thought the combat in both Legend and Anniversary was pretty okay, and in Underworld it seems as though it's been dumbed down a bit. Another big surprise and a first in Tomb Raider history was that there were NO BOSS BATTLES. Like...none...at all! Shocking...Nearing the end I thought there would be at least the final showdown against Natla, nope, you just take down that big machine and the end. But about the combat overall, I will say this again, this is the PS2 version I am playing and I am pretty sure they cut a lot of the combat out. So this review is solely basing the game from the PS2 version, ya'll can go read reviews of the PS3 and 360 versions of the game. Anyhoo, moving on from the combat, another major issue I had with this game was the amount of bugs and glitches it actually had. It's pretty surprising considering this is Crystal’s third Tomb Raider and also the fact that both Legend and Anniversary had very few if any bugs or glitches. These weren't tiny glitches that you could just ignore either, these glitches would actually make you restart the game because it would freeze or Lara would get stuck somewhere. I kid you not, the first 5 minutes into the game I got stuck in a rock while trying to get a key of sorts in the Mederterranean Level. Other bugs I noticed were let's say Lara needed to jump to a ledge or pillar, sometimes she would be catch it a couple spaces away from where she needed to land thus causing her to appear as if she is floating in mid air. I can't say Underworld has as many glitches as Angel of Darkness did, but it is probably the more glitchy of all the Tomb Raiders. Still it's pretty bad considering how far along gaming has come. We are too far advanced to still see as many bugs crawling around in today’s games. The final problem I had with this game was...It's too short! That was actually the main issue with Legend and Anniversary, critics said they were great games, but way too short, and I definitely thought Underworld would be a little longer and it wasn't. Other than those 3 details, I must say I actually enjoyed playing Underworld more than Legend or Anniversary. In terms of exploration and puzzle solving Underworld definitely feels like a classic Tomb Raider adventure, I just wish the combat was a little better. Another positive for me was the storyline, while it does stray away from Classic Tomb Raider status on how it involves Lara's Parents and contradicts Lara Crofts original background, the story for Underworld is a nice follow up to Legend, even though I thought a few things were kind of a rip off heh. The script writers did a good job as well as the voice actors lending their voices to make the dialogue between characters seem believable. One of the things Tomb Raider always has to offer are memorable quotes. A few favorites from Underworld were when Lara and Zip are arguing and Lara says; "I need Thor's belt to find Thor's hammer, and I need that hammer to kill a god!" or when Lara Croft thinks she found her Mother again only to be deceived she says to herself "No, that's not my mother, my Mother died, my Mother is dead." and she’s forced to shoot her back. That scene really humanized Lara Croft and made her seem like a believable human being which was definitely a first and that scene was one of the more emotional scenes in the game and probably one of my favorites of all the Tomb Raiders. OH! I forgot to mention! The story for Underworld was actually nominated for a BAFTA award, so that pretty says more than I need to hehe. Another good point of Underworld is the music, my God it's beautiful, particularly the scores for Thailand and Mexico. I also LOVED the updated version of Lara Croft's theme song. It has come along ways since the simple electronic sound of 96's Tomb Raider. I also loved how they incorporated it into the final scene, it was very reminiscent of the last scene of Angel of Darkness(one of my favorite ending scenes). The theme song for Underworld has become one of my favorites, of course the theme for Tomb Raider III still remains my top favorite of Lara's theme songs but this version definitely comes close. The overall ambience of Underworld is great too, you can tell Crystal spend a lot of time composing the score for it and put detail into every location so they don't all sound similar, which was kind of an issue in past Tomb Raider games.
In the end, I think I pretty much summed all of Tomb Raider: Underworld. Pros: Good Puzzles and Exploration, Beautiful Graphics and details, Good Story and Voice Acting, wonderful music. Cons: Combat is meh, lots of glitches, no boss battles and still way too short. So while I think this game is half amazing and half crappy, I'm on the border of giving it a 2.5/5 but...the stronger points definitely over power the weaker points, so I've decided to give Tomb Raider: Underworld a solid 3/5. Not bad, not great, about the same as Legend and Anniversary, but slightly better. It definitely seems as though Crystal Dynamics are headed on the right track with Tomb Raider, and I'm hoping the next one will be even better. Sad to say, I don't think Tomb Raider: Underworld is worth the original 59.99 dollar retail price for the newer consoles, it's just too short for that amount of money. However, it was definitely worth the $19.99 I spent on it for the PS2 version. Whenever I get a PS3...If I ever get a PS3...I'm definitely going to play that version as well, I probably won't give a review as I did for this one, since I'm sure it's not that different. Anyhow, until the next Tomb Raider game, see ya then and thanks for reading.
-Jeremy :)
Rated T for Teen
Developed by: Crystal Dynamics
Produced by: Eidos Interative
SRP: $29.99 (but its only 19.99 now woohoo)
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