f13.net forums - Tomb Raider: Underworld

I picked this up this weekend after reading a favorable article in the Guardian. I know, I know, who the hell reads the Guardian for game reviews, but the article hit on key points of interest to me, so I went for it.

The good:

Essentially the game's ethos has not changed. Primarily visio-spatial puzzles based on getting somewhere inaccessible via numerous acrobatics. Lara, hot as ever, this time created with motion capture of actual gymnasts, so the toon's movements feel very natural. The intro scenario that has Lara in a wetsuit provoked my SO to exclaim in horror,"No wonder boys love this game".

The storyline is a bit on the weak side, postulating a supernatural story arc that stretches the imagination to a breaking point; Norse runes found in Thailand. No, I don't think so, but in the end, if I want real archeology I'd read Encyclopedia Brittanica or some shit.

The graphics are stunning and game performance is snappy on a low entry Core 2 Duo with an 8800 GT with 3.2 gigs of ram.

The dubious:

The camera. Oh god, please, its been, what, 12 years now, and this is still a ginormous issue. The camera 'follows' you and rotates to supposedly accommodate your toon's position, but often locks you into angles where its impossible to see the place directly behind you're meant to reach. Furthermore, if you're meant to use the mechanic whereby you do a series of fast kick-off jumps between two pillars to scale them, the camera is entirely blinding and you're just acting on faith. Thankfully, the computer will often interpret your mad keyboard stabbings in a favorable way and when the camera reemerges from its spasms, you're securely hanging from god knows where, ostensibly having advanced the required 9 feet.

The combat. This is not an FPS. This is not much of anything, really. You get a reticule that auto-tracks your target, which is just as the other games in the series had it. Its clunky, spastic combat that leaves you with a vague feeling of gratitude that its over so you can get on with the game's real challenge, which is climbing on stuff. I thought it would be neat if by virtue of Lara's acrobatic skills I could get her onto a ledge that only animals with opposable thumbs would scale, but apparently the animals that pursue you are better at this than you are.

In essence, if you loved the first Tomb Raider game, this one's pretty much an enhanced version. I never played the other releases because they were disappointing -in the demo-, for various reasons but mostly the uninspired rehash of the original. This one is more uninspired rehash, but somehow it gets it right. Modern graphics and clever puzzles somehow have refreshed this game series' appeal for me.