

The environments, meanwhile, can be dazzling. This isn’t photorealism in the Crysis style, but it is a thoroughly convincing fantasy.
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This is also reflected in small, surface details, like the way Lara’s clothes and skin get covered with grime as she adventures in dirty or muddy places, or get wet when there’s rain or water involved. It’s easy to believe that the team motion-captured an Olympic gymnast for Lara’s movements every motion looks impressively natural and the animation seems to crib from Naughty Dog’s Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune in that her interaction with the environment, down to little trips and stumbles, seems more real. Where there has been effort to make Lara more lifelike, it’s all in the details and animation. Crystal Dynamics seems to have abandoned earlier efforts to make Lara look more realistic and gone instead for a style that brings the unfeasibly breasted model of old up to date. Visually, Underworld is a confident step on from Legend and Anniversary. The game still has its peaks and valleys in the hours that follow, but give it time and this is another fine adventure for our heroine. Subsequent levels are among the biggest, best and most ambitious in the series and that old Tomb Raider feeling is back in spades. Then the action moves to Thailand and things perk up considerably. This hideous thought springs up: they brought Lara back, only to blow it all now. The levels that come after – particularly a combat heavy section pitting Lara up against a crew of poorly modelled, pitifully stupid henchmen – are downright awful. What follows in an undersea temple is solid Tomb Raider fare, but hardly incredible. The opening tutorial is clumsy and the following underwater sequence in the Med unexciting. The opening hours of Tomb Raider: Underworld contain stretches that leave you wondering whether Lara’s fortunes really are in capable hands, or whether the game has been rushed out for release. Well, as with any good rollercoaster, the biggest, scariest drop is right at the start. With a few reservations, most of us saw Tomb Raider: Legend as a welcome return to form, while Tomb Raider: Anniversary – though intensely frustrating at times – proved that the team at Crystal Dynamics fully understood what made the series tick, and had what it took to take Lara forward. Croft’s reputation is higher than it’s been at any time since her late 90s heyday.
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”’Platforms: Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, Wii, PC – Xbox 360 version reviewed.”’įor anyone who has followed Lara’s exploits since the original Tomb Raider made its debut, Underworld is going to be a bit of a rollercoaster ride.
