Tomb Raider: Underworld

I played the demo of this and the graphics are absolutely immense. The movement is great , the new ammount of moves lara can perform is mind boggling on hwo they do it , the only problem i had with the demo is the camera, its quite hard to turn it around when your hanging of a cliff or killing something and hopefully they will fix this by the time it is released

Not 10 minutes into the game did lara do the famous tomb raider glitch of disappearing into the wall, and then she got stuck there when she remembered she is supposed to be a corporeal entity. The game play is far too easy to both figure out and perform. It only has 8 levels, short levels at that when compared to the 18 long, challenging, fulfilling levels of tomb raider 2 etc, which drives me insane to think i paid the equivalent of £5 per level. It's only 720p resolution, probably dumbed down so they can splash it over every format going. There is no trophy support when the 360 version has achievements. She spontaneously breaks her neck by bumping into an object. She cannot survive a 2m drop landing on her feet, which i have seen small chavs do from park play ground apparatus. The game doesn't make use of the sixaxis like uncharted does; instead it uses the analogue stick. There are no boss fights, despite having ample opportunity to work in some decent ones (i shan't spoil the plot there but you will see what i mean). The storyline is predictable and does not tell you anything you could not infer from the trailers. Then finally it's not even lip-synced!

Game looks good in HD.........plenty of new moves for Lara to use, Fluid controls.....but really no different to Crystal Dynamics Legend offering.

Still using the same enemy from Legend (which was weak the first time round) Puzzles are easy to figure out and levels are so short.

I yearn for another installment of the original, puzzle heavy Tomb Raiders.......not this bite sized, shallow, action movie style series it has become.

Why can't these games be longer? I would prefer a more retro feel, concentrating more on gameplay and level design than graphics and effects.....I realise the Tomb Raider brand has to move forward but I think the francise has changed beyond all recognition.

This game is worth a play in its own right but if you are looking for Tomb Raider then I think its back to the PS1 versions.

So the very sexy Lara Croft makes her first appearance on what is deemed by many to be the most powerful console out there. After months of waiting & weeks of hype, Lara arrives looking more athletic & well rounded than ever before. I've been waiting for this since the let down that was "Drakes Fortune". Underworld begins with a fantastic music score that sets the scene & brings you straight into the game. The story is easily followed & reunites Lara with friends & enemies from the past games. The atmoshere is intense & visually this game is worth every penny of that PS3. Sadly thats all the good stuff said.
Lara has a few new moves, to begin with they look impressive, but as time goes by you soon realise it's just a gimmick. You don't have the freedom advertised & all too often Lara gets stuck in some scenary or disappears into a solid object as if she was a Marvel comics charecter. This game is full of so many glitches that I was almost pleased when after 10 short hours it was done. It's a shame because this game & charecter has so much potential, but you get the feeling that money was tight, Christmas was looming & the product had to be released before it was polished. I honestly enjoyed the graphics & sound, the best I have ever experienced in a game. The puzzles were not taxing, the enemies without emotion or artificial intelligence & the game lost it's way. In fact there is nothing about this game that is worthy of 4 stars. It's mediocre at best & the only reason I give it 2 stars is for sound & graphics. This game is not fun, not intense & leaves you feeling cheated, whatever happened to the classic gun fight & end of level boss? In fact my advice to all those that love tomb raider, switch off your ps3, pull down the loft ladder & find your ps1, put on the original raider & enjoy a game that was truly crafted, truly original & worth every penny of your hard earned cash. Lara Croft has not improved & if you can't improve on the 1st, why bother?

Another exciting adventure for Miss Croft in her new designer outfits, boasting motion-captured movements modelled from gymnast Heidi Moneymaker (no pun, real name), she runs, climbs, swings, swims, swishes at undergrowth, chimney vaults and fights her way dirty kneed through a maze of jungles, caves, glaciers, ships and strange ancient machinery ... but Lara need never feel alone out there in the middle of the Mediterranean, or in Thailand, Southern Mexico or Jan Mayen island in the Arctic ocean; for around any corner there is bound to be another adversary, mercenary or Colin O'Malley orchestra.

Underworld is poised for greatness, but with yet another new graphics engine developed especially for the game, fresh with the latest bugs, it presents the gamer with yet another bag of niggles. The character animation is better than before, indeed it is excellent and you have to see it to believe it, but Lara has forgotten how to walk or creep. The best she can do is run in slow motion, or at least that's what it looks like to me. Perhaps walking was not in Heidi's contract ... this practically forces me to run around everywhere, giving me no time to really absorb the fantastic artwork and impressive scenery, and possibly as a result I discover that the puzzles require no thought whatsoever. If you can press it, push it, switch it, rotate it or climb it - do it. You don't need to know why, you don't need to examine the mechanism.

Long gone are the days where you need a piece of paper to write down clues or figure out how to solve puzzles. I didn't get stuck once playing this game. This was the most disappointing aspect of the release. Despite promises of non-linear gameplay and while the graphics are generally superb (with the few usual bugs such as Lara floating in mid-air in some camera angles), the sound effects and music heart-pounding, and while the story sets up the adventure excellently - the main reason we keep coming back to Tomb Raider is for the puzzles. In Underworld, they are simply far too easy to solve by anyone's measure.

The only real genuine puzzle in the game is why, if Crystal Dynamics focused so much on the WCLD (What Could Lara Do?) philosophy, why did they fail on that point so catastrophically - to the point where Lara still can't jump onto ledges that are only a foot above her head if the game developer hasn't thought about making the ledge "grabbable", and she still jumps off to her death in stupid directions when that's clearly not the direction in which you intended for her to die! The controls continue to be the most troublesome aspect of the most recent Lara adventures, when the puzzles themselves ought to pose the greatest challenges.

Another major disappointment for me is that exploration is not encouraged. Except to find a limited variation of pick-ups and a few bonuses which unlock some rather uninspiring extras, the game is in fact as linear as they come. And with the demise of Croft Manor, there is no escape to Lara's house to take a break from the bats of Bhogavati to practise your pole-dancing skills.

However, that should not put you off buying this game. I've said it before I'll say it again, there is no other game like it on the market. No self-respecting gamer would miss buying Tomb Raider Underworld. It is a marvel to behold, we only wish the developers would go back to basics and create a game that is primarily designed to exercise the grey matter and less of the adrenaline ...