Tomb Raider Underworld Review

Crystal Dynamic’s first next-gen Tomb Raider

Dec 3, 2008 Daniel Sims

Bounding off of Legend and Anniversary, Tomb Raider's adventure gameplay is pushed further in Underworld, but the game still fails as an action title.

In 2006, Crystal Dynamics rebooted the then failing Tomb Raider franchise with Tomb Raider Legend, and then the following year remade the original 1997 Tomb Raider in the form of Tomb Raider Anniversary. Both games offered very well-designed platforming and puzzle-solving elements taken from the modern Prince of Persia school of design.

Both games were also marred by weak action elements felt altogether unnecessary by reviewers and players alike.

Although Tomb Raider Underworld is technically the first Tomb Raider developed specifically for this generation of consoles, it is mainly a continuation of the gameplay and story of Crystal Dynamics’ previous two games. It further polishes and even pleasantly mixes up the adventure gameplay but brings action to even more of a minimum than before.

Crystal Dynamics Furthers Tomb Raider’s Identity as an Adventure Game

For the most part Underworld offers more of the same platforming adventure gameplay that have been the core appeal of the previous two Tomb Raiders. Despite it being the same core with a few new tricks, the puzzles and platforming challenges of Underworld are no less satisfying than those of Legend and Anniversary, mostly due to some good old clever level design that manages to be interestingly fresh at points.

The first level of Tomb Raider Underworld is a seemingly blank area in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea that gives way to an impressively vast collection of ruins that are traversed completely underwater. From this point it is apparent that Crystal Dynamics has learned there way around designing exploration and puzzles for Tomb Raider and aren’t afraid to offer it in new forms.

Surprisingly, Crystal Dynamics even re-introduced the motorcycle that seemed completely out of place in Tomb Raider Legend, and did it in a way that made sense. For one of the later levels, instead of making a linear walk through the jungle into one big ruin, Crystal Dynamics made a fairly open-ended collection of ruins hidden throughout a jungle that players must navigate with the bike which feels oddly fresh and clever.

The core puzzles and platforming, although largely identical to that of Legend and Anniversary, still feels as cleverly designed as ever in Underworld which is the main force that keeps the game compelling. Figuring out the puzzles is a pleasant thinking challenge but never gets too hard, partly thanks to an optional hint system.

Underworld is proof that Tomb Raider has been fully polished as an adventure game, but the action side of it still lags behind.

Tomb Raider Still Fails as an Action Game

Tomb Raider Legend was filled with action sequences that resembled the bland combat that made third person shooters before developers started using the cover system mechanic popularized by Gears of War. With Tomb Raider Anniversary Crystal Dynamics decided to simply lessen the combat and focus on what they were good at. It seems they’ve done this even more in Underworld but what’s left is pretty embarrassing.

It would be nice of Tomb Raider could just be an adventure game and not have combat at all, but guns are a probably inseparable part of the character of Laura Croft – Tomb Raider’s protagonist. In Underworld however, she’s mostly using them against spiders, bats, and other minor annoyances which just looks ridiculous.

Hopefully in the future Crystal Dynamics can see what other developers have done for third person shooters and improve Tomb Raider’s action elements accordingly if they want the franchise to retain its image as one of action adventure titles.

Bottom Line

Out of all Crystal Dynamic’s Tomb Raiders, Underworld is probably the best. The new hardware it’s developed for doesn’t bring a huge leap to the franchise but the adventure level design feels more polished and varied than ever before, and the action, while weak, is kept at a minimum.

The copyright of the article Tomb Raider Underworld Review in Video & Online Games is owned by Daniel Sims. Permission to republish Tomb Raider Underworld Review in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.