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DVDfever.co.uk – Tomb Raider: Underworld Xbox 360 reviewDom Robinson reviews
Eidos Interactive
- Price: £49.99 (Xbox 360, PS3); £3 9.99 (PC)
- Players: 1; system link: 2-16; online multiplayer: 2-16
- Widescreen: Yes
- 60Hz: Yes (optional)
- HDTV: 720p/1080i/1080p
- Dolby Digital 5.1 sound: Yes
- Xbox Live content: Game content downloads
- Vote and comment on this film:View Comments
Croft Manor is dead. Long live Lara Croft.
Yes, the trailer shows that our big-chested heroine has blown up her home. Why on earth would she do that?And, more to the point, why wouldn’t she even sneak a look as it explodes? Anyone would, really.
One week earlier we see Lara in the Mediterranean Sea on her boat looking for Avalon, because she’s been led to believethat her mother’s alive and well and living there. Naturally, the thing to do once the CGI cutscene is over is to leapoff the boat and go towards the island. However, it’s amusing to try and run up to the wheel of the boat to drivecloser to it, since as you approach the steps inside, Lara grinds to a halt and puts her hands forward to stop herselfas if against a wall, but… there’s no wall 🙂
Let’s start with the good stuff. From the Mediterranean Sea to Coastal Thailand, taking in Mexico (pre-swine flu),Jan Mayan Island, the Andaman Sea and the Arctic Sea,Lara’s movements do feel more fluid than before and you can see as you leap and jump about (as long as you’re doing itin the bright sunlight). You can also perform adrenaline shots as before, and the game has stunning visuals which cannotbe faulted, and neither can the ear-crunching sound as puzzled are solved and cogs move into place, for example. TheDolby Digital 5.1 sound also brings in a hum from the subwoofer that’ll wake up the street.
There’s a vast number of checkpoints in this title so you really can’t go too wrong for long; as you go, you canunlock Environment, Gear and Character Concept Artwork and Storyboards; and there are now two new levels, Beneath TheAshes and Lara’s Shadow which are also available at a price 800 credits each. However, now this title is,at the time of writing, since it’s now out on the Classics label, a penny under twelve quid on Amazon, do those twoextra levels really represent such great value? Perhaps those should be discounted, or now free?
One new clever thing is to move across walls, which only have small areas of support, by manoeuvring across withthe left stick. You’ll see when you come across this. Makes a nice change from having ledges to shimmy along the samewalls. You can also grapple a hook and pull the cord around a nearby pillar to get some leverage.
The opening level is also mostly in the dark which really doesn’t help, either. Okay, I guess that’s why this gameis the Underworld, but it still really only serves to annoy. Perhaps they shouldn’t have started with that one,even if it does suit the plot.
There are also the usual camera issues Lara Croft games have when it comes to turning around in tight spaces.
Overall, this just doesn’t seem to have the same ‘pzzazz’ as early Lara Croft adventures, and I think it’s down to themore free-play environment rather than going on a set path, which leads to bafflement and then just gets on yourwick a bit. I understand the developers were criticised previously for making them too linear, but this one doesfeel markedly different from the other titles and, as a result, I’m not a fan of the change.
Unfortunately, unlike the previous gameTomb Raider: Anniversary, there is no 50Hz option in whichto play this game so I cannot record the footage, :although Rikku4788 has already mapped the game out on his PC here.
Still, all is not lost with this title. Click on the video on the right and you can listen to the music from the trailer,Mozart’s Lacrimosa.
SOUND EFFECTS AND MUSIC
PLAYABILITY
ENJOYMENT
OVERALL
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.