Tomb Raider: Underworld

Tomb Raider: Underworld is the direct sequel to Tomb Raider: Legend and is the first Tomb Raider game on the current generation of consoles. Underworld takes place a few months after the end of Legend and also features a very important returning character from the very first game (or Anniversary, whichever you prefer). Underworld's story basically could not have occurred unless the story of the original was fresh in gamers' minds, thus the reason for Anniversary being made. As the first Tomb Raider on the current generation, it features updated visuals, but unlike Legend, it is not on par with the graphics of other games, notably Uncharted, the new competitor to the Tomb Raider series. Although the scenery does feature fantastic visuals, they don't compare at all to Uncharted 2. The gameplay is very similar to Legend with a few minor tweaks on button placement, removing the R.A.D. mode from the binoculars, and expanding on the climbing and gymnastic mechanics. The weapons are much easier to use, no longer requiring picking up enemy weaponry and ammo throughout levels. Lara now begins each level with all her weapons and will eventually run out of ammo on each weapon until she is limited to using her pistols. A new feature to make you use her pistols is the ability to aim at two targets at once for the first time in Tomb Raider. A feature I wish had been included is firing each pistol separately, but maybe a future game will have this feature as Tomb Raider (2011) will not feature Lara's signature dual pistols.

One of the main complaints of Legend was how short the game was and how little incentive there was to play it again despite the game being above average. Underworld's levels have far more thought put into them and they are long. The length of the first level was easily as long as the first two levels of Legend and then some. You'll want to replay Underworld just to experience every level all over again (except maybe one, but I'll get to that later).

Story: 10/10
Gameplay: 9.5/10
Presentation: 6/10
Replay Value: 8.5/10

Average Score: 8.5/10

Underworld is an improvement on every level over Legend with the exception of one notable area: the clipping plane and collision detection. I shit you not, when I was doing a puzzle involving jumping from wall to wall, I managed to actually jump through the wall and fall to my doom inside a giant area of purple space. The collision detection is awful when trying to jump onto platforms, which is a real problem since you have to do it so frequently. Underworld is also the 2nd game I've ever played that managed to get my PS3 to freeze, the first being Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. This wasn't much of a problem since both games save automatically periodically. My biggest problem with Underworld's graphics, however, is not the clipping issues, but the entire Southern Mexico level. It's raining the entire time you're there and the frame rate (at least on the PS3 version) is horrendous. I'm not sure if this is limited to the PS3 version, but I took a look at comparison images between versions and the PS3 actually has better visuals than the 360, so it must have something to do with designing the game for the PC and porting it to the PS3, a known issue with other games like The Orange Box.

During the development of Underworld, Crystal Dynamics was already making plans for the next Tomb Raider, making minor improvements to Underworld's engine, especially after receiving mostly positive reviews. However, once the sales figures came in, it became clear that gamers were tired of Tomb Raider and moving on to the Uncharted series which has better writing, better graphics, better gameplay, and better replay value.

And thus, we have the reason for this:

Seriously, Game Informer's images and story got me so interested in Tomb Raider again, I can't wait for the new game to come out approx. November 2011.