As you can tell from the cover image, Lara unfortunately doesn't spend the entire game under the world, so I am mildly inconvenienced.
"Tomb Raider: Underworld" is an action-adventure puzzle platformer that was released in 2008 for PC, Mac, Xbox 360, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, and Wii. "Tomb Raider: Underworld" was also released for the now defunct OnLive, a cloud gaming service.
"Tomb Raider: Underworld" is the sequel to "Tomb Raider: Legend," the reboot of the series after the critical and financial failure of "Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness." "Tomb Raider: Underworld" is also the last classic "Tomb Raider" game, as the franchise going forward would follow suit with games like "Assassin's Creed."
Both "Underworld" and "Legend" were developed by Crystal Dynamics, who would make the future "Tomb Raider" games. They also developed the funny Gecko series, "Gex."
Going into "Underworld," my expectations are to have the same fun I had in "Legend," or somewhere close to it at least. Insert epic foreshadowing about my opinion of the game here.
The Story so Far
"Tomb Raider: Underworld" continues from "Legend," with Amanda Evert finishing her devastating Joe Mama joke-
Seems about the right escalation. Lara Croft, finding out her mother is in Avalon and was tricked to go there by Amanda, Lara tries to get there herself. Lara also runs into Natla, who appoints Lara to go to Thailand to start her search for... Something.
Natla is the antagonist of "Tomb Raider: Anniversary" and the first "Tomb Raider" game. Apparently "Anniversary" is part of the "Legend" timeline, oops.
All you need to know is that Natla hired & betrayed Lara and formerly ruled Atlantis. Naturally, Lara shouldn't even consider what Natla is say-
LARA NO! THIS IS OBVIOUSLY A TRAP! While I get Lara is desperate to see her mother, with Natla offering a way to Avalon, Natla is clearly plotting. To be fair, Lara is suspicious of Natla, but not enough, with Lara ultimately going on a journey to find pieces to wield an ultimate weapon.
Which is the key to... The truth... W-Wait a minute...
Unfortunately, "Underworld" repeats the same journey as "Legend," even down to finding the final piece in a snow level. While there's new drama, the story is far too similar while also not giving its villains enough screen time like in "Legend."
The story this time around, despite having an interesting exploration of Thor's mythology, is overall weak without improving much on the flaws of the original story of "Legend." This feels like the "Thor: Dark World" to the "Thor" Marvel Cinematic-Universe movie series story-wise. N-No, I've never seen "Dark World," but it's a funny and hurtful comparison.
However, the gameplay has changed. Whether it's for the better or not, well, let's see.
Changes
Combat
Lara is equipped with dual pistols to fight wild animals and guys with guns. In each mission, Lara can take one of five sub-weapons.
The trade-off is that weapons can't be picked up in the levels nor can you find ammunition, despite going against all laws of physics. What ammo you have is all you can use in the level.
Honestly, I dislike the changes. Combat feels smoother when you can pick up guns to adapt to the situation. Not being able to pick up ammo makes sense, but you can only see your ammo count in your PDA menu for some baffling reason, not on your HUD, just the clip.
The weapons also leave a lot to be desired. The assault rifle & sub-machine gun have a faster rate of fire, but not fast enough to make up for the lack of damage; the spear gun is only useful underwater making it too situational, and the tranquilizer knocks out enemies, which would be useful for time trials, but "Underworld" doesn't have them.
I found the only practical option to be the shotgun, as it deals massive damage to enemies up close. Given you mostly fight wild animals like that charge towards you like the common giant spider, the shotgun is immensely useful, but overshadows the other sub-weapons hard.
The assault rifle and sub-machine gun would at least be handy if there were more humans to fight, which I honestly miss. Wild animals are fun at first but get repetitive quickly since they all mostly act the same.
The late-game enemies, while not wild animals, are even worse for being too easy while having the most annoying method of spawning. It honestly mystifies me because the gunplay got upgrades that make it even more fun.
Enemies now have health bars; Lara can kick enemies to knock them down, which is the most fun thing to do in the game (don't tell my anti-kick therapist); and there's cover present to incentivize ducking behind it, despite not having a cover system like "Gears of War."
Something about the changes made me more methodical with gunplay, while in "Legend" I jumped around and shot at enemies like a psychopath. Don't get me wrong, gunplay is still simple, however... You get to kick people.
Additionally, "Underworld" has no bosses. That's a shame, but it also isn't the end of the world.
Climbing & Exploration
Lara's climbing mostly controls the same, climbing ledges, swinging on poles, using her grappling hook, and more. However, now she can climb up bumpy walls, presses two different buttons for her grapple instead of one, doesn't need to do quick-time events, and has fewer instances of needing to press Y to regain her grip after a risky jump.
So, I guess Lara just got stronger... Grip? Gloves? ...Hands...?
Additionally, Lara can dodge underwater. She even brings an oxygen tank with her in a few levels to breathe underwater. Lara also finds treasures and relics instead of different treasure types, some treasures being in urns/pots.
In theory, the climbing and exploration should be fun like in "Legend." However, it feels weaker.
At first, I thought it was because the game was struggling on hardware it wasn't meant to run on. Lara's feet clipped into the ground and physics were wonky, namely with blocks you put on pressure plates. I've heard in some cases these blocks would go flying which is weirdly agile for an inanimate object...
There were also other bugs I ran into, the biggest ones being Lara walking into an object or wall, with the player losing control for a few seconds. Other times Lara just... Died. No specific reason, she just dies.
There were some bugs that weren't the result of the hardware, but most bugs I found can be contributed to this. However, there are ways to fix it, so I won't botch the game down for it. For the funny though, I'll show a few miscellaneous glitches I found.
However, it wasn't just that, it was the signposting and controls. Signposting is extremely important, as it tells the player where to go and what's bad. Think of the Goomba from "Super Mario Bros.," the first time you see him in the first level, you think "bad guy" and "where he's coming from is where I must go."
"Tomb Raider: Legend" did this beautifully, with climbable objects being easy to see. However, "Underworld" is a lot less clear as climbable objects blend into the background. It's easy to mistake an unclimbable surface as climbable, try to climb it, and die as a result... Like... A lot. Lara died a lot...
Sometimes the correct path feels like a gamble. I had to make a few leaps of faith because I had no clue where else to go, with 50/50 success. There are cases where I progressed using the wrong method. The Sonar Map, which highlights the area to help get a better idea of your surroundings, never helped.
This problem escalates because of the controls, sometimes Lara just doesn't do what you want her to. Sometimes when you want to jump to a ledge, she'll jump in the wrong direction, making a suicidal jump. It makes it harder to gauge if something is climbable or not when Lara sometimes does not respond properly.
This was present in "Legend' as well; however, it was extremely rare. The signposting also made it clear that I was heading the right way instead of banging my head against a wall... In Lara's case, literally.
The controls aren't too bad at first but dying repeatedly to the same thing because of something that isn't even your fault is awful. The control problems also extend to the grapple, as you must press A then X on an Xbox controller instead of pressing A twice.
It may seem minor, but it makes grappling less snappy, which hinders the flow of gameplay. Unfortunately, the control problems and poor signposting bleed into puzzles, making them frustrating.
The new hint system, Field Assistance, doesn't help as the hints/tasks Lara gives are mostly unhelpful. I miss how "Legend" showed items as key items, interactable, etc.. It let you see all the pieces, it just left how to put them together up to you.
It's a shame, since there are some fantastic puzzles in "Underworld." They can seriously rack your brain, and while annoying at times, are extremely satisfying to solve.
However, I can't say I'm a fan of completing a puzzle only for there to be a time limit for how long it stays completed. It didn't happen much, but when it did, it was always a Bruh moment.
The non-linear level design may have to do with my problems with the gameplay, as it's more open, but results in levels having a poor sense of direction. The non-linear structure also makes a few levels drag on for longer than they should, furthering the annoyance of the gameplay's problems.
Thailand and South Mexico were my least favourites, as they just took forever to complete while having nothing too memorable about them. However, there were some incredible levels like the Mediterranean Sea.
Ironically, despite my problems with the platforming, I didn't mind the camera which most do. While the camera gives players a poor view of where they must go, Lara always looks at climbable services. While this doesn't solve the control nor signposting problems, it made the camera perfectly manageable for me.
I feel it says something when my favourite part about playing "Underworld" isn't the gunplay, the climbing, or the exploration, but the swimming. The swimming is the only part that feels immensely improved and it unironically fills me with endless joy to just swim around.
Atmosphere
"Tomb Raider: Underworld" excels at its atmosphere despite the gameplay problems. The tombs and areas look incredible, which is made clear from the get-go with the first underwater segment.
There are also neat extra details, such as how dirt gets on Lara, going away in the rain. It's minor, but it adds a lot to immersion.
Due to the lack of dialogue in tombs, the atmosphere gets to sink in a lot more, Lara only talks inside of tombs when she's documenting.
The quips are a mandatory sacrifice for immersion and I'm all for sacrificing stuff. The music is also beautiful, with each track being majestic and fitting. I find myself preferring it over the soundtrack of "Legend."
My personal favourite is "Escaping Niflheim." It fits both the atmosphere of the tomb while giving a serene feeling to escaping it.
The voice-acting is also solid too, with each main cast voice-actor coming back from "Legend" except for the minor characters and James Rutland, since... Well, Rutland died.
Post-Game and DLC
After beating the main story, you unlock Treasure Mode. allowing exploration of the levels with every puzzle solved. This means you can get any collectibles you missed and kick as many ancient artifacts as you want.
However, there isn't much reason to go back since the rewards are underwhelming. Getting each relic gets you a set of concept art, the same applies to getting every treasure too. Most concept art and more are unlocked by simply beating levels.
There are no rewards for an individual treasure. While individual relics do increase Lara's health, getting all of them meaning twice the health, there's no real use for the extra health after completing the game. Even during the game, most of my deaths were from falls, extra health can't usually help with that.
In comparison, each individual reward unlocked something. A new model to view, concept art, upgrades for Lara, and more. The most substantial reward being the outfits, which were beyond awesome. Unfortunately, "Underworld" only has one unlockable outfit, which you can't even fully enjoy as outfits are restricted to specific levels.
For example, the wetsuit can only be worn in the first and final levels of the game, nowhere else. It limits creativity for the player, especially when the only outfits without limits are exclusive DLC for the Xbox 360 release.
Additionally, there's no scoring, time trials, and less. If you don't care about completing the rest of the concept art, there's no real reason to go back.
What further rubs salt into the wound is that the TRUE ENDING of the game is only available on the Xbox versions of "Underworld!" Yes, I'm dead serious, two DLC packs expanding on the ending are only available on one platform, I am fuming.
Imagine being invested in the story, only to realize the true ending is behind both a console and DLC paywall. As someone who played the Steam version, this is beyond frustrating.
Overall (E+)
"Tomb Raider: Underworld" was rough, I mean, where do I even start to summarize? The story is underwhelming, the controls didn't always respond correctly, wild animals make for repetitive combat, barely any replay value or worthwhile rewards, poor signposting, and the true ending locked behind DLC on Xbox consoles.
While the presentation is incredible, and I can put aside the physics problems since I don't think it's fair to blame the game for them, "Underworld" is overall disappointing as a fan of "Legend." It feels weird that after all this time, I ended up disliking "Underworld."
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