OK, this is another game related post and this one is a revisitation (yes another lol!) of my original post for the action adventure game, Tomb Raider: Underworld. So, as usual it will be a reasonably sizeable rewrite with new stuff and all the paragraph headings added in like I do with my current posts.
So, after 11 years, does Tomb Raider: Underworld still hold up??? Well, let's take another look and find out....
And yes the usual is coming...
PLOT SPOILERS ARE AHEAD!!!
STORY
Right well here's a bit about the story and it begins with Lara (voiced by Keeley Hawes) who's mansion has been set on fire and it explodes, with Lara desparately trying to escape, as she reaches the exit door, one of her team, Zip (voiced by Alex Deser) suddenly shoots at her and she ducks out the way.
The story then moves back in time to a week before the explosion with Lara having travelled to the Mediterrenean sea, in an effort to try and learn about the disappearance of her mother. Lara travels underneath the sea and finds an ancient temple of Norse legend, and within it she finds one of Thor's gauntlets. After Lara travels to the surface she intercepts the ship of one of her adverseries, Amanda Evert, and onboard she battles with her mercanery soldiers and finds an imprisoned Jacqueline Natla, another of Lara's old enemies.
Natla tells Lara that she must locate Thor's hammer and by using it, Lara can then unlock the underworld and find her mother and Natla gives Lara a potential location for the hammer in Thailand, after which Lara escapes the sinking ship, as a result of her battle with Amanda's mercanaries. Lara then travels to Thialand but she doesn't find the gauntlet but does find evidence that her father had been and moved it before he died and Lara soon deduces where he moved it, right back home at the Croft manor.
As Lara returns back to the manor she searches beneath her home and finds her father's secret office in a crypt and she also discovers the other gauntlet as well as tape recording from her father warning her that Helheim contains a potent weapon. However at this point the mansion is set on fire, which leads into the events at the start of the game, and Lara briefly encounters her doppleganger, who also shoots one of Lara's team members, Alister. Zip who believes that Lara shot Alister, fires a few warning shots at her, but Lara convinces Zip that it wasn't her and after a brief fight with her doppleganger who escapes, Alister dies.
Lara afterward then decides to continue her quest to find Thor's hammer, which takes her on a dangerous path to where she will eventually learn the truth about what happened to her mother.
THOUGHTS
Tomb Raider Underworld is another strong entry in the Lara Croft series and it sees the continuation of what made Tomb Raider Legend work so well with a good solid storyline as well as some excellent voice acting from Keeley Hawes, who in many ways is the definitive voice for the chraracter.
The game also saw some subtle changes made to Lara's character as she no longer wears her usual turqouise sleeveless top and khaki shorts, but a dark brown top and and black shorts. Lara also like she does in Legend, has a few costume changes throughout the game at different levels, and her movement is now far more realistic as the movement is now fully motion captured and was modelled by an olympic gymnast, Heidi Moneymaker (sounds like a James Bond character!).
GAMEPLAY
Gameplay wise Underworld is also where the game scores very well and there some enhancements to the game effects such as Lara can now be stained with mud when she runs through wet or mucky terrain, which is then washed off by the rain. Lara can also push foilage aside when she runs through environments such as jungles and her movements also feel that bit more immediate and dynamic than before given the motion capture. Lara can also open jugs or pots that contain medicine or valuable items, which she can kick open with her feet and these are spread throughout the game.
Lara in certain levels uses a motorbike which features more prominently here than it has done in previous games such as Legend and she can use it to navigate traps and obstacles. Another improvement to the game is in the combat system as Lara can now shoot her guns and aim while she is climbing or driving rather than just having to do just statically do it when she is running on the ground. There is also a change to the adrenaline moments where you can take control of Lara during the moments where time is slowed down and she can move out of the way of gunfire. Movement wise Lara can also now in addition to swinging from poles, she can also lift herself up and walk on them side to side as she prepares to jump onto another area.
Guns and ammo wise Underworld offers not much in the way of new weapons but you do get the choice of your own weapon before the start of a level such as two submachine guns, an assault rifle or a shotgun, but personally I always go with the submachine guns! However unlike Lara's main dual guns, the other weapons have limited ammo so you need to use them carefully against the bigger more dangerous enemies in the game.
GRAPHICS
Graphically speaking, Underworld is easily the best looking game up to this point in the series so far as the graphics are stunning and the environments are rich and very well detailed, and the environments are once again quite varied. Lara's character model was also up to this point, the best yet as she looks pretty fine with plenty of facial expressions, big brown eyes and erm big something else! ;-) Yep Lara it has to be said still has a fine figure and her chest is very nicely in proportion here without appearing too ridiculous (well put it this way, I've no complaints about it!).
The graphics also have much improved environmental effects such as rain, lightning, sun, smoke and also snow effects. Lara is also affected by the weather elements as she will get wet when she swims or when it rains and as previously mentioned, she will also be covered in mud or dirt at certain points in the game depending on her environment.
VOICE ACTING (Warning: this section may contain spoilers!)
The voice acting in the game is also excellent overall.
Keeley Hawes as I previously mentioned is great in her voice role of Lara Croft and for my personally, I still think she is the best voice actress to have played the role.
And Keely has some good lines of dialogue for Lara such as in the scene where she discovers the location of one of Thor's gauntlets, which turns out to be back at Croft Manor, hidden by her father. So, in the scene Zip over the radio asks Lara "Did you find anything?" and Lara says "There was a map but father destroyed it" and Lara's other assistant, Alister says "Well, the acorn certainly didn't fall far from the tree!". Lara then tells them "He did it deliberately, to keep the information from Natla. But I'm sure he recorded everything first, and what's more, he found Thor's other Gauntlet" and Zip asks "Where did he put it?" and Lara tells Zip "Right under your nose!".
Another good scene is when Lara, back at Croft manor, get's geared up to go into the crypt underneath the manor. So, Alister asks Lara "Why didn't you tell us this was down there?" and Zip nervously says "Hell, I wish I still didn't know!" and Lara takes out a couple of torches and jokes with Zip "I did warn you that playing your music so loud could wake the dead!".
Then there is the scene where Lara's doppledanger shows up at the manor to steal the gauntlet and it kicks her butt and shoots Alister, who soon dies from his wound. Lara, then later carries Alister's body out of the manor, which the doppledanger set on fire. Lara tells Zip "I've only seen something like it once before - a doppelganger that Natla sent after me years ago, but that one didn't have a mind of its own". Zip then asks "What are we going to do?" and Lara says "After I deal with the authorities, I'm going to Southern Mexico to retrieve Thor's Belt!". Zip outraged at Lara's words asks angrily "What?! Alister is dead and its business as usual?!!" and Lara vengefully says "I need Thor's belt to get his hammer, and I need the hammer to kill a god!".
Alex Desert is also very good in his role as Zip however its a bit disappointing to see his role scaled back in the game this time round and his witty dialogue that he shared with Lara and Alister has also been reduced greatly here too.
However, this doesn't prevent Alex from having some good moments in the game such as the one where Zip angrily shoots at Lara, having believed her to be the one that set fire to the manor and Lara's bulter tries to stop him and shouts "Its Lara!!" and Zip shouts "I know!!". So, Lara ducks out the way and then points her guns at him and says angrily "Drop it, Zip or I'll drop you!" and Zip shouts back "What so you can shoot me again?!". And as Zip puts his gun down, Lara asks what happened and Zip tells her "All right, say it wasn't you. Someone who looked a hell a lot like you opened it using the retina scanner!". Lara then asks "Then what happened?" and Zip still a bit angry and confused tells Lara "You... she got away with Amanda's Wraith stone".
And last of all is the scene where Lara arrives at Jan Mayen Island (which is a real volcanic mountain based in the Arctic Ocean) and Zip talks to Lara over a headset link. So, in the scene Lara drives her motorbike onto a mountain top and Zip fills Lara in on some details of her enemy, Amanda's ship. So, Lara tells Zip "Excellent work, Zip. Thank you. You've earned some rest, I'll take it from here" and Zip coldly says "Be careful. And when you see Amanda, give her my regards!".
WARNING: THIS PARAGRAPH CONTAINS A SPOILER!!!
Greg Ellis is also very good in his role as Alister, Lara's other tech assistant however he unfortunately comes to an untimely end here as Lara's doppledanger shoots him and escapes. Lara then holds Alister as he is dying and he says weakily to Lara "I feel bloody awful!" and Lara urgently says "Just lie still!" and with his dying breaths, Alister tells Lara "I'll see you....in Avalon" and he dies and Lara leans over him and shouts in frustration "Damnit!".
The other voice actors are also very good here but I won't mention their dialogue just to save on time and typing! Katie Soucie does well as Amanda Evert, Lara's enemy as is Grey DeLisle as Lara's nemesis, Jacqueline Natla.
MUSIC
Music wise the game is also excellent and it features a fine score, which was composed mainly by Colin O'Malley and it has many passages which are dramatic and atmospheric and suit the game perfectly well. In fact the score this time around is largely orchestral rather than electronic and has a more epic grandiose feel to it than previous Tomb Raider games, which still works well for the game.
FLAWS
Getting onto the flaws and niggles of the game.... well yes Underworld does have a few problems.
For starters I would say the combat system, while its good that Lara can fire her guns while she climbs, the auto-aim aspect is a pretty awkward and unnatural looking in practice as Lara aims her guns in every direction at ridiculous speed! The adrenaline moments, whilst you no longer need to press a specific button at a given moment, don't feel like they really add anything valuable to the gameplay, and they also feel a bit awkward when you try and move Lara in slow motion.
Another issue lies with Lara's movement at certain points in the game where she seems to get stuck when she stops running and hits a wall and you have to make her do a roll to get her unstuck or some such action, which highlights some of the flaws in the game's movement. I found this to also be a particular issue while playing the game on the PC and using an Xbox controller that I had to keep turning the right stick to get the camera to move around which is a bit frustrating.
I also think the game's climactic battle sequence is a bit frustrating where Lara has to use Thor's hammer to knock out the doomsday device, which involves alot of jumping about over a large area, which can easily lead to Lara loosing her footing or jumping off the wrong way and falling to her death, which in short is a real pain in the ass!
Some of the game's puzzles are also a little frustrating such as the one where Lara needs to open an underground passage in the Mexican jungle, which is timed and she has to ride her motorbike to get there before it closes on her, and its easy to get lost in the jungle and get there after it has closed! In fact the Mexico level itself can tend to get a bit confusing because there are so many different routes that Lara has to take on her bike.
The game also lacks any actual game bosses as such (with exception of maybe that big troll thing you fight later on at Jan Mayen Island). And this is maybe a missed trick as boss fights could have added a welcome challenge to the game, especially as the actual enemies in the game don't really pose much threat to Lara in the end, which makes for a rather disappointing combat experience.
The game could also do with some more moments of humour as the tone of the game is fairly serious and its lacks the good mix of humour and drama that Legend had and that is certainly an area for improvement here. And its almost like it was a sign of things to come with the Tomb Raider reboot games which were way too serious and grim in tone for my liking.
And last of all is one issue I have with the game's otherwise excellent graphics is that there are probably too many dark areas in certain levels where Lara has to rely on using her shoulder flashlight. And later on in the game there is a heavier emphasis on dark areas and its a pity that there isn't a better balance for light and dark areas in the game. Don't get me wrong there are still plenty of bright areas to be found in the game but they come more early on than later (although the last two levels aren't too bad for that).
Anyway that's it for the flaws.
SUM UP
But despite all that Underworld is still an excellent addition to the Tomb Raider series and it remains a strong entry in the franchise with its good storyline, terrific graphics, largely excellent gameplay and good voice over cast, which makes it still worth playing.
Right, so that's it for now and I'll see you soon for another post.
Till then its bye fer now!
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