IGN Review of Tomb Raider Underworld

Late last year, Crystal Dynamics and Eidos released Tomb Raider Underworld, a new chapter in the rebooted franchise that focused on action, puzzle elements and a new control scheme called "What Could Lara Do" to provide more flexibility in exploring the tombs and ruins of the game. While it landed on just about every console last November, the PS2 version was strangely absent, which raised questions as to whether it would be cancelled or eventually released. Cancelled would've actually been a better decision, because with the recent release of Tomb Raider Underworld on the PS2, Crystal Dynamics and Eidos have completely embarrassed the franchise and Lara herself. Full of bugs, simplistic puzzles and weak visuals, this game shouldn't have been released, especially because it ruins a rather good tale.



By now, much of the story of Underworld has been released and is well known, but for those who haven't been following the series, here's a quick update. Underworld continues the story established from Legend and follows the mystery of Lara's mother's disappearance as well as the last bit of research her father worked on before he died. Underworld starts as Lara explores coordinates to an ancient ruin on the Mediterranean Sea floor, but quickly spans the globe as Lara discovers the purpose behind the site itself. Not only does Thor's hammer Mjolnir exist, but the mythical weapon bestows incredible power upon its wielder. As Lara explores various sites around the world, she also discovers that she'll need to get the weapon before it falls into the wrong hands. For the most part, the story is pretty good, and while it has predictable moments, the scope of the story feels exactly like the kind of thing you'd expect from a Tomb Raider game.



In many ways, that's what makes this such a tragic port to the PS2. The PS3, 360 and PC versions of the game were paced particularly well, primarily because of the balanced adjustments to gameplay, the tweaks to combat and the exposition of the story. Unfortunately, most of this winds up going to the wayside in the translation to the PS2, so what you instead have is a choppy, piecemeal adventure that is sloppy in its presentation. For example, one of the elements that was included was the use of Situational Adrenaline to avoid dangerous moments within the game. This was designed to remove onscreen button prompts in favor of reacting to hazards naturally and instinctively. However, the limited instances where this feature is even used are simplistic and easy to maneuver through. Not only do they slow the framerate to a point where it's easy to avoid danger, they pretty much interrupt the flow of the game action instead of enhance the drama of the moment.



Another adjustment that is woefully underused is the combat system, or perhaps I should say lack thereof. Underworld includes the ability to aim and target two enemies as once, which would seem extremely useful when you're being surrounded or attacked by swarms of animals, people or undead. Unfortunately for the PS2 version of the game, there's barely any combat to be found whatsoever. It's possible to move through large sections of every environment without firing a single shot, and when you do actually use your pistols, they're so extremely strong that you'll be able to eliminate most enemies without significant trouble or the need to evade incoming attacks. Even stranger, you'll find that while Lara will show a shotgun or machine gun in cutscenes or as she explores levels, she won't actually ever use these weapons. Then again, since there's so little combat in the game, you'll rarely feel the need for extra firepower or even the sticky grenades that she comes packed with. At least you don't have to worry about collecting health packs because Lara automatically regenerates health after a few seconds. Since you won't really be challenged by the weak combat, you'll primarily find yourself using this to heal from falls that would seriously injure Lara.



Unfortunately, you'll be using this ability a lot because the controls and camera work are rather poor. While the design team had a major focus on "What Could Lara Do," you'll discover that it's what Lara can't or isn't able to do capably that is the status quo within the game due to a number of bugs. Most of the time, Lara will physically pass through walls and pillars as she tries to climb to higher areas. Apart from this visual issue, you'll find that this glitch will cause her to not be able to cleanly move from one area to another, so even if she could legitimately reach for a ledge, she'll refuse and remain stuck in place unless you jump or fall from your current position. Once you do wind up freeing yourself, you can sometimes find yourself moving in opposite directions without meaning to because Lara will get into an animation loop that isn't accurate to the actions you're trying to perform. For example, I tried to climb a ledge to the right and found that Lara instantly started moving to the left and snapped back and forth a couple of times in place before finally advancing where I wanted her to. A third issue is the fact Lara is never physically connected to the ground itself. When you're trying to gauge the amount of space that you have left before making a jump, and you realize that your heroine is actually levitating a foot off the ground, it makes it difficult to tell when to hit a button to plant your foot because your foot is actually skating on thin air. Since the game will recognize this as motion one second and decide that you're falling the next, it can be frustrating to find yourself tumbling off a ledge without an obvious reason.



The final issue, however, is perhaps the most damning, because it's not possible to accurately judge your jumps to other pillars or ledges because the camera work is extremely poor. You'll try to use it to see where the next jump is, and either it will lock into a bad angle that will obfuscate your view or Lara will get stuck during the preparation for a jump, frequently causing you to miss the direction you're trying to move. It's poorly designed and can result in some seriously infuriating vertical moments, especially if you need to climb a couple of ledges to leap to a balance beam. Speaking of ledges, they're either obvious cutouts in the middle of a wall or completely impossible to see from the texture of a background, meaning that you'll find yourself leaping into walls if the direction you need to move in isn't immediately obvious.



I mention "immediately obvious" because the layout and the puzzle elements within the game are laughable at best. For example, the large area with Shiva and Kali in Thailand doesn't involve scaling walls or rappelling from high ledges; instead, you simply run up stairs on either side of the statue, pick up gems and sink them into the statue's hands. There's no puzzle solving here and nothing that's particularly challenging with this section of the game. Apart from the obvious solutions that present themselves in the game, you'll notice that the levels feel as though they've been designed without any kind of exploration in mind. Progress through each level is extremely linear and doesn't provide any true benefits for wandering through environments because there's only one path that you can take for each stage. If you've played Legend or Tomb Raider Anniversary, you'll realize just how disappointing this design is. Even worse, stages feel as though they've been badly clipped and condensed from the current-gen version of the game, including cutscene locations. For instance, you'll be moving through a level and all of a sudden run into a cutscene without having done anything in particular. It's abrupt and strangely done, and while I understand that it's useful to advance the story, the jerky nature just doesn't feel right.



Then again, neither do the game's visuals, which just look substandard. I've already mentioned some of the visual issues, but Lara just doesn't look particularly great. While she animates well and her tumbling passes are good, her character model in cutscenes are particularly low resolution and fuzzy and just don't look good at all. Then again, the cutscenes look as though they've been processed from the current-gen version to the PS2, and there's a ton of artifacting, blur, color balance issues and other problems that makes them look horrible. Environments aren't any better, as many of them have a bland, washed out textural appearance that makes them look like generic set pieces. Whether you're exploring underwater or in caves, you'll find underwhelming spaces, and for some reason, you can't actually trigger your flashlight; it automatically comes on, but you have to be in a pitch black space, which means that some areas you'll stumble through as you're trying to find where you're going.



Another visual issue that winds up popping up are the "treasures," if you can actually call them that. Instead of looking like a small bar of gold, a bauble or some other valuable item, treasure in the game looks like an odd, blocky polygon. At first glance, it will look like the game architecture is actually broken because it appears so out of place. It was only by accident that I realized what they were, which is truly disappointing because while I could go back and replay levels to try to collect them, I'd also have to deal with all of the gameplay and visual issues to search for some random block scattered around. While the sound is good, it's not really much of a saving grace. The dialogue is delivered well, and the soundtrack is still solid. However, a lot of audible clips of background music primarily occur around cutscenes that suddenly start playing, which feels rather sloppy.

©2009-03-10, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved