Tomb Raider: Underworld 411

xSamhainx

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Who's got the scoop on the latest TR game?
Anyone playing it?

The reviews Ive seen so far bemoan the supposed brevity of it - 6 stages (7 if counting the prologue) but say otherwise it's pretty cool. And of course, Lara's looking better than ever....
 
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... And of course, Lara's looking better than ever....
And that's the only thing that counts. .... Eh... I didn't say that.

Anyhow, I will probably get it, but maybe wait till I can get it a bit cheaper. After all I have a couple of TR's I haven't finished yet (not including Tabula Rasa).

Got to stop working.....
 
Nice video review here that's got me salivating. Gimmie an old bunch of ruins w/ stone pillars to jump around on a hundred feet in the air and im happy.

Ill probably buy it soon, TR games here tend to be released at the 30 dollar mark - not too bad for the good times (and the guaranteed jump-and-jump-again aggravation!) they bring.
 
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I think I'm about 80% done and so far I've been having a blast. The game takes off where Legend ended story-wise and the style is also the same as Legend. The timed button pushing sequences have been replaced with fewer sequences where time slows down but where you still have full control over Lara and the camera.

The freedom of movement (movement directions as well as jumping directions) gives the game a more fluid feel but at the same time it can make it harder to time and direct jumps properly. However, you get used to it after a while. Of course the camera is annoying as always but no more than in previous installations of the game.

The level design is just as memorable and great as in Legend and it is indeed true that Lara is looking hotter than ever :blush:

If you liked Legend, I have no doubt that you'll like Underworld as well.
 
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I didn't have a PC when Tomb Raider 1 was released and I never got into the TR series at all. When I read the reviews for Legend and saw that they were "rebooting canon" I decided to check it out and was surprised to how enjoyable the game was. I will definitely check out Underworld.
 
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Picked it up and finished the game all within the span of a single day...
As my first Tomb Raider game that, naturally, is a reflection on just how easy the title plays (as I am not that great a platform-esque gamer). Having said as much, the game was appealing enough. Leaving aside the manner in which the developers butchered the Norse mythos by tying it inexplicably into those of other entirely distinct cultures, and the inclusion of a rather odd winged-woman (I suppose I'd have to play the other games to truly understand the TR-canon), the game slips by with a plausible enough premise to make the jumping-hopping-and-scaling more than just a simple means-to-the end experience.
Once more, as my first Tomb Raider game, I cannot speak informatively in regards to the technical aspects of the game, however, I personally found the camera to pose a problem in only the rarest of circumstances, the levels to be well-planned, the puzzles simplistic, yet still lending a certain enjoyable sense of accomplishment when solved and the graphics to be truly top-notch stuff. Sure, the two-dimensional backdrops in some of the levels can be a little off-putting and Lara's distinctly "cartoonish" look (when closely examined she has almost no gradient to her skin and her hair is composed of brush-strokes) clashes on occasion with the realistic ambient-environment, yet it all retains a very polished look. What's more, the environs themselves all retain a grand and imaginative scale.
While the few reviews I have perused thus far have been rather less-than-flattering, I personally enjoyed the game so much that I've already sent off for copies of it's Crystal Dynamics-developed predecessors.
 
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