Tomb Raider Underworld Review

Combat is fun, though generally rather simplistic. No matter which difficulty you're playing on, strafing and using the game's auto-aim feature makes most enemy encounters unchallenging. Weapons are pretty standard and you can change them by accessing your PDA. The very same PDA has its advantages that I considered to be a blessing. When I was stuck and couldn't tell where I should traverse next, the PDA provided a hint, letting me know what needed to be done.

There's the occasional bike ride, which provides a few neat elements. Personally, I rather liked dashing through the jungle on the motorcycle and running over a few panthers, thus unlocking the 'Roadkiller' achievement. Now, that's entertainment. However, even these rides were hampered thanks to God-awful collision detection - the bike comes to a full stop when I hit a few small rocks on the road; it basically acted as if I ran into a f**king building.

Most puzzles and traps can be approached in different ways, making the levels less linear than in most games (and other TR games). In other words, even if you happen to catch a glimpse of a ledge that looks unreachable, chances are Lara can reach it. So, don't hesitate to give it a try. It's a cool system and makes gameplay a wee bit more exciting.

Despite some of its technical flaws, the series hasn't lost its charm. Lara Croft is as attractive and agile as ever, using a range of moves to reach her goal. Unfortunately, the mishaps in Tomb Raider Underworld left us mostly disappointed and annoyed. Tomb Raider fans are no doubt going to praise this one and may feel inclined to look the other way. The developers haven't straightened out the bad camera after all these years and that's a major problem throughout the main campaign. Well, with the best intentions we just cannot let this one slide. We expected more from the combat and we sure as hell expected the whole game to be more polished.