Tomb Raider: Underworld Comments by Ellie Gibson

It's one of the best games of the past 10 years, possibly ever. Why anybody would choose to play it with pop-in, aliasing, and dodgy load times just because of the promise of some DLC at some point in the future is beyond me.

You fuck, I wanted first.

lol mr ed

Don't care what this got really. Lara always delivers for me! :P

I loved the demo as well...

Me wants.

I heard the camera in the demo has "issues", and therefore this game is not on my radar. Ever.

Oh, and it's Worse Than Halo.

Has Lara got a camel-toe? As her lips are back on the front page.

I will probably get this game because I like staring at doll-like gash for a change.

Was that offensive enough?

Nice timing there by me n' Sid. Hurrah for vaginal references!

Someone who basically doesn't like TR reviewing it; that is always going to go well :)

I liked the demo so getting it anyway. This and Anniversary are the best of the series.

Uncharted 2 (if there is to be one) will really kick this series in the ass. Uncharted is better than TR now even, I really thought they would have learnt from some of its better bits and its mistakes.

So it's no Uncharted then.

Probably. Not having played it yet I'd reserve judgement, although it seems as snug as Lara's camel-toe bearing wetsuit.

Uncharted is nothing like Tomb Raider.

Oh, I know, Heart Of Darkness, I'll compare it to that, EVEN THOUGH ITS NOTHING LIKE IT. But hey, there's jungles!

I love a bit of Lara, I don't really care if the game isn't particlarly original to be honest. All I care about is the locations, the puzzles and...oh yeah, Lara ;p

Jungle based clunge!

You are able to change weapons in game by the way.. You pick weapon at beginning of level, but then switch within your backpack. So not stuck the same weapon for whole level.

Brian Topp: What are you playing?
Tim: Tomb Raider 3.
Brian Topp: She's drowning.
Tim: Yeah.
Brian Topp: Is that the point of the game?
Tim: It depends what mood you're in really.
Brian Topp: What sort of mood are you in then?
Tim: Well, I got a letter from my girlfriend this morning three months too late explaining why she dumped me. It was full of you'll always be special and I'll always love you platitudes designed to make me feel better while simultaneously appeasing her deep seeded sense of guilt for running off with a slimy little city boy named Duane and destroying my faith in everything in the world that is good and pure.
Brian Topp: So it didn't really work then.
Tim: No, it made me want to drown things!

Thats a shame, I wasnt expecting a 7...

"It's one of the best games of the past 10 years, possibly ever."

Yes, if you never played any other game ever.

I love it when idiots use the "poorly written review" flame but don't bother to critique beyond that.

Please elaborate. What was wrong with it? Can you do better? Criticising is so easy, after all.

What a LOUSY review, honestly. It makes the game look like crap and asks the game for WAY TOO much ... WTF, Give me one game that allows you to grab every rock u see ... You wont find one. and I cant believe that the review is trying to blame the developers for givins us the ability to balance on beams or shoot from them or whatever ... give me a break, The demo was BRILLIANT. I think I see what's happening here, Everytime EDGE gives a High score to a game, eurogamer has to go the other way ...

Oh PearOfAnguish, that went right over your head, didn't it? Hush now, or you'll make yourself look silly.

Ooops too late! ;)

cashregisterface wrote
Brian Topp: What are you playing?
Tim: Tomb Raider 3.
Brian Topp: She's drowning.
Tim: Yeah.
Brian Topp: Is that the point of the game?
Tim: It depends what mood you're in really.
Brian Topp: What sort of mood are you in then?
Tim: Well, I got a letter from my girlfriend this morning three months too late explaining why she dumped me. It was full of you'll always be special and I'll always love you platitudes designed to make me feel better while simultaneously appeasing her deep seeded sense of guilt for running off with a slimy little city boy named Duane and destroying my faith in everything in the world that is good and pure.
Brian Topp: So it didn't really work then.
Tim: No, it made me want to drown things!


LOL

Daisy: I split up with my boyfriend
Marsha: I can't say I'm surprised - I heard Tim shouting at you a couple of nights ago. I was shocked.
Daisy: Huh?
Marsha: 'You stupid Cow', something about a key. 'You can't shoot straight, you big-titted bitch'.
Daisy: No, no, that was Lara Croft.
Marsha: It sounded like Tim...

oh well

Yes it makes the game look like crap, that's right. Because crap games get 7 out of 10. What would you describe a 5/10 game as? Or a 3/10? Or even a 1/10?

No, it does not make the game look crap. It makes it look very entertaining indeed but also packed with many of the frustrations and limitations that so-called next-gen gaming is supposed to be capable of removing. The problem is that nobody ever does. They just go "Wooh! Shiny graphics! Aren't we awesome!" and produce pretty much the exact same gameplay underneath them. For that reason it lost marks. I don't see the problem with that, myself.

I was rather impressed with the demo despite the dodgy camera. Will probably be getting this, I actually find the old-schoolness quite charming.

It's on steam with free Legend for less than £30 at the mo so good time to get it if you don't have the earlier game.

@ MrED209

Yeah sure ... the same way every other game developer is going, yet other games seem to be getting 10s and 9s ......

I'm a big Tomb Raider fan and liked the demo, so I'm getting it.

It's bad enough girls playing games, now they're letting them review them.

I don't want to jump on the bandwagon of bashing reviews I disagree with, but this was a very poorly writting review from someone who apparantly doesn't even like the series. I certainly won't be taking any of what was said here into consideration on whether or not I should buy the game.

Will there be another review for the PS2 & Wii version?

"Underworld is better than Legend"

Sold. (And I'm thusly inclined to question, 7???)

"and the moments you want to punch Lara Croft in the face"

Ah yes, Anniversary had me literally frothing at the mouth this weekend, when I discovered a point in Egypt where the jumping controls suddenly, distinctly CHANGED after something like 10 hours of gameplay. Mostly the game fudges in your favor, occasionally it just plain fudges.

But I do get the impression that the reviewer simply doesn't like TR, or perhaps has had enough (which is fair enough after 10+ years.) Inconsistencies are fair game for criticism, but in general it's a finicky game by nature - ie. ought to be. I loved the demo idespite camera issues and unprovoked (except by process of elimination) "leaps of faith", so this is top of my list right now.

And who has ever given a hoot about a Tomb Raider "plot". Or the god awful boring combat for that matter. I thought the "Retrospective" article totally missed the boat on this point, too. I'll go play Half Life (with a mouse, BTW) if I really want to shoot something.

At least the combat only makes up a small proportion of the game. The emphasis is firmly on the traditional tomb-raiding elements of environmental navigation and puzzle-solving.

Wow two and a half pages to come to the most important bit about the game. You could have just written that and I would have bought it. But its nice you got some bitching and ranting done on the previous two pages.

Seriously I doubt many TR fans will give a flying fuck about little gaps in the wall she cant shimmy over or rocks she cant jump over. I like linear platforming. Keep your full fledged freedom and realistically consistent gameplay somewhere else.

All in all. Good to know they didnt fuck it up.

So yeah. SOLD.

Tomb Raider fanboy damage control ITT.

No need for the swearing Ellie ):

@squarejawhero:

Exactly what I was thinking of :)

@MrED209

Yet a game like Uncharted, which suffers from many of the same problems still deserves a perfect score? The TR games were massively revamped for the next-gen consoles, and many of the improvements in Underworld bring it even further forward, there is certainly nothing broken, or even outdated about the gameplay.

The only valid complaint here is the camera, which can be fiddley, but it's nothing game breaking.

So it's getting marked down for having no plot, invisible walls - since when is TR an open world?, and rocks and ledges that stand out as the bits you need to get onto? As in, pretty much part and parcel of any TR games, and most games ever?

So, penalised for not reinventing videogames then?

Seriously, stick to Wii shovelware for the time being.

The invisible walls are a bit glaring and clumsy on the boat, granted. But that's plainly just a prop at the onset of the game. The very first thing you do is swim away from it (into the most beautiful environment I've ever seen in a video game, notably) and forget about it. Unless you're in a bad mood and spooling up to write a review. ;)

What the hell, I'll get it in the January sales when it goes down to £20 or so.

Agree with all the complaints about the review going on and on about the combat, only to then say 'but its not really the focus of the game.
However....

"The bike is used in quite a few levels, and it handles nicely. As an added bonus you can use it to run over enemies and break its legs off, which is highly satisfying."

That, right there, is why we all love Ellie's reviews. Genuine laugh-out-loud moment at a perfect Eurogamer in-joke.

I'll probably rent this sometime in the new year. Got too many other games on the go right now.

"This and Anniversary are the best of the series."

R.O.F.L.

I actually got angry and very grrrrr at the beginning just because of the tedious use of B**** that kept creeping up.... i mellowed out towards the end of the review and though hmmmm

shall get from Lovefilm and decide then.

I did enjoy legend.......

First off Ellie the mixing of mythologies is not something that Crystal Dynamics just made up for what you think is a crappy plot; Legend beautifully articulated the idea of the fisher king mono-myth - the idea that cultural stories all have elements in common and used it fabricate a story about why that is. Underworld from the look of it continues in the same vein. It's a great way to interconnect different locales and give it meaning rather than the random globe hopping done in the past.
Two ... "It makes the combat system in Uncharted: Drake's Fortune look impossibly complex and sophisticated."? Drake's combat was brilliant. Drake could vault, dive for cover, shoot limbs and had a huge variety of animations for hiding; the enemy AI would look for cover, avoid grenades, encircle you, flush you out - aside from not being armed with chainsaws and curb stomping enemies, what more could you ask for?

I think what the reviewer means is that there are very frustrating moments when something really should work, but it doesn't because they didn't design the level like that. I'm quite sure most of us have experienced stuff like that in games, I played all the early Tomb Raider-games and I know exactly what she means. That doesn't mean every damn rock should be climbable, but some games give contradictory feedback.

For example "I can open this door, but not this one" which led Valve to put knobs on every real door in Source games.

alimokrane wrote: "Give me one game that allows you to grab every rock u see ... You wont find one."

Cant you more or less jump/grab onto everything in Assassins Creed. More or less, certainly seems AC is more forgiving than this!

Anyway, I might give this a miss.
Review didn't sell it to me and I think I would rather play through Uncharted again and grab my platinum trophy :-)

Well, judging by the demo the mechanics did feel decidedly conservative, albeit polished. Playing it right after the Mirror's Edge demo sure made it feel a bit archaic. A polished but slightly uninspired game was the impression I got, so the 7 doesn't really surprise me.

I really want this game (enjoyed Legend), but can't see me purchasing before Christmas. One for the New Year sales for me!

meh