Tomb Raider: Underworld

TRU retains many aspects of the original trilogy series and refines them into a whole new modern package. The puzzle solving is intuitive but not difficult to a point of frustration, the environments are nicely detailed and not too big or confusing to get lost or feel as though you are backtracking through endless corridors to find obscure pieces of the puzzle as you do during the original TR series. The main character movement is accurate and precise, which is much better than the frustrating tank controls of the original where timing a jump is a matter of luck rather than skill. The gameplay itself is fun and engaging and each level is interesting to explore with a variety of different locations from large ferry vessels to ancient ruins, all of which flow with the storyline. I feel this was a mature upgrade from TR legend, whereas legend is probably more suited to less experienced gamers due to the action focused gameplay, Underworld balances that puzzle/action difficulty to be the best of both worlds for more experienced gamers. I would say this is the best of the older TR games, maybe even one of the best overall, the modern TR games whilst are very immersive lack that classic TR gameplay.

I loved Legends and when Underworld came out I was looking forward to play it. It's basically more of the same we already knew before, with a bit more complex level design. I loved it but at some point I just stoped playing for some reason I don't remember and never touched it again. I guess now it's a good time to finish it.

This game is very frustrating, in my experience. I could eventually work out where to go eventually but the climable ledges look very similar to other assets in the game. The straw that eventually broken the camels back for me was the buggy "fighting the camera/fighting the controls" situation where you need to wallrun and swing back and forth on your grapple to eventually build enough height to jump perpendiclarly away from the wall at the crescendo of your run to be able to cross a broken stone bridge over a pool of water. I could not do it. Lara would always jum in the direction she was running in along the wall. I was not having any fun with this, and I quit it right there.

Underwolrd is a nice game, or so I recall, but I only played it an hour and GOG already wants a review. So here's how to prepare Wotou instead: 1. Put the cornmeal in the container and set aside. 2. Knead the noodles in warm water, mix until there is no dry powder, and knead into a dough 3. Take an appropriate amount of dough and press it with your right thumb to form a nest. 4. The flat top of the wotou can in turn serve the dishes. 5. Steam on high heat for 15 minutes. 6. The prepared dishes can also be prepared according to the dishes you like to eat. 7. These vegetables can be eaten by sautéing them with vegetable oil in a pot.

Pros: - Story. I know I've said the same about Legend, but Underworld just expanded on it by brilliantly weaving both the stories of Legend and Anniversary and putting a conclusive end to the trilogy, including what happened to both Lara's parents, Avalon, and more - Platforming. The devs added many new movements that Lara can now do, like standing on ledges and horizontal poles, and also wall jump! As a result, they were able to add more puzzles and intricate level designs into the game, pushing the limits of what the player was initially made to accept from the previous games in regards to what Lara was thought to be capable of - The perfect amount of puzzles mixed with just the right dosage of complexity. Knowing that the devs had previously worked on Anniversary a year prior, I'm glad that they made use of that experience to ramp up the difficulties of the puzzles in Underworld seeing that Legend didn't have much of those - Combat. Not much was improved, but the things that the devs had improved, were really significant although few in amount. The two major improvements worthy of mention and praise here are the fact that Lara can now shoot while climbing (mostly) and aim at two different targets at the same time with her dual pistols. That's cool and exactly how it should have always been - Soundtracks - Visuals. Much better looking than Legend and Anniversary, and you can clearly see how Lara has aged based on her model alone Cons: - The camera. Not gonna expand on this since this has been an issue since Legend - (NITPICK) I already got used to this, but at first, I was kinda put off by Lara's movement speed. I feel like her jogging speed in this game is a bit faster than in the previous games, and it could get pretty annoying when you couldn't help prevent Lara from falling off ledges while standing on small platforms simply because her movements are simply too quick A great example on how to end a trilogy. Exceptional story and gameplay :)