Tomb Raider Underworld

by Square Enix

Product Features

• Tomb Raider: Underworld for Nintendo Xbox 360 by Eidos resumes where Tomb Raider: Legend left off and introduces a new, interactive playing environment
• Lara Croft explores a wide array places, such as the Arctic, Mexico, and beneath the Mediterranean Sea
• Environment is much more realistic and interactive -- footprints will be left in mud, for example, but only until it rains and then they will wash away
• Melee combat system that requires players to strategically strike with offensive, defensive, and evasive maneuvers
• Improved AI allows enemies and animals to make decisions based on surroundings, employ ambush and squad tactics, and even retreat if deemed necessary

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B0012N8WXQ
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.8 x 0.5 inches ; 5.3 ounces
• Media: Video Game
• Release Date: November 18, 2008
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (45 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,496 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)

Product Description

Platform: Xbox 360

Amazon.com Product Description

Tomb Raider: Underworld for Xbox 360 by Eidos resumes where Tomb Raider: Legend left off. This installment introduces a new, interactive playing environment that gives players a chance to immerse themselves more fully into the game. Players once again take the role of Lara Croft as she explores such wide-ranging places as the Arctic, Mexico, and beneath the Mediterranean Sea.

Lara's environment is now much more realistic and interactive. View larger.

And now she can hold onto a ledge with one hand and fire a gun with the other. View larger.

Interactive Worlds Introduces Realistic gameplay
Unlike the previous games in the series, Lara's environment is now much more realistic and interactive. Footprints will be left in mud, for example, but only until it rains and then they will wash away. Lara's shirt will also get wet, and she's more likely to lose her grip if she is standing on a slippery, rain-soaked ledge. When the sun comes out, her shirt will dry and the slippery surfaces regain their friction.

In Underworld, Lara also has a lot more flexibility in how she makes her way through a level, as there is often more than one way to get from here to there. She can now climb walls with texture and rocky outcroppings to reach areas she previously wouldn't have been able to access.

All of these additions have been made to give the game a non-linear, open feel. Players can interactive with the environment by doing things they find to be intuitive, and the game will respond in an appropriate way. When Lara interacts with trees, for example, she will push aside leaves using either one or two hands depending on whether or not she's holding something. These details give a lifelike, immersive sensation to the game.

New Melee Combat System
Underworld introduces a new melee combat system that requires players to strategically strike with offensive, defensive, and evasive maneuvers. Lara can now attack enemies with different punches, kicks, knees, and other acrobatic onslaughts. Items lying on the ground, such as poles that were previously walked on, can be picked up and swung at enemies. Players can also perform a greater variety of actions with weapons; for example, Lara can now hold onto a ledge with one hand and fire a gun with the other.

Realistic Enemy and Animal AI
The AI in Tomb Raider: Underworld has also taken a big step forward--both enemies and animals now make independent decisions based on their surroundings, employ ambush and squad tactics when fighting, and will retreat if deemed necessary.

With updated graphics and a more immersive and realistic gameplay, Tomb Raider: Underworld will have both fans and newcomers excited about the newest installment in this popular video game-pinup franchise.

Tomb Raider: Underworld is loaded with a new melee combat system, various weapons, and smarter AI for both enemies and animals.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Looks good and is fun, but is entirely too short, December 1, 2008

By 

Turtle502 (Pitman, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

= Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Tomb Raider: Underworld (Video Game)

Tomb Raider: Underworld is another decent -- if not outstanding -- installment of the Lara Croft series. The game picks up sometime after the events of Legend, and makes an attempt to tie-up the story. The developers have made an attempt to make this the first Tomb Raider game for the current generation of consoles, and for the most part, they have delivered.

As a Tomb Raider experience, this showing is similar to past games. All of Lara's classic moves are in the game, and the controls are relatively familiar. There are some new moves, such as the adrenaline headshot, which requires you to build-up adrenaline through combat before executing the move. It is effective against humans and animals, but not so much against other enemies you encounter later in the game. There is also a new "adrenaline moment" move, in which the on-screen action slows and you must decide how you want to handle the situation -- there's no sequence of buttons to press, and no right or wrong way of doing things. However, I found that these moves were scattered widely throughout the game, and weren't as plentiful or as exciting as the developers had hyped them. The wall climb is another new move, which is well designed and makes you think a little more about how to get to higher ground -- you don't necessarily need to look for ledges. In fact, Lara can now climb rock faces as well, so this game tends to mix-it-up for long-time fans. Additionally, in order to find treasures, Lara must break open clay jars -- which is somewhat new but also counter-intuitive if Lara values artifacts. Lara's movements are a little more acrobatic, and sometimes her stance just doesn't seem right.

The camera remains the biggest problem in this game, as it had been in both Legend and Anniversary. You simply learn to cope with it, and fortunately it is never a game-breaker. There are "invisible walls", which are areas of a map that Lara can't pass. There are moments when Lara can get stuck in a corner, or simply stuck in the scenery -- I encountered several issues where her feet were apparently caught on a rock or a plant. By contrast, although enemies are persistent in this game when you kill them (bodies don't disappear), Lara's feet pass right through them -- as if they're vapor. Enemies have no physics at all once they are dead. From an A.I. perspective, the enemies are fairly non-responsive and very easy to defeat.

The game shines in level design. Each level is huge. There are no annoying loading screens or loading delays -- everything is loaded in the background, so play is non-stop. The game offers a sonar map on Lara's PDA, which I found totally useless since it did not provide points of interest or way-points. There are many puzzles -- sometimes you'll be faced with 2 or 3 puzzles within a level. Puzzles are well-designed but not incredibly difficult. There are no bosses in this game, which is odd and disappointing, considering the number of bosses that appeared in Legend. In a way, however, the puzzles have become bosses because of the skill associated with them (Southern Mexico, as an example).

In addition to the graphics, the sound is superb. The musical score is present at the right moments, but can get extremely repetitive sometimes if you're stuck in a sequence trying to figure something out. CGI animations are smooth, with excellent voice-acting.

The game is fun to play, and the story is tightly-woven and entertaining. If you've played Legend, you'll be satisfied with the one or two twists thrown your way to close that storyline. However, if you didn't play Legend or Anniversary, you might not understand this story at all. I don't think the developers did a good job at making this a stand-alone game. The ending seems very final -- there's nothing left to anticipate. I also thought that the game was entirely too short -- much shorter than Legend while also much easier to complete. The only replay value is in the "achievements", many of which will be unlocked in the first play-through. It's a good game and worthy of play by fans, but certainly does not trump the previous games.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Almost a masterpiece, January 4, 2009

By 

Zachary Turner (San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews

= Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Tomb Raider: Underworld (Video Game)

If it weren't for the (relatively few) flaws, this game would be a masterpiece. I've been a fan of the tomb raider series for a long long time, but for whatever reason haven't played the last two. I'm glad I gave this one a go.

The pros:
- Gorgeous and expansive levels
- Great acrobatics
- Puzzles are the perfect difficulty
- Lots of puzzles
The cons:
- Controls take some getting used to, especially the grappling hook
- Lara gets "stuck" in the environments sometimes, especially if it's right on top of a terrain change. Can usually escape pretty easily, but it's annoying nonetheless
- Invisible walls and "special" walls. I prefer delimiting the boundaries of where you can travel by walls that are simply just too high to jump on. Invisible walls feel cheap. "special" walls are walls that you can jump on and climb (as opposed to unspecial walls that look absolutely identical, but for some reason Lara refuses to grab it). In this sense the environment isn't totally autonomous, I would like to be able to do everything that the laws of physics allow me to do. If there's a wall that isn't any higher than my hands when I raise them straight up, I should sure as heck be able to climb it.
- Axis inversion doesn't work on vehicles. This is a little weird, and really feels like a bug in the game, but when playing 3rd person games I really like axis inversion. It's broken on vehicles.
- Lack of keyboard mapping. On the Xbox 360 version anyway, there is no option to remap keys.
- Autosave feature is a little weird. It uses 8 save slots, the same 8 save slots for if you do manual saves. So if you do a manual save, it will get overwritten later by an autosave.

There is also the obvious comparison to Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. I would rate them about the same, each with its own cons, with Uncharted just having a different set of cons. There are obviously a lot of similarities between the two games, but if you liked Uncharted you won't necessarily like TR:U. For starters Uncharted is much more heavily focused on the combat. In Tomb Raider you might encounter a total of 10 enemies in a level which takes you 3 hours to beat. In Uncharted you would have encountered 100 enemies in that same level. Because of this, the combat system in TR is less refined. There's no "taking cover" for example.

All in all though TRU is a solid, if not the best, game in the Tomb Raider series to date. If you're a fan of Tomb Raider, you will love this game, no question about it.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Tomb Raider Game!, November 30, 2008

By 

Randy Ringstad (Reno, Nevada USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

= Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Tomb Raider: Underworld (Video Game)

This is a great Tomb Raider game. I've played it to completion and feel that the game needs a defense against some of the remarks thrown at it in reviews. The story line follows from Legend and Anniversary and gameplay is very much the same. The camera is NOT as bad as everyone is making out. Yes, there are a few times where it is difficult to get a look at where Lara needs to jump. There are two methods in the game to get around this. First, if Lara looks in the same direction in which you lean the left stick, she can make the jump. Otherwise, Lara will shake her head, letting the player know that she can't. The second method is useful for finding a path to your goal and involves using the binoculars. Lara can look in every direction using the binoculars. This makes finding your way (and those next places to jump) and solving puzzles easier.

There's been a lot of criticism about the combat. Keep in mind that combat has never really been a top feature of any Tomb Raider game. Exploration, puzzle-solving, and platforming have always been the flavor of Tomb Raider.

First of all, if it takes ten shots or so to put down a target, consider the weapon being used, how much Lara is moving and jumping while she's shooting, and the target (also, watch the tracers of the shots). Most of the human enemies are armed. It seems reasonable that they are wearing some body armor - you can see this in the bulkiness of the human enemy's clothing. Remember that a .45 round (Lara always sports two Colt .45s) is a low velocity round that is most effective at short range. It is not effective against body armor or 700 pound tigers (or 400 pound spiders as one may guess). Changing the weapons that Lara uses for different types of enemies, and limiting her movement while firing will prove to be more effective at taking down baddies than constantly running and jumping around.

Like I said, this is a great game that is loads of fun. The exploration is challenging - never boring. I highly recommend it.

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