Lara Croft’s treasure hunting adventures in the Tomb Raider series have always been a hot-topic of discussion, and not necessarily because the games are particularly good. There were exceptions, yes, and Eidos’ front runner franchise spawned an entirely new genre, but the slump the games took in the later days of the PlayStation-One would seemingly be the end of everyone’s favorite tomb raider.
Of course, the PlayStation 2 release of Angel of Darkness some years ago did nothing to prove that Lara still had legs, but when then we finally saw Legend, and its complete overhaul, we were ecstatic for more. After Anniversary, we demanded an original title, and we wanted it stat. It looks like developer Crystal Dynamics is in the same boat, and with a tight focus on the Norse underground, Tomb Raider: Underworld looks to launch the series skyward like never before.
The artistic style and graphical upgrade grabbed our attention immediately. The incredible texture detail and imagery are astounding, and Lara’s model itself has seen a bit of a polygonal makeover. The environments we’ve seen are obviously limited to one or two areas of the world, and Eidos is promising a global romp in order to stop an evil, ancient power from destroying the human race. Stop us if you’ve heard this before.
Still, as cheesy as the story might be, we’re excited to try out Croft’s new arsenal of items. Of course there’s a combat focus, but after feeling how slick the controls of the last couple Tomb Raiders were, the platforming and exploration can only be an excellent time, filled with plenty of pitfall hopping and acrobatic feats. It’s yet to be seen how they’ll be implemented, but the heroine’s archaeological gear is supposed to play a prominent role in puzzle solving as well, and if previous iterations are to be held in tradition here, you can expect to face plenty of physics-based brain teasers.
We haven’t seen the game in motion in any form, so we’re excited to see how exactly the panther-punching battles will go down, and whether or not Crystal D has finally perfected the shooting mechanics, something that’s definitely seen its share up upgrades along the way, but never quite felt right. Tomb Raider: Underworld is coming out some time this November, and if your only gaming console is a PSP, we’re sorry to hear it. That’s about the only platform you won’t see Underworld on this fall.
If you want to get your own eyes on the game, check out our gallery of shark-shootin’ action after the jump.
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