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Old 29-04-12, 17:47   #21
sheepman23
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Originally Posted by charliesewell View Post
YES YES YES!

Sorry for not noticing this before - I rarely visit the Underworld section, but I saw your signature!
I was hoping that would catch the attention of people.

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Your first (mini) review was excellent, and you raised many great points. I really liked the excitement and adrenaline of running through Lara's burning manor, and it has always been very memorable for me. I also think it reflected back to TR1-3 nicely, in the way that they gave us a small Manor level to train us up with.
You raise a good point about the "training level." A bit different circumstances this time, though.

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Your way of writing is compelling and very satisfying to read. I cannot wait for the next reviews.
Thank you very much.

Speaking of which, I ran (or should I say... swam ) through the Path to Avalon this morning. Here's my issue: the way that I've broken up the levels (as you see in the OP) still makes for pretty small reviews. I'm not sure if I should combine even more levels, or keep it as it is. Because several of these reviews are going to be miniscule in comparison to others.
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Old 29-04-12, 17:53   #22
tomee
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My memories of TRU are more and more obscure, finally. (This LAU diet works after all)
But I think merging the path to avalon with the other two levels would be smarter. The rest looks fine.

Last edited by tomee; 29-04-12 at 18:11. Reason: typo
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Old 29-04-12, 18:08   #23
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^ I think I'm going to go with that plan. I've actually almost finished the review for The Path to Avalon, and there's like five or six paragraphs and a few pictures. I'll add Helheim and The Norse Connection to it and hopefully have it ready for tomorrow.
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Old 29-04-12, 18:21   #24
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Well, I decided to start replaying TRU yesterday. I'm at Yggdrasil in Arctic Sea now already. I must say, I like it more on replay. However, I still slightly prefer TRL.

Last edited by Seth94; 29-04-12 at 18:22.
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Old 01-05-12, 00:59   #25
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The Mediterranean Sea
Part 1: The Path to Avalon/Helheim/The Norse Connection


2 weeks earlier...

Well, this is certainly a contrast to what we just saw in the Prologue. We get an image of Lara's boat drifting gently on the surface of the Mediterranean Sea, and Lara herself walking around on the deck in a wetsuit. Zip and Alister suddenly appear on the laptop (), but luckily it seems that CD took the complaints from TRL and discarded of the headset. And let's face it, headset + water does not mix.

After a bit of jabbering from Alister, we're free to dive into the sea and take a look around.


"Water pressure? What's that?"


Close-range shots are always the best. That is, until the shark eats you.

I do have to hand it to CD: they gave us quite a daunting first gameplay experience in the Med. Sea. A vast underwater area to explore, filled with tons of ruins and plants. Just finding your first opening is tricky; it's not easy to see very far into the distance, you usually have to get up close to examine something and see if there's a hole you can fit into. Which there are only so many of.

A wide opening in the central pillar structure brings us a few jellyfishes floating around... easy enough to avoid. Inside of here is our first puzzle. Is it tricky? Not at all, but I think it classes as a puzzle. Which, in that respect, Underworld is already off to a better start than Legend was.

Here's the problem, though: I got really bored swimming around the sea floor after a while. Treasure-hunting, which is really the only other thing to do here once you've found the hidden key, is about as eventful as watching paint dry. I found myself searching the same rocks over and over again, and the same ruins time after time. I'm fairly certain I missed a few of those shiny treasures, but oh well... I can't really be bothered to go spend another five minutes looking around like a fish lost at sea.


"Alohomora!" (Yes, I am a Harry Potter geek)

At the end of the passageway beyond the opened door, we encounter a tentacle that randomly gets yanked backwards, through the hole in the wall. That's certainly an eye-opener.

In the next room, we get our first taste of climbing in Underworld. Now... I'm going to be relatively kind when I say that Underworld does not have great climbing mechanics. That does not mean that climbing isn't fun; on the contrary, there's a lot more moves that allow for even more freedom. Lara can stand up on horizontal poles, she can do wall jumping, she can wrap her grapple around objects, and other stuff that I can't be bothered to list right now. That being said, the controls are an extremely weak spot of this game. I'll keep saying it the entire review, but I do not like TRU's controls at all. It makes the actual climbing a bit awkward and more formulated than ever.

Over on the other side of the pool, we encounter another (easy) puzzle. All it requires us to do is drop two blocks onto a pressure plate and bust the nearby statue onto the other one. With the quick flick of a switch, we get another cutscene.


"ZIP SAID IT WAS WATERPROOF!!!!!!"


Has Lara ever considered a career as a translator? Because in LAU, there seems to be NO language she can't read.

In TR2, it was "Humanosis."
In TR4, it was "Depressingitis."
In AoD, it was "Modernoma."
In TRL, it was "The Easy Disease."
In TRU, it's "Long-Hallway Syndrome."



I think it's worth pointing out that long hallways are one of my main problems with Tomb Raider Underworld. They were also a bit of a problem with Anniversary, but less noticeable since the game was longer as a whole. In TRU, however, the designers choose to attach huge rooms together with relatively uneventful hallways. Sure, maybe they require you to climb over some rubble or along some ledges... but after doing that a few times, it becomes boring.

This hallway happens to be the first of many in TRU that choose this route. However, let's continue to the heart of the Med. Sea - Niflheim.


"I suddenly feel like a rather small, and helpless individual."

The sight that awaits us in the next room clears up the issue involving the tentacle from earlier. Deep within these Mediterranean ruins is a beast known as the Kraken. The Kraken, which has tons of tentacles that can stretch in seemingly endless directions, can kill Lara in a heartbeat. As we will find out, the ugly beast is actually blocking the doors that lead to Lara's objective. So naturally, we need to rid of him before we're able to go anywhere.

And... how convenient, there's a huge, spiked weight above his head.

As we quickly find out, this room possesses a very symmetrical feel. Like the long hallways, Underworld repeatedly uses the idea of symmetry. Is there anything wrong with that? Not totally. I mean, designers have a tendency to use symmetry, but it does take a way a bit of the excitement of raiding (IMO), when you know that the other side of the room has lots of similarities to the one you just explored.

There's lots of treasures scattered around, too. Unfortunately for Lara, that means her foot is going to be sore once I get done breaking 100 pots.


Splish-splash I was takin' a bath!

After a few switches pulled, and a few chains broken, the spiked thingy falls on top of Mr. Hothead, he throws a massive fit, and then sinks into the pool after realizing he's defeated. I actually quite enjoy this little puzzle. It's easily the best part of the entire Med. Sea area; it features lots of exploration in a pretty big room, and there's multiple paths to get around. The Kraken himself also manages to create a unique sort of tension; while we normally aren't worried about falling into a pool of water, this time it's a different case since one of those tentacles could kill us in a hurry.

With that business taken care of, we gain access to the doors, and beyond them, a hallway. Yes, another hallway. This time, the designers have resorted to deep pits that spell instant death should we step over the edge; the good news is that we get to walk across balance beams, which I actually find to be quite fun.


See Lara? It's like the balance beam at home. Except that falling isn't an option.

A few ledges, a few pots, and a few broken toes later, and we're actually to the deepest part of the Norse ruins. I know, I was a little surprised too. But as we'll see, CD managed to "lengthen" this level by making us backtrack on the way out.

After Lara examines behind the gate and sees Thor's shining, magical gauntlet, the next order of business is managing to get hold of it. This requires usage of a few new moves introduced in Underworld: small blocks and grapple-wrapping. There are two pressure plates in this room, and with two blocks that weigh enough to hold down one of them, Lara must stand on the other and grapple the gate down.

This is one of the few moments in my first playthrough of TRU where I felt incredibly stupid for something I couldn't figure out. With the two blocks weighing down one plate, and Lara on the other, I couldn't figure out how to grapple the gate from the position I was in; the nearby statue was in my way. Eventually it occurred to me that I could grapple the gate from the side of the statue, and then wrap it around to where Lara can stand on the plate. And with a little tug, I could pull the gate down.

Oh, the wonders of physics in video games.


Clearly this gauntlet needs to go to the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts office.

Lara naturally can't resist the temptation of playing with her new toy. Unfortunately, the power that it bears for a few seconds seems to wear off almost immediately. It kind of sucks that Thor's armor only seems to work on those blue symbols anyway; like, if I had a piece of it, I would want to break down walls and stuff.

The bad guys manage to ruin the day as well. "I don't suppose you would be open to bribery," Lara tries to say before the guy wallops her with his machine gun. As she wakes up seemingly moments later, the man proceeds to set off an explosive in the hallway where she came in (and will someone PLEASE tell me how that didn't manage to flood the place ).

AWESOME.

Actually, there's not much else to be said for the remainder of this review. What follows is a somewhat tedious backtracking session to get out of Helheim. The bad guys (who are presumably Amanda's henchmen) have taken Thor's gauntlet, so there's nothing left for Lara here. So yeah... it's back through another set of boring hallways, through the ex-Kraken lair, through the long hallway, into the watery tunnels, back into the Med. Sea, and up to Lara's boat.

Basically, CD just added another three minutes of gameplay without actually doing any work. Yay!


Seriously, they didn't even blow up Lara's boat? Idiots.

Pros:
+ Impressive underwater area
+ Great atmosphere
+ Nice Kraken puzzle

Cons
- Swimming becomes a little monotonous
- Dull colors
- Some uneventful hallways
- Backtracking session was really unnecessary and tedious

Well, that's Part 1 of the Med. Sea; Part 2 will cover all of the conclusion stuff and ratings, and it should hopefully be up either Wednesday or Thursday.

All screenshots by Katie Fleming.

Last edited by sheepman23; 03-05-12 at 02:39.
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Old 01-05-12, 01:15   #26
lord gaga
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Nice review sheepy! Your really back on track with your reviews . Of course I would miss a single one! BTW I really thought underworld was gonna be a really good game by the look of the first two environments but after that it just went downhill .
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Old 01-05-12, 01:30   #27
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Nice review sheepy! Your really back on track with your reviews . Of course I would miss a single one! BTW I really thought underworld was gonna be a really good game by the look of the first two environments but after that it just went downhill .
Thanks lord gaga. Underworld is sort of all over the place for me. There are some parts I love, some that are just OK, and others that are dreadfully boring.
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Old 01-05-12, 06:56   #28
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Hmm, I don't think the backtracking part was that tedious. I mean up to exit of the Kraken room it's not even the same, you can explore the Kraken room from a completely different area and there's a different climbing method over the pit.

And swimming out feels like a compliment for my good job. /cheese
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Old 01-05-12, 09:43   #29
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Great review! I can't disagree with any of your points on this level.

For me, the backtracking was by far the worst part of this level. Maybe it would've been more fun if it wasn't just a long, dull corridor...not to mention those frustrating places where you're just stuck and don't know where to go, even though you can see tons of possible ledges on the walls around you which just haven't been rendered by the game engine.

And the MUSIC! In that bactracking section, I mean. It just repeats and repeats while you desperately look for a way out...I've had nightmares from it. lol not rly

And I think I can explain why the place doesn't fill up with water after the explosion...Crystal couldn't be bothered to animate it. Or maybe they just watched the opening sequence of 'Cradle of Life' and thought: "Meh, it's been done before, why bother?"

Can't wait for your next review!
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Old 01-05-12, 10:43   #30
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Nice review, SheepyDeepy
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