Previews// Tomb Raider: Underworld

In fact, the developers appear to be sure that we will all want to soak up the virtual environment. Therefore they've created a new feature for Underworld: digital binoculars. These not only enable you to see things from a great distance, they also function as a digital camera. You can take snaps of a specific location in a level and save to your hard drive or – better yet – send it immediately to a friend on Xbox Live in a message if you’re stuck on a puzzle. I also saw a demonstration of a timed photo being taken, with the ability to move Lara into the frame and pose for a snap too.

Speaking of admiring the view, Lara Croft herself has had somewhat of a change in movement. Her animation is much more fluid and her clothing further crosses the line between absurdity and practicality. Olympic gymnast Heidi Moneymaker (Oh, yes indeed) was called to do some motion capturing for the first time in Tomb Raider history. The results are clearly positive. Watching Lara swinging around and performing acrobatics on a pole is particularly mesmerising.

After the sightseeing tour, I climb down various pillars to land in a brook leading up to the entrance to some ruins. It’s here I see some ferocious tigers and get a taste of how the combat system has changed. Lara can aim at two different enemies automatically using her two handguns, and can also use various melee moves to stun her targets. If I didn’t fancy gunning down the tigers I had the option to use tranquilliser darts to send them to sleep for a while. Unfortunately, they were annoying me greatly so I had to use violent force. Gung ho! baby.

There are other combat powers Lara can use when her ‘Rage’ meter is filled via dealing damage (Eidos mentioned it was looking into an auto-filled Rage meter for when you run low on health). One of these powers is the ability to slow down time, which will increase the power of your weaponry. The second is a ‘Headshot’ manoeuvre, which slows down time and allows you to move a cursor with the right thumbstick towards the target to make a one-hit kill.

During the preview, Eidos mentioned that there was great discussion as to the nature of Lara’s compass/map system. In Underworld, Crystal Dynamics has opted for a Sonar Map that builds a 3D map as you travel further into unknown territory using sonar pings. It’s quite a good idea, as it doesn’t detract from what you haven’t yet seen - it’s not even a requirement if you feel skilled enough not to use it.

I’ve being told that huge puzzle rooms will be prominent in Tomb Raider Underworld, and I had the chance to experience one in the Thailand level: a massive, multi-level room that pays homage to the god/destroyer Shiva. There are no less than six puzzles in this room that need completing to progress further, and they can all be tackled in any order for ease of play.

I needed to move a stalled lift to continue. I had to traverse to the side of the lift’s mechanisms and unlock some chains that had got the lift caught. If a puzzle has you stumped (or you leave the game on your shelf for a while) you can remind yourself of the current situation using the 'Field Assistance' module on the Pause screen. Pressing the [A] button outlines the problem, and pressing [Y] gives a subtle hint as to how to solve it.

Tomb Raider Underworld is due for a release this November, and is looking every bit a successor to Legend as it should be. Crystal Dynamics is trying its best to cram as many new features in as possible without detracting from current feature sets, and it’s paying dividends so far. While Legend was a great game, it was an early release for this generation of consoles. Here we are with Underworld some years in, and I’ve truly seen the power of the hardware generation being put to work. This is looking to be the real next generation Tomb Raider.