Tomb Raider: Underworld is an action-adventure video game developed by Crystal Dynamics and published by Eidos Interactive for Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii and Nintendo DS in November 2008. Later versions were released for mobile in December 2008, PlayStation 2 in 2009, and OS X in 2012. Various companies ported or developed the different versions. The ninth overall entry in the Tomb Raider series and third in the Legend trilogy, Underworld follows archaeologist-adventurer Lara Croft as she searches for Mjolnir, an artefact key to entering the realm of Helheim, while confronting adversaries from her past. Gameplay features Lara navigating levels set across the world through platforming, fighting enemies and solving puzzles to progress.
Production of Underworld began in 2006 following the release of Tomb Raider: Legend, and was developed in parallel with Anniversary (2007). The scenario was co-written by director Eric Lindstrom and series co-creator Toby Gard; Gard left Crystal Dynamics the following year. The gameplay was redesigned around a principle of Lara's abilities, with her actions created using motion capture for the first time. A new game engine was created for the project, with the team having troubles transitioning onto next-generation hardware and staff shortages due to production of Anniversary.
Announced in January 2008 for next-generation hardware, it was delayed into November and also announced for then-current generation hardware. 360-exclusive downloadable content was released in 2009. The game' received mostly positive reviews from critics, with praise for the environments, story, puzzles, exploration, graphics and the less linear style of gameplay, although criticism was directed at its camera and combat system. It sold below expectations, though ultimately went on to sell over three million copies worldwide. It was the final Tomb Raider published by Eidos Interactive prior to its 2009 acquisition and rebranding by Square Enix. Following Underworld, Crystal Dynamics rebooted the series a second time, with the subsequent game releasing in 2013.
Gameplay
Tomb Raider: Underworld is a single-player action-adventure game where the player controls the protagonist, Lara Croft, from a third-person perspective, through a variety of locations around the world. Lara can jump, climb and shimmy along ledges and vertical poles or ladders, crawl through small spaces, and swing on ropes and horizontal poles. Some areas have climbable surfaces she can scale, and some ledges allow her to stand on them and shimmey along. Other abilities include wall jumping between two adjascent surfaces, interacting with objects and switches, using a grappling hook to latch onto special rings for both puzzle solving and environmental traversal, and swim and dive underwater for a limited time. Different button combinations can create more moves such as a roll and swan dive. Puzzles revolve around Lara finding keys to mechanisms in the environment, or manipulating different mechanisms to trigger larger elements within and around the environment. There are also traps which need to be avoided, some of them involved in the puzzle design. During some levels, Lara has access to an all-terrain bike which is used in both navigation and puzzle solving.
During combat, Lara automatically locks on to enemies and fires with her equipped gun, with the player able to switch to another target within range and move freely to avoid enemy attacks. When using two weapons, she is able to target up to two enemies at once. Through most of the game Lara has access to seven weapons, selectable from the main menu; her default twin pistols with infinite ammunition, and a shotgun, submachine guns, assault rifle, speargun, tranquillizer gun, and sticky grenades all with limited ammunition. During the last two levels, Lara also has access to the magical artefact Mjolnir, which instantly kills most enemies. Lara's health is represented by a coloured figure, with the game resetting to a checkpoint if she dies; medipacks and artefact collectables heal her, and hard-to-reach relics collected through the game raise her health cap. The difficulty setting can be tailored, with puzzle, combat and platforming difficulties each having sliders influencing their respective challenge in-game. There is also an option on Lara's PDA to receive tips about navigation or solving puzzles. A sonar map is accessible through the PDA, showing a generated 3D representation of Lara's environment.
