12 random thoughts about TR: Underworld

I bought Tomb Raider: Underworld in the Steam weekend sale. I skipped it originally because I didn’t want to pay full price for it, but at 75% off, it was time to make the purchase. Here are some random thoughts from the first couple of missions.

1. The limited arsenal works well, and I enjoy that you get all the guns from the beginning and have all of them with you at all times.
2. The tranquiliser gun made me happy at the thought of not having to kill tiger-kitties anymore, but once I realised they woke up after a while, I might as well have thrown it out – self-imposed time limits on every fight are not my idea of a fun time.
3. Lara’s animation is great as usual, but it can be a little jittery, and she tends to get bloody stuck in some of her transitional animations if you place her at an awkward gap or similar.
4. The third-person camera can go fuck itself.
5. The rock climbing controls great – I like that you actually have to move in the right direction so it’s a bit more involved than eg. Assassin’s Creed.
6. The graphical details such as water moistness or dirt on Lara’s model are at once very impressive and uncomfortably creepy.
7. There’s a setting in the options for how lenient you want the insta-death “saving grabs” to be, and that is the best idea in the entire game.
8. The combat remains utter, utter rubbish – there’s no cover system and no stealth, and enemies take a ton of hits to die, even regular humans; you end up just running around aimlessly, emptying entire mags into your opponents. The only good thing about it is that your kill count is pretty low compared to most action games.
9. The level design is probably some of the most beautiful I’ve ever seen. Much is owed to the subject matter of course, but the lush jungles and ancient ruins are done justice by the sprawling levels and the way the core mechanics of the game mesh with them.
10. The story has gone a bit nuts, and I didn’t realise Anniversary continued the plot from Legends, so I skipped an installation and am now fairly confused. I’m digging the Norse mythology theme though.
11. The motorcycle level in this game is way better than the action movie ludicrousness of the one in Legends. Also far less of a break from the core mechanics of the franchise.
12. GIANT SPIDERS! FUCK!

It seems to have no built-in screenshot key that I could find, which is why this post has no pictures.