Crystal Dynamics known for Legacy of Kain and Gex series brought us their third Tomb Raider creation called Underworld. The studio was entrusted as the new developers for Tomb Raider series in 2003, when Eidos decided that their popular franchise goes in underground after Core Design (the creators of Lara) have failed to gain commercial success. A very smart decision, as Crystal Dynamics' experience with adventure games has been automatically ported into the new Lara and her adventures. After Tomb Raider: Legend who brought back to life the series with 2.6 million units sold worldwide and after the remake of the first game from 1996 (called Anniversary), the studio won its rights to develop further games starring Lara Croft. Underworld is the newest one and is probably the most coherent and balanced episode in Tomb Raider franchise.

I can definitely say that this time Lara and her actions are part of an interactive environment without feeling any artificial approach regarding the dynamics of the game. It's the first time when I felt that Lara can move natural, Crystal Dynamics giving up that robotic set of movements, and instead hiring Olympic gymnast and NCAA Women's Gymnastics champion Heidi Moneymaker for the motion capture sessions. The result is a Lara with almost 2000 animations, that will not stumble at a wall, but a Lara that can do lots of action movements so naturally that you can feel like being part of the game. You can actually perform the movements that you won't without being forced by the scripted physics to do only a limited set of actions. Of course there are limitations and even bugs (when Lara is blocked by imaginary textures, or jumping in other directions because of camera which sometimes is chaotic) but I have never seen a much more dynamic character since Prince of Persia series. And Lara has a lot of similarities in her acrobatic style with the Prince. Lot of the ideas from the Ubisoft's popular series, regarding environment exploitation and dynamics, have been borrowed and modified in order to fit Lara's needs. And I don't thing it was a terrible thing to do, as long as the result is very good and suites the new version of the series, making from the already old character a new and mature one, with much more perspective for future installments.

From the story point of view, Underworld is the continuation of Legend, Lara being again in search of her dead mother and for her father's secret destiny. The game begins in the Croft Manor corridors where Lara runs to escape a fire. No one known at that time what is the reason of this destruction. After some tutorial explanations comes the first cinematic in which she meets Zip and Winston. Zip tries to shoot her, while Winston succeeds in restraining him. Then suddenly the story jumps back in time for a week, when we find Lara in the Mediterranean Sea on a luxurious yacht, searching for a secret path to Avalon. For this you will conduct Lara in an underwater exploration in which you will realize for the first time the quality of the new graphical engine (which will be used also for the upcoming Deus Ex 3). Marine vegetation and sharks will stay in your path until you will find the secret gate to Avalon.

Here is where the first mechanical puzzles appear and this time without any hint icons regarding interactivity. A PDA will stay at your disposal giving you journal access, a sonar map, and limited monologue hints. You have to pay attention as Lara now can perform much more movements, so you will be surprised what she is capable to do even underwater. She can pull and carry heavy objects or shoot with both hands at the same time in different directions. Down in the cave she discovers a temple which is even older than what she suspected to find here. She finds out that Avalon is the same with Norse underworld of Niflheim, but when she finds a gauntlet supposedly belonging to the Norse god Thor she is caught by mercenaries working for Amanda (the negative character from Legend).