I started this 7-book Resident Evil series before I even opened this site, so after the review for number 7 is up, I will do a Final Thoughts to recap the first 4. This series is an original story by S.D. Perry. She takes the Resident Evil characters that we know, adds some new ones, and adds a few little twists of her own, such as new monsters and Umbrella schemes. It is well done and feels almost better than what Capcom has gone through. These books were written in the late ’90s after Resident Evil 3 was released, so don’t expect anything from anything past that game.
Underworld sees The ex-S.T.A.R.S. team consists of Leon, Claire, Rebecca, and newcomers John and David. These two characters were introduced in the earlier books and are solid, memorable characters. A mysterious man named Mr. Trent, who has been giving them clues to help shut down Umbrella, finally reveals himself fully—almost fully—to the team this time around. They want to go to Europe to help Chris and Jill, but he sends them on a different mission in Salt Lake City, Utah, to retrieve a codebook from Mr. Reston. This little facility called “Planet” is part of White Umbrella’s division, where they are testing new species. The team heads there, but a lot of things go wrong in this underground facility.
S.D. Perry does a good job of giving you multiple perspectives on the same situation. Leon and John are stuck in a series of tests that span four rooms throughout most of the book. You get their perspective, then she will cut to Reston’s perspective as he sees it all on the camera monitors. You get insight from every major character, and she does a good job chopping up the story and bringing it full circle at the end of the book. Each one is like this, and it is highly entertaining. Perry fully utilizes the RE world and captures the characters we have grown to love while still making us hate Umbrella for their horrible experiments.
On the surface, Claire, Rebecca, and David are trying to find their way down but are being intercepted by an Umbrella spook squad to wipe them out. Reston is a conniving coward, and you grow to really hate this greasy slimeball. You get a perspective on the personalities of the characters that can’t shine through in a game; you basically get to know them more. Underworld is a fantastic book for RE fans, but I highly recommend starting at book zero.
Beneath the Ashes was very mediocre, hardly strayed away from what was offered on the disc, and was not worth $10. Lara’s Shadow is a completely different animal, thanks to the new gameplay elements added. Lara’s shadow can use superspeed and hand-to-hand combat against the undead creatures of the underworld. Natla is trying to restore herself using the machine she used to create Lara’s shadow, and then the tables turn…
Lara can now run up walls using her superspeed. This makes gameplay very fast, extremely quick, and also a lot more fun. She can shimmy walls super fast and can even slow down time to avoid fast-moving obstacles. You also have a kick and punch button, along with a few super attacks. You have a superkick and punch, and you can fire your guns super fast as well, and all of these are very effective.
The fighting is responsive and works very well; it’s just not very deep at all. For $10, this is all you can expect, but I expect Eidos to expand on this with more expansions. What I mainly loved in Lara’s Shadow is the fact that navigating levels isn’t as difficult as it is on the disc. Since you move so fast, you have to navigate quickly, and you don’t need a walkthrough this time around to find out where to go.
I did find some obstacles too hard to avoid since you have to have perfect timing, and this can be very frustrating. I also found that if you fight too close to an edge, Lara will just fall off thanks to the spotty collision detection in the game, and you will die lots of times due to this. Everything else is pretty much the same; while I love Shadow Lara, I just wish there was more. 3–5 hours of gameplay is not that much for $10. If you really love Underworld, I promise you this will be an excellent buy.
Everybody knows and loves Lara Croft from way way back in 1996, when she starred on the PlayStation as the busty, sexy British female adventurer that everyone has grown to love over the past decade. Tomb Raider: Underworld really expands off the recent TR games with better environments, more brain-bending puzzles, less linearity, and more moves than you can count. Tomb Raider has always been about exploration and finding the best route using the environment, and this is still the core gameplay element used. The story of Underworld picks off where Legend (read my review for that) ends with Amanda on the loose and Lara trying to find her way into Atlantis to find her dead mother. While most of the story doesn’t pick up until the very end, there is enough incentive to keep you playing and motivated to press on.
The main element I need to talk about is just how much more detailed this game is. While most of the problems still exist, they can easily be overlooked with all the new features and elements added to the game. The first thing you’ll notice is how much more real Lara looks, feels, and moves around in the game. It’s just amazing to see Lara push brush out of her way, move to and fro in 360-degree motion with her stopping and starting really quick, the way she climbs, the way she places her hands and feet while climbing—it all just looks so damn good and real. The best thing about this is that the controls are still responsive and, most of the time, will do what you want. When you are swinging around poles, climbing walls, or hanging from ledges, you can pretty much get where you need to go with minute problems from the camera and some iffy collision detection issues. A lot of times Lara will jump in the wrong direction because of the finicky camera; she’ll fall off an edge you know you didn’t slip from, but all these are easily overlooked.
Now that all the climbing action is still the same and hasn’t changed much, the new animations, better controls, and sheer freedom you have really make it feel fresh again. Still staying in the action, the combat is exactly the same as before, and this is disappointing. The developers seemed to have taken the slo-mo headshot element from Anniversary and mixed it with Legend’s combat, and you get what you get: Simple lock-on combat with dodges and flips that don’t really do much. While the camera keeps up with the action, there’s nothing much to do but shoot your heart out. You can, however, throw grenades, and this really helps in tight situations. With all of that out of the way, let’s talk cosmetics.
Yes, the game looks absolutely stunning and is one of the better next-gen games as of yet. Everything is just huge and detailed. The sheer scope of the levels will make your jaw drop and make you think, “How the hell am I going to get up there?” This doesn’t just include land; it is also underwater. You will partake in two levels where you are hundreds of feet under the ocean, and it will take a good 4-5 minutes just to swim everywhere. The game really leads away from linearity with massive scope in the levels, and this usually leads to treasure hunting. Throughout the levels, you’ll find silver vases or just objects lying around as treasures for you to pick up. These will unlock extra content when you beat the game, so you must keep an eye out for them. Thankfully, they are easier to get to and easier to spot than in previous TR games, so you can relax. There’s just something great about this game that makes it different from other TR games, and the only thing I can think of is its pure epicness. Running around (yes, they added a run button!) in a sinking boat with a beautiful, sweeping orchestral soundtrack playing in the background just wows you every single time.
The game really does a good job mixing up exploration with action, and it also helps build upon Lara’s character. She is wiser, knows more, is a lot older with bitterness in her heart, and is holding onto all she can to keep from becoming corrupted like the enemies of her past. You really see this and how calloused her personality has become since she is no longer cheerful and happy but bitter and angry, with powerful rage flowing through her veins. The game just becomes so epic and amazing in the end that you wind up forgetting about all the gameplay flaws, and you feel very satisfied in the end. The main reason for this is that puzzles really bend your mind in just the right way to make you smile every time you solve a puzzle that expands an entire level.
Underworld requires you to take everything in and divide it into chunks instead of just looking and solving. Most levels will have you going from room to room to find pieces of a bigger puzzle, and this is actually better in the end. A small feature added is the ability to choose your weapons at the beginning of each level and your outfit. This is really useful and lets you mix things up for multiple playthroughs. There are other elements added to the game, such as your Gauntlets, which let you move certain heavier objects around rooms, Thor’s hammer (which you get toward the end), which is a one-hit kill scenario, and not to mention all the cool gadgets such as better binoculars (it’s actually a DV camera), your grapple hook, etc. You also get your bike back, but this time you get to control where you want to go. In Legend, you just drove straight, avoiding things along a linear path, but this time you drove it around and even used it to solve a few puzzles.
Underworld really is for hardcore Tomb Raider fans, and newbies really won’t like this much unless they get hooked on previous games. With gorgeous graphics, a great ending to a great story, our favorite female protagonist, and a few gameplay flaws, you will have a blast with Underworld.
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Yep! The fact that I forgot about this game until you made a comment proves that.