Tomb Raider Underworld - first look

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New screens and detailed scrutiny inside

So what's new? Well, the weather, for starters. The rain was absolutely lashing down on Lara, even though the weather effects are only 50% complete at the moment. So we'll be expecting twice as much rainfall in the finished game (groan). The soundtrack had deep rolls of thunder, corresponding with the flashes of lightning a couple of seconds beforehand, just like real-life. The attention to detail doesn't end there, either, with hi-def footprints left in muddy puddles and Lara's shapely form taking on the hues of whatever scenery she's standing by. Run near the green leaves and her legs reflect a green tinge, head out back into the open and the colours turn colder on her skin. It's subtle, sure, but another step towards making Lara look like she's really a part of her environment.

However, that's not always the case. The movement has been motion-captured by an Olympic gymnast, but while Lara does move beautifully in tightly-controlled animations like walking along beams or finding individual hand and footholds while climbin, it's a different story in ground movement. In combat or pushing circular levers, it can look a bit awkward compared to the more organic animations of Uncharted. With the two games' similarities so evident, they're easy to compare like for like. And, at the moment, Lara's looking a little more solid and assured than Drake, but slightly less forgiving to control. This could just be a greater sophistication than Drake's perhaps over-simplified movement, but we'll know for sure when we get to play with her ourselves (ooh-er).

Justin Towell
Justin Towell

Justin was a GamesRadar staffer for 10 years but is now a freelancer, musician and videographer. He's big on retro, Sega and racing games (especially retro Sega racing games) and currently also writes for Play Magazine, Traxion.gg, PC Gamer and TopTenReviews, as well as running his own YouTube channel. Having learned to love all platforms equally after Sega left the hardware industry (sniff), his favourite games include Christmas NiGHTS into Dreams, Zelda BotW, Sea of Thieves, Sega Rally Championship and Treasure Island Dizzy.