Tomb Raider Underworld Lara Croft

Description: While these new abilities expand Lara's already-impressive acrobatic skills, there are a lot of gameplay issues that continue to annoy. The world is incredibly rigid, with strict rules on which platforms, objects, and edges can be interacted with and which can't. The places where Lara can go are well marked out--they feature nice right-angled... ( +expand to view full text )

Description: While these new abilities expand Lara's already-impressive acrobatic skills, there are a lot of gameplay issues that continue to annoy. The world is incredibly rigid, with strict rules on which platforms, objects, and edges can be interacted with and which can't. The places where Lara can go are well marked out--they feature nice right-angled edges and are usually lighter than the surrounding material to signify your route through. This makes it easier to figure out the correct way to go, but at the same time it means there's little room for improvisation, and the genre has moved beyond such linear progression. Even worse, Lara will frequently clip into a piece of the scenery and then refuse to come out until you stop, turn around, and run out of it again. Add all this to an incredibly unruly camera, and Tomb Raider Underworld is still just as frustrating as its predecessors.