The buzz on some forums has not been that great. I played the demo and wasn't impressed at all. My first encounter with those tigers was pretty lame. You pretty much can't avoid getting hit and it's pretty much the same combat we've seen in Legend and Anniversary. With this being the first truly next-gen Tomb Raider, I expected something a little more ambitious. Tomb Raider's combat is really starting to feel dated. You hold down the trigger button, take a bunch of hits, use a health pack or two, move on. Lazy, uninspired and just plain pathetic. Plus, they changed the cool adrenaline dodge from Anniversary which worked beautifully in that game.
Supposedly, animals are faster and more aggressive in Underworld, though Lara seems completely unchanged except for the new, useless melee attacks. That's lame. Sounds like the combat may actually be a step backwards from Anniversary. Also, what's with these fierce tigers just knocking Lara down over and over again. You'd think they'd be trying to maul her and rip her apart once she's on the ground. Lots of realism there
I guess more aggressive enemies just means, "we'll knock her down a bunch of times, then wait politely for her to get back up". For a series that prides itself on atmosphere, it's amazing how pathetically non-immersive and unrealistic combat is. We've seen practically zero improvement in this area since Tomb Raider 1 on the original Playstation. It's starting to get old, particularly when paired against the sound combat systems in the Prince of Persia series.The camera was awful. It zooms in on Lara for no reason at times and apparently there are fewer instances of the camera showing you the way now, which means more leaps of faith in a series already full of them. Seems like the camera has gotten WORSE than past games. During the demo it just got spastic at times. I've heard the game has some bugs/gltiches too, which is pretty typical of Tomb Raider games.
Damn, had my hopes up. Oh well, I'm putting all my hope on Prince of Persia. The new game looks great and unlike the TR series, Prince of Persia games are always evolving and forward thinking, like the awesome platform/stealth hybrid gameplay they had in Two Thrones and now the cool new Elika system(and she's looking much more useful and less in the way than that idiot who followed you around in Sands of Time). I'll give Mirror's Edge a shot too, even though the controls aren't comfortable. Tomb Raider's officially dead to me. Third time should have been the charm. Next-gen Tomb Raider my ass
The Bender Podcast
