The setting never sounded that exciting either, to be honest. Next: the utility room, with a boss encounter stuffed inside a tumble dryer. Setting an adventure in a basement is a triumph of the imagination. Not till then will you be allowed to swap sensible Goretex for flashy leather waders (these are strange times), and play the role of Lara's homicidal doppleganger. In a stunning master-stroke, this is a game that's already been deftly undermined not once but three times since its announcement: first with the muttered admission that the whole thing might be cutting room scraps from Underworld itself then by the unfortunate dismissal of many of Crystal Dynamics' core team, including stoical Eric Lindstrom, the creative director and finally with the recent announcement that it's not this episode but the next one which contains the really sexy stuff. Things don't, initially, seem terribly promising.
#Tomb raider underworld first puzzle series#
The most important question is this: does this new chunk of adventure have anything to add? Are there any moments that will make you gasp, wince, or gawp as the best entries in the series have? Forget the pricing and the length - at least for a moment. So perhaps that's the best way to examine Beneath the Ashes, Underworld's first DLC episode. Last year's Underworld provided its own handful of additions too: plunging you deep into the roaring flames of Croft Manor, and letting you move huge hefts of ancient stone with a single swipe of your hand. Previous instalments have set the bar high, leaving you quaking before a T-Rex, scrambling up the forehead of a sphinx before leaping from its placid brow, and swinging through the neon latticework of a Tokyo skyscraper. So, while one random trinket is exchanged for another, the exotic locations get a quick shuffle, and the thin back-story slowly bloats into a deranged yet forgettable soap opera, each subsequent game is measured not by its plot - Tomb Raider's never been brilliant with plots - but by the handful of vivid snapshots it adds to the scrapbook. These fleeting instants ground you in the game in a way few other titles manage: you understand, you act, and for a single second, you're not just moving through carefully choreographed spectacle - you're a part of it. With Tomb Raider, it's always been the moments that matter: those brief stabs of clarity when the towering clockwork starts to turn, when a dense tunnel of jungle gives way to an unexpected view of something massive and mossy, and when the last nagging part of a puzzle finally slots into place.
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