Update: You can check out our full review here.

The demo is available for download on Xbox Live.  It’s the third Tomb Raider game by Crystal Dynamics.  They have brought Lara back from the tomb (I love puns!) with Tomb Radier Legends and Anniversary.  This is Crystal Dynamics’ third installment and continues after Legends left off.

I’ve played Legends and quite enjoyed it.  The controls were better this time around, and even though the graphics weren’t amazingly awesome, it was solid.  Hit the jump for my thoughts on the demo.

The demo for Underworld, starts you off on a boat, looking out to a rocky island cliff surrounded by the ocean.  The water looks breathtaking.  You can see sharks underneath, but be careful not to get attacked by one. The lush jungle and ancient ruins are beautiful.  Lara Croft’s character model is updated and looks hotter than ever.  Her facial animation is nice, her movements are smooth and I love her jump kick and kick spin.

Climbing, jumping, and moving around is good.  Gunplay, on the other hand, leaves a lot to be desired. Overall, it’s good, but can be better.

The ledges and rocks to indicate that you can climb or grab onto are more subtle now.  So when it comes to jumping from one spot to another, it’s not clear cut if you can jump onto certain ledges or walls.

Camera angles while climbing is a bit of a problem too.  For example, I’m climbing a ledge, and am trying to figure out where to jump to next, my camera can only go so far right or left, and the other ledge I need to jump to is on the opposite side of Lara.  One way to fix this is to use a predetermined camera angle for those type of jumps, like they did in Uncharted: Drake’s fortune. 

For the audio department, nothing really stood out for me.  You got your average jungle sound and gunshooting.

Overall, the game is shaping up nicely, with its lush environment and getting to play as the sexy Lara Croft has never been better.  Too bad though, because Lara is up against Call of Duty 5, Gears of War 2, Mirror’s Edge, and current titles like Fable 2 and Fallout 3.  I can’t wait for next month to try out the full game. 

• Tweet