Tomb Raider: Underworld Preview

The Big Outdoors

One of the biggest changes to the game however has been at a much more fundamental level – the structure of the levels themselves.

In the past, Tomb Raider has been like most games of the genre – run, gun, puzzle, solution, run, gun. Wash, rinse, and then repeat. Levels are structured to be extremely linear and Lara must overcome puzzles in a specific order.

Underworld changes that, harnessing what the developers are calling a new multi-level approach to the puzzles.

The new structure is simple; there are fewer levels—only about eight apparently when we saw the game in action—but those levels are much, much larger and complex. It isn’t like Legend where Lara is always moving forwards, it’s much more like the St. Francis’ Folly level in Anniversary. The solutions to puzzles are often more than just a room away and aren’t just limited to grabbing the right coloured key. Puzzles require thought, understanding and a close attention to the story.

How so? I guess an example would help!

The main over-arching aim of the game is to try and find a way into Underworld, which is only possible within a certain time period. Lara has five days, according to the ancient Mayan calendar, to get into Underworld and she knows that the process of opening the Underworld would traditionally involve an ancient Mayan interpretation of football in which the losers would be sacrificed.


Lara, obviously lacking two teams of warriors willing to die for her cause, has to fake the event in order to get into the Underworld, spending her time opening up new paths through the temple, collecting tools, and adjusting the Mayan calendar and scoreboard.

The puzzles are so thoroughly ingrained and blended into the environment that players really need to pay attention in order to know the way forward and it’s fantastic to see Lara slowly return to her puzzley roots and put yet more distance between this new Tomb Raider continuity and games like Tomb Raider: Chronicles.

Helping Lara out in her newly enlarged and renovated environments, the majority of which will be set in South Mexico apparently, is her trusty motorbike. However, this is a different model and style of bike to the one featured in Legend that could only be driven in specific driving segments of the game.


Lara’s new mechanical steed is far more versatile and, though the model we saw was far from final, it looked much more like something the new Christian Bale version of Batman might ride. This new bike had thick wheels for off-roading, a slick all-black design and, most importantly, a constant presence. Lara can use her bike whenever she wants, riding it around the levels and using it to get from A to B much faster than on foot.

The bike will also be playing a more important role in the puzzles too, with Lara taking advantage of both its speed and power when the time calls for it.

The game will also make a note of wherever Lara decides to leave the bike too and where it’s been, as it will do with literally every other element of the game. Lara’s world is now a persistent one and the time of fading bodies is long gone. Everything from footprints to corpses and debris locations are remembered throughout the game.