Underworld is Crystal Dynamics’ third mission on its quest to extinguish the unhappy memories left by Angel Of Darkness. And as the first led on 360 and PS3 – though, naturally, Underworld will also hit Wii, PS2 and DS – Lara’s animation continues to improve, as seen in a recent reveal of its Mediterranean level, the second in the game, by creative director Eric Lindstrom.

More important, and perhaps to counter the rollercoaster charms of Uncharted, is the fact that the developer has sharpened the focus on exploration after the more action-oriented Legend, Lara’s last original outing. “Underworld takes the best of both worlds by presenting a highly charged action experience driven largely by player exploration,” he claims.

The level opens with Lara in scuba gear on a boat in the middle of the Med, mountains just visible in the distance. The only way to go is down: as Lara descends through the fathoms, the sea bed slowly resolves itself in the deep gloom. “Lara Croft is an explorer and we wanted to see her go to new and unexpected places that would make people sit up in their chairs,” says Lindstrom. “Going to remote parts of the world to discover a new ruin is very cool, but learning that the ruin you’re looking for is on the ocean floor is even more exciting.” Lara’s exploration-based puzzles take on a whole new dimension in the ocean, which is populated with sharks and jellyfish.

“I hope it doesn’t sound too existential, but isn’t it more important to feel free than to actually be free?” asks Lindstrom, referring to the way the open ocean is implemented in the game. Though Lara can swim in any direction, she’ll flip around and swim back when she reaches the edge of the prescribed play area. “Where boundaries must exist, you must make them logical or de-emphasize them to give the sensation of openness,” he explains. The swimming controls are now 3D, with Lara simply swimming at the pitch at which she’s set, rather than requiring the ascend/descend controls used in previous games.


Apart from weapons, Lara comes equipped with a digital camera, the pictures from which can be saved and shared with others through the Underworld website. Lindstrom demonstrates the system by throwing a sticky grenade at a shark and snapping the explosion. All weapons are operable in water, though the range of a handgun is just eight feet.Lara’s first task to discover the entrance to the tomb on the barnacle- and weed-encrusted sea floor, but it’s blocked by a door that needs to be opened by finding two axles hidden nearby and solving a simple rotation puzzle. Navigation is aided by Lara’s PDA (unimplemented in the version we saw), which will send sonar pulses to draw a 3D map of the area, ping by ping, and reveal openings hidden by vegetation.

Once inside the cave, Lara must contend with a giant, blind kraken that is blocking a door in a vast chamber. It’s not interested in a scrap, but rather is a multi-tiered puzzle whose solution obviously involves a large, spiked platform conveniently hanging above its head. “Most of the exploration-based puzzles in Underworld have multiple elements and do not have to be solved in a particular order,” explains Lindstrom. Some puzzles have more than one solution, but this is more due to logic than because they were specifically designed that way. “If a weak link in a chain can be broken by shooting it, shouldn’t a grenade also break it? It will,” Lindstrom declares.

Enjoyed the article? Why not subscribe to Edge?