Now I know the excuses, I know the business rationale that has resulted in the version of Tomb Raider Underworld that has infected the next generation N-Gage platform... but that's not something that prefaces the game when it launches on a regular Nokia handset. So no excuses Nokia on this one. Tomb Raider is a flawed title cashing in on a franchise name.
What's more galling, looking at this simplifed run-along-a-single-corridor 'adventure', is that back on the original N-Gage (you know, with the tiny screen, great physical controls and games delivered on MMC cards), you got essentially the full blown Tomb Raider experience, with the massive game playing area, all the puzzles, mapping, dead ends and exploration.
Which is a far cry from what you get in Underworld. In essence, you're asked to move along a single corridor, with no choice in which way to go or explore. Your controls are limited to moving forwards, backing up, and the occassional jump. The gameplay attempts to fake a 3D world, with all dimensions available by giving you climbing walls that let you jump from ledge to ledge, but they're fooling nobody.
Not only is Underworld a game that runs on rails (look carefully and they're in the middle of every single screenshot... honestly), there's nothing that you can do that isn't already scripted. Walk down here, jump over here, avoid a swinging axe, jump again... It's just so much in opposition to how Tomb Raider works that you're left with a rather hollow feeling.
You don't play Tomb Raider Underworld on the N-Gage, you simply press buttons in exactly the same sequence as the developers intended, like a monkey hitting a button to get a banana pellet in some 1960's NASA experiment. And if you're not sure what to press to jump a gap or reach for the next ledge, then worry not, because a little picture of the next key you need to press will be along in a moment.
Aren't games meant to be exciting?
Okay, I'd better talk about the game itself. The plot is your standard mythical archaeological quest, you have to find the statue of world saving power before an evil scientist beats you to it. For some strange reason, the route to the MacGuffin is always in a ruined structure from hundreds of years ago, where the fires are still burning bright, the swinging axes still swing and the traps have not yet withered away through lack of maintenance. Funny that.
Underworld features a number of levels to run through, each with a number of traps set just far enough away from the next one, or round a corner, so there is no problem in drawing the pseudo-3D graphics. I say 'pseudo' as your camera is locked off and your controls are much more akin to a top down running game than an exploration. There are moments when you can see more of Lara Croft as you change direction or climb down from a ledge in a corridor, but these are fixed animations that you have no control over.
The one concession to danger is when you are climbing. To reach for the next handholds, or avoid the falling rocks of an avalanche, you need to jump from handhold to handhold – you do this by pressing the correct direction key that is displayed in the hand symbol. Be quick, because you only have a limited amount of time to press it before you lose your grip and fall. And don't think too hard about it, lest you realise the game has little depth or cognitive challenge.
I like my game to have character, yes, but I like a challenge. I like to think I'm not being led by the hand to an easy solution. Heck, I even appreciate that, in a game, when I die, there is some sort of penalty, rather than a single picture and being presented with “have another go till you manage it” nannying.
Tomb Raider can offer far more than Underworld on the next-gen N-Gage has brought to the table. It's like publishing Hitler's Diaries in your Sunday newspaper and realising that they're Herr Adrian von Hitler (aged 13 years, 9 months and 4 days)... while it might be exciting and a good yarn, it's not what people were expecting, and certainly won't live up to expectations.
I don't see why people should look beyond this 'dumb' version of Tomb Raider when we know that everyone involved can do it so much better.
-- Ewan Spence, Sept 2009.