This is the first Tomb Raider title targeted solely at the current generation of consoles, and the developers have used this power to craft a truly beautiful game. Some of the vistas are breathtaking, large draw-distances combined with lots of vegetation and tall, imposing pieces of ancient architecture, without any slowdown or hint of clipping problems. Players will take in exotic locales such as Thailand, Mexico, the Mediterranean seabed and a wide range of Norse ruins. The high quality of the visuals is consistent right the way through, from the smallest details, such as the way Lara’s body gets covered in mud and dirt during play, all the way through to the overall art direction. The player is treated to vast horizons lined with rocky atolls and beautifully lit jungle tree-lines, all modelled right down to the individual leaves, despite the distance involved. The way the light catches the water, the criss-crossing paths of butterflies and birds and the wealth of plant life all lend the levels a life of their own. Lara now also reacts far more intricately with her environment, like when she free-climbs across portions of walls lined with individual handholds, you can actually see her feet expertly moving to each and every outcrop. This kind of fine detailing not only lends the game a sense of solidity but makes the feeling of immersion all the more powerful when it throws the larger spectacles at you.

The improvements in graphical fidelity haven’t simply improved the game’s looks and atmosphere, it’s had a significant impact on the way Underworld plays, both in comparison to earlier Tomb Raiders and other platformers in general. It still sports the same, clearly demarcated handholds and ledges as in Crystal Dynamics’ earlier entries in the series, but, thanks to the far more detailed surrounding geometry and textures, they blend in to a much greater degree, no longer sticking out like a sore thumb. When entering a new area you really have to scout around and search for routes through the environment, making the whole experience much more involved. It’s still a predominantly linear game, but you feel a great deal more like an explorer now. Thankfully, this has been achieved while still maintaining clear distinctions between what the player can and cannot interact with, thereby avoiding the problem of cheap deaths.

The level design has complemented this merging of the platforming and puzzle-solving elements with some particularly inspired sections, often utilising the same physical structures to access different parts of the level depending on how they are approached. The player may use a series of ledges and pillars to reach one area only to find later that if they break away from the main path and head back from a different height they can use that self-same piece of architecture to reach the artefact they’d been puzzling over earlier. Moments like this, while scattered, are nonetheless very impressive and demonstrate a new level of sophistication compared to Lara’s past outings.

All this visual splendour is slightly spoiled, however, by a camera which, at times, seems more erratic than an overly excitable Border Collie. The problem is that it’s constantly trying to re-centre itself, and this makes moving while simultaneously panning the camera around more awkward than it needs to be. The player can still freely adjust it when stationary, it just unnecessarily slows the action down at points, and can make things feel a bit rigid and mechanical as a result.

The scale of some of the set pieces in the game is extremely impressive. At times the player will enter areas so expansive it will take a while to work out where to even begin, with some structures taller than any skyscraper. The player even gets to clamber all over vast, mechanical structures while they are in motion, adding a new level of careful timing to proceedings, not to mention one point which sees you desperately clinging onto some wildly swinging apparatus over a deep chasm. Then there’s the opening level where the player is simply dumped into the Mediterranean Sea with scuba gear in hand and given free reign to explore the sea bed below. Special mention should go to the end-game boss, one area where Tomb Raider games have consistently disappointed. Rather than some hokey, shoehorned-in combat or awkwardly mangled attempt at an action set-piece, the developers have instead provided the largest, most detailed climbing frame in the entire game and it’s both a challenge and a joy to complete.

There are a couple of minor niggles when it comes to Underworld’s longevity after the first time you complete it. Scattered throughout the game are a number of artefacts and relics which the player can try and hunt down, but, disappointingly, the vast majority are actually left out in plain sight along the main route, with only a few left that require real exploration to find. Additionally, because the levels haven’t been broken up into smaller sections, most take well over an hour to complete. This makes it very difficult to work out roughly where to look for any missing treasures. It’s one thing to search every nook and cranny over the course of a 15-20 minute level, but trying to pick over an expansive area 4 or 5 times the size is simply laborious. What’s so surprising about this is that Crystal Dynamics really nailed this aspect in their earlier Tomb Raiders. In addition, the time trial mode from these games is also missing, a small but unfortunate oversight, nonetheless.

One particularly nice little feature is the use of slowdown during certain dramatic moments. At several points in the game the player will suddenly be thrust into a dangerous position and, rather than launching into a quicktime event like most other games, it slows time down and leaves the player with full control over Lara, with mere seconds to save themselves.The result is a seamless transition which is far more effective at instilling panic in the player. It’s also used so sparingly that it’s never really possible to predict when the game is going to throw it at you, really enhancing effectiveness.

Another nice addition is the ability to customise the difficulty of individual elements of the game, thereby allowing the player to tailor the experience to their personal preferences. If you want a more combat-focused game the enemy health can be increased, while if you want to emphasise the platforming aspects you can increase the damage Lara takes from falls and reduce the time window for making grabs. It’s an interesting idea that would be good to see become more widespread in the industry. One thing that Underworld definitely gets right in general is the difficulty level, in that it still provides a challenging platforming experience. It’s filled with moments where you can feel the pit of your stomach go as you launch your character out into space, sure you’ve mistimed the jump and are about to see the protagonist fall to their death, only for them to grab the opposite ledge with mere inches to spare. It’s that emotional reaction that makes platform games work, and Underworld nails it consistently.

While the game does have a few minor weaknesses, they don’t take away from the fact that this is the definitive Tomb Raider experience to date. It feels like Crystal Dynamics are now much more in tune with what does and does not work from a gameplay perspective. What's more, by making Underworld more of a platforming focused experience, rather than an action/shooter/platformer hybrid they’ve managed to pull together a very tightly worked game, and, all the more rare, one with a bit of challenge to it. The scale of the game, the beauty of the environments and that fluid analogue control-scheme Crystal Dynamics brought in back when they first started with Tomb Raider: Legend, all combine to make for a truly enthralling adventure.